Cock Sparrer: Riot Squad

Once upon a time I had a back and forth with ex- Gang of Four member Dave Allen about my having written about the the band Cock Sparrer and Oi! music as related to the issue of racism (read the exchange here)... So let's get that whole thing out of the way, I find racism ugly, lame, dangerous, and uncouth and in writing about; Oi! and Cock Sparrer I am in no way endorsing or giving comfort to those who hold such points of view. I have always subscribed to the idea that in the words of comedian Steve White "racism is so stupid because there are so many reasons to hate people on an individual basis".


On to the music.

From Wiki;

Cock Sparrer are a punk rock band formed in 1972 in the East End of London, England. Although they never enjoyed much commercial success, they are considered one of the most influential streetpunk bands, helping pave the way for the late-1970s punk scene and the Oi! subgenre. Their songs have been covered by many punk, Oi!, and hardcore bands.

Their style was influenced by pub rock, glam rock and raw 1960s beat music as delivered by bands like the Small Faces and The Who. Their lyrics mostly dealt with topics related to the daily lives of working class people.

Their name derives from their original name, Cock Sparrow,^[1], a Cockney term of familiarity.

and this months crime tune-

"Riot Squad"

When we were at school I thought he had it sussed
Fighting the law with the rest of us
Smoking, drinking, acting cool.
('Til) they started treating him like a fool
Then he stayed on his own for most of the time
Dreaming dreams of a life of crime
In and out of trouble, he cheated and lied
But who'd have thought he'd join the other side

[Chorus]
He's in a riot squad
The wanna fight squad
The shoot on sight squad
For law and right

Down to Hendon with the boys in blue
It's amazing what a few weeks can do
Out in the car, out on the street
South of the river on the frontline beat

[Chorus]

Cracking heads, it was all a game
A finger was pointed and he got the blame
Now he's back where he started, he ain't got a pound
Queing with the sorts he used to kick around.


So we have a kid from the streets, who becomes a cop, and then ends up taking the rap when the cops get caught doing something wrong. The song comes off like one of those 70s cop drama's set in the bankrupt rubble of NYC (or 70s London?) with enough of a hint of A Clockwork Orange to add a layer of social commentary. One aspect of that era in film and crime fiction of the time was the exploration of the line between the Police & Thieves, cops and robbers. Maybe the most interesting recent exploration of the theme was the UK version of the show Life on Mars.

All in all Riot Squad is a fast, up tempo street anthem with a bit of substance, it is exactly the kind of songs that made Cock Sparrer the cult band they are today. It is also one of the only songs that I have selected to write about for this project that I don't think would translate to another musical style.

Thoughts, Comments, observations?

Icehouse: The Heartbreak Kid

Icehouse: The Heartbreak Kid by Icehouse

It's said in many circles that there are three main reasons that people kill- Money, Madness and Passion. It could also be said that those are the three main reasons that people write songs, so it should be no surprise that those three themes show up as topics in music, and this months Crime Tune is a little know 80s tune that about murder for passion. Icehouse, from Sydney Australia is remembered in the main stream for their album Man of Colours from 1987. In the USA it's best recalled for the single Electric Blue which was a hit reaching #7 on the American Billboard Hot 100 chart. Like many listeners that single was my introduction to the band, and I wouldn't have cared about the band of the album beyond that if my best friend hadn't forced me to listen to the song The Heartbreak Kid while sitting in his car one evening.

Lyrics:

Dusty wind blew 'cross the high plains

as a stranger rode into town
with a certain reputation
for the ladies and a gun
he walked to the bar so casual
just as easy as you please
he was bound to do some damage
with those valentino eyes

well, the barmaid was an angel
and she looked so out of place
and she said her name was 'Sunset'
she was different from the rest
and she couldn't help but notice
the moment he walked through the door
that the gunman was something special
and the bullet found a score

and the one mistake you make is just enough
and that one mistake is "Boy, you talk too tough"

only takes a single bullet
bring the fastest trigger down
only takes a pretty woman
put a gunman underground
and you may hear the same old story
in ev'ry town, on ev'ry street
the story of 'Sunset'... and the
Heartbreak Kid

dirty rain soaked through the doorway
of an upper westside bar
and the TV news was talking
to the crowd of people there

"...well the kid was always reckless
he said "I'll never stay too long..."
"..and when she knew that he would leave her
Sunset shot that gunman down..."


"Oh, the story of 'Sunset'...
and the Heartbreak Kid."

