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The so-called "New Wave" in rock music has brought about many changes in British rock, not the least of which is the overnight formation of a crop of new record companies. Certainly the most successful of these firms is Stiff Records. Now Stiff has branched out with the release in this country of two interesting and bizarre albums.
Stiff Records is an interesting phenomenon in itself. Billed as "the world's most flexible record label," it has made hits of a collection of artists considered unsalable by other companies. It released an album with the slightly backwards title of Hits Greatest Stiffs, and then proudly announced that the album contained "no hit single whatsoever." Stiff's first motto (there have been several) was "If They're Dead — We'll Sign 'Em."
In Ian Dury, Stiff has found an artist who fits the corporate image perfectly. His album, New Boots and Panties, is one of the most perplexing debut albums in years. He is, in turns, direct, blunt, bawdy, outrageous, and touching.
Dury is, at age 35, a highly unlikely candidate for rock stardom. His close-cropped hair, ragpicker stage wardrobe, and penchant for weird hats and props make him an odd sight, and his songs match his appearance perfectly.
As a songwriter, Dury specializes in ambivalent love themes and character sketches of odd people. "Billericay Divide," for instance, deals with a character who insists on regaling everyone with tales of his love life, while "Plaistow Patricia" tells the story of a woman on the skids.
Dury's saving grace is his humor. A sense of the absurd drips from almost every song, and his droll delivery more than makes up for a mediocre voice. The sheer outrage involved in the song "Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll," in which the singer declares that those three items are all he really needs to achieve happiness, has the listener well primed for the absurdities that follow.
In Britain Dury is the ultimate working-class hero, complete with a cockney accent that makes his songs somehow more interesting. When the leaders of Britain's art-rock crowd were writing about the ordinary man on the street they were describing Ian Dury.
A second helping of Dury can be found in Stiff's second release, Stiffs Live. This album came about when Stiff sent their five top artists on a promotion tour. The tour was also filmed, although the film as yet has not been released in this country. Along with Dury and his band, The Blockheads, the Stiffs tour included Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Wreckless Eric, and Larry Wallis.
It would be difficult to find five more dissimilar musicians. Nick Lowe deals in pop tunes, Wallis in flat-out punk sound. Dury's music hall tradition is in direct contrast to Costello's whiny monotone, and Wreckless Eric falls into a category of his own. The only thing that the five really have in common (other than Stiff Records) is the sparseness of arrangement that characterizes most New Wave groups.
Stiffs Live is an album of ups and downs. Elvis Costello fans will love it simply because it has a Costello recording that does not appear on either of his solo albums, the Bacharach-David composition "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself." People who enjoy good vocalists, on the other hand, will hate the contributions of Wreckless Eric and Larry Wallis.
The album is at its best with Nick Lowe and his band, Last Chicken in the Shop. Both "I Knew the Bride" and "Let's Eat" are lovely pop tunes that set the foot tapping while inspiring a strong attack of nostalgia.
Ian Dury and the Blockheads appear on two tracks of the album, both times performing numbers that appear on New Boots and Panties. "Billericay Dickie" sounds very much the same live as it does on the studio track, while another song, "Wake Up and Make Love With Me," appears at a much faster tempo.
All five acts get together for a smash finish called "Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll and Chaos." It is the same song that appears on New Boots and Panties as "Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll." The chaos comes when the five singers try to sing the same song all at once.
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