Album: New Boots & Panties!!
Artist: Ian Dury
Born: Harrow, Middlesex
Released: September 1977
Genre: New Wave
Influenced: The Specials, Billy Bragg, The Pogues, The Streets, Pulp, Blur
Stiff Records was the hottest music label in 1977, releasing punk's first ever single (New Rose by the Damned) and the debut albums by emerging new wave stars, Elvis Costello and Ian Dury. As ever, genre labels are imprecise, but to me new wave means music with a punk ethos that is unafraid to experiment with new styles beyond primitive garage rock. Stiff Records was set up with a loan from Dr Feelgood singer, Lee Brilleaux, and was heavily influenced by the pub rock scene. Like Patti Smith, Ian Dury was much older than his punk rock peers but was tough as old boots, unfazed by live performance despite the crippling effects of the polio he contracted in Southend aged 7. This maturity comes through in some of the tender moments, when Dury sings about his father or his musical hero Gene Vincent, and its exploration of the lives of people living along the Thames Estuary. My vinyl copy is one of the 1978 repressings that contains the single, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, which sold poorly on release but became the closing anthem of the UK tour that Stiff Records organised for its acts, during which Ian Dury outshone Elvis Costello as a live performer.
In early 1978, the album began to race up the charts as Ian Dury's profile grew and its sales helped to keep Stiff Records afloat during a difficult period (before Stiff signed Madness) when co-founder Jake Riviera split away, taking Elvis Costello with him. One thing that many people connected with was Ian Dury's authentic voice, lewd humour and wild energy. Many of the songs are full of references to the East End (Plaistow) and Essex (Billericay) and his accent and inventive use of language that drew heavily on the English music hall tradition. I love the album cover too, a photo taken outside a clothing store in Victoria with his son Baxter Dury, who is now releasing his own brilliant work (this track from his 2011 album, Happy Soup, is one of my favourites).
Doing this blog has created many symmetries and connections, one of the strangest being that Ian Dury has openly expressed his love for Steely Dan's Aja (the subject of yesterday's blog post). Dury shared a similar approach to Steely Dan by assimilating different musical styles, and on album opener Wake Up & Make Love To Me he channels his love of 70s funk (check the bass line and use of synths and clavinets) and the sexual lyrics, especially the brilliant description of morning glory ("I come awake with a gift for womankind"). From Thames Estuary Funk, Dury switches seamlessly to jazz as he reminisces about his Teddy Boy days listening to Gene Vincent before letting rip with pure, unadulterated rock & roll. My Old Man is another of my favourites on side 1, while the lyrics on Billericay Dickie really deserve close attention ("rum and ribena"!). Blockheads showcases the talents of the brilliant rhythm section, including Chaz Jankel on guitars, Norman Watt-Roy on bass and Charley Charles on drums. On later records, the band would record as Ian Dury & the Blockheads. Plaistow Patricia is the most punk of all the songs on the record, Dury's magnificent growl again one of the highlights. This album is as raw and clever as punk & new wave ever got.
Stiff Records was the hottest music label in 1977, releasing punk's first ever single (New Rose by the Damned) and the debut albums by emerging new wave stars, Elvis Costello and Ian Dury. As ever, genre labels are imprecise, but to me new wave means music with a punk ethos that is unafraid to experiment with new styles beyond primitive garage rock. Stiff Records was set up with a loan from Dr Feelgood singer, Lee Brilleaux, and was heavily influenced by the pub rock scene. Like Patti Smith, Ian Dury was much older than his punk rock peers but was tough as old boots, unfazed by live performance despite the crippling effects of the polio he contracted in Southend aged 7. This maturity comes through in some of the tender moments, when Dury sings about his father or his musical hero Gene Vincent, and its exploration of the lives of people living along the Thames Estuary. My vinyl copy is one of the 1978 repressings that contains the single, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, which sold poorly on release but became the closing anthem of the UK tour that Stiff Records organised for its acts, during which Ian Dury outshone Elvis Costello as a live performer.
In early 1978, the album began to race up the charts as Ian Dury's profile grew and its sales helped to keep Stiff Records afloat during a difficult period (before Stiff signed Madness) when co-founder Jake Riviera split away, taking Elvis Costello with him. One thing that many people connected with was Ian Dury's authentic voice, lewd humour and wild energy. Many of the songs are full of references to the East End (Plaistow) and Essex (Billericay) and his accent and inventive use of language that drew heavily on the English music hall tradition. I love the album cover too, a photo taken outside a clothing store in Victoria with his son Baxter Dury, who is now releasing his own brilliant work (this track from his 2011 album, Happy Soup, is one of my favourites).
Doing this blog has created many symmetries and connections, one of the strangest being that Ian Dury has openly expressed his love for Steely Dan's Aja (the subject of yesterday's blog post). Dury shared a similar approach to Steely Dan by assimilating different musical styles, and on album opener Wake Up & Make Love To Me he channels his love of 70s funk (check the bass line and use of synths and clavinets) and the sexual lyrics, especially the brilliant description of morning glory ("I come awake with a gift for womankind"). From Thames Estuary Funk, Dury switches seamlessly to jazz as he reminisces about his Teddy Boy days listening to Gene Vincent before letting rip with pure, unadulterated rock & roll. My Old Man is another of my favourites on side 1, while the lyrics on Billericay Dickie really deserve close attention ("rum and ribena"!). Blockheads showcases the talents of the brilliant rhythm section, including Chaz Jankel on guitars, Norman Watt-Roy on bass and Charley Charles on drums. On later records, the band would record as Ian Dury & the Blockheads. Plaistow Patricia is the most punk of all the songs on the record, Dury's magnificent growl again one of the highlights. This album is as raw and clever as punk & new wave ever got.
Comments