Ian Dury's Top Twelve

Ian Dury and the Blockheads : Waiting For Your Taxi

[Purchase]

Ian Dury provided Smash Hits with this list of mostly oldies as he promoted Do It Yourself, which would sell platinum numbers in the U.K.

Seeing Piccadilly, Fanny Smith and Willy

Ian Dury and the Blockheads : Reasons to be Cheerful, Pt 3

[Purchase]

In July of 1979, Ian Dury and the Blockheads released "Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3", his third Top Ten U.K. single, peaking at #3. According to Dury, the song was inspired by a near-fatal accident involving a lighting roadie. Roadie Charley almost got electrocuted in Italy by a microphone stand while leaning over a mixing desk. Another roadie saved his life, hence 'no electric shocks' is included in the song's lyrics. 

Other reasons to be cheerful include:

Fanny Smith and Willy ( female and male genitalia)

Gigolos and Brasses (male and female prostitutes)
Smoking from bongs (lighting up the chalice) and
Coming out of chokey ( being released from prison

The song ranked #5 in Sounds end of year singles list.

Spread Your Chickens

Ian Dury and the Blockheads : Inbetweenies

[Purchase]

On May 23, 1979 Ian Dury and the Blockheads had high hopes for their follow-up to New Boots And Panties!, especially because Do It Yourself was released in the wake of the chart topping "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick". That song did not appear on the original version of the album and neither did the U.K. #3 hit "Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3". Nevertheless, the album reached number 2 on the album charts and sold 200,000 copies, enough to reach platinum status in the U.K. The album was released with 32 different covers each featuring a different kind of wallpaper.

The sessions were not especially easy as Dury's drinking and addiction to pills led to wild mood swings and difficult moments among band mates. Still, most of The Blockheads would hang on for at least another year

The Records : Teenarama

[Purchase]

Thanks to one of the greatest power pop singles ever recorded the British band The Records scored a record deal with Virgin who released their debut Shades in Bed in May of 1979. "Mutt" Lange, who also produced AC-DC's Highway to Hell and The Boomtown Rats' Fine Art of Surfacing this year, only helped record a few songs before moving on to another project. The album didn't chart in the U.K but peaked at #41 in the United States on the strength of   "Teenarama"and "Starry Eyes" . Americans preferred the original single recording over the U.K. album's polished version.

Is He Trying to Hide

Wire : Outdoor Miner (long version)

[Purchase]

On January 21, 1979 Wire's new re-worked single, "Outdoor Miner" b/w "Practice Makes Perfect", entered the UK charts at #51, the highest chart position of any of the band's singles, beating Andy Gibb's new single by 18 spots. The BBC approached the label about getting Wire on Top of the Pops. But by February 11th, "Outdoor Miner" would drop off the charts while Andy Gibb's Top 10 US hit, "(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away", would eventually peak at UK#32. Donny and Marie Osmond took Wire's place on the tv programme.

That's what happens when a catchy song turns out to be not about love but about an insect known as a leaf miner.

Face worker, a serpentine miner
A roof falls, an under-liner
Of leaf structure, the egg timer

The single version of "Outdoor Miner" is more than a minute longer than the version that appears on Chairs Missing. Producer Mike Thorne adds some piano. NME reviewers Charles Sharr Murray was unimpressed, writing:

"This record is white and shows the dirt. Its surface is injured but rarely hurt. Guitars twang, keyboards ching, a voice intones. It is 3.55, your reviewer groans. It sounds soft and squishy, I can't hear the words. Time passes, how absurd. This group are overrated your correspondent demurs ... sod it I'm bored."

The #1 song in the U.K. on this date: Ian Dury and the Blockheads "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick".

From Milan to Yucatan

Ian Dury and The Blockheads : Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick

[Purchase]

On November 23, 1978 Ian Dury and the Blockheads released "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick", a catchy single that would make the unlikely journey all the way up to the top of the U.K. charts in January of 1979. It would also top the Village Voice's Pazz and Jop Critics Poll for best singles of '79. 

Dury originally wrote the lyrics in 1976, leaving the interpretation of a rhythm stick open to interpretation. The music came out of a jam session based loosely on the ending of "Wake Up and Make Love To Me". How did this tune become such a huge hit ? One of the contributors to Rate Your Music has this to say:

The answer, of course in a word, is timing. Deep in the depths of winter, unemployment and Thatcher rising and within a year of the "Winter of Discontent", perhaps we needed some off-beat entertainment to cheer us up.

Dream to Wide Extremes

Ian Dury and the Blockheads : What a Waste

[Purchase]

On April 23, 1978 Ian Dury entered the UK singles chart at #48 with "What A Waste!". The single, a grooving consideration of life's many options, would peak at #9 and be sampled in " Can I Kick It?" by A Tribe Called Quest.  NME critics named the single the third best of the year.

Dury and pianist/guitarist Chaz Jankel had assembled The Blockheads for the Live Stiffs Tour. The 1977 album New Boots and Panties!! was on its way to selling a million copies, staying on the British Charts for almost two years.

Sean O'Hagen of The Guardian says of Dury and The Blockheads:

For a few exhilarating years, when the musicians he christened the Blockheads took their places on stage and he ambled wonkily on behind them, be-suited in best vintage, draped in polka-dot scarves and gypsy kerchiefs, with one of several exotic titfers perched on his head, you knew that something extraordinary was about to happen.

In 1978 New Boots would be released in the United States by Arista where it received more critical acclaim, finishing at #13 on the Village Voice critics poll between Brian Eno's Before and After Science and Patti Smith's Easter.

If It Ain't Stiff

The Stiff All Stars : Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

[Purchase]

In the first week of November, 1977 the five bands who made up the Live Stiffs Tour wrapped up their campaign. The bands were  Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Wreckless Eric and The New Rockets, Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop, and Larry Wallis's Psychedelic Rowdies. Like the famous Motown tours of the Sixties, these new wave heroes rotated the line ups and played on each other's stages. Ian Dury even played drums during Wreckless Eric's sets. The shows ended with the entire bands ( including three drummers) coming out and jamming to Dury's current hit, "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll". All available on Stiff Live if you can find it.