Customer Reviews

Collection

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is as close as you are going to get with Captain's great 80s material. 19 songs as followed

1.Happy Talk
2.Croydon
3.Nice cup of tea
4.Brenda (parts 1&2)
5.Yanks with guns
6.Martha the mouth
7.What D'ya give the man who's gotten everything
8.Wot
9.Royal rave up
10.It would be so nice
11.Power of love
12.I'm a spider
13.I love her
14.Glad it's all over
15.Stop the world
16.Sir Donald's son
17.It's hard to believe I'm not
18.Thanks for the night
19.There are more snakes than ladders

As you can tell this covers both his 1982 effort Women and Captains first and his follow up 1983's Power of love. However there are a few missing tracks from both albums They ate from Women and Captains first missing is

1.Nobodys sweetheart
2.Whos melody lee, Sid
3.Gimme a uniform

and 2 songs missing from Power of love are

1.Secerts
2.I love you

They should have added those and the following EPs 1981's This is your Captain speaking and 1984's One Christmas catalogue. Maybe those are only a minor gripe on my part but this is as good as it gets I still have my vinyl collection. A fine collection of the good Captain's 80s output...This collection is worth the 5 stars despite the missing songs

Yeah, OK, it's not complete but.... with an artist as prolific as Captain Sensible, how could one disc ever hope to capture all of his incredibly exceptional output? there's NO WAY! The Capt'n was so sly in his ability to write a pure pop song and make it sound dangerous (with D. Vanian) or innocuous/affecting in his solo ventures. It's just unbelievable that his cover of "Relax (Don't Do It)" wasn't included! I play that on my turntable at parties in Palm Desert and the reaction is, to say the least, enthusiastic. The movie dialogue from "Coma" is especially cool, nobody can ever place it, yet this is a song that will dwell in obscurity forever it seems. Finally, I must say that these A&M songs were being held captive FOR YEARS by his former American label, and they were EXTREMELY reluctant to let go of them, for whatever reason. Legal eagles always seem to get in the way of art. But the scarcity of these songs make this disc all the more essential. The fact that they are reissued at last on CD is a pure revelation and those that have even a passing knowledge of The Damned should take advantage. And, the choice producer Tony Mansfield (the first to capture Ray's pop sensibility and expand on it!) should get credit as well for an incredible ear. I have bought no less than 11 copies of this CD for close friends and every single one of them have been overwhelmed by the Captain cornucopia on display, and the dividend pays overwhelming rewards. Ignore that awful Cleopatra "best of" comp at all costs. In my opinion, this comes closest to capturing Sir Burns' spirit, verve and intrepid endeavors. Cheers to the Captain and his incredible creative output during the 1980's - Dude, you're immortal. Too bad Rat couldn't take the heat.

I love This Man!
I think he is one of the Great Icons of Any Rock scene, Punk or otherwise. Just a Great, Funny, & Nice guy with a love for Music & Performing, that constantly shows through his work whether with The Damned, or Solo. I waited Years to get these tunes in digital glory. And despite some missing Tracks(Part 2 maybe)! a great collection. I love the Hits: Happy Talk, Wot, and Stop the World, but I can listen to Brenda (parts 1 & 2) and Croydon Anytime as well! Give yourself a Treat! He deserves it!

I purchased this album as a mistake as it was the wrong "Captain" group. Best mistake I've made for quite a while. What a cracker. If you're a baby boomer like me and long for the music that rekindles your best times get this one. If there's a weak track I'd like to know which one it is.

Just so you know, this version of "Wot" is not the same as the one in the video or that was played on the radio in the 80's. Still better than the one on the "live" album, though!

includes most tunes from women and captains first (the better album of the two covered by this compilation, by far) and slightly fewer from the power of love (also a bonus single cut, more snakes than ladders). the w & c stuff is interestingly reminiscent of pop-ed out syd barrett and piper at the gates of dawn era floyd while the power stuff is decidedly more pop than psychedelic. overall a very worthwhile collection (content and budget-wise) for damned/captain fans but would not replace both albums for the hardcore completist. oh... don't expect punk rock here.

Captain Sensible (diamond geezer, one of the best, blah blah), is in an admirably unique position;
For a start, his musical legacy is actually rather good. He produces sharp, warm little pop tunes at the drop of a beret that DO stand up to close scrutiny.
If you (like me) have a deep and profound understanding of everything to do with pop music, you'll spot very quickly that the trick here is to take him completely seriously.

This achieved, you can then begin to position him in pop's hierarchy, and of course start making sage pronouncements that he's better than Springsteen, solo Weller and Robbie Williams.
Not really that startling when you think about it; listen to 'Martha the Mouth' and name me one song from the over-rated trinity aforementioned (yeay!) that's better than it. Cant do it can you? Don't worry, you've just challenged 'absolute rock truths' number 273, and triumphed easily.
Feel good? Come on in, the waters fine.

Secondly he has a priceless punk pedigree as a guitar player in those evil masters of dark, dry- ice inhaling, satanic, manic, violent disorder (etc) the Damned! Gasp!

Think what you will, they were there first and deserve some respect for that, erm...and that's about all. Better than Chelsea....maybe.

Best of all in my opinion, is the fact he seems to have some sort of cod-philosophy, which he expounds slivers of every now and again, without ever having any intention (or intellectual ability!) of revealing its obviously deeply subversive, ideology. This is absolutely brilliant; Imagine Madonna having-something-interesting-to-say-to-her-fans, or deadly serious rock kids NOT falling sound asleep every time Bono opens his mouth. You're imagining a bigger, brighter world.

He's embraced the pop deity, sold his soul to the fun-demon and he's writing things like 'And now the time has come to say, farewell dad and your baked-beans, and the tv set, that I blew.' in a song about selling out (the punk rockers' perennial dilemma) and moving to America!
This, of course, aint NEVER gonna happen, but why he's not a bigger star mystifies me. Why has he not replaced Richard Madeley or Gordon Ramsey? Why don't we see him, mad as a badger, EVERY DAY!? Think how much better our kids would turn out, watch the crime figures plummet!

'And rice doesn't burn, in a Japanese urn, it's reality!' Is it just me? This stuff is terrific! Leaves you with a smile, and who, in this decade of total pop miserablism, is gonna knock that?

Madly looking forward to the dream duet of Sensible and that other neglected genius; John Shuttleworth. Seriously.

Where is ONE CHRISTMAS CATALOG!!!!! One Christmas Catalog is the best Captian Sensible songs out there and I heard it in a clothing store last Christmas. It should be on this cd and Happy Talk should be deleted.

Captain sensible is inspired in his own english pop world.Happy,funny,absurd,ironic and melodic songs.Some are good some are bad,but still essential for the 80's.Listen to the sublime and divine"Glad It's all over"over and over again.