Anniversary Albums: Episode Twenty-Nine - Dr. Feelgood "Stupidity" (1976)

This week on anniversary albums we take a look at British pub rock band Dr. Feelgood's 1976 live album "Stupidity". Dr. Feelgood were considered godfathers of British punk and were part of a movement that rejected the excesses of glam and prog rock, and that helped pave the way for punk to take off in the UK. 

Dr. Feelgood - Stupidity

Tracks Played 

- 20 Yards Behind 

- All Through The City 

- Walking The Dog 

- Roxette 

- Riot in Cell Block No. 9 


- Sam 

Anniversary Albums: Edition Twenty-Two - The Ramones "Ramones" (1976)

This week on anniversary albums, Sam takes a look at the Ramones debut album "Ramones" which is turning 40 this year. Released in 1976, this album was arguably the first ever punk rock record and went on to play a massive influence on the development of punk rock, metal and grunge. 

The Ramones - Ramones

Tracks Played 

- Listen to My Heart 

- Beat on the Brat 

- Judy Is a Punk 

- I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend 

- Let's Dance 

- Blitzkrieg Bop 

- Sam 

Television - Marquee Moon (1977)

Marquee Moon was the debut album by American post-punk/art-punk band Television. Released in 1977, it has since gone on to be considered a pivotal album in the development of post-punk in the late-70s and early-80s, not to mention it having a lasting influence on indie, garage and alternative rock.

Marquee Moon was quite a unique album for a punk oriented group at the time and had a very different sound to the other music which was being made on the punk scene. The sound on the album is very much based on the twin lead guitar sound of Tom Verlaine, who was also the band’s lead singer and Richard Lloyd, with the two producing a heavily layered and lick laden guitar wall of sound. This dual guitar style was very much based on classic rock from the 70s and involved plenty of inter-play between the two, with one usually taking the rhythm part as the other took the lead, with both often swapping roles from rhythm to lead within songs as well. Gone were the power chords and heavy riffage of traditional punk rock, which were replaced with melodic guitar lines, counter-melodies and carefully constructed rhythmic sequences. This was more complex musically than punk and I guess allowed for more musical ideas to be explored within songs, while allowing for what I would describe as non-punk influences to be brought in such as progressive rock and jazz, influences which you can clearly hear throughout the album.

The songs themselves are incredibly catchy and very melodic but not in a way that you would normally associate with a good song, such as having a catchy chorus, or pop hook. The catchiness and listenable qualities of the songs on Marquee Moon are found more in the sound of the hook-laden and melodic guitar lines which come to dominate all the songs on the album, and help to form the organic base of which these songs are built. Songs such as opening track “See No Evil” and “Friction” are a classic example of the twin lead guitar attack and contain some amazing dueling guitar sequences complete with competing melodies and backed by a stellar rhythm section. Title track “Marquee Moon” is the album’s centrepiece and most out there track and at times tends to resemble a prog rock track, or in this instance a prog punk masterpiece. Coming in at over ten minutes something that would have been inconceivable for anyone with an ounce of punk in their music at the time, “Marquee Moon” brings in the prog and jazz influences that I mentioned earlier, especially in terms of the complex technicality of the guitar playing, the song structure, as well as the free jamming and extended guitar solo duels that are dottered throughout the song. This is quite simply prog punk at its finest and forms as a reminder of what could have been had the punk rockers not turned their noses up so much at progressive rock. Other tracks on the album that are worth a mention include “Elevation” which has a Beatles feel to it with some amazing psychedelic guitar melodies, “Guiding Light” which is a slower track that could also be described as the ballad of the album and gets dangerously close to being mid-70s corporate guitar rock but in a good way, and finally “Prove It” which brings in some jangly guitar and some thumping R&B influenced bass playing by bass player Fred Smith.

Although Marquee Moon was not a commercial success at the time, its reputation has grown tremendously over the years, while it has influenced most of the guitar music that has followed its release. It has been sighted by many critics as being one of the greatest albums of the 70s American punk rock movement and by Rolling Stones as the 128 greatest album of all time, high praise for an art-punk band who released an album that went against the grain of many of their contemporaries of the time. Marquee Moon is a truly amazing sounding album and showed a punk rock band could actually get down and dirty with some serious playing of the highest complexity and skill, but yet still retain their punk essence. This is definitely one of the best guitar albums ever recorded and contains some of the most melodically beautiful and clean guitar playing you are ever likely to hear. Well worth a listen for all guitar heads, punk worshipers, while progressive rock enthusiasts might just even dig this one to.

 

A

 

- Sam

 

 

The Jam - Sound Affects (1980)

Sound Affects was the fifth studio album by British mod-revival group The Jam. Released during 1980 at the height of the band’s career, a career that would include a run of eighteen consecutive top 40 singles in the UK charts, many deem Sound Affects to be The Jam’s best album and at the very least their most musically interesting. With an overall sound that stuck to their traditional 60s beat influences, but that also branched out to include splashes of R&B and psychedelic rock, this is probably an accurate assessment of one of the 80s most underrated albums but best surprises.

