Re:Ruts. (no moz)
> Human Punk was the last track on the Ruts one and only studio album 'The
> Crack' and it is taken from The Marquee. In a nutshell this is my
> favourite album along with 'The Queen Is Dead'.
> Naturally being born in 1976 I never saw The Ruts live, but I have got a
> compilation video of all The Ruts tv performences and stuff, this includes
> two live gigs which were shown on French and Belgian TV. Malcolm is an
> absolute livewire on stage, he tries to play Foxy's guitar to no avail and
> actually punches one of Dave Ruffys symbols. This was not uncommen for
> Malcolm, at another gig he headbutts one of Daves symbols, and blood
> gushes out everywhere leading to him collapsing and having to go to the
> nearest hospital. Definately right up there with Strummer as one of punks
> best frontmen, however he wasn't some one dimensional rock 'n roll nut,
> for a start Malcolm was right at the centre of the political edge of the
> band, coming from a culturally mixed area like Southall, songs like Jah
> War and Rude Boys were influenced by race riots and racists causing
> trouble at Ruts gigs, somehow I doubt Sham 69 could speak out against
> punks right wing following with a song like Staring At The Rude Boys. They
> certainly weren't a bunch of yobs like Cockney Rejcts 'Always Fighting In
> The Steets' blah blah, Ruts along with The Clash were more sussed than any
> anyone else.
> Another thing on this video I've got is an interview with the band after
> Malcolms death, which to be honest is difficult to watch, its very close
> to the bone, but it does focus on the reasons Malcolm went back to heroin
> after he'd cleaned up a few years before and the difficulty of combining
> being in a band and trying to maintain your relationships with your wife
> and friends, he'd gone back to Heroin to fill the void after his home life
> had fallen apart.
> He was a good fella, who f***ed up big time and paid the ultimate price.
> Have you heard anything by Ruts DC, what do you think of them ? I thought
> they were great, but the dub thing on the second album was way, way ahead
> of its time, which in itself brings more cudos.
Ah, young O'Reilly. Oh so wise with all the facts and records and books and videos and search engines at your fingertips there in your bedroom. With your best pal, Mr.Hindsight. (don't get too attached to him - he's EVERYONE'S best pal).
Sham 69 and The Cockney Rejects never offered themselves up as poets or lyrical geniuses. Their songs are straightforward and could even be described as naive and idealist. "Angels With Dirty Faces" "If The Kids Are United" "I'm Not A Fool" to mention only three, won't win any songwriting prizes. We all know that.
What you won't be aware of though, despite all your research equipment, is that we knew it even then.
But they were honest and simply wanted to have their say. In the punk era, that was what mattered most.
We were in our late teens/early twenties. Unlike the half-dead youth of today slouching and moping around listening to their favourite bands playing ballads (BALLADS!!), we were alive!! And, like Sham and The Rejects, we were shouty, boisterous and energetic.
What Sham 69 and The Rejects DIDN'T do, however, was write complete and utter senseless gibberish. Like the kind of stuff we were subjected to pre-punk. And THAT'S where you're letting yourself down with your too-quick-to criticise approach.
Do more research and try to discover what was out there pre-punk. As a quick reference, you could listen to 'cosmic dancer'. That's just one piece of nonsense among hundreds, by dozens of bands. It seemed as if it was never going to end.
THAT'S why we took Costello AND Sham. Why we took The Jam AND The Rejects. It's also why I have 'Radio Radio' (arguably the finest song ever written) on a tape , immediately followed by 'I'm Not A Fool', which is straightforward and honest and blows you away. Both, therefore, played a part in punk.
It's also why, when one of the forks veered off down towards full-scale Oi, only a few numbnuts followed. The vast majority of us didn't.
Sadly, you'll never know the rush of a Ruts gig or a Sham gig. And even more sadly, nobody's articulate enough to make you feel what those times were really like.
When all is said and done, you really did have to be there.