ewe2
18-03-2006, 10:02 AM
Here's a little piece of advice
You're quite welcome it is free
Don't do nothing that is cut price
You know what that'll make you be
They will try their tricky device
Trap you with the ordinary
Get your teeth into a small slice
The cake of liberty
-- Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll
If you've been dilligently reading Ztunes reviews you'll begin to appreciate what a boon the so-called 'punk explosion' was for everyone who loves music. The idea that anyone could make any kind of music as a means of self-expression was really at the core of punk, and all sorts of interesting acts owe their genesis to the noisy kids with the strange haircuts and the safety pins. One such was Ian Dury, the gentleman of English new wave, and without punk it's hard to see how he would have reached the public notice otherwise.
For a start he was older, in his mid-thirties, he was crippled by polio, and despite his East End accent, his lyrical wit was a cut above most; he was much sharper than he pretended. His music with the Blockheads was an unusual mix between funky disco, reggae, and punk, which was amazingly catchy. By the time I saw them at the doomed Cloudland Ballroom in 1981, punks all pogoing in unison (which made the sprung floor a dangerous standing wave unless you hopped on at the right moment), their best work had already been done, but it was well worth bankrupting Stiff Records I feel :)
New Boots was on the crest of punk as it rose in 1977 and apart from it at the same time. It's not pretentious music and Dury's vocal delivery is beguiling. Opening with the classic Wake Up and Make Love With Me, it establishes the cheeky loose mood and the signature Blockheads sound immediately. Sweet Gene Vincent is more than a tribute; Vincent was the hero whose death inspired Dury to music in the first place. I'm Partial To Your Abaracadabra is another Dury double entendre and he pays another tribute, My Old Man. The seaside organ tune of Billiricay Dickie will be immediately recognizable to fellow sufferers of the Spray 'N Wipe television adverts, a most unusual legacy, and it's a pity because the lyrics are a scream:
I'd rondez-vouez with Janet
quite near the Isle of Thanet
she looked more like a gannet
she wasn't half a prannet
her mother tried to ban it
her father helped me plan it
and when I captured Janet she bruised her pomegranet
Clever Trevor deliberately uses vernacular to make a point about cleverness, If I Was With A Woman sums up misogyny, and Blockheads is gleefully gross. Plaistow Patricia is even more blunt and punky:
well her tits had dropped, her arse was getting spread
she lost some teeth, she nearly lost the thread
'till she did some smack with a Chineese chap oh, oh
and affair began with Charley Chan oh, oh
and Blackmail Man is as thrashy as the Blockheads ever got, which is pretty thrashy :) Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll has the simple message: do what you like. Razzle In My Pocket is a tale of youthful porn shoplifting, and You're More Than Fair continues in like vein with a wonderful reggae seduction, complete with hilarious heavy breathing. A live version of England's Glory details all the characters Dury feels are England's greatest treasures, and finally What A Waste returns to the sleek disco groove as Dury ticks off alternate careers but prefers the 'waste' of being a musician.
The greatest drawback of New Boots is its very Englishness, I suspect. Dury's accent and variety of language is challenging to newcomers but with the congenial Blockheads backing I happily sang mondegreens for years before I found the correct lyrics! The CD reissues include the singles, so if you get this album and Do It Yourself, you can have the best of the Dury canon. Ian died in 2000 and is sadly missed world-wide. A nicer bloke never graced the rock and roll stage.
You're quite welcome it is free
Don't do nothing that is cut price
You know what that'll make you be
They will try their tricky device
Trap you with the ordinary
Get your teeth into a small slice
The cake of liberty
-- Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll
If you've been dilligently reading Ztunes reviews you'll begin to appreciate what a boon the so-called 'punk explosion' was for everyone who loves music. The idea that anyone could make any kind of music as a means of self-expression was really at the core of punk, and all sorts of interesting acts owe their genesis to the noisy kids with the strange haircuts and the safety pins. One such was Ian Dury, the gentleman of English new wave, and without punk it's hard to see how he would have reached the public notice otherwise.
For a start he was older, in his mid-thirties, he was crippled by polio, and despite his East End accent, his lyrical wit was a cut above most; he was much sharper than he pretended. His music with the Blockheads was an unusual mix between funky disco, reggae, and punk, which was amazingly catchy. By the time I saw them at the doomed Cloudland Ballroom in 1981, punks all pogoing in unison (which made the sprung floor a dangerous standing wave unless you hopped on at the right moment), their best work had already been done, but it was well worth bankrupting Stiff Records I feel :)
New Boots was on the crest of punk as it rose in 1977 and apart from it at the same time. It's not pretentious music and Dury's vocal delivery is beguiling. Opening with the classic Wake Up and Make Love With Me, it establishes the cheeky loose mood and the signature Blockheads sound immediately. Sweet Gene Vincent is more than a tribute; Vincent was the hero whose death inspired Dury to music in the first place. I'm Partial To Your Abaracadabra is another Dury double entendre and he pays another tribute, My Old Man. The seaside organ tune of Billiricay Dickie will be immediately recognizable to fellow sufferers of the Spray 'N Wipe television adverts, a most unusual legacy, and it's a pity because the lyrics are a scream:
I'd rondez-vouez with Janet
quite near the Isle of Thanet
she looked more like a gannet
she wasn't half a prannet
her mother tried to ban it
her father helped me plan it
and when I captured Janet she bruised her pomegranet
Clever Trevor deliberately uses vernacular to make a point about cleverness, If I Was With A Woman sums up misogyny, and Blockheads is gleefully gross. Plaistow Patricia is even more blunt and punky:
well her tits had dropped, her arse was getting spread
she lost some teeth, she nearly lost the thread
'till she did some smack with a Chineese chap oh, oh
and affair began with Charley Chan oh, oh
and Blackmail Man is as thrashy as the Blockheads ever got, which is pretty thrashy :) Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll has the simple message: do what you like. Razzle In My Pocket is a tale of youthful porn shoplifting, and You're More Than Fair continues in like vein with a wonderful reggae seduction, complete with hilarious heavy breathing. A live version of England's Glory details all the characters Dury feels are England's greatest treasures, and finally What A Waste returns to the sleek disco groove as Dury ticks off alternate careers but prefers the 'waste' of being a musician.
The greatest drawback of New Boots is its very Englishness, I suspect. Dury's accent and variety of language is challenging to newcomers but with the congenial Blockheads backing I happily sang mondegreens for years before I found the correct lyrics! The CD reissues include the singles, so if you get this album and Do It Yourself, you can have the best of the Dury canon. Ian died in 2000 and is sadly missed world-wide. A nicer bloke never graced the rock and roll stage.