aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser
#036– Ian Dury & The Blockheads – ‘Sweet Gene Vincent’ (Stiff Records ’78)
Hello friends,
a further history lesson, this – at least a bit of it. Why? Well, when doing my researches for this tune, I found some interesting facts which I didn’t know about yet. Of course, you might have been familiar with them forever, who knows? In this case: just proceed to the download link.
Over the years I have always had quite a fair interest in Ian Dury. I remember having seen him performing ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock ‘n’ Roll’ in the very early 80’s (not live in person, I was too young, obviously, but on the telly here in Germany!), and said performance blew me away more or less. His outfit was great, and he was an interesting bloke to watch, and one with a great voice, too. But still it took me quite some years to get a copy of an early repress of 1977’s ‘New Boots And Panties!!’, I admit.
I also have to admit that this first album didn’t blow me away as much as the aforementioned performance did. There were a few good songs on it, yes, but nothing spectacular. Then the internet came up, youtube came, lyrics became available, and I delved a bit deeper into Ian Dury & The Blockheads. I even got hold of both ‘Handsome’ and ‘Wotabunch!’, the two albums he did with Kilburn And The High Roads before he accompanied The Blockheads. They were too much pub-rock for me, something I couldn’t really cope with back then (this has changed by now though!).
So, as years passed by, I nearly forgot about ‘New Boots’. I think it was some 15 years ago when I found it again when searching for something else in the collection. I put it on and – wow, it wasn’t as uninteresting as it used to be. Broadened mind perhaps, who can tell? I searched for early Blockheads-performances in the net, found them, and suddenly I remembered what was so unusual about the performance I had seen so many years ago (don’t get me wrong: apart from its strength and brilliance musically, that is): it was Dury’s handicap, the left part of his body was somewhat paralyzed and he looked a bit strange. He stood there on stage with a walking stick, which was a bit odd to me back then. Apparently Dury, unbeknownst to me of course, contracted Polio when he was seven.
Now, ‘New Boots & Panties!!’ may not be the best album in the history of the world ever, but there is one song on it, which made it into the singles box as the B-Side of a German release:
mp3: Ian Dury & The Blockheads – Sweet Gene Vincent
And this is where the history lesson finally starts, you’ll be relieved to hear: Gene Vincent, he of 1956 ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’-fame, was handicapped as well: his left leg was shattered in an auto crash in 1955, he refused to have it amputated, and consequently he had to wear a steel sheath as a leg brace for the rest of his life. In later biographies it was said that there never was such a car crash, instead he was wounded in combat in Korea (which is an excuse I often use myself when women want me to dance with them, so I cannot blame Gene here, I suppose).
Back to Ian Dury, who had a lifelong admiration for Vincent, so much so that he very much copied his style and his outfit, he would talk almost poetically about him. I don’t know if this can be believed or not, but Dury always said he didn’t even know that Vincent was also crippled when he started becoming a fan as a teenager. ‘Sweet Gene Vincent’s’ lyrics are full of references towards Vincent and Vincent’s songs: ‘Blue Gene Baby’ = ‘Blue Jean Bop’, ‘Who, who, who slapped John?’ = ‘Who Slept John’, ‘And you lay that pistol down’ = ‘Pistol Packin’ Mama’ and also ‘Uncanny Annie is the one with the flying feet’ = ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’. Also the song has two sections which are entirely focusing on Vincent’s outfit, the typical black and white dress including the gloves (= ‘black gloves, white frost, black crepe, white lead, white sheet, black knight, jet black, dead white’).
I love this record. Not necessarily because of the clever historical background, I’m way too simple for such things, I suppose. Me, I just love how it paces up into breakneck speed … that and Ian Dury’s voice, of course!
Enjoy,
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Saw the band live a few times – a couple of early gigs in the Glasgow Apollo when we were down near the front and he was a mesmerising front man. He was throwing little pin badges into the crowd which were different colours with the words “sex&” , “drugs&”, “rock’n” and “roll” into the crowd. We were scrabbling about the seats trying in vain to collect a complete set!
My first big concert was almost the Live Stiffs tour in 1977 at the Apollo, but as a skint schoolboy I couldn’t afford to see that and the Stranglers and Rezillos, who were playing a few days later.
Stranglers it was then, but a little part of me still regrets not seeing Dury, Costello and the others.
Maybe not his best tune, but a fun one none the less. I always admired that, unlike his predecessors, Dury never tried to sing with an American accent. And the Blockheads are criminally underrated. Another solid pick, Dirk!
Dury intrigues me. He had a presence – the music could be exhilarating at times – but as Dirk says there was also a pub rock look and sound that turned me off. I am and I am not a fan.
Gene Vincent… now, anyone who aspires to him increases in my estimation.
Flimflamfan
One of my formative listening experiences. The young adults that were my parents and their friends were all Eastend Londoners decamped to Essex. They’d still gather round the pub piano on occasions (or the organ/piano in a front room at parties) and sing ‘the old songs’. Bits of Ian Dury crept in as contemporary reference on more than one occasion. Sweet Gene Vincent with it’s “Who Who” moment always thrilled me when I was small. Come to think of it, it still does.