AH, BUT THEY’RE COOL PEOPLE…

Idly scanning the shelves in Balham library, I’m faintly astonished to see a book apparently named in honour of The Standells ‘Dirty Water’, and a few minutes later I’m walking home with Lovers, Buggers & Thieves, a volume put out last year by the intermittently great Headpress publishing house. It is the first in a proposed series of journals / books of essays covering what might generally be termed as cult rock n’ roll, with a writing style that strikes a pretty good balance – not-too-academic but at the same time not-too-stupid. And, well… it’s great.

Starting with the big-hitters of it’s chosen scene, the book features exhaustive histories / appreciations of The Stooges, The Sonics and The Monks, and, of particular interest to me, The Edgar Broughton Band (yes!) and a huge piece on Skip Spence (double yes!). There are also round-ups of Australian and Mexican psyche-punk, the Bonzo Dog Band, Charles Manson (somewhat inevitably) and a great piece by Johnny Strike of Crime examining the relative merits of Led Zeppelin and Iron Butterfly. And a whole bunch of other stuff too – this book certainly doesn’t short-change you on content.

The writing is sometimes subject to a few pitfalls, particularly with regard to contributors taking an easy ‘us vs. the world’ “while the charts were full of peace & love, our heroes were singing about MADNESS, SUICIDE and DESPAIR!” line, despite the fact this book’s very existence is evidence that there were as many gangs of disgruntled goons making crazed outsider rock music in the pre-punk era as there have been at any time since. The gonzo informality of some of the writing can also be detrimental at times, particularly in the Stooges article, which piles up irrelevant and unreferenced groupie/drug anecdotes with laddish glee – as if anyone who’s heard the records needs to be reminded that the Stooges liked to fuck. On the up-side though, it also brings up a lot of interesting new info, good insights into the personalities and chemistry at work in the band over different periods and a great appreciation of what made their music so unutterably awesome – so a vital bit of Stoogeology if you ignore its excesses.

For fans of this music (and if you’re reading this weblog I’d like to think you probably are one), “Lover, Buggers and Thieves” is an absolute gas - it’s written by people who care, it’s flaws fly by on a wave of over-riding enthusiasm and it’s definitely a few cuts above the kind of unmitigated hack guff that so often passes for book-based music writing. Have an Amazon link.

The end of the book promises future volumes, though there’s no sign of any yet on Headpress’s publishing schedule, so wish me luck as I go cap in hand to pitch a piece on the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band…