LADIES FIRST: "Mind Your Own Business" - Delta 5 > Chicks On Speed > Pigface

LADIES FIRST respects the classic songs that 'she did first'.

Today, everyone needs to "Mind Your Own Business".

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Straight out of Leeds, with Funk-influenced PostPunk like their compatriots Gang Of Four, here is Delta 5.

DELTA 5 -"Mind Your Own Business" (1979)



Here's Chicks On Speed getting into their business.

CHICKS ON SPEED -"Mind Your Own Business" (2000)



Also getting their noses in it are Pigface, a rotating supergroup centered around Martin Atkins and William Rieflin.

PIGFACE -"Mind Your Own Business" (2003)



Others on the block automatically horning include this band. (Note the cheeky use of the bass from "I Hear It Through The Grapevine").

AUTOMATIC -"Mind Your Own Business" (2019)



"No."


© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• Kraftwerk > Trouble Funk > Afrika Bambaataa > New Order

• DOCTOR WHO Theme - Delia Derbyshire > Gary Glitter > KLF > Human League

• "Chase the Devil Out of Earth!" - Max Romeo > Lee Perry > The Prodigy

• LADIES FIRST: "Kultes Klares Wasser" - Malaria! > Chicks On Speed


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

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The BIG PAYBACK: Thank you, Aaron!

"But you won't fool the children of the revolution!/ YEAH!"
-T-Rex, 1972

Music can change your life. Here's two music players and a story to prove it.

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A A R O N

This is a Spotify player. Join up for free here.


A friend is a door to more. They open up your life.


The two tricky things in life are money and access. A lot of times, without one you don't get the other. I spent much of the '80s reading about albums I couldn't hear, flipping through LPs in record shops that I couldn't buy. The library, the radio, and music videos were my best friends (being free and all), until I started working at record stores to feed my habit.

In the early '90s a record store amigo named Aaron started giving me mixtapes. He was pulling together lots of stuff I'd heard tangentially or just heard about. They came with great titles like "Far Out In The Red Sky", "It Used To Be Alright But Things Got Strange", and "Trailing On Next To Sick". Cornucopias of Agitfolk, Garage Rock, Dream Pop, Psychedelia, Glam, German Prog, Punk, PostPunk, Shoegaze, Grunge, Neo-Psyche, and Noize.

Aaron had that core understanding...that everything was related, interconnected and ever-evolving through hybrids. In pinball fashion the songs linked the '60s through to the '90s. They were new universes looped through plastic and magnetic tape.

Aaron drew gothic Beardsley-esque covers for each, and wrote extensive liner notes in pencil. Another born culture maven and archivist! His knowledge for a young person was astonishing, guided of course by his boundless enthusiasm. Thank god for those folks.

Whenever I hear The Creation, Captain Beefheart, Brian Wilson, Syd Barrett, The MC5, Marc Bolan, Mudhoney, Bikini Kill, or Jon Spencer, I give a silent thanks to my friend for the gift.

Aaron's mixtapes opened up my mind and expanded my life. I want to thank him for that on his birthday, and pass the songs on to you here. Listen to the music player above and free your mind.

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In The Spirit Of
A A R O N

But every door leads to windows!

Here is another music player of bands and songs that I then explored on my own over the years to the present, all in the sonic spirit of the vistas Aaron opened my doors to.

They are in basic order from the '50s to now: a howling blow-out of Rockabilly, Merseybeat, Garage Rock, Girls In The Garage, Psychedelic, Dream Pop, Glam, Funk Rock, Punk, PostPunk, Paisley Underground, College Rock, Grunge, Riot Grrrl, Noize, Neo Garage, and Brian Wilson disciples.


A splendid time is guaranteed for all! Open up a friend and pass it on...


This is a Spotify player. Join up for free here.

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"You heard the words of Aaron
He spoke the truth in these things
Both great and small"
-The Move, 1971


© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• Thank You, Greg!, with Music Player!


• MUSIC 101: The 1960s, with Music Player!

• MUSIC 101: The 1970s, with Music Player!

• MUSIC 101: The 1980s, with Music Player!


• Revolution 1950s: The Big Damn Bang of Rock'n'Roll!

• DON'T TREAD ON ME: The Original Punk of 1960s Garage Rock, with Music Player!

• HERE IN PURPLE VELVET NOW: The Psychedelic Revolution, with 2 Music Players!

• BEATLESQUE Songs: 1968-esque, with Music Player!


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

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THE BIG PAYBACK: Thank you, Greg

"I'm the Antenna
Catching vibration
You're the transmitter
Give information!"
- KRAFTWERK

This is a Spotify player. Join up for free here.

Someone always wanders into your life and changes everything. When it's for the better, we should thank them.

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G R E G

My friend Greg expanded my whole musical outlook. We were teenagers in a remote, conservative area circa 1980. Greg was a mischievous lunatic who would do anything without any qualms.

While I was recoiling from the slick corporate music scene into The Beatles and counterculture politics, Greg was the first to embrace Punk and New Wave. This seemed at odds, but Greg exposed to me to a range of new stuff that was advancing off of what I already loved.

Stephen, David, me, and Greg (in mock-Bowie-mannequin pose).

These were the real Indie years.

You could only see Rock acts on late night shows, sometimes. Magazines were few and cost too much. I taught myself the history reading back issues of Rolling Stone for free at the library. Verrry few Punk and New Wave acts were carried by major labels, and were promoted haphazardly at best. No college radio shows yet, no clubs, no tour circuit, no video channels, and almost no press, just obscure ads in fanzines and word of mouth. Bands were putting out indie records, but you had to mail-order them on pure faith, an impossible expense for most teenagers. Where I was, in the rural outskirts, everyone was still trying to process or erase the '60s, and this new '80s futurism stuff just seemed like evil alien shadows on the far horizon.

That's why Greg loved it. He went to all the little record stores and somehow ordered all of these. The few majors and many of the minor labels. He was ahead of the curve on everything. Whatever tore open the envelope, that's what he had to do.

The Clash. The Cars. The B-52's. Elvis Costello. Split Enz. Plastics. Gary Numan. Gang Of Four. The Jam. Talking Heