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Bronski Beat

It Ain't Necessarily So

Bronski Beat's cover of the Gershwins' Porgy and Bess song in its full album version from The Age of Consent (1984): sleek synth-pop, a clarinet solo and a gay male choir around Jimmy Somerville.

By korczis 3 min read
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Review

Genre and Mood

Bronski Beat’s It Ain’t Necessarily So is a cover, an 80s synth-pop record made from a song George and Ira Gershwin wrote for Porgy and Bess in 1935. Its mood is provocative and defiant under a playful surface. This page is the full album version, the one the band placed second on their debut album.

Song Summary

In the opera the song belongs to Sportin’ Life, a drug dealer who casts doubt on stories from the Bible. Bronski Beat, an openly gay trio, recorded it for The Age of Consent, and Pitchfork read the implication plainly: doubt about the Bible’s statements on homosexuality, sung as one of the album’s songs of desire “delivered in a distinct feminine mode”. The sound does not shout. Pitchfork heard “a slice of sophisticated percolation more akin to fellow 1984 breakout star Sade than gritty British synth-pop”, with a clarinet solo and the Pink Singers, an openly gay male choir from London, around Jimmy Somerville’s voice.

Musical Breakdown

The sources name the parts of the song but not their order or length, so this breakdown follows the parts.

Verses

Story by story, from David and Goliath to Jonah in the whale, the 1935 lyric tells a tale from the Bible and then shrugs it off with the same line of doubt.

Solo

A clarinet steps forward for a solo. Who plays it is unclear: Wikipedia names Arno Hecht of the Uptown Horns in its account of the singles and Richard Coles in the personnel.

The Choir

The Pink Singers are credited on this track, a choir behind the lead.

Concepts in Focus

A cover version can keep every word and change the meaning. Sung by Sportin’ Life in 1935, the song mocks piety; sung in 1984 by a band whose album sleeve listed the age of consent for gay men across Europe, the same doubt points at those who quote the Bible against gay people.

This recording is an alternate version of the band’s own single. Wikipedia gives the album track 4:40, MusicBrainz 4:43, against about four minutes for the seven-inch; the single is reviewed as Bronski Beat – Ain’t Necessarily So. What the edit removed, no source says.

vocal harmony is several voices singing together. Here a gay male choir joins Somerville, so the doubt is no longer one voice’s.

Artistic Context

The Age of Consent came out on London Records on 15 October 1984, produced by Mike Thorne, and this track was recorded at The Garden in London and Skyline Studios in New York. The inner sleeve listed the legal age for relationships between men in each European country; MCA removed the table from the US release, citing the “past sensitivities of several record store chains”.

Impact and Reception

The album reached number four in the UK and number 36 on the Billboard 200, and the single reached number 16 in the UK. Later reissues added a 12-inch version and a BBC session of the song. Play the album version and hear the arrangement given its full length.

Learn from this track

Introductory

What you will learn

  • Explain how a cover version can keep a 1935 song's words and change what they mean in 1984.
  • Tell an album version from a single version of the same song, and say why a band releases both.
  • Recognise how a choir behind a lead voice changes who seems to be singing a song.

Listening guide

  1. the verses The Gershwins' Bible stories, each one met with the same doubt, now in Jimmy Somerville's voice.
  2. the arrangement What Pitchfork heard as sophisticated percolation, closer to Sade than to gritty British synth-pop.
  3. the solo The clarinet solo, credited by Wikipedia's album page to Richard Coles in one place and to Arno Hecht of the Uptown Horns in another.
  4. the backing voices The Pink Singers, the openly gay male choir from London credited on this track.

Concepts in this track

cover version

58 tracks

A new recording of a song by an artist other than the original. A cover can be faithful or transform the song's genre and meaning.

vocal harmony

21 tracks

Two or more voices singing different notes at the same time, so that together they sound a chord. Stacked harmonies make a chorus feel wider and warmer.

alternate version

58 tracks

A second finished recording of the same song by the same artist, with a different arrangement, tempo or sound rather than a reworking by another producer. Comparing two versions shows how much of a song's mood comes from production rather than from melody and words.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. The song was written for Sportin' Life, a drug dealer in an opera. Who is doubting the Bible when Bronski Beat sing it?
  2. This album version runs over half a minute longer than the single. Which version would you choose to introduce the song, and why?
  3. The US release removed the album's table of age-of-consent laws. What does that tell you about how the record was heard in 1984?

References

  1. Wikipedia. The Age of Consent (album). Encyclopedia
  2. Wikipedia. It Ain't Necessarily So. Encyclopedia
  3. Pitchfork. Bronski Beat: The Age of Consent (reissue review) (2017). Review
  4. MusicBrainz. Ain't Necessarily So (The Age of Consent, London Records CD) (1984). Database
  5. London Records. Bronski Beat - It Ain't Necessarily So (Official Audio) (2017). Label

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