Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo


Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo is the debut studio album by the British rock band Status Quo, released in September 1968.

Background

The album's lead single was originally intended to be "Gentleman Joe's Sidewalk Café", with the original song by singer/lead guitarist Francis Rossi, "Pictures of Matchstick Men", as the B-side, but these songs were eventually swapped. It reached No. 7 in the UK, and remains the band's only major hit single in the US, where it reached No. 12. It also reached No. 8 in Canada. A second single, Rossi's "Black Veils of Melancholy", flopped and has even been called "a carbon copy of "Pictures of Matchstick Men"". The third single, "Ice in the Sun", was written for the band by Marty Wilde and Ronnie Scott, with "When My Mind Is Not Live", a collaboration between Rossi and rhythm guitarist/singer Rick Parfitt, as the B-side. It reached No. 8 in the UK, and No. 29 in Canada.
The album itself was released on 27 September 1968, and failed to make the UK album charts. The band planned to release a fourth single from the album, "Technicolour Dreams" backed with the Wilde/Scott composition "Paradise Flat", but this was withdrawn after a few days in favour of a new non-album single, Rossi and Parfitt's "Make Me Stay a Bit Longer" with bassist Alan Lancaster's "Auntie Nellie" as the B-side, released on 31 January 1969. The last record to credit the band as The Status Quo, "Make Me Stay a Bit Longer" received good reviews but failed to chart.

Track listing

;Side one
  1. "Black Veils of Melancholy" – 3:17
  2. "When My Mind Is Not Live" – 2:50
  3. "Ice in the Sun" – 2:13
  4. "Elizabeth Dreams" – 3:29
  5. "Gentleman Joe's Sidewalk Café" – 3:01
  6. "Paradise Flat" – 3:13
;Side two
  1. "Technicolor Dreams" – 2:54
  2. "Spicks and Specks" – 2:46
  3. "Sheila" – 1:56
  4. "Sunny Cellophane Skies" – 2:47
  5. "Green Tambourine" – 2:19
  6. "Pictures of Matchstick Men" – 3:13

1998 remaster bonus tracks

  1. To Be Free
  2. Pictures Of Matchstick Me
  3. Paradise Flat

Personnel

;Status Quo