Animal Wednesday

 

Today we go back to songs from the early 80'/late 70's performed by artists from the beginning of the punk or from a short lived rockabilly revival.

Adam Ant was infected by punk when he first watched the Sex Pistols live. Their first album got critical acclaim but he wanted more popularity and asked Malcolm McLaren to manage the band. He must have realised by then, at the very latest, that this wasn’t a good idea when McLaren poached the entire band to form Bow Wow Wow and make them a success. Nevertheless, this song managed to climb to the top of the charts in 1980.

In the early 1980's, musical styles long thought to be dead enjoyed a resurgence. Whilst British bands such as The Specials, Selector and The Beat gave the old 1960's Jamaican off-beats a new lease of life with a good dose of punk, on the other side of the Atlantic bands such as the Stray Cats and The Meteors saw 1950's rock ’n’ roll as their roots. In that respect, Stray Cat Strut can be described as a successful revival.

I probably don’t need to say anything more about Wire’s classic album, except that they’ve moved away from the minimalism of their debut album and ventured into more complex arrangements.

Burundi Drums

 

Inspired by the African odyssey of our good friend Ernie, I recently landed in Burundi, one of the poorest countries in the world. Burundi is located in East Africa and is surrounded by Rwanda, Tanzania and the Congo. It was formerly a Belgian colony and has still not recovered from the bloody ethnic conflicts at the end of the last century.

Musically, the Royal Drummers Of Burundi are typical, traditionally playing for ceremonies such as birth and death. In principle, a leading drum determines the rhythm, which is followed by many other drums. 

It is thanks to Malcolm McLaren, who managed Adam and the Ants in the late 70s, that this percussive sound found its way into the punk scene. With their mixture of tribalism, rockabilly guitars and a thoroughly conceptualised outfit, they were the big thing between punk and pop.

The same concept worked a second time when McLaren poached part of the band to promote Bow Wow Wow under his direction. The same Burundi beat, only instead of Adam Ant, thirteen-year-old Annabella Lwin took over the vocals. 

Both bands didn't change the world, but they wrote formative songs that I would describe as classic new-wave pop.

Does Anyone Remember Oi-Punk?

A few days ago I got the news that the albums by Cock Sparrer was released in a box-set of their albums released almost 40 years ago. As I read the news I got a flashback into the late 70's/early 80's when this band released songs that was on heavy rotation in my house and I played their songs while I was DJ-ing long time ago. All right - some of them will categorize them in a fascist way because there songs were hymns to skinheads and football hooligans. But for me they were nothing more or less perfect combinations of punk, pub rock and hooligan attitude. Formed in the mid 70's they had the chance to support the early Sex Pistols but Malcolm McLaren wasn't willing to spent them a couple of beers they declined to support them. Probably their biggest mistake ever. After decades it is still fun listening to urban hymns by West Ham United supporters. Bands like Boomtown Rats and The Undertones learned from them.

Cock Sparrer - Take 'Em All
Cock Sparrer - We Love You
Cock Sparrer - Runnin' Riot
Cock Sparrer - Riot Squad