We were in Australia a few years ago now – a decade or so – and the waitress comes over with the giant pepper-grinder and asks if anyone wants some cracked pepper on their meal. My father-in-law pipes right up, “Hit. Me. With. Your. Rhythm. Stick!” Shit, we laughed.
I have no idea when I first heard or heard of Ian Dury but it was long before that – Rhythm Stick just being one of those songs you know. And there’s a few others too, Reasons To Be Cheerful…
But I know Dury and his Blockheads through compilations only, a best of that I used to own, and when the songs come up on other mixes. So, just the other month, I started listening to this. A stone classic of course.
But new to me.
Dury, one of those quintessentially British artists. Couldn’t happen anywhere else in the world, that sound, that worldview, the punk, pop, politics…the discussion of class.
His debut record is now over 40 years old and boy does it (still) stand up!