In the following music trigger entry, I will unfold the deep dark obsession I have held for Adam Ant since my first taste of his creativity around 1980-81 and through his amazing career, primarily in the 1980s. The triggers I get from just one note of pretty much anything written or performed by the artist or his group, can often be described as shivers of a bygone era and some of the happiest listening (and watching) moments of my life. The artist formerly known as Stuart Leslie Goddard ushered in one of my favorite all-time musical characterizations and always embodied the ideas of freedom, sexuality, beauty, and art through his lively, energetic, and unpredictable performances.
My first introduction to Adam & the Ants was not only an optimization of the concept of ‘new wave’, but that of an introduction to a modern-day performance artist. Adam would adorn himself with outfits that included a stunning cavalry jacket, a white puffy shirt open to a bare chest, black leather pants, and a white stripe painted across the front of his face. This became an early trademark as he had been mentored by the great Malcolm McClaren and given the idea to honor the American Indian and pirate or highwayman styles saluting both bravery and frivolity. I saw this character and acknowledged an era of a theatrical punk sound shrouded with dominating Burundi drumming.
Adam and his Ants, which had gone through a couple of different formations from the late 70s through to the beginning of the real rise in popularity, represented fun in music to me. Granted, they were not the only band that was having a good time in their stage performances and videos. The floodgates had been opened to a new creative world and it became important how to distinguish yourself from the other bands that began their infiltration of the airwaves as well. Adam Ant stood out in video, both with his Ants and without (the artist went solo in 1982). This artist always stood out to me in a way that allowed me to picture myself performing in similar ways. My theatrical side itched back in those days and performers like Adam Ant gave me permission to dream of the possibility. It just looked like so much fun.
I was never going to be a singer. I will always be grateful for the gifts I had been given in this life, but singing was not one of them. There was, however, a glimpse of genius in young Adam that promoted other ideas I had played with in my earlier college attempt and into my eventual immigration to Los Angeles. In the early 1980s, I was in school at the Lee Strasberg Institute absolutely convinced that I was going to do what everyone who finally got to Los Angeles wanted to do. I remember that people around me were willing and supportive. So, I did my classes and began to do auditions for local theater and some commercials, albeit I did almost all of them predominantly high. I eventually got very tired of being rejected and had no concept of how to look at myself as the problem. That ship soon left the port never to return, but all my inspirations, including the artistry of this mighty 1980s focus stayed with me.
I also remember on more than one period of my life I wanted to write Adam Ant’s biography, dig deep into the reasons the artist had come about, shed light on his influences, and capture the enormity of what I saw in his performances on stage and in the new medium of videos that had changed my life in so many ways. As time went on I thought it would be an even better idea to be a part of a documentary that showed his influences in late-stage punk, early-stage new wave, and musical history overall. His personal life has been just as intriguing. There was his tepid upbringing, and his earlier denial of the name Samuel Lewis Goddard, which would be replaced by that of the Adam Ant image (his first wife took the name Eve.) When this all happened, joined with his enthusiasm to bring the character into music as well as his younger acting roles in both the television and the film business, I went along for the ride.
Then, naturally, there is the career of hits that followed both the band and the artist throughout the 1980s, and 1990s spreading sounds throughout that included “Kings of the Wild Frontier,” “Dog Eat Dog,” “Antmusic,” “Stand and Deliver,” Prince Charming,” “Goody Two Shoes,” “Friend or Foe,” ‘Desperate But Not Serious,” “Strip,” “Vive Le Rock,” “Puss N Boots,” “Room at the Top,” and “Wonderful.” To get an earlier taste of the more punk-flavored Adam & the Ants (pre-makeup persona) in 1977-1980 there were sounds like “Dirk Wears White Socks,” “Zerox,” “Car Trouble,” “Friends,” “Kick,” “Ant Rap,” “ Young Parisians,” “Deutscher Girls,” “Beat My Guest,” and the amazing “Physical (You’re so)” which was covered by Nine Inch Nails in 1992.
So many of the aforementioned were pivotal in some of my earlier character formations, but there was a song on the album “Prince Charming” that stood out to me in a different way. Originally called “Picasso Visita El Planeta de los Simios,” the song which became “Picasso Visits the Planet of the Apes” upon the re-release of the album in 2004, just stood out in my moments of solitude. There was something about the primal screaming and the bizarre concept of the lyric that initially reeled me in, but the melodic twist and the sheer psychology of the artist became a trigger in time to the musicality and originality of the bands of the era, and Adam himself. But to dig slightly deeper one would find that the artist and his music were very driven towards sexual behaviors and lyrics. It becomes clear that Adam Ants’ earliest influences included artists like David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, and the New York Dolls, all of which were prone to creating their own on-stage characters complete with make-up and imagery.
But it would seem that a lot of Adam Ants’ earlier sexual influences came from artists (thank you to Dr. Mark Griffiths and his “Psychology of Adam Ant.”) Artists like Allen Jones, Andy Warhol, Hans Bellmer, Eduardo Paolozzi, Francis Bacon, and Stanley Spencer portrayed images, thoughts, and fantasies of sexual impact. But it could be suggested that the lives of many of these artists also played into Adam Ant’s fascination and inspiration in his lyric and music. Upon this theme it becomes obvious that Ant’s intrigue of the ‘genius, energy, and sexuality’ of Pablo Picasso produced the very odd, but spectacular “Picasso Visits the Planet of the Apes.” A trigger to a period, an artist, a creative, and a time in my life where that is all I wanted to be.
As the masters rot on walls
And the angels eat their grapes, I watched Picasso (oh-oh, oh-oh)
Visit the Planet of the Apes
As the masters rot on walls
And the angels eat their grapes
I watched Picasso, Pablo Picasso (oh-oh, oh-oh)
Visit the Planet of the Apes (yea)