Box Of Frogs "Box Of Frogs/Strange Land" (1984****/1986***)

I remember seeing the original Box Of Frogs LP in the shops and passing it by immediately because of the album cover and ridiculous band name. Apparently there's a British expression I hadn't heard before: mad as a box of frogs, which certainly sounds like a crazy idea. Why would anyone fill a box with frogs? But, by all accounts, the band seems to predate the expression. I searched and searched the language sites on the internet (you may argue that I've too much time on my hands, but once my curiosity is aroused I can't leave a question unanswered). Nobody has heard the expression before the 2000's. So probably the expression means crazy like that band was for choosing such a ridiculous name. It turned out to be a bad idea, even more so because Box Of Frogs were actually famous in the 60's with the name The Yardbirds. Yes, I'm talking about the group that nurtured Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Singer Keith Relf had regrettably died only a few years before (electrocuted by his own guitar) so the rest of the band (Chris Dreja, Paul Samwell-Smith and Jim McCarty) added the very good singer John Fiddler (former Medicine Head) and reformed the band under a new name. This CD gathers both of their albums. The eponymous debut featured guest guitarists Jeff Beck and Rory Gallagher, ensuring some top-notch playing, while all the songs are original group compositions. The style is rootsy hard rock but the synthetic 80's production neutered their sound somewhat, making it sound like any other record of the period. So I guess the question is: can you still listen to 80's mainstream rock? How cool are you with the sounds of Foreigner, Aerosmith, Status Quo and ZZ Top from that era? Well, if you can get past the dated production values, there's much to like in BoF's debut. Opener "Back Where I Started" is the perfect introduction, a rolling boogie with great bluesy vocal and harmonica, smoking guitar courtesy of Jeff Beck and backing vocals reminiscent of The Yardbirds' heyday. It was the band's biggest hit, cracking the Top Ten in the U.S. and getting exposure on MTV. "Harder" is a commercial hard rocker with Ray Majors on guitar (Fiddler's former bandmate in British Lions). "Another Wasted Day" is an excellent mid-tempo boogie with an understated vocal that reminds me of Mark Knopfler. "Love Inside You" is mid-tempo FM rock. "Two Steps Ahead" and "Poor Boy" are bluesy hard rock a la Bad Company with stellar guitar work by Jeff Beck. Rory Gallagher takes over guitar duties for the hard rock "The Edge" and ballad "Into The Dark", where he also contributes slide guitar and sitar - talk about East meets West! "Just A Boy Again" has a folkier Americana sound, like a hybrid between Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac. Different but also nice. The second BoF album has a bigger sonic variety but is generally considered to be inferior despite the impressive guest list. Too many songs are generic 80's hard rock, e.g. "Get It While You Can" (sung by guest Graham Parker) or synth-driven "You Mix Me Up" with misjudged female backing vocals. "House On Fire" seems to copy the plastic boogie of Eliminator-era ZZ Top while "Asylum" is almost metallic, with heavy guitar riffs by former Yardbirds alumnus Jimmy Page. Guest vocalist Roger Chapman (ex-Family) delivers excellent performances on the emotive ballad "Strange Land" and a throat-shredding reworking of Yardbirds' 1965 hit "Heart Full Of Soul" also featuring the song's writer Graham Gouldman and Rory Gallagher on smokin' lead guitar. Rory's electric sitar is the highlight of the strange electronic ballad "Hanging From The Wreckage". Ian Dury's punk sneer saves "Average" from mediocrity. The song is an otherwise average combination of hard rock and new wave, despite some nice solos by Genesis' guitarist Steve Hackett who also plays on the melodic FM-rock "Trouble". This compilation also adds single-only "Nine Lives", another Foreigner-style commercial rocker with Bowie associate Earl Slick on lead guitar. Far from being the sum of its parts, "Strange Land" seemed to make up for its lack of inspiration with a parade of guest musicians. BoF did not tour or even play live often, which may be the reason for their decline. They never made another record but in 2003 Dreja, Samwell-Smith and McCarty reformed The Yardbirds, under their own name, this time. They released a CD but mostly functioned as a touring band. I saw them in Greece and their performance was workmanlike and quite enjoyable. They've been on the road since then, although I believe that drummer Jim McCarty is the sole original member left.

**** for Back Where I Started, Another Wasted Day, The Edge, Two Steps Ahead, Poor Boy, Average, Heart Full Of Soul

*** for Harder, Love Inside You, Into The dark, Just A Boy Again, Get It While You Can, House On Fire, Asylum, Strange Land, Trouble

** for You Mix Me Up, Hanging From The Wreckage, Nine Lives

Ian Dury "New Boots and Panties!!" 1977*****

"Assholes Bastards Fucking Cunts and Pricks..." is how Ian Dury starts his song "Plaistow Patricia" and therefore I guess a perfectly acceptable way to start my own presentation. This album of his often features in the "best albums of all time" lists but brought him only moderate success at that time. He was a very unlikely candidate for a rock star: A 35-year old former teacher and father of two children, crippled by polio at the age of 7, the only thing he had going for him was his wit, ingenious wordplay and flair for provocation. He didn't have much of a voice and used to half-sing and half-recite the words. But his aggressive style, sneer and obnoxious cockney accent sat well with the punks and, despite being a generation older and musically more diverse, he's considered part of that movement. What's often not acknowledged is just how good his band (The Blockheads) was. They expertly mixed up funk, rock, reggae, jazz, music hall and punk, every little guitar phrase or sax solo being exactly the right thing at the right moment. Opener "Wake Up and Make Love with Me" has a disco beat with dirty sexual lyrics and spacey moog synthesizer alternating with jazzy piano. "Sweet Gene Vincent" is a tribute to the great rock'n'roller starting as a nostalgic ballad before turning into rockabilly while "Dickie" and "Trevor" are music hall influenced numbers with Dury inhabiting different characters. "Blockheads", "Plaistow Patricia" and "Blackmail Man" closed the original album with a punk attack. "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" and its B-side "Razzle in My Pocket" were not part of the original package but fit well here and provide us with the immortal slogan "Sex and drugs and rock and roll/Is all my brain and body need/Sex and drugs and rock and roll/Are very good indeed". The song itself is also a fittingly hedonistic mix of rock, reggae and funk and its addition raises the album's rating to 5*. "You're More Than Fair" is a reggae ditty with rude lyrics, music hall "England's Glory"a song by his old band the Kilburns and "What a Waste" an excellent 1978 single. The album's title derives from Dury's habit of buying everything second hand except from boots and underwear and cover photo is taken outside a clothes shop in Westminster. His son (future singer Baxter Dury) ran in to pose with his dad during the photoshoot, thus getting himself on a record cover 25 years before recording his own debut.

***** for Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

**** for Wake Up and Make Love with Me, Sweet Gene Vincent, Billericay Dickie, Plaistow Patricia, What a Waste

*** for I'm Partial to Your Abracadabra, My Old Man, Clevor Trever, If I Was With a Woman, Blockheads, You're More Than Fair, England's Glory

** for Blackmail Man, Razzle in My Pocket

Skip Bifferty "The Story of Skip Bifferty" 2003(comp)***

Skip Bifferty were a very English psychedelic pop band. Although they certainly could (and on occasion did) rock hard, their music was infused with music-hall humour and fairy-tale whimsy. It is a great slice of flower-power pop that nevertheless met with little success. Not a world away from Pink Floyd, Kinks and Who circa 1967 (Piper at the Gates, Village Green and Sell Out being their respective albums at the time). This 2CD compilation is their complete output, including their sole album, singles, live radio sessions and assorted singles from band offshoots. The first 14 songs are the complete "Skip Bifferty" album from 1968. There's not a bad song in the bunch but my favourites are: mod-psych "When she comes to stay", ballad "Come around" and piano-led "Follow the path of the stars". "Time Track" features great guitarwork and handclaps and the trippy "Guru" Eastern percussion. "Prince of Germany the first" and "Gas board under dog" are two of those whimsical songs, "Orange lace" a beautiful ballad and "Jeremy Carabine" a poppy number.
 "Planting bad seeds" reminds me of Small Faces while their single "Man in Black" is actually produced by a couple of Small Faces and is one of the Bifferty's best songs. First single "On Love" is another great rocker that pointed to a more garagey direction not taken. The second CD is where this compilation becomes exhaustive (and exhausting). A number of live BBC sessions are unearthed but the recording quality is below par. Still, they contain a few previously unreleased original compositions and are therefore welcome. The CD closes with two singles recorded under different names (Heavy Jelly, Griffin). These are more interesting, especially "I Keep Singing the Same Old Song" a hard rocking song which found many listeners at the time thanks to its inclusion in budget compilation "Nice Enough to Eat". Guitarist John Turnbull and keyboardist Mick Gallagher later teamed with Ian Dury to create The Blockheads and still perform under that name despite Dury's demise. Singer Graham Bell played in various (and less successful) groups. Still, he will always be remembered as the man who invented the telephone (mistakenly though - that was Alexander Graham Bell). Joking aside, his work with Skip Bifferty should, in a fair world, have brought him enough fame on his own right. Do listen to it.

**** for When She Comes to Stay, Come Around, Follow the Path of the Stars, Man in Black, On Love, I Keep Singing the Same Old Song (Heavy Jelly)

*** for Money Man, Jeremy Carabine, Guru, Time Track Gas Board Underdog, Orange Lace, Planting Bad Seeds, Yours for at Least, Prince of Germany the First, Happy Land, I Am the Noise in Your Head (Griffin), Don't You Know (Griffin).

** for Inside the Secret, Clearway, Cover Girl, Around and Around, This We Shall Explore, Schizoid Revolution, all the BBC Sessions (2.1-2.13, 2.18), Blue (Heavy Jelly)