Skinny As A Snake

Richard Hell + The Voidoids : The Kid with the Replaceable Head

[Purchase]

In 1979, a year Richard Hell would describe as a blur "because of the way everything got absorbed into the drug monotony", Radar Records released his band's Nick Lowe produced  "The Kid With The Replaceable Head" b/w "I'm Your Man" single. The frenetic A side remains one of my favorite tracks of theirs.

Hell writes about the song in I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp :

In late October we recorded the “Kid with the Replaceable Head” single (backed with “I’m Your Man”) with Nick Lowe producing, for Jake’s Radar Records. I thought I was making a pop hit with “Kid.” I even diluted the lyrics in the chorus because I thought they might be too morbid for the public. (The original chorus went, “Look out! Here he comes again. / They say he’s dead. He’s my three best friends. / He’s so honest that the dishonest dread / meeting the kid with the replaceable head.” I changed “dead” to “done” on the single.)