Stray Cats   Stray Cats Arista Runaway boys - Fishnet stockings - Ubangi stomp - Jeanie jeanie jeanie - Storm the embassy - Rock this town - Rumble in Brighton - Stray cat strut - Crawl up and die - Double talkin baby - My one desire - Wild saxaphone You may not like the Stray Cats. You can find their music poppy, not enough purist, weak or whatever you want but there are two point you can’t argue with : Brian Setzer is a brilliant guitar player and with this album they turned a brand new generation toward rockabilly. Without any complex and a good dose of naivety they took a 25 year old music and made it sound fresh again. The construction and the progression of the album itself is faultless. A-side opens with the hypnotic beat of “Runaway Boys” and ends with the rockin’ hymn “Rock This Town”. In between, two covers get the Stray Cats treatment (Warren Smith’s “Ubangi Stomp” and Cochran’s “Jeanie, Jeanie, Jeanie”) and two original songs. Many purist and hardcore rockabilly fans reproached them the rip off of Lew Williams’ “Bop Bop Ba Doo Bop” to write “Fishnet Stockings”. That’s obvious. But they should remember that Burnette’s “Midnight Train” borrows verses to Gene Autry’s “Left My Gal In The Mountain” and in a very short period three similar songs were issued : “Baby Let’s Play House” by Elvis, “Cool Off baby” by Billy Barrix and “Oh Baby Babe” by Johnny Burnette. So c’mon, forget about that, it’s only rock’n’roll ! “Storm The Embassy” is a solid rocker but have nothing to do with rockabilly (actually it was played by Setzer in his previous band “The Bloodless Pharaohs” under another name and with different lyrics). The song is kinda political and refers to the Iranian crisis and American hostages in the late 70’s. Having this song so close to the actuality didn’t allow them to perform it live long after 1981, which is bad because musically speaking it rocks (listen to the live bootlegs issued from this period). The B-side is more or less built on the same structure. The wild and menacing (and once again with a hypnotic riff) “Rumble In Brighton” starts the show. Depending of the pressing you can hear Setzer yell “Ein, Swei, Drei, Vier” but you have to listen closely. “Stray Cat Strut”, their signature song, based upon a traditional chords progression that gave “Hit The Road Jack” or Johnny Power’s “Me And My Rhythm Guitar”, is nothing less but magic and will prove to be the highlight of their shows. “Crawl Up And Die” is a variation on Lee Allen’s “Please Gimme Something” and shows another side of Setzer’s voice, the torrid one. The covers on this side are Ricky Nelson’s “My One Desire” (sounds like the band used to listen to a lot of Imperial Records ), Vincent’s Double Talkin’ Baby and Roy Montrell’s “Mellow Saxophone” renamed here “Wild Saxophone” with Jim providing a solid beat and Gary Barnacle on sax. On a personal note I’d like to say that 25 years later and two vinyl copies used (thanks for the cd’s) this album still sounds fresh for me like day one. Fred "Virgil" Turgis         Gonna Ball Arista Baby Blue Eyes - Little Miss Prissy - Wasn't That - Good Cryin' Shame - (She'll Stay) Just One More Day - You Don't Believe Me - Gonna Ball - Wicked Whisky - Rev It Up and Go - Lonely Summer Nights - Crazy Mixed Up Kid Following the huge success of their debut album, at least in Europe, the Stray Cats found time in August 81 in their heavy touring schedule to fly to Montserrat in the East Indies to record their second album. This time the band took over the production duties with the help of sound engineer Heinz Hoven. The trio, augmented by the presence of prestigious guests including veteran Lee Allen (Little Richard, Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis and later The Blasters) on sax and Ian Stewart (Rolling Stones) on keyboard played a blusier form of rock’n’roll rather than the modern rockabilly they were known for. Half of the album is made of blues or blues influenced songs : “Rev It Up And Go” and in a lesser extent “Little Miss Prissy” are obviously influenced by the great Chuck Berry. “You Don’t Believe Me” sounds like an unreleased Elmore James cut with Setzer on slide and “Wasn’t That Good” shows that they are more than able to deliver a good jump blues (which they’ll confirm later with “Look At That Cadillac” and Lucky Charms”) and “Cryin’ Shame” features a fine harmonica part. Only “(She’ll Stay Just) One More Day” sung by Lee sounds weak and artificial with organ. The song is not great and Lee at that time wasn’t the singer he is nowadays. Of course, Rockabilly is never very far