The Godfathers ‎"Dope, Rock'N'Roll & Fucking In The Streets" 1992****

I recently went to Eindhoven to see a couple of bands I used to follow in my youth, and at whose concerts I've always had fun: The Fuzztones and Godfathers both have always had great stage presence as well as many hits to which we used to endlessly dance in rock clubs during the late 80's/90's. I thought I'd go and see them one more time, hoping I wouldn't be disappointed - which I wasn't. I won't try to tell you they've aged like fine wine - after all it's 30 years since I first saw the angry young Godfathers at the Rodon Club, how could they measure up to my memory of that? But they've still got the chops and energy to do justice to their songs, which is more than enough. One thing's for sure, Peter Coyne finally looks like The Godfather. They had the mobster references, suits and all, in place from the beginning but it's only now that I can easily picture their frontman play a threatening, perennially pissed-off, violent London gangster right out of a Guy Ritchie movie. After the show I lingered around the merchandise stand, wondering if should buy their latest live CD (entitled This Is War) but settled on a T-shirt instead. I figured they couldn't possibly top this live album, which I already had.

Every concert, every live record even, has its weak spot, a song that sends everyone to the bar for another beer. It could be the latest single from the new unloved album, a long drum solo, or a Keith Richards-sung ballad. Not this one, though. This is the proverbial all-killer-no-filler. At this stage of their career, The Godfathers had a lot of great material to choose from: 4 LP's -not a dud among them- full of catchy, sing-along-y, anthems combining The Stooges' garage punk energy and Beatles' melodic instincts, loud dueling guitars, and vocals channeling the fury and sarcasm of the Sex Pistols. Not to mention the rhythm section's dark new wave sound, usually buried under the screaming  guitars. I had the chance to better appreciate the rhythm section during one of their Rodon concerts, when they were missing one of the guitarists and the bass was higher in the mix to compensate for that. I was like "I never realized there was some Joy Division in there!" For all the names mentioned, though, the closest relative may be Dr. Feelgood: no-nonsense rock'n'roll, tight song structures, and energetic, nervy, frontman. This live album finds the band in classic 5-man formation tearing through their hits. The sound is clean for a live recording - the songs may be a bit rawer, guitars a bit louder, but otherwise they don't stray far from their studio counterparts. Which is both a blessing and a curse: I buy live albums for two reasons: the first is the small -or big- variations, be it an elongated jam, improvised solo, ad-lib changes to the lyrics etc. Not much of it here. The second is atmosphere, which this album does have. It may also work well as a greatest hits collection: everything you want is here, it flows well and sports a nice live vibe and uniform production style - as opposed to compilations taken from different albums. The CD kicks off with the best songs from each album: "Birth, School, Work, Death", "She Gives Me Love" and "Unreal World", all loud guitars and singalong choruses. During the course of the album, garage punk dynamites ("Lonely Man", "Cause I Said So", "This Is War") are interspersed with mid-tempo indie rock ("Drag Me Down Again", "I Love What's Happening To Me", "Don't Let Me Down") which thankfully doesn't lead to any slacking of the pace, more like taking the foot off the gas pedal on a road curb before hitting the gas again. The CD closes with a cover of John Lennon's "Cold Turkey" and an extract from a speech by 60's anti-cultural icon John Sinclair, advocating his program of revolution through "Dope, Rock'N'Roll & Fucking In The Streets", a connection not lost to those who remember Lennon's campaign to get Sinclair out of prison.