Musically Icehouse was Rock/Post-punk/New Wave with a Synthpop edge, so it seemed strange that they would record a song that has a very strong country vibe, so strong that I am a little shocked that it hasn't been covered by one of the current wave of Alt Country singers. I would love to hear a woman's take on the song. If you read the lyrics you get a pretty straight reading of the story, it's classic noir. Boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy is ready to move on and the girl isn't, so she ends him. I would also point out that as with my first entry in this series Stan Ridgway's The Big Heat there is a time confusion element in both songs. In this one the song starts out like a Western, with the image of a Romantic Cowboy figure, not the John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart or Randolph Scott kind of cowboy, but the more Playboy Cowboy figure-- then we get to the part about the TV News and suddenly it's a contemporary setting. At any rate it's a song the I find I am drawn to time and time again, admittedly for the personal nostalgic value as much as the song these days.

Thoughts, Comments, casting of Sunset or The Heartbreak Kid?

previous 12 Crime Tunes entries Here

Drivin N Cryin: Legal Gun

Drivin N Cryin- Legal Gun

Amsterdam in 81

Monty walks alone

Coming in a five fifty night

Disconnects the phone

Oct in 81

Sara-a-gue walks alone

Coming in another night

She disconnects the phone

Because he's just a legal gun

And she's just a legal whore

He just guns them down right

She just asks for more

Man and a Woman dine tonight

Stare in each others eyes

They met somewhere before

He asks her what she dose and she lies

Says he works in government

Says she works alone

But he finds out later tonight when he walks her home

Because he's just a legal gun

And she's just a legal whore

He just guns them down right

She just asks for more

He tells what he really does

She doesn’t have to tell him much

They walk along the avenue

Laughing at their good luck

Oct in '81 walking home alone

When a man steps out and guns him down

For thirty days she wasn't alone

For thirty days she wasn't alone

For thirty days she wasn't alone

I discovered Drivin'N'Cryin back in '90/ '91 when they had a couple of hit tunes on the charts from their Fly Me Courageous album. Working my way back through their catalog I discovered a band that was more than the hard rock group that I was hearing on the radio. Their sound was blue collar, working class, and as much folk and country as Rock and Roll. I could go on and on, but let's just stick with the fact that they stuck with me, and in particular a set of their songs stuck with me, and one of them Legal Gun from their Whisper Tames the Lion album is this months Crime Tune.

Above you will find best transcription of the lyrics, I am unsure of the names, but it's what I came up with. I know I have seen the lyrics somewhere before, but I wasn't able to track them down in time for this post (and of course as soon as I get home tonight I will find them). Anyway, the song has a marching hard rock drive and feel to it, with just a hint of darkness and tension in the instrumentation. The lyrics tell the straight forward Noir story of loneliness, love and loss. One can almost imagine the story cribbed from a Gold Medal paperback, if it weren't that we are given both the time, October 1981 and the place Amsterdam. I think the inclusion of these facts give the song a grounding, one can visualize what people were wearing at the time, what their hair cuts were like. Also the whole aspect of the fact that even though our two loners are legally sanctioned they still somehow are outsiders.

The song was written prior to the formation of Drivin'N'Cryin' by Kevin Kenny, and an early recording appeared on the Kevin Kenny and Frank French album Everything Looks Better In The Dark. I really do need to go back and listen to that version of the song again, but as with all of the songs in this series, it is one that I would like to hear someone cover.

The Links:
http://www.frankfrench.com/EverythingLooksBetterInTheDark.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drivin_N_Cryin

www.drivinncryin.com

Thoughts, Comments, the corrected Lyrics?

Leningrad Cowboys: Thru the Wire

Leningrad Cowboys -Thru the Wire

Starting off with the sombulistic Sax and the sound of the rain, The Leningrad Cowboy's tune Thru the Wire is a crime drama more in line of the down and out damned than anything involving cops and crooks. It drips with a midnight of fear and a need to escape, building slowly from that initial shimmer of radiance before dipping into a world of bitter black coffee and cheap smokes.

Thru the wire

Funny how things always look the same
Holes in the shoes collar turned up
up against the rain
Another cheep hotel
Some girl she’s on the floor
Once more hopin gonna make it
Singing hopin singing

Chorus

Thru the wire
It’s been a long time honey
And your dreams they get so old
Oh yeah
This might not be the greatest story ever told
Just one more heart
Just one more heart coming in from the cold

clock in the mark square
It’s chiming 12 o’clock
Slow across the border
Another car gets stopped
Uniforms asking questions papers getting read
I’m feeling half dead
Thru the wire

Chorus

The word gonna out tonight
Why the spinning stops
My body’s feeling broken
And I want to turn it off
But I just keep rockin and ????? and singing

Chorus

The Leningrad Cowboys were introduced to the world with the film Leningrad Cowboys Go America, and it's soundtrack. It was when I took in a viewing of the film at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis that I first saw the video for the song Thru The Wire. Several music videos were shown along with the film and, even though I really wanted to avoid including videos in this series I would be remiss if I did not at least link it it; (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaEQgUaq5gk)-- so go check it out for your self. I am not aware of any covers of this song out there, but I think someone like Gaslight Anthem or Social Distortion could do it justice, of course I wonder what Johnny Cash would have done with it. If I had to pick a band I would like to hear cover it, at this moment it has to been next months crime tune artist, Drivin'n'Cryin.

