They Don't Know

Mugshot of Gen. Manuel Noriega 

Back in 1984, during my Air Force years, I had a 30 day temporary assignment in Panama to fill a vacancy until the scheduled permanent person showed up. This was during the time when a guy named Noriega was stirring up the poo down there. Well, shortly after I arrived, that 30 days was turned into 90. I was stuck there. Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that this was a very bad development. That 3 months was one of the toughest periods of my life. I was in for one big bummer of a summer.

One day, I decided to grab a meal in what was the overseas military base equivalent of a Dairy Queen. By this time, I was a mess; low on money and morale, and heavily self-medicating with alcohol just to get through it all. As I was waiting for my burger or whatever to be prepared, I heard this blast of musical sunshine that came roaring out of a nearby radio. It stomped the synthetic pablum of all the Duran Duran soundalikes that permeated 80's music into the ground. It had such a gloriously happy sound that it shocked me right off my bummer cloud, at least for the 3 minute duration of the song. So, of course the radio didn't say the song's title or who it was. But as soon as I got back to civilization, I went to a record store to find it. Keeping that silly song in the back of my head really helped me make it through that difficult time.

Tracey Ullman, with Emmy award

Make fun of me if you will, but I file this one under 'Guilty Pleasures'. The record I had heard was by British comedienne Tracey Ullman, and the song was called "They Don't Know", which had been a hit for its author, Kirsty MacColl, in her native Britain. Both the song's structure and the record's production are so evocative of the classic 60's Girl Group sound, that it almost defies re-invention. It seems like Tracey's way of covering the song was to make it sound even bigger than before, rather than stripping it down. Thinking about all that stuff from that time now, it confirms that not only am I really just a pop junkie at heart, but also that music has the power to lift the heaviest of hearts.

From the early days of MTV, here's Tracey Ullman in the original, totally 80's, video version of "They Don't Know", featuring a cameo at the end from her 'dream date', Paul. Enjoy!

Tracey Ullman also recorded three more of Kirsty MacColl's songs, "You Broke My Heart In 17 Places" and "You Caught Me Out", as the title tracks of her first and second albums, and "Terry" which was released as a single in 1985.

Kirsty MacColl

Although Kirsty MacColl is probably most recognizable as the writer of "They Don't Know", she first came to notice in 1978 when an EP by a local punk rock band, Drug Addix, with MacColl on backing vocals (under the pseudonym Mandy Doubt), was released on the Chiswick label. Another record label, Stiff Records, was not impressed with the band, but liked Kirsty, and subsequently signed her. Her debut solo single, "They Don't Know", was released in 1979 and peaked at number two on the Music Week airplay chart. However, a distributors' strike prevented copies of the single getting into record stores, and the single consequently failed to appear on the sales-oriented UK Singles Chart. MacColl recorded a follow-up single, "You Caught Me Out", but felt like she lacked Stiff's full backing and left the label shortly before the song was to be released.

Here's Kirsty MacColl's recording of "They Don't Know", from that 1st Stiff single.

When Stiff went bankrupt in 1986, MacColl was left without a label and unable to record in her own right, as no other record company had picked up her contract. However, she had regular session work as a backing vocalist, and she frequently sang on records produced or engineered by her husband at the time, Steve Lillywhite, including tracks for Robert Plant, The Smiths, Alison Moyet, Shriekback, Simple Minds, Talking Heads, Big Country, and The Wonder Stuff among others.

In 2000, following her participation in the presentation of a radio program she had done for the BBC on Cuba, MacColl took a vacation in Cozumel, Mexico, with her sons and her partner, musician James Knight. On December 18, she and her sons went reef diving at a part of the National Marine Park of Cozumel, in a designated diving area that watercraft were restricted from entering. With the group was a local veteran divemaster. As the group was surfacing from a dive, a speeding powerboat entered the restricted area. MacColl saw the boat coming before her sons did. Louis, then 13, was not in the boat's path, but Jamie, 15, was. She was able to push him out of the way, (he sustained minor head and rib injuries), but in doing so, Kirsty was hit by the boat and killed instantly.

Michael Carpenter

In 2001, a bench was placed by the southern entrance to London's Soho Square as a memorial to her, with a plaque inscribed with a lyric from one of her songs: "One day I'll be waiting there / No empty bench in Soho Square". Every year on the Sunday nearest to MacColl's birthday, October 10th, fans from all over the world hold a gathering at the bench to pay tribute to her and sing her songs.

The Tracey Ullman version is the one that most people remember, but that doesn't mean that the song is the exclusive province of female vocalists. Far from it! As a bonus, here is yet another version that I just could not ignore. From the land down under, representing the song from a male point of view, here is friend of the blog, Michael Carpenter with his version of "They Don't Know". Michael is something of a recording wizard, as he handles all of the vocals and instrumentation here. How he does it, I don't know. Enjoy!

The albums that Tracey Ullman recorded for Stiff Records are long out of print, but there is an excellent Best-of compilation from Rhino Records, available used, for a reasonable fee. There are at least a couple of decent collections of music by Kirsty MacColl in print, along with most of her catalog. And of course, I will encourage you to investigate the music of Michael Carpenter online at Bandcamp. Michael has a neat digital sampler available as well. Please support independent musicians!