MYTHS, MELODIES & METAPHYSICS: - Prefab Sprout

community back in the 1970's) and secondly, his choice of intended profession as a
songwriter was a difficult concept to grab for them.
It's a hard thing to remain 'proper' about such matters in the commercial world of rock
music, but this is where Kitchenware's role as a management team has helped McAloon in
his pursuit of perfection and success.
In the case of Brian Wilson, for whom McAloon holds great appreciation, he was almost
executed as an artist by Capitol Records who forced The Beach Boys into a three to four
albums per year contract, which led to Wilson having a nervous breakdown. This was a
turning point in Wilson's life and a time when drugs became a large part of it.
Pet Sounds was being hailed as one of the best pop/rock albums ever, alongside The
Beatles' Revolver. Brian Wilson, described once as "a cross between George Gershwin and
Phil Spector", became paranoid and began to work more and more alone. In the studio, he
was becoming a perfectionist, experimenting with seemingly endless variations of
instrumentation and often ending up with half an hour's material to be edited down to a
three or four minute recording.
Wilson had consciously decided to be true to himself and his needs and the record
company had to accept it.
McAloon avoids the use of rock cliches and denounces the rock myths: "Rock music's
about sex or about self, and it's not very good at expressing any other viewpoint other
than me, me, me. You've got to create clichés, haven't you? Imagine being able to do that,
to do something that is regarded as the perfect capsule of an idea, the form that you've put
in, the general tone. The one that people keep coming back to! Like Brian Wilson, where
somehow the corniest, most 11-year-old boy created a sound, a 'feel', that says something
much more than any particular lyric. It's 'time' that does that. You can't get immediately
significant in the course of things; at the end you have to let your work stand on its own
merit."
Many get McAloon's outlook and temperament confused. All he is doing is preaching a
new, confident gospel - not one of standard rock myths. Critics should ask themselves
'Would anyone else today have as much success at preaching such a new gospel?'
McAloon could be considered as a sort of 'Metaphysical Missionary'.
He has learned over the years not to take much notice of tags such as 'Catholic' or
'Bedsit' and to concentrate on earning success, where he can, by his own rules: "In the real
world of pop music, it's really a parochial thing and I do like the big abstractions of
working in the pop world where it's money and brash image that counts. Rather than say
we're nothing to do with that, I'd rather embrace it and bring something good through it."
McAloon recognises the expectations of the record industry with respect to songwriters.
Unlike the days of the big musicals, the job of a songwriter can't be a faceless desk job. A
songwriter should be singing their songs, dancing and making videos. This, according to
his beliefs, is a major factor of songwriting today.
Although he's got plenty of work to keep Prefab Sprout busy, McAloon is in love with
the idea of working with other artists, having written songs with singers in mind such as
Doing a Garbo for Madonna and for other artists such as Frank Sinatra, The Righteous
Brothers and Darryl Hall: "When you write something it's like a test. If it's good for you,
then it might be good for someone else. You can never really try and write from another