Thrifty Tunes 11.15.09: Slade - Slayed
Posted by Paul Hollingsworth on 11.15.2009
Marc Bolan created it, David Bowie made it famous, the New York Dolls made it trashy and Kiss made it a circus, but the English band Slade may have perfected it. Cum on and get crazee with Slayed in this week's Thrifty Tunes
Some genres of music have an almost universally accepted album (or two) which serve as a sort of blueprint for all other records considered to be of the same genre. (Superfuzz Bigmuff, for instance, is the blueprint for grunge andKick Out The Jams is the punk blueprint.) Some forms of music, however, are so diverse, that there's no consensus about which album or group is the standard bearer of the genre. Hip-hop has this problem. (Is the most representative album the early stuff like Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five and RUN DMC, more recent musicians like Jay-Z and Dr. Dre or chameleon-ish groups like Outkast and The Roots?) Another genre with a similar identity problem is Glam rock.
Describing a glam rock band is easy. Make-up to excess, elaborate costumes, androgyny, and bizarre personas are the most obvious characteristics. (All of which would later become incorporated into the Sunset Strip bands of the 80's.) Describing a glam rock sound, however, isn't as simple. Is it the cerebral musings of The Rise and Fall Of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders of Mars? Is it the sleaze of The New York Dolls and early Kiss? Where do the first few Elton John records fit in? My personal opinion had always been that David Bowie and his famous alter-ego were the best representation of the genre. At least until i heard Slayed by the English band Slade.
Until I found this record at a thrift store I knew exactly three things about the band. Number one and two were that they originally recorded "Cum On Feel The Noize" and "Mama Weer All Crazee Now", which became big hits in the early 80's when covered by Quiet Riot. The third thing I knew about the band was that the lead singer looked like an acid-drenched fever dream of a cartoon character, with an oversized top hat and techno color pants and ridiciously high stacked boots. First impressions of musicians are usually the ones that stay with you, and I already had a favorite cartoon band, obviously Kiss, and didn't have room for another. My initial impression about the band, unfortunately, kept me from enjoying some great music from a very talented band.
The album opens with "How D'You Ride", which showcases the musical stylings of glam. A raunchy, blues-based guitar is front and center, holding the song together through sing-a-long choruses and mostly shallow-party type lyrics like "A don't you know I tried to turn my fast car over/I don't remember never wheelers get in a while/And he'd got, got, got a lot of what was hot/All that I could do was sit and smile"The Whole World's Goin' Crazee" continues the trend of ear-candy type songs, nothing offensive, but nothing all that memorable either. Glam, like every other music genre was a direct reaction to what had been popular a few years before. Glam, at its base was the first post-hippie, post-Summer of Love musical form to gain any sort of acceptance and traction in the mainstream.
Side one ends with a trio of songs which highlight how diverse and misleading labels can be in music. "Look At Last Nite" is nearly symphonic in presentation and the lyrics are a step above the previous songs. The harmonies are straight out of The Beatles playbook, but the music is new and refreshing. "I Won't Let It 'Apen Agen" sounds like nothing else on the album, and if it weren't for lead vocalist Noddy Holder's distinct vocals, you'd think another band's song had ended up on the album. The guitar is heavier, the sound darker, and the overall feel of the song is almost frantic, somewhat of a cross between a paranoid Pink Floyd tune and a gloom-filled Black Sabbath track. The final track on side one is a cover of Janis Joplin's "Move Over," Holder channels Joplin in an uncanny, almost unsettling way. (Slade weren't hippies, but they knew a good song when they heard one.) When the song departs from the original, it's a relief, because Janis' ghost is finally free to leave.
Side two features "Gudbuy T'Jane", which was one of the band's biggest hits. (But only in England, the band never really caught on in America.) The real prize of the second side, however, is "Gudbuy Gudbuy" I'm not sure exactly why it works, but everything about the song just clicks with me. It might be the guitars, the lyrics or the rhythm, but somewhere along the way, it became my favorite Slade song ever.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the obvious connection between Slade and the evil that is Fall Out Boy. Patrick Stump blatantly worships at the altar of Holder and Pete Wentz, bless his little emo-heart, tries desperately to come up with song titles based on Slade's habit of misspelling words and non-sequiturs. All I can say is that at least the band has good taste in role models.
Complete Track Listing: (1972 on Polydor Records)
Side One:
1.How D'You Ride
2. The Whole World's Goin' Crazee
3. Look At Last Nite
4. I Won't Let It 'Appen Agen
5. Move Over
Side Two;
1. Gudbuy T'Jane
2. Gudbuy Gudbuy
3. Mama Weer All Crazee Now
4. I Don' Mind
5. Let The Good Times Roll
Albums like this are the reason why I started writing this column. Sometimes you write off bands or musicians without giving them a fair chance. I gave up on Slade a long time ago, thinking their music was dated and uninteresting. I couldn't have been more wrong. Thanks to a well spent dollar at a thrift store, I now know better.
Pickett Stars: Four out of Five
Next Week: To celebrate my first year of columns at 411mania.com, I'll reveal the very best album I've found during my year of haunting thrift stores, garage sales and flea markets. What is it? You'll just have to come back next week to find out.
