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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pub-rock hero scores with a mix of humor and humanity, October 24, 1998
By A Customer
This is a great testament to the do-it-yourself spirit of '77. In 1976 punk exploded in the UK and everywhere new bands sprung up to demand their fifteen minutes of fame. Ian Dury had been knocking around the pub scene since 1973 and basically this was his and his ace band's (The Blockheads) well recieved, finely honed, 9:00 evening set. There probably wasn't much involved in putting these tracks on vinyl;The sound is immediate and unpolished. But what songs! The wicked wordplay and sinuous beats combined to provide a heady danceable stew. Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll was the signature song and it provided a rallying standard for the first wave of snotty brit punks. The real gems of the album were a couple of numbers where Ian pays tribute to tragic rocker Gene Vincent and his late father. Here we see the humanity behind the winking mug. For sheer butt shaking grooves, Wake Up And Make Love To Me and Clever Trever are very clever indeed. I was but a teen when this album came out, I'll tell you the truth- every now and again, I put this album on to shake some of the gray out of my hair, and to remember those wonderful days when radio was king and MTV was just a distant dream in some slick marketers eye. This is timeless stuff. Get it and see if you don't agree.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Timeless Classic, March 17, 1999
By A Customer
Ian Dury and his magnificent band never had a chance of bettering this. A stunning mix of wordplay, dance rhythms, social comment and humour which will never be forgotten by those lucky enough to be around in Dury's heyday which coincided with the arrival of punk.I doubt that there has ever been or ever will be a better live outfit than the Blockheads or a more eccentric/charismatic frontman than Ian Dury. Although some of his later work (Lord Upminster in particular) is best forgotten, this album will be remembered with affection by all those who bought it at the time.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
clevor endeavor, December 20, 2004
This review is from: New Boots & Panties (Audio CD)
Rising to public awareness during the midst of the UK punk scene in 1977, it was inevitable that Dury, with his bawdry lyrics, would be branded punk alongside the Sex Pistols and Clash by the ignorant press. Of course Dury was anything but. Crippled from polio as a child (Ian Dury - Injury, geddit?), Dury was an accomplished artist and friend of Pop Art guru Peter Blake (Beatles Sgt Pepper's sleeve), as well as being a long-time live pub-act under the name of `Kilburn And The High Roads'. `The High Roads' becoming `The Blockheads', Ian's debut album crackled with the underproduced sound of the punk era, but his wordsmithery elevated him above the wholesale riff-raff that were spitting their way across England. Witty, astute, and often risqué, Drury's songs were part working-class folk-tales, part vaudeville extravaganzas. The New Boots And Panties set highlights Ian and the Blockheads testing out their ever-increasing musical talents, looking punk straight in the eye, and easily outdoing it. A non-punk punk-classic.
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