Song Of The Day No.45

Wake Up And Make Love With Me

by Ian Dury (New Boots and Panties!!, 1977)

Released a few months before The Blockheads were formed and only featuring a couple of members of the group the album is credited as an Ian Dury solo album. Dury co-wrote all of the songs on the album either with Chaz Jankel, member of The Blockheads, or with an American called Steve Nugent. The album was mostly written a year before it's release with demos recorded in the spring of 1977 a week before the album would be recorded. Dury and friends recorded the album in spite of not having a record deal which meant that Dury's management company put up the money. After struggling to find a label, Stiff Records who already had Elvis Costello and The Damned negotiated a licensing deal and the album was released in September.

The opening track off the album is a prime example of Dury's brand of playful punk-funk song writing. Piano twinkles start off gently but the bass and drums kick in with the punchy, bouncy rhythm and the piano decides to follow hitting the melody. A Moog synthesiser whirs around in the background as Dury's accented, spoken singing style almost impossibly manages to describe in rather charming fashion a 'morning glory' moment.

AR

Song Of The Day No.28

When You're Near Me

by XTC (Drums and Wires, 1979)

Off the band's third album 'When You're Near Me' starts with a misleading jangly guitar intro that lasts all of nearly seven seconds before the real feel of the song emerges with a short jab. Midly crunching ska undertones are employed on the rhythm guitar to provide a lively tempo while cutting guitar chords and Andy Partrdge's vocals provide a sharp punk-funk contribution. Even though the lyrics are delivered with speed their cyclical nature means that after a couple of listens the list of medical ailments are firmy lodged in your memory. The high RPM that jerks around is completmented by a couple of breathers and breaks that are slightly odd in conception but fit well with the band's typically hyperactive nature.

Legendary producer Steve Lilywhite was at the desk for the first time with the band at a time that saw the band embark on their first American tour, gain success with the now immortal single 'Making Plans For Nigel' and highten their songwriting skills to include social-political criticism.

AR

Song Of The Day No.2

She Is Beyond Good And Evil

by The Pop Group (Y, 1979)

Existing for just two years in the post-punk era, The Pop Group launched it all with this single. The song does indeed incorporate the post-punk sound of the time but it also has room for what is the more typical The Pop Group sound. Avant garde, noise rock, free jazz and punk-funk all influence their sound to varying degrees.

A simply choppy, sharp and jagged guitar riff greets you with an abrasive, if welcoming, smile and remains ever present throughout the song. The bouncy bass line, taken from punk-funk idioms, give the song its rhythm and movement while percussion is kept to a minimum with dinking cow bells and tssking cymbals taking preference in the mix. Mark Stewart presents his lyrics in a shouty-spoken-whispered-announced mixture layering them with varying degrees of echo. Other additional sound effects come into play at various points in the song especially when it reaches a noisy kind of climax towards the end. Here the song calms itself down and the lyrical repetition of first, “Western values mean nothing to her” and then the title bring the song to a satisfying end.

AR

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