Disc of the day
Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
Magnificent late-'50s singles round-up that keeps on giving.
Features Disc of the day
Buzzcocks
Love Bites
(United Artists, 1978)
Mancunian punks go rock, shred hearts, abuse fadeouts.
More so than anger, "anxiety" is the definitive punk word. Think of the way The Ruts' Malcolm Owen sings it ("Babylon's burning wiv ANXIETY!!!!!"), like it's the most electrifying force in the universe. Some of the best punk singles - Germ Free Adolescent; One-Chord Wonders; Suspect Device - are steeped in it, and Buzzcocks are the Shakespeares of it. And while on one level Love Bites is the Buzzcocks' rapprochement with classic rock models - there are not one but two psych-groove instrumentals; Diggle's Love Is Lies is a cheeky rewrite of The Kinks' Days - no band built around the torn and stunted psyche of Pete Shelley was ever about to mellow out. Amid the new warmth and sonic daring (has the quasi-motorik ESP the most epic fadeout in rock history? Answers on a postcard please...) Shelley's question remains: when will I be happy? In the future (Nostalgia)? Probably not. In the past (16 Again)? On reflection, that wasn't so great either. On the wound-tight Just Lust, he's slave to the whims of a predatory lover ("It seems it's only greed / To taste all that you touch"), an unusual perspective for a male songwriter, even one whose stage surname was the one he would have been given if he'd been born a girl. Overall, the sense of a man shackled by fate is overpowering and even the pop perfection of Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) serves a theme of cursed helplessness: "I can't see much of a future," the narrator bemoans. Later, having resumed a solo career that began with a pre-Buzzcocks album (Sky Yen) in an electro-Kraut vein, Shelley talked about his bisexuality. But for the singer there was no sense of catharsis. His songs would continue to belong to an olde English sexe worlde of shame and innuendo, resonant art drawn from the well of loneliness.
Danny Eccleston
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 25/09/2009
Further Listening
Buzzcocks - Another Music In A Different Kitchen (UA, 1978)
The Undertones - Hypnotised (Sire, 1980)
The Smiths - The Smiths (Rough Trade, 1984)
Previous Disc of the day
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Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
Magnificent late-'50s singles round-up that keeps on giving.
6:00 AM GMT 20/11/2009
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Isley Brothers - The Brothers: Isley
The Cincinnati siblings bed into their heavy period.
6:00 AM GMT 18/11/2009
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Lee Morgan - Search For The New Land
The trumpeter's most soulful excursion entrances MOJO messageboarder.
6:00 AM GMT 16/11/2009
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