Dirty Linen - Música

For Those Out There Who Remain Unfamiliar With Brian’s Work Let Me Take You Back To The UK In 1977. It Was The Year Of The Queen’s Silver Jubilee Of Course And In The Midst Of All The Celebrations While The Sex Pistols Sang “God Save The Queen” New Punk Rock Misfits Spaz Modic And The Straitjackets Introduced Brian To The World In The Guise Of Spaz Himself. He Was Singing “I’m Gonna Open Up A Bank Account” On Their First Cassette Tape “Grimsby Town”. Soon Afterwards The Pseudonym Was Dropped And Brian Went On To Record “Straitjacket Style” In 1978 As Purely And Simply The Straitjackets. There Was Nothing Simple About The Music Though And Such A Total Harmonic And Rhythmic Inability Would Have Been Very Hard To Feign But The Message Of Course Was Everything “I’m A Communist ‘cos Me Hair’s Red And I’m An Anarchist ‘cos I’m Outta Me Head” The Albums “Nausea” And “Presumptious Songsheet” Quickly Followed And With The Latter A Change Of Emphasis. It Was The Inclusion Of Such Songs As “The Sellanby Rag” Which Finally Confirmed The Improvement In Brian’s Guitar Style And He Had Soon Earned Himself The Nickname Of Brian Lemon Jefferson As A Tribute To His Ragtime/blues Leanings And The General Shape Of His Head. The Songs Were A Little More Self-Assured As Well And Showed A Growing Maturity His Parents Had Always Claimed Was Beyond Him. They May Also Have Been Surprised To Detect How By 1983 He Was Even Gung-Ho Enough To Attempt Singing In The Same Key As He Was Playing On The Guitar. Another Significant Step Forward - And There Were A Handful Of Occasions When He Actually Managed To Pull It Off Too. He Then Teamed Up With Steve Daniels In 1984 And Was “The Beekeeper” Or Perhaps More Aptly “The Beebeekeeper” In Their Short-Lived Duo Rudy Panko And The Beekeeper A Pairing That Is Forever Captured In Their Album Of The Same Name. “In Case I Forget” Released In 1989 Showed How Brian Had Finally Shrugged Off Those Early Straitjacket Days And Saw The First Airing Of The Song “Secret Tears” Which Was Later To Be Re-Recorded With The Aid Of Dave Wesson And Joe Ray For The Subsequent Digitally-Produced 2003 Release November Child 2003 . Dave Wesson And Joe Ray Being Co-Founders Of Dogghead Brian Was Soon Invited To Mind His P’s And Q’s And Join The Band. And The Rest As They Say Is History. It May Not Have Been St Peter’s Church Garden Fete In Woolton But There Was Certainly Another Member Of The Fate Family Thrusting Its Oars Through The Rowlocks Of Those “November Child” Recordings. Henry Elephant
March 2008 read less