with Johnny Burnette’s Baby Blue Eyes, the raw Gonna Ball (actually a remake of the Wheels’ Let’s Have A Ball) and the instrumental Wicked Whisky. “Lonely Summer Night” proves that Setzer can top the greatest ballads of the 50’s and “Crazy Mixed Up Kids” ends this too underrated album at a frantic pace. Fred "Virgil" Turgis         Look At That Cadillac / Lucky Charm Arista 106-271 This is the 7" that started it all for me. I still clearly remember the day I bought it with my older brother back in 1983 (I was 10, man how time flies). The A side is a classic jump blues with saxes and piano. Good song if not very original, with Setzer talking about how hard he needs a Cadillac."Look At That Cadillac" pleased me for sure, but the real jewel was to be found on the B side. "Lucky Charm (oh Wee Suzie)" was - and still is - one of the best song the Stray Cats ever wrote. Setzer voice is perfect. It looks like the curse of the great guitar player, as sometimes no one pays attention to their voices. To me Setzer is a damn fine singer and so is Deke Dickerson. Back to the song, it was probably recorded during the same session, as the saxes and piano are still here. This one is more a swingin'/rockin' tune with every musician taking a hot solo each, especially a very inspired boogie woogie one by Geraint Watkins (Crazy Cavan, Shakin Pyramids and many others) and at the end of this serie of solos, a short slap bass break. And at this moment I thought "Woah ! That's what I want to hear!!!". And now more than 20 years later I still listen to this single with great joy. I guess this is the power of the 45. Fred "Virgil" Turgis         Ran’t & Rave Rebels Rules – Too Hip Gotta Go – Look At That Cadillac – Something’s Wrong With My Radio – 18 Miles To Memphis – Sexy & 17 – Dig Dirty Doggie – I Won’t Stand In Your Way – Hot Rod Gang – How Long Do You Wanna Live Anyway By 1982 the Stray Cats finally achieved large success in the USA with “Built For Speed”, a compilation of their first European albums. In 1983 they reunited with Welshman Dave Edmunds to record “Rant & rave” in London. They opted to return to what made their success and went back to their rockabilly roots (with an exception or two) after the blues inspired “Gonna Ball”. “Rebels Rule” is a good choice to start the selection. A strong Diddley Beat with Slim Jim playing like a madman on his toms and Setzer yelling “Rock’n’Roll is never too loud!” the pace is quickly set. The Stray Cats are back ! The next one, “Too Hip Gotta Go” is a good rockabilly and shows Setzer ability on the strings. A fun one to play (see the time Setzer takes to explain it on his instructional video) it’ll remain in their live set list for very long. “Look At That Cadillac” is a fine jump blues with juicy saxes and piano. Though it’s more a “sax” tune, Setzer plays a very interesting rhythmic pattern in the background. “Something’s Wrong With My Radio” is a wild rockabilly and the first side (or the first half for you cd’s addicts) ends with “18 Miles To Memphis” a superb country tune with another brilliant guitar solo by Mr Setzer, followed by another brilliant solo this time on steel guitar (still by Mr Setzer) and a galloping rhythm provided by Jim & Lee. “Sexy & 17” opens the b-side. If not my fave one it’s a good song with a solid solo and it’ll make its niche in the charts. “Dig Dirty Doggie” is one of their most rockabilly effort (and fun too) with a huge slap bass. The style changes with “I won’t Stand In Your Way” a delicious ballad with a doo-woop arrangement. For this song the band is joined by the vocal group 14 Karat Soul. An accapela version exists too. “Hot Rod Gang” was undoubtedly written with Gene Vincent in mind feature a fine Cliff Gallup influenced solo. The album ends with “How Long You Wanna Live Anyway?” the closest thing to Psychobilly the Stray Cats ever played with heavy guitar and pounding drums. With 10 songs and not a weak track, the Stray Cats star was rising high. Sadly one year after the release of Rant & Rave the band disbanded and though they made different come-back with some solid songs and albums this is the end of the golden age of the Stray Cats.         Rock Therapy EMI Rock Therapy - Reckless - Race With The Devil - Looking For Someone To Love - I Wanna Cry – I’m A Rocker - Beautiful Delilah - One Hand Loose - Broken Man - Change Of Heart By 1986 each member of The Stray Cats was deeply involved in his solo stuff. Setzer has released his first solo album “The Knife Feels Like Justice” in a John Cougar vein at the beginning of the year and Lee and Jim teamed with David Bowie’s guitarist Earl Slick in Phantom, Rocker and Slick for two albums if far to be exceptional contain some interesting things if you’re curious or nostalgic of the 80’s. But the three of them were tied to EMI with, according to Setzer, a bad contract. The best way to solve it was to record this album. So from the start it wasn’t really a “new” Stray Cats album. One can suppose that each of them logically wanted to keep their best material for their solo career. This also explains why half of the songs are covers. But this album has its good moment and even a half-successful Stray Cats album is better than 90% of the rest. The 5 covers are very well done the best being Gene Vincent’s Race With The Devil but it’s true that, with the exception of Charlie Feathers’ One Hand Loose, the band is in well known territory with the likes Johnny Burnette, Buddy Holly and Gene Vincent. And Chuck Berry’s “Beautiful Delilah” was a part of their live show. When it come to the band’s songs things are a bit different. Setzer’s own “Reckless” shows the influence of his solo stuff and announces with an advance of 5 years how the Stray Cats would sound on Let’s go Faster. “Broken Man” is far better with its banjo. Setzer had already toyed with the banjo on stage playing tunes like “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” which can be heard in the solo part. Phantom and Rocker provide “I Wanna Cry”, sung by Lee, that owes more to their solo stuff than the Stray Cats. And when I listen to the guitar solo (a crappy heavy metal mush) I wouldn’t swear that Setzer plays on it but blame Earl Slick for it. Finally the three of them join forces to write “I’m A Rocker”. Nothing original here just a solid rocker with a strong train rhythm and two wild guitar solos but that’s enough. “Change Of Heart” is something different from what the Stray Cats ever released, more pop, but eventually very pleasant. After this session they returned to their respective solo career but quickly reformed the Stray Cats, this time for good, in late 1988. Fred "Virgil" Turgis         Blast Off EMI Blast off – Gina - Everybody needs rock n roll - Gene and Eddie - Rockabilly rules - Bring it back again - Slip slip slippin in - Rockabilly world - Rockin' all over the place - Nine lives In 1988, after respective solo careers not entirely convincing – to say the least – Setzer, Phantom and Rocker reunited and went back to what they do the best : rockabilly. Even the fourth Stray Cat (like George Martin could be the fifth Beatle) Dave Edmunds was back in the producer’s seat. Slim Jim Phantom said “It’s probably our most rockabilly effort” and he’s right. Rockabilly with a modern edge and a 90’s sound but the backbone is here. They cover Eddie Bond’s “Slip, Slip Slippin’ In”, and half of the songs borrow to 50’s rockabilly tunes. “Gina” is a Buddy Holly influenced song with Phantom adding a floor tom to get the Jerry Allison pattern, “Blast Off” sounds like “Jungle Rock” on speed but has good enough lyrics to be original, “Everybody Needs Rock’n’ Roll” bears more than one common point with Glen Glenn’s Everybody’s Movin and of course “Gene And Eddie”, Setzer’s tribute to these two pioneers is very effective if not very original (the song is made of various verses from Vincent and Cochran songs). “Rockabilly Rules, Ok” – the title says it all – and “Rockabilly World” reinforce the rockabilly orientation and you also have a clear attempt to chart with the more commercial “Bring It Back Again” lifted as a potential single (sadly it’ll fail to climb very high). The best track is “Nine Lives” a jazzy variation around “Stray Cats Strut”, with clever lyrics, outstanding guitar solo and vocal from Setzer. Indeed this album marks a turning point in Setzer’s vocal. He seems more confident in his talent as singer and his voice has gone deeper and more mature. This album may suffer the lack of powerful hits (like Stray Cats Strut, Rock This Town or Runaway Boys) and originality (four songs out of ten with the word rock in the title might sound a bit cliché). Nevertheless it’s a solid rock album, very well produced and most of all, the listener can feel the fun and the joy to play together. The gigs to promote this one were good, energetic and fans had big hopes for the next album. Alas, a big disappointment was waiting for them. Fred "Virgil" Turgis         Let’s Go Faster Liberation records D30519 (AUS) Toshiba-EMI TOCP 6520 (JAP) Cross of love - Town without pity - Shotgun baby - Struck by lighting twice - Thing about you- Baby don't drag me down - Tight black