Rolling Stone, May 4, 1978: Difference between revisions
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<center><h3> Stiffs Live </h3></center> | <center><h3> Stiffs Live </h3></center> | ||
<center>''' Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Nick Lowe, <br> Larry Wallis, Wreckless Eric </center> | <center>''' Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Nick Lowe, <br> Larry Wallis, Wreckless Eric </center> | ||
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<center> Ken Tucker </center> | <center> Ken Tucker </center> | ||
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England's Stiff Records (distributed in America by Arista) nurtures oddballs, and ''Stiffs Live'' presents five of them in concert. [[Nick Lowe]], the most coherent, keeps his fondness for old-fashioned rock & roll prominent on two cuts, "Let's Eat" and "I Knew the Bride," the latter a rockabilly raveup that's also wistful and magnanimous about its lamented subject. Least coherent is [[Ian Dury]], the solipsistic whiner of a pair of semiprecious, loud ballads. And it is Dury's would-be anthem, "[[Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll & Chaos]]," that all the oddballs sing spiritedly at the album's conclusion. Unfortunately, the song is one of the most perfunctory salutes to rock excess ever written. | England's Stiff Records (distributed in America by Arista) nurtures oddballs, and ''Stiffs Live'' presents five of them in concert. [[Nick Lowe]], the most coherent, keeps his fondness for old-fashioned rock & roll prominent on two cuts, "Let's Eat" and "I Knew the Bride," the latter a rockabilly raveup that's also wistful and magnanimous about its lamented subject. Least coherent is [[Ian Dury]], the solipsistic whiner of a pair of semiprecious, loud ballads. And it is Dury's would-be anthem, "[[Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll & Chaos]]," that all the oddballs sing spiritedly at the album's conclusion. Unfortunately, the song is one of the most perfunctory salutes to rock excess ever written. | ||
Between Lowe and Dury are [[Wreckless Eric]], whose two numbers punch a gurgling saxophone into the guitar jangle, and Elvis Costello, who wrings out a [[Burt Bacharach|Bert Bacharach]]/[[Hal David]] ballad for everything both he and the song are worth. With a becoming Dylan-esque perversity, Costello also transforms an anguished "[[Miracle Man]]" into what sounds like a chipper [[Doug Sahm]] outtake. And it's terrific. Elvis Costello works in mysterious ways, his motives known to few. Then there's "Police Car" by [[Larry Wallis]]' Psychedelic Rowdies (the band name and maybe the band of the year). "I howl when I get the scent/I turn on my flashing light," Wallis sings, carrying out an impeccable oddball conceit fraught with all sorts of dizzy implications: the police as rock & rollers? An official vehicle as an obsessed lover? This song is definitely a minor classic. | Between Lowe and Dury are [[Wreckless Eric]], whose two numbers punch a gurgling saxophone into the guitar jangle, and Elvis Costello, who wrings out a [[Burt Bacharach|Bert Bacharach]]/[[Hal David]] ballad for everything both he and the song are worth. With a becoming Dylan-esque perversity, Costello also transforms an anguished "[[Miracle Man]]" into what sounds like a chipper [[Doug Sahm]] outtake. And it's terrific. Elvis Costello works in mysterious ways, his motives known to few. Then there's "Police Car" by [[Larry Wallis]]' Psychedelic Rowdies (the band name and maybe the band of the year). ''"I howl when I get the scent / I turn on my flashing light,"'' Wallis sings, carrying out an impeccable oddball conceit fraught with all sorts of dizzy implications: the police as rock & rollers? An official vehicle as an obsessed lover? This song is definitely a minor classic. | ||
''Stiffs Live'' is really fun and may help persuade Americans that punk rock in England can be a lot more than anger and frenzy. | ''Stiffs Live'' is really fun and may help persuade Americans that punk rock in England can be a lot more than anger and frenzy. | ||
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{{Bibliography notes}} | {{Bibliography notes}} | ||
{{Bibliography next | |||
|prev = Rolling Stone, January 12, 1978 | |||
|next = Rolling Stone, May 18, 1978 | |||
}} | |||
'''Rolling Stone, No. 264, May 4, 1978 | '''Rolling Stone, No. 264, May 4, 1978 | ||
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[[image:1978-05-04 Rolling Stone pg 61 62 composite.jpg|x600px]] | [[image:1978-05-04 Rolling Stone pg 61 62 composite.jpg|x600px]] | ||
<br><small>Clipping.</small> | <br><small>Clipping composite.</small> | ||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} | ||
