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There was a certain irony about Clive Davis' scorn for Sire Records' big New Wave rock release last fall. The president of Arista Records, speaking in a rock symposium at Buffalo State College, accused Sire of doing disservice to the new generation of rock 'n' rollers by packaging them all together.
Davis, of course, had used something of the same strategy when he headed Columbia Records in the late '60s, snapping up folks like Santana and Big Brother & the Holding Company from the Monterey Pop Festival and springing them all onto the marketplace at once.
Davis may not have the same enthusiasm for the commercial potential of New Wave, but that hasn't kept Arista from becoming the new American distributor for the label that chalked up the biggest import album sales in the U.S. in 1977 — England's eccentric Stiff Records.
Stiff is the company that discovered Elvis Costello, but he isn't their only revelation. They've ventured off the beaten path and brought back a wealth of weird and wonderful British rock personalities. The first two Arista-distributed Stiff releases are a splendid introduction to the scope and strangeness of their art.
The first of them is a sampler, the follow-up to the underground success of A Bunch of Stiffs. It's called Stiffs Live (Stiff STF4011 Arista). Taken from a couple college dates in England last October, it showcases five of Stiff's stalwarts.
Wacky Wreckless Eric stops the show at one point because his guitar doesn't work. The crowd tells him to plug it in. A mystery aggregation called Larry Wallis' Psychedelic Rowdies sing a compelling nouveau rhythm and blues number called "Police Car."
Elvis Costello is on board with a revised version of "Miracle Man" and an old Bacharach-David ballad, "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself." Costello's producer, Nick Lowe, enters with his finest rave-up, "I Knew the Bride," and a strange ditty entitled "Let's Eat."
Stiff's newest sensation, Ian Dury, wraps things up with two of his best numbers — the tongue-in-cheek music hall rhyme, "Billericay Dickie," and the bluesy thump of "Wake Up & Make Love With Me," which includes a few sour notes from the bass player. The finale finds everyone joining together for another of Dury's somewhat crazed anthems, "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll."
Where "A Bunch of Stiffs" served to introduce Elvis Costello, "Stiffs Live" provides a tantalizing taste of Ian Dury. With his closed-cropped hair and wild eyes, he's easily the most startling scoundrel in rock. New Boots and Panties!! (Stiff STF-0002 Arista) shows just how lovable and dangerous he can be.
Along with the tunes included on Stiffs Live, the 35-year-old former polio victim trots out a lineup of blunt and trenchant compositions that are as whimsical as they are afflicted.
His tribute in "My Old Man" is particularly touching — the bare details of his bus-driving father's life are elevated not by pretty poetry, but by overwhelming love. Same in "Sweet Gene Vincent," a ballad which hardens into full-tilt rock 'n' roll:
Shall I mourn your decline
With some Thunderbird wine
And a black handkerchief...
I miss your sad but genuine whisper,
I miss the voice that called my heart...
Not so sweet are his songs to women. His lyrics veer from tenderness to retribution. In "If I Was With a Woman," he demands that she admire his disdain. The songs that finish off the album — Blockheads, Plaistow Patricia and Blackmail Man — supercharge their perverse fury with naked profanity.
Dury doesn't apologize. He's too contrary and uncompromising an artist for that. His only footnote or explanation is offered at the end of his song list: "There's nothing wrong with it!" One thing certain about Ian Dury — he makes his own right and wrong.
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