leather - Give it to me - Let's go faster - Keep on running - Runaway train - Gonna be your rock (Japan only) “We wanted to try something new”, is what Setzer said in 1991 about this album. Probably disillusioned by the lack of success of “Blast Off”, the Stray Cats hired producer Nile Rodgers (Chic, David Bowie, Madonna…). On the paper this association sounded quite weird, in reality it was even worse. At best the result sounds like Setzer solo stuff (and some songs come from his solo period : Cross Of Love, Thing About You) and at worse you have bad and already out of fashion 80’s new wave. Very little can be save from this wreck : “Let’s Go Faster” (nothing original but a solid rock song with a riff ala Eddie Cochran), “Give It To Me” another one written with Buddy Holly in mind and on the contemporary side “Keep On Running”. The remaining songs are mostly weak and the production is weaker. Looking for a modern sound (and a chart appealing) the band has lost its identity and its specificity. The result is the absence of the slap bass (replaced by an electric bass) a key element of their sound the same way the Gretsch and the stand-up snare are. Probably disappointed by the result the band issued “Let’s go Faster” only in Japan and Australia. Later a bootleg album appeared with the demos. The lame songs stayed lame, but at least the good ones weren’t wasted by the production. The Japanese edition has a bonus track called “Gonna Be Your Rock” which is, in my own opinion, in good place for the title of “Worst Stray Cats song ever”. Fred "Virgil" Turgis         Choo Choo Hot Fish Pump Records – 50286 Elvis On Velvet – Cry Baby – Please Don’t Touch – Sleepwalk – Lust’n’Love – Cross Of Love – Beautiful Blues – Can’t Go Back To Memphis – Jade Idol – My Heart Is A Liar – Let’s Go Faster – Mystery Train “Choo Choo Hot Fish” can be seen as the successful version of “Let’s Go Faster”. It is innovative but still with a feet in the tradition and is their most ambitious effort to date. It also sees the return of Dave Edmunds behind the glass. The opening track is representative of that mood, pumping sound, modern drums mixed with rockabilly elements for a tribute to Elvis. “Cry Baby”, a non retro melodic rockabilly tune, is an instant Stray Cats classic and has that timeless sound that makes the trio so special. And with Edmunds on second guitar and on duet vocal it reminds the good old days of “The Race Is On”. Johnny Kidd’s Please Don’t Touch rocks like hell in Setzer and Rocker setlist in their respective solo careers. Santo and Johnny’s “Sleepwalk” appears here for the first time, long before the orchestra and the Grammy Award. Though I grew rapidly tired of the heavy orchestra version, this one still sounds fresh today. “Lust’n’Love” and “Can’t Go Back To Memphis” harden the sound with heavy guitar and Jim hittin’ the drums as hard as he can. “Lust’n’ Love” keeps the backbone of rockabilly while “Can’t Go Back…” is not that far from ZZ Top and it’s very interesting to listen to this album today and compare it with Setzer’s most recent albums (“Nitro Burnin’ Funny Daddy” and “13”). Many elements were already presents 15 years earlier. I suppose that Setzer saw a potential in “Cross Of Love” as he recorded it twice before this album (once on “Let’s Go Faster” and once during his first solo stint between 86-88). The best song to appear on “Choo Choo Hot Fish” is “Beautiful Blues” co-written with Larson Paine. It’s a splendid jazzy song with rich gipsy chords, astounding solo and superb brushwork from Slim Jim. Don’t be fooled by the apparent simplicity of his drumkit this guy can really play. “Jade Idol” proves it too. This is a stunning atmospheric instrumental that would fit a James Bond movie to perfection. My definition for this kind of tune is “Music to drink Martini with…”. “My Heart Is A Liar” is a fine acoustic ballad in the vein of Chris Isaak with once again a rich assortment of percussion. The last two numbers are solid rockers. A new version of “Let’s Go Faster” far better and richer than the previous one (courtesy of Dave Edmunds and his good sound) and a “Hey we have 5 minutes left in the studio how about doing a Elvis song?” version of Mystery Train. They clearly recorded this one live and it perfectly captures the feel and the excitement of the band. It also features a yodel part from Mr Setzer. Funny to see an album opening on Elvis On Velvet and ending on Mystery Train. Sadly, “Choo Choo Hot Fish didn’t touch a large audience. Maybe it was too ambitious for a band categorized as “Rockabilly”. Fred "Virgil" Turgis