I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled The Plot Thickens: Storytelling in European Print Series is at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, until May 24th.
WHILE IT WAS ONCE somewhat true that a volunteer Armed Services was disproportionately working class and from racial minorities, that has changed: due to a higher enlistment of those living near military bases, increased technology and a smaller number of service members altogether.
THURSDAY's CHILD is part of the Alley Cat Project in Seattle, Washington — where adult feral cats (unable to be placed in homes) are placed in industrial settings, where they settle-in as mousers.
YOUR WEEKEND READ is this New Yorker profile of a Never Trump Republican— traditional in many ways (while being a gay woman) who is both pessimistic about turfing-out the Trumpster on the one hand ... yet quite energized at other times.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Big Boy the Cat— who normally has the run of the UC-Santa Barbara campus, yet seems to be adjusting to the life of an indoor cat for the time being, and as he is aging: his future is in transition.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at the late music producer Hal Willner— mentioned in brief a few weeks back in this space — about the breadth of his career, bringing together musicians from all genres on elaborate projects and how he instilled a sense of trust in them that they were willing to stretch beyond their own niches. SNL dedicated a whole segment to him.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
MOTHER-DAUGHTER? — TV star Kyle Richards (Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) and country music star Kacey Musgraves.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… while he was never a big hit outside his native England: the singer Ian Dury became a much-loved figure there and - at the very least - a cult figure elsewhere during the late 1970’s. Although he rose to fame during the punk rock era — and he was respected by its pioneers in the UK — his music never quite fit the label. It was an amalgam of disco music - then on the rise - plus 50’s rock, English music hall (vaudeville) plus Cockney-inspired humorous characters. Add to that his irascible character with a physical handicap, and you have someone that became a hero to many fans in England …. and whose death twenty years ago last month deserves a new look.
Born in northwest London in 1942, Ian Dury's parents separated when he was five. He contracted a case of polio after — he believed — a turn in a swimming poolin 1949 (in the midst of a polio epidemic). He persevered (after a two-year stint in hospital, with a paralyzed left arm and leg), studied art (eventually teaching painting at a college) and — for a time — was an illustrator for the London Sunday Times.
Ian Dury formed his first band at the age of 28, which was quite uncommon. He took the name of a street in northwest London (Kilburn High Road) and fashioned the band name Kilburn and the High Roads from it. Their sound was definitely 1950's rock, and they found a niche in the pub rock scene for a few years ... enough for Dury to quit his day job in 1973. A role model of his was the US musician Gene Vincent (of Be-Bop-A-Lula fame) — not only for his 50’s rock sound, but that Vincent also had a handicap (having a limp from two automobile accidents). The band did have one album release but their music scene was declining, and the group disbanded in 1976.
As noted by the All-Music Guide’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine— once Kilburn disbanded, conventional wisdom would have suggested that (at age 33) Dury was "far too old to become a pop star ......... but conventional wisdom never played much of a role in Dury's career", anyway. Interestingly, the seeds of his own band came backstage at one of the last Kilburns shows, when Dury was introduced to songwriter/guitarist Chaz Jankel and told him to f-off .... but the two eventually spoke and decided to form a band.
This became Ian Dury and the Blockheads— and their timing was auspicious: the advent of the Punk/New Wave era gave new bands a chance to be heard (even with a thirty-three year old singer) and his tentative edging into disco music was also timely. Add to that being signed by the quirky label Stiff Records and the Blockheads' debut album New Boots and Panties stayed on the UK charts for two years, achieving platinum status eventually. Popular songs such as "Blockheads", What a Waste and "Wake Up and Make Love with Me" were supplemented by Sweet Gene Vincent… a tribute song to his hero.
His best-known song is one whose title has outlived its song association .... today, any life of excess is referred to as Sex and Drugs and Rock And Roll— whose riff came from a Charlie Haden bass solo on the 1960 song Ramblin' by Ornette Coleman. More rock-and-roll than most of the Blockheads' early material, it was released just as an Ian Dury solo tune (with Chaz Jankel backing him up).