***** for Birth School Work Death, She Gives Me Love

**** for Unreal World, I Don't Believe In You, When I'm Coming Down, Drag Me Down Again, I Love What's Happening To Me,  If I Only Had Time, Lonely Man, I Want Everything, 'Cause I Said So, This Is War

*** for Obsession, Don't Let Me Down, This Damn Nation, Cold Turkey

The Godfathers "Birth, School, Work, Death" 1988*****

I know that dissing the 80's is a kind of automatic reflex - only last week I wrote about how bad it was: the music, the clothes, the haircuts. I should have known better, though, 'cause I've been there. Do I cringe when I look at my teenage self in those old photo's? (you know which...the paper ones. We used to stick them in albums?) Why, is there anything cringeable about a nice mullet? I won't even mention the clothes - or, rather, I'll just mention one item: I used to have a one-button single-breasted faded denim blazer... with shoulder pads! I wasn't crazy about the pads, but have you ever tried to find a blazer without shoulder pads in the 80's? Try to remove them, believe me it only makes things worse. As for the rest of my wardrobe, thankfully I discovered at some point that you can match black with black: problem solved - from that moment on, I looked cool as fuck. Or rather I would have, if it wasn't for the mullet. But when nostalgia takes me back to my LP racks, I find evidence that the 80's weren't half as bad as they are supposed to have been: My record collection of the late 80's consisted of albums by The Ramones, Wipers, Violent Femmes, Cramps, Sunnyboys, Godfathers etc. I pull one record out, place it on the stereo, drop the needle and...

Boom! I just can't resist turning the volume up and shouting together with Peter Coyne: Birth! School! Work! Death! Birth! School! Work! Death! over and over again... because there was some awesome rock'n'roll going on in the 80's, which no-one's ever told you about. And if you think these youtube videos are good, let me tell you they're shit compared to seeing the Godfathers live at the Rodon Club, looking cool in their mobster suits, swinging their guitars while a throbbing sweaty crowd sings the chorus back to them. I've seen lots and lots of bands play live, and they were second to none. I mean, sure, The Rolling Stones can rock a stadium, but you'd have to see them at the Marquee Club in 1965 to get the same vibe The Godfathers were emanating during the late 80's to early 90's. Radio Birdman or Dr. Feelgood would probably be a better comparison: No-nonsense R&B coupled with punk's defiant sneer, irreverent lyrics, razor sharp riffs, short guitar solos and loud drums. The clean production tempers the attack, making it just easy enough on the ears to ensure radio play - the album is, after all, full of catchy tunes. Each side starts with a high energy dynamite ("Birth, School, Work, Death", "Cause I Said So") and the singer shouting rather than singing, while the chorus sounding like a slogan in a demonstration. "If I Only Had Time" is another strong rocker with melodic backing vocals, "Tell Me Why" a fast new wave number with energetic drumming, and "It's So Hard" a folk rocker reminiscent of Tom Petty. Side 1 closes with the druggy Velvets-like "When Am I Coming Down", while side 2 is slightly less impressive: no instant classics, with the exception of thuggish opener "Cause I Said So". "Obsession" is a similarly aggressive number but lacks hooks, while there are some nods to rock's past (60's Who in "The Strangest Boy", rockabilly in "S.T.B.") and present: "Just Like You" and "Love is Dead" are closer to the kind of indie pop one might hear at 80's college radio stations. They even show the band's romantic streak to counteract the nihilistic politics and drug references of the faster songs. Special mention goes to the album cover, depicting the 4 stages of existence according to the bleak Godfathers worldview. This LP should convince you it's time for you to re-discover the 80's, too. I mean, look! even my old denim jacket has made a comeback - except for the shoulder pads, that is. Shoulder pads and dinosaurs are two things that must never ever be resurrected, haven't you seen Jurassic Park?

***** for Birth School Work Death, If I Only Had Time, When Am I Coming Down, Cause I Said So

**** for Tell Me Why, It's So Hard, The Strangest Boy, S.T.B., Just Like You, Love is Dead

*** for Obsession

"And I don't need no PhD cause I'm ten times smarter than you'll ever be! Cause I said so! Cause I said so! Cause I said so! Cause I said so!"

"I cut myself but I don't bleed /'Cause I don't get what I need/Doesn't matter what I say/Tomorrow's still another day/Birth! school! work! death!"