Ian Dury and the Blockheads: Live! Warts 'n' Audience
1990
Demon Records
Format I Own it on: Vinyl
Track Listing: 1. Wake Up And Make Love With Me 2. Clever Trever 3. Billericay Dickie 4. Quiet 5. My Old Man 6. Spasticus Autisticus 7. Plaistow Patricia 8. There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards 9. Sweet Gene Vincent 10. What A Waste! 11. Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick 12. Blockheads
Sorry about the lack of posts...My In-Laws are visiting from Michigan, so I've been busy visiting, eating absurd amounts of food and drinking massive quantities of beer...Not to mention putting in full workdays...So, I've gotta get back to those aforementioned activities so I'll make this quick...
This is a pretty cool live album from 1990...A good 10 years after Ian Dury retired the Blockheads...Most of the lineup is still intact at this point...I think drummer Charley Charles was deceased at this point, so I'll excuse his absence...
You could just tell by the precise, sophisticated playing on the studio albums that the Blockheads were a great live band...And just as you'd expect, this is tight soul funk delivered flawlessly although Ian himself sounds slightly more mannered than in his bawdy late 70's heyday... The setlist is so on the nose...Drawing mostly from the classic "New Boots & Panties" through "Laughter" era skipping the later, lesser non-Blockhead stuff...The slightly later, massively offensive "Spasticus Autisticus," is included though...This is a fairly notorious song that Ian (a disabled person himself, mind you) wrote due to numerous requests for him to participate in cheritable causes for other disabled people...Funny as fuck if you have a terrible sense of humor (which luckily, I do)...
"I'm knobbled on the cobbles,
Cos I hobble when I wobble,
Swim!
So place your hard-earned peanuts in my tin,
And thank the Creator you're not in the state I'm in,
So long have I been languished on the shelf,
I must give all proceedings to myself..."
Oh man...Brilliant...And catchy too...The record really catches fire at the end though with the awesome run of songs from "There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards" through "Blockheads" (basically side two...Again, we can't accuse Ian Dury and the Blockheads of front-loading albums) where you have "Sweet Gene Vincent" and "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" which to me are the quintessential Blockheads tracks...The performances are very smokin' too... All around this is just an enjoyable experience for Dury fans...And for those unfamiliar with his work, I can't think of a better introduction than tossing on side two of this thing...Just lot's of smooth, funky music and Ian's unique, guttural vocals and grubby poetry....I can't think of any band that walks the line between sophistication and dissolution like these guys do,,,Oh yea, I think they released an extended CD version of this awhile back...I don't own it, but I listened to it online and can attest that it's probably the way to go, since it includes "Inbetweenies"...
Let's listen to some Ian Dury...Here's "Sweet Gene Vincent"...Enjoy...
Track Listing: 1. Superman's Big Sister 2. Pardon 3. Delusions Of Grandeur 4. Yes And No (Paula) 5. Dance Of The Crackpots 6. Over the Points 7. (Take Your Elbow Out Of The Soup) You're Sitting On The Chicken 8. Uncoolohol 9. Hey, Hey, Take Me Away 10. Manic Depression (Jimi) 11. Oh Mr. Peanut 12. Fucking Ada
Yes! I like this one very much...The follow up to "Do It Yourself." This is one of those albums that I don't think was overall as good as its predecessor but it has songs on it that blow away anything on the better album...I think it boils down to me being a fan of the consistently murky disco party aspect of "Do It Yourself." "Laughter" is a lot more diverse; more of a pub rock/funk/music hall thing that shifts from song to song...But boy, there are some songs on here...
"Superman's Big Sister" is one of my favorite Ian Dury tracks...Just a catchy, stomping, good-time single that makes great use of Ian's off-the-cuff vocals and a feverish string section that seems to be there only to heighten the absurdity...Pure brilliance. I had to listen to "Pardon" a couple of times before it grew on me, but now I can see the glory in the normally roughshod Ian apologizing poshly for two and a half moments straight...
To be honest, I found some of the stuff in the second half of side one a bit rote, but side two is nothing but wall-to-wall glory...I think this is where the real theme of the record begins to sink in...Song after song of despairing struggles with depression and alcohol set to some of the bounciest, most fun music imaginable and slapped with the title, "Laughter." The band even write their "Hey Jude" with "Fucking Ada," or to be more precise their "Hey fucking Jude." Nothing but foulmouth grandeur...
It's Friday, right? Let's make this short and cut straight to the brew-ha-ha's ...We should probably put on some music though...Here's the video for "Superman's Big Sister" by Ian Dury and the Blockheads...Enjoy...
Track Listing: 1. Inbetweenies 2. Quiet 3. Don't Ask Me 4. Sink My Boats 5. Waiting For Your Taxi 6. This Is What We Find 7. Uneasy Sunny Day Hotsy-Totsy 8. Mischief 9. Dance Of The Screamers 10. Lullaby for Francies
This record came out with a bunch of different covers, each one showing a different, textured wallpaper sample. The blueish-gray one (which according to the 2015 Friday Night Record Party Wallpaper catalog, is called "Bouquet of Blue Molds") shown above is the cover I own...Here are some others...
Sample No. 1001: Rubber Vomit Rose
Sample No. 00008083: Mustard Autumn
Catalog No. 01012016: Post-Blackout Paradise
Catalog No. 0000666: King of Diamonds
Anyway, that's just a few of them...I've seen over a dozen different varieties...Who knows how many different covers are out there...
As for the contents of the record, this is Ian Dury's first album with the Blockheads as his backing band...They were lumped in with the punk/new-wave crowd, however that categorization would probably befuddle your average be-mohawked Exploited fan...Musically speaking, they're a smooth & slick disco-funk band, but Ian on the mic makes it punk in with his coarse language, ashtray vocals and shambling stage presence...Absolutely one of the most unique frontmen of all-time...There's no one else even remotely like him...
"I can remember seeing Ian Dury and the Blockheads for the first time on an old videotape I bought back in the 90's called "British Rock: The Legends of Punk & New Wave" that I used to watch non-stop all the time...
I'll never forget watching Ian walk out, all stiff
gait and grimy suit, with a voice that sounded like he smoked every
cigarette in existence, barking out "HIT ME WIFF YOUR RHYTHM STICK!" Oh
yea, I remember also being blown away that their sax player played two saxes at the same time...Damn! "
But yea, it's definitely the gulf between the clean, posh and spongy backing and Ian's gruff vocals that makes the whole thing special...The only time the band approaches anything close to "punk" is on "Uneasy Sunny Day Hotsy-Totsy" which ends up in game show territory during the chorus anyway...For chrissakes, "Sink My Boats" sounds like damn Supertramp!! But Ian and his foul-mouthed lyrics and dirty stories have a way of sucking you in...It's just so much fun to hear him growl, scream and howl over incongruous disco until suddenly you can't imagine it being any other way...
It's hard to pick a highlight...It's all about the cumulative effect of the madness... "Inbetweenies" gets stuck in my head all the time, so I'll nominate that..."Uneasy Sunny Day Hotsy-totsy" breaks things up at exactly the right time..."Dance Of The Screamers" is supremely funky until it breaks down into what I can only explain as a showdown between a skronking saxophone and a Velociraptor...And I should also mention that "Lullabye for Franci/es" is the most British reggae song ever written, so that should count for something...Not to mention it does its job well...By the end of it, I always find myself gently lulled into a deep, tropical sleep...
Fun record for when you're in the mood for something really smart and off-the-wall...Plus you can usually find used vinyl copies for dirt-ass cheap, so bonus...
Here's "Uneasy Sunny Day Hotsy-totsy" by Ian Dury and the Blockheads...Enjoy...
Track Listing: 1. Baba O'Riley (The Who) 2. Sister Disco (The Who) 3. Behind Blue Eyes (The Who) 4. See Me, Feel Me (The Who) 5. The Wait (The Pretenders) 6. Precious (The Pretenders) 7. Tattooed Love Boys (The Pretenders) 8. The Imposter (Elvis Costello & the Attractions 9. Crawling from the Wreckage (Rockpile) 10. Little Sister (Rockpile with Robert Plant) 11. Now I'm Here (Queen) 12. Armagideon Time (The Clash) 13. Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick (Ian Dury & the Blcokheads) 14. Monkey Man (The Specials) 15. Got to Get You into My Life (Wings) 16. Every Night (Wings) 17. Coming Up (Wings) 18. Lucille (Rockestra) 19. Let it Be (Rockestra) 20. Rockestra Theme (Rockestra)
I picked this up at FYE...I had no idea what it was but my eyes popped out of my head when I saw who was on it..A good number of these bands rank among my all-time favorites, and it only cost 3 bucks, so I figured it would be a safe bet...
I failed both history and especially geography, so I wasn't especially sure what Kampuchea was...Actually, I still don't really know...Let me look it up...
Oh yea! Pol Pot! Screw that guy! What an evil asshole...I think I'll draw all over his face spitefully...
There! Now I feel a little better...Now that I look at the record again, there is an explanation of the cause on the inside gatefold, but I usually avoid looking at it because...God, there's no way to talk about this without sounding incredibly shallow, but here goes...I hate looking at pictures of starving children while I have one hand in a bag of Doritos and a beer in the other..It makes me feel helpless and guilty...Alright, I said it! Let's get down to the record...
I kinda wish the ratios were a little better on this...Some bands only get one song while others get an entire side to themselves...Let's break this sucka down side by side...
Side One:
This one is all Who...Don't get me wrong, I love the Who, but I kinda wish Rockpile or the Specials would have gotten an entire side instead...Mainly because there's already a million live Who records out there...And besides, this is Kenney Jones era Who...I might be singing a different tune if this was prime Keith Moon Who...Really, I like Kenney Jones just fine...I always liked this era when they would play the songs off their later albums...They seem more at home on them for some reason. As a result "Sister Disco" is the most interesting thing for me here, despite its dissonant beginning (or maybe because of its dissonant beginning....I like dissonance!).
Side Two:
See this is what I mean by the ratios being off...I'm sure everybody on Planet Earth would disagree with me, but I would have much rather had one Pretenders songs and three Elvis Costello songs instead of vice-versa...It freakin' kills me to listen to the Attractions rip through a blazing version of "The Imposter" and then it's over...Again, the Pretenders are fine and all, but c'mon...
...Hey, waitasecond...I think I just heard the Pretenders toss off a Howard the Duck reference in "Precious"...
Alright...They've earned their three songs....
It's cool that we at least get two Rockpile songs. Their take on "Crawling Through the Wreckage" is a rollicking good time, but to be totally honest I don't especially care that much about the Robert Plant guest spot on "Little Sister." I know he's more famous than everybody else so blah, blah, blah, but I would have rather had another Dave Edmunds or Nick Lowe vocal...Maybe some "Teacher Teacher" or "A Knife and a Fork" or something... Not exactly sure what their setlist was that night, so...
Side Three:
This is probably my favorite side...Each band only gets one song, but what bands and what songs!
It starts a little rough for me...A lot of people can't understand this, but I'm not a very big Queen fan. Even though I greatly admire his mustache, I find Freddie Mercury's vocals to be a little too "musical theater" for my tastes... I do find their imagery and camp sense of humor somewhat appealing though, and I do have a tremendous nostalgic connection to their Flash Gordon soundtrack...
That said, it's weird that Queen only gets one song...From what I remember Queen was just as big as the Who and Paul McCartney back then...Then again they might have only been that popular in my household...I didn't exactly have my finger on the pulse of the nation back in 1981...I was too busy watching Captain Kangaroo...
...but at least they get a long song, with an extended crowd solo...
To me, this side is all about the other three bands...We get scorchers from the Clash, the Specials and Ian Dury and the Blockheads!
I can remember seeing Ian Dury and the Blockheads for the first time on an old videotape I bought back in the 90's called "British Rock: The Legends of Punk & New Wave" that I used to watch non-stop all the time...
I'll never forget watching Ian walk out, all stiff gait and grimy suit, with a voice that sounded like he smoked every cigarette in existence, barking out "HIT ME WIFF YOUR RHYTHM STICK!" Oh yea, I remember also being blown away that their sax player played two saxes at the same time...Damn!
They do "Hit me With Your Rhythm Stick" here, too...Kind of smooth and disco-y except for Ian's gruff shout (but of course I love it for exactly that gruff shout)...Anyway, side three is where it's at, Dad...
Side Four:
This is the Paul McCartney side...Three songs with Wings and three with Rockestra...After alright-ish versions of "Got to Get You Into My Life" and "Every Night" we get to the real highlight of this side...I love "Coming Up" so much, and this is my favorite version...Whenever I put this on I'm forced to put on my boogie shoes...Impossibly upbeat, funky, stiff-disco and a simple and effective chorus...Yes, yes, yes...
The other three songs feature Paul fronting a 20-man band consisting of about a gazillion other superstars, most of whom appear earlier on the record (Pete Townsend, Kenney Jones, Bruce Thomas, etc)...The Rockestra photo inside the album cover never fails to crack me up...13 guitarists on stage staring at one another...
The experiment is mostly useful for proving that your ears can only distinguish between so many instruments at one time...If I didn't see the pictures I would have probably guessed there's about 8 musicians playing....I bet it was awesome to see, though...However, I do feel a little gypped that Ian Dury doesn't get to do lead vocals on "Let It Be." Now that would have been a night to remember...
So, if you find yourself digging through the crates at your local used record store and run across the "Concerts for the People of Kampuchea," I'd check it out for sure...There's a ton of great music and the entire thing is a hell of a good time. It's hard to believe they've never released this on CD...Tell me an extended version with 15 or so discs featuring the complete sets (and an extra disc with the movie) wouldn't rock your world...So get it on, Atlantic records (or whoever owns the rights) and make it happen...Do I have to think of everything around here?