The Leningrad Cowboys were really the Finnish band The Sleepy Sleepers with singer Niki Tesco from the UK punk group The Members. I like a lot of their other recording, but it is only on this song that I delve into the darker more noir side of the pop spectrum. My friends in Finland seem to see them as a joke, but I enjoy them, and have their Go Space album in addition to the Go America soundtrack.

Additional info at:

http://www.leningradcowboys.fi/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leningrad_Cowboys_Go_America_%28album%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leningrad_Cowboys

Niki Tesco: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Members

Thru the Wire is the second of twelve posts in my crime tune series for 2010.

Next Month: Drivin'n'Cryin Legal Gun

Thoughts, Comments?

Stan Ridgway: The Big Heat

Stan Ridgway: The Big Heat

When it comes to Detective Narrative in pop music, I always end up turning to Stan Ridgway and his 1986 tune The Big Heat first. The title track from his first solo record Ridgway, who had just finished up his tenure with the New Wave group Wall of Voodoo, was on his own and still probing the dark-pulpy landscape of the broken California/American Dream of moving west to find a better life. Crime, loss, darkness and Noir imagery were nothing new to Ridgway as much of this territory was covered in his songs with Wall of Voodoo. Spy World, Call of the West and The Lost Weekend being prime examples of lurid pulpy tunes from the early days of the band when they played along side early LA Punk bands.

Sonically his music paints a shadowy, hollow, dark and depressed atmosphere. The ringing of an early drum machine and the echoing dirge like tempo of the music stands in contrast to Ridgway's voice which is high and plain spoken, lacking the gritty bass of Johnny Cash or the tortured whiskey taint of Tom Waits. Maybe Ridgway is to Punk/New Wave what Warren Zevon was to the 70s singer-song writers at least vocally.

anyway on to the song.
Lyrics:
The room was dark
It looked like someone had to get out fast
A window open by the fire escape
"How long have you been following this guy?"
The bell boy asked
"Not long enough, 'cause we got here too late."

CHORUS
"And everybody wants another piece of pie today," he said
"You gotta watch the ones who always keep their hands clean."
It's the big heat
There's someone followin' you
It's the big heat

Step aside we're comin' through
Well we followed him from Tucson, ended up in Baton Rouge
We trailed him here with information by
A woman he knew in Barstow that would like to see him dead
That was four weeks ago...well maybe five

CHORUS

A block away he wondered if he'd left behind a clue
The front page of a paper dated 1992
He remembered when he used to be the chairman of the board
But that was when the world was young and long before the war

CHORUS

The narrative the song is mostly a pretty straight ahead story, someone following, someone's searching, only it takes a William Borroughsesque turn when it references a news paper and memories from the future. The song gives only the outline of a story, it's stripped down and sparse, elusive but with just leaving just enough clues to starts following what is going on, and leaves more questions than answers. Who is this guy? What was in Tucson? Why is there a woman in Barstow that would like to see him dead? 1992? What War? all of these questions, and no answers, yet still I keep coming back to the song.

The stand out lyric for me is the "And everybody wants another piece of pie today," he said. The meaning of the line at first seemed like a straight ahead statement, someone in a lonely diner, the kind where they keep the pie on the counter on a glass covered tray or pedestal. The kind of pie that diners set out as the grail of your experience in their establishment, where patrons count their nickles in hopes of afford that first slice. Slice you buy a slice, not a piece, maybe that's the clue that this pie isn't a crust filled with peach (which I could for for at this moment), but more likely apple (which makes me think of the golden delicious apples in the film Thieves Highway)-- but a piece of the dream, the cash, the scratch, the action, the Moolah. Is that code for greed and taking it on the run to have more? As in life, it's never that simple, yet it's often not that complex either. Answers lead to question which lead to answers which lead-- and on and on and on.
Stan Ridgway official site

Comments, thoughts, anything?

Note: for some reason the song can briefly be heard in the 1986 film Night of the Creeps, which is only of note to because while the film is a fun 80s horror comedy, the real reason to watch it is for Tom Atkins as the quintessential hard boiled detective character.

12 Crime tunes is a new series inspired by the Narrative Music Feature over at Hardboiled Wonderland. It is my intent to write about songs that most people don't know, have never heard, but that I love. All of the songs deal with an element of crime and either tell the story or evoke a mood and atmosphere of crime and of Noir. I would like to have an installment each month during 2010, but currently only have 8 songs selected, so we will see how things progress.

Coming in Feb 2010: The Leningrad Cowboys -Thru the Wire