As noted, Ian Dury was a unique character. Many who worked with cited his off-putting, sometime morose personality around new people. And many of his songs featured Cockney-inspired characters (Billericay Dickie, Clever Trevor, Plaistow Patricia) .... even though he did not grow-up with the dialect (he said his mother spoke “near-BBC” English).
Although you had to listen carefully to hear it in his music: he was influenced by R&B and jazz, with Charles Mingus a particular influence. He referred to the Steely Dan 1977 album Aja as one that "lifts your heart up". When he appeared on BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs program series in 1996 (listing songs you would want on a desert island) he included tunes from Taj Mahal …. to Dean Martin.
The Blockheads had two other (non-album) hit singles, Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick and Reasons To Be Cheerful Part 3 - and in Britain today you will see newspaper headlines about Covid-19 that reference the latter title to some degree. But their follow-up album was more dance-music laden and did not sell all that well, leading Chaz Jankel to leave, being replaced by former Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson (who, sadly, is in poor health today). Eventually the Blockheads split, and his 1981 album Lord Upminster had other musicians and producers.
During the 1980's and beyond, Ian Dury spent much of his time acting, appearing in the film The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Sylvester Stallone's Judge Dredd and the Roman Polanski movie "Pirates". He also began to write jingles for British commercials. In 1989, he wrote the musical Apples with Mickey Gallagher, and he never regretted turning down an offer to write the libretto for the musical "Cats"— even though (had he accepted) he would have become a millionaire— because as he put it, "I hate Andrew Lloyd Webber ... I can't stand his music".
Ian Dury did reunite with The Blockheads for various shows, and in 1998 they even recorded a new studio album— which came two years after Dury was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. He managed to deal with it for a few years, but finally announced it when it spread to his liver in 1998. He became a spokesman for dealing with the disease and toured throughout 1999 (often on behalf of UNICEF), receiving a Classic Songwriters lifetime award from Britain's Q magazine. Once divorced (and later a widower) he married his long-time girlfriend at that time, and a few months later in February, 2000 performed at the London Palladium ... although he was noticeably weak.
Ian Dury died in March, 2000 — six weeks short of his fifty-eighth birthday — and twenty years ago last month. His funeral was well-attended, with musicians such as Robbie Williams and Nick Lowe, and even the UK cabinet secretary Marjorie (Mo) Mowlam in attendance.
While his performing career wasn't measured in decades: he did leave behind a legacy in the UK. A musical (set in 1979) based upon his song Reasons to be Cheerful was written by by Paul Sirett, the documentary film Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll— with Dury portrayed by Andy Serkis, who described him as "obnoxious; he slagged everybody off"— was released in 2010, and a biography was written by Will Birch in 2011. Chaz Jankel leads a version of The Blockheads today (with three other classic lineup members) who perform in the UK.
More recently: Ian’s daughter Jemima Dury is an author and son Baxter Dury is an indie musician with a recent album release (and who you can see as a five year-old on the cover of New Boots and Panties, standing next to his father). And scheduled through the summer at various venues (in the south of England) is a free exhibit entitled All Kinds Of Naughty— based upon an unreleased song he wrote — with photos, art works, lyrics and memorabilia on display. It would seem the final chapter on Ian Dury … is yet to be written.
Perhaps his most misunderstood song was one that he wrote for the United Nations in 1981, as part of its International Year of Disable Persons campaign. Ian Dury was intrigued (due to his bout with polio) but was reluctant to write songs about disability (considering the requests were often patronizing) and instead decided to write a satirical song.
Spasticus Autisticus then suffered the same fate as Randy Newman's "Short People" - as many people misunderstood the satire (especially the allusion to "I'm Spartacus") - and the BBC, along with other radio stations, denied it airplay (though Dury received no complaints from the handicapped community itself).
Time has helped improve the song's reputation and just over thirty years later: it was played at the opening ceremonies of the 2012 London Paralympic Games.
Hello to you out there in normal land You may not comprehend my tale or understand As I crawl past your window, give me lucky looks You can be my body, but you'll never read my books
So place your hard-earned peanuts in my tin And thank the Creator you're not in the state I'm in So long have I been languished on the shelf I must give all proceedings to myself
I'm Spasticus, I'm Spasticus I'm Spasticus Autisticus