Paul Weller, the band’s front man described Sound Affects as a cross between Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall and The Beatles Revolver, a description that certainly holds true on listening. The sound on the album combines a strong emphasis on rhythm and a prominent rhythm section with pop melodies and the occasional punk rage. The Off the Wall influence comes in the form of the excellent rhythm playing of Bruce Foxton on bass and Rick Buckler on drums, whose pounding bass and drum lines dominates across the album. Their playing is very much a Motown-inspired style and both the drums and bass sound so good on here (a very clean sound) to the point that they often take centre stage as lead instruments, whilst also being an essential part of the overall Jam sound. Paul Weller’s guitar playing, vocals and compositional skills bring in the 60s Beatles influences, punk, as well as a hint of psychedelia. His vocals flow between punk aggression and a mellower pop style similar to mid-60s Beatles, while his guitar playing is a mix of jangly chimes and a heavy distorted drive. On some of the tracks Weller also experiments both with guitar distortion and feedback, as well as the odd sound affect here and there, including a fly buzzing at the beginning of “Music for the Last Couple” and some French audio on the outro of “Scrape Away”.

The tracks on Sound Affects are generally of a high standard all and all, and despite a couple of somewhat lesser tracks most of the material is interesting and diverse. There is melody driven Beatles-like pop in the form of “Monday” and “Man in the Corner Shop”, while “That’s Entertainment”, probably the band’s most well known song is an acoustic mod anthem that forms the basis of a commentary on the drudgery and dreariness of English working class life. The Beatles influence becomes remarkably close on “Start” which includes an exact copy of the bass line and guitar riff from classic Revolver track “Taxman”, while also incorporating subtle R&B influences with a great rhythm track and a backing horn section. Then there are the more up-tempo ferocious punk anthems such as opening track “Pretty Green” with its pounding bass line and “But I’m Different Now with its heavily charged punk guitar. Experimental psychedelic rock also appears with the anthemic distortion driven “Set the House Ablaze” and album closer “Scrape Away”. On this note I would say that psychedelia was just a slight influence on the material here and was more used in an experimental capacity without playing a central role. With this in mind the influence of psychedelic rock and in particular The Beatles Revolver came mainly in the use of studio affects and heavy guitar distortion and echo. Finally, there are also hints at The Jam’s and Weller’s future direction with subtle splashes of R&B here and there. This is evident especially in the rhythm playing right across the album as I have already mentioned, but also on particular songs such as “Boy About Town” and “Start”, of which both contain horn parts and heavy funk-inspired bass and drum fills.

Overall, Sound Affects is a fantastic collection of infectious early-80s pop songs that are dotted with little bits and pieces from all sorts of different musical areas, which although feature do not compromise The Jam’s 60’s pop sound and overall punk ethos. Apart from the general catchiness of the songs and their cleverly crafted pop nature, as well as the interesting experimentation with different sounds and textures, the definite standout of Sound Affects is the rhythm section of Buckler and Foxton, who’s playing make these songs that extra special. Their playing to me is made even more remarkable considering the 80s would become dominated by drum machines and synths, and how also technology often came to overshadow the musical abilities of the people making the music. On listening to this album it is just nice to hear a proper rhythm section made up of proper players playing an essential part to the overall sound on display, of which without whose input the music would be half as good. Weller’s song-writing craft, aggressive vocals, and lead rhythm playing is simply the icing on the cake in what is overall a great 80s album, all be it an overlooked and underrated one at that.

 

A-

 

- Sam

Blondie - Blondie (1976)

Giving punk rock catchy and accessible pop twists before it was cool, Blondie's 1976 debut eponymous LP earned the group its rightful reputation as one of the central front-runners in punk’s transition towards ‘new wave’, exploding from the underground New York punk scene with a band and frontwoman capable of taking them to inevitable commercial success in later years.

Produced by former Brill Building songwriter Richard Gottehrer, Blondie is in many ways a tribute to the Phil Spector-era of pop music, flaunting tight and polished soundscapes not too dissimilar from the band’s New York punk contemporaries. Evoking the spirit of 60s girl groups, the opening number and lead single “X Offender” begins with a sultry spoken intro by lead singer Debbie Harry, a la The Shangri-Las or The Angels, which quickly escalates into a flurry of energetic organs, rapid drums and relentless rhythm and electric guitar. The B-side of that single, “In the Flesh” is another ode to early 60s bubblegum pop, a soothing ballad with light, breezy vocals by Harry featuring double-tracked “Ooooooh” refrains, and by pure accident (mistakenly played in Australia over the A-side) would be their very first charting single.

There are more than a few surprises in this album though, with Debbie Harry in “A Shark in Jets Clothing” taking on the persona of a character from West Side Story, utilising posse-style finger snaps and a buzzing overlay of synths from keyboardist Jimmy Destri. “Man Overboard” shuffles along courtesy of guitarists Chris Stein (lead, rhythm) and Gary Valentine (bass) brimming with funk, balanced out by Harry’s airy vocals that give it a distinct pop edge. Destri, as he often does throughout this record, really shines with a brief erratic synth solo, and not to be outdone, Stein matches it with a solo of his own. Debbie Harry’s famously cocky and alluring persona really comes to the fore in the third single “Rip Her to Shreds”, almost goading an imaginary disapproving audience into having a go at her - “She’s so dull / Come on, rip her to shreds”

What’s particularly striking about Blondie is that despite working very much within a pop framework, it’s still undoubtedly a punk album in nature, perhaps not in the instrumentation but rather the daringly explicit subject matter. “X Offender” details a prostitute’s attempts at seducing a policeman, “Look Good in Blue” has a rather saucy refrain by Debbie Harry, who lingers on the first part of “I could give you some head and shoulders to lie on”, and “Attack of the Giant Ants” is an absurd, rollicking tribute to the cult-like genre of monster movies, with drummer Clement Burke furiously providing a beat worthy of an apocalypse and Harry nonchalantly broadcasting the demise of Earth, complete with a soundbite of people fleeing in horror. I can’t think of anything more punk than a song describing giant ants melting people’s faces off.

Blondie epitomises what made the punk movement so liberating, in that there were no boundaries, limits or restrictions on what could be done, even if what was recorded wasn’t really punk at all (save “Kung Fu Girls”) so long as there was attitude, which is in abundance on this record. In the following years, punk contemporaries would continue to progress, adapting and bringing in additional sounds to their work, most notably The Clash (reggae, ska, hip hop) yet Blondie would surprisingly enough see one of their hits becoming a staple in the era of disco revival (“Heart of Glass”) as well as the unlikely achievement of being the first Caucasian group to have a #1 rap single (“Rapture”). Blondie definitely captures the band’s unapologetically exuberant and youthful style of early new wave, arguably not quite as refined as on the acclaimed Parallel Lines release, but still mightily fun and enjoyable either way.

B+

-Karl

Listen to Blondie on Grooveshark

The Clash - Sandinista (1980)

The Clash’s fourth studio album “Sandinista” (named after the Nicaraguan Marxist rebel group) is by no means a punk album and in fact is about as far away from punk as you could possibly get. Released in 1980, this album saw the band move radically away from the punk movement they helped spearhead, not only in terms of sound, but in size as well. Sandinista is a triple album – a rare thing in itself containing three discs, six sides, thirty-six tracks, and totalling 144 minutes a concept that you would think some progressive rock act would be behind not a so called punk rock band.

The music on this album in many ways spans the history of music to that point, and explores genres ranging from funk, reggae, rockabilly, dub, calypso, rap, and gospel, genres that are stylistically miles away from The Clash’s first album of mainly punk rock songs in fact there is hardly a punk rock song on this album. The band began exploring with different styles of music on their previous release “London Calling” but went even further on Sandinista. The band explores rap on “The Magnificent Seven and “Lightening Strikes” this before the genre was even popular in the mainstream, reggae on “Junco Partner”, rockabilly on “The Leader”, jazz on “Look Here”, gospel on “The Sound of Sinners”, and Celtic folk complete with fiddle on “Lose This Skin”. The massive array of musical styles on show here makes it seems as if with each new track you are also moving to another style of music, that is how varied this album is musically. The band also experimented significantly on “Sandinista”, experimentation that included the appearance of different instruments ranging from violin to harmonica, extra singers including a re-recorded version of “Career Opportunities” being sung by small children, various sampling, and several alternate dub versions of tracks that already appear on the album. Lyrically Joe Strummer is Joe Strummer, with political and social topics appearing throughout the album including themes such as the military draft on “The Call Up” and American imperialism in Latin America on “Washington Bullets”. In fact Alternative Press magazine included “Sandinista” in its 2000 list of the “10 Essential Political-Revolution Albums”.

“Sandinista” is very much a stretch to listen to at 144 minutes and could have done with some trimming in places, but then again the idea of it being a triple album is probably worth a couple of filler tracks here and there. This goes back to the argument of would The Beatles White Album be as good if it was a single album? Just put “Sandinista” on at a party and you won’t notice the lesser moments. For me Sandinista is one of the coolest albums of all time simply because it has everything.  Stylistically the range of genres on here is immense, while the production on the album is first class for its time with the arrangements, sampling, and sound given careful attention to detail by the band. As an album it was definitely ahead of its time especially considering the bands punk background, and could arguably be seen as the first “world music” album to be released by a western act. A radical departure from the bands earlier work and a continuation on from what the band did on “London Calling”, this album is a major artistic statement from a band at the peak of their career, and proved exactly why The Clash was one of the biggest bands in the world at that time. “Sandinista” is well worth a listen that is even if you don’t have 144 minutes to spear.

 

A

 

- Sam