“I’m Your Money” (1981) – Heaven 17 * Written by Ian Craig Marsh, Martyn Ware, and Glenn Gregory * Produced by British Electric Foundation * 45: “I’m Your Money” / “Are Everything” * LP: Heaven 17 (US) * Label: Virgin; Arista (US)
Sheffield’s Heaven 17 took the name of a fictional group that’s name dropped in A Clockwork Orange, and created a plausible, synth-oriented realization. I wish they’d have taken it a step further and recorded a song called “Inside,” which is mentioned in the book as one of the imaginary group’s hit singles.
The trio has the distinction of satirizing, while at the same time signifying the big C’s of early ’80s culture: capitalism, consumerism, and commodification. (Let’s throw in corporatization and commercialism while we’re at it.) Formed by Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware after parting ways with the Human League, they recruited blonde Glenn Gregory and carried forth under the auspices of their British Electric Foundation (B.E.F.) production company.
Their first single, “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang” took a swipe at the era’s right wing politics, doing that thing that the British do, where they pronounce things differently, even the name of America’s new president, and it rings, nonetheless, with the panache of correctness. The BBC banned it for calling “Reegan” a “fascist god in motion.” The music sounded like a fascinating new kind of funk that gets mechanized in a minting facility.
Their next single, “I’m Your Money,” sounded even more so, as though coins are dropping on chrome for percussive effect. Words like commodity, industry, credit and treasury are heard and they appear on the sleeve as three well-dressed beneficiaries of their times. Listeners can easily mishear the title refrain as “I’m your body,” and if that was actually the title, the satirical bite wouldn’t suffer a bit, resounding like a cry of protest over a coldly transactional existence
“I’m Your Money,” released in May 1981, did not appear on the group’s Penthouse and Pavement album, although it would have fit fine. It did make the sequence, though, for the U.S.-only Heaven 17, a compilation that is, for my money and body, a perfect album. The flipside for “I’m Your Money” was “Are Everything,” a brisk and blippy non-album cover version of a Buzzcocks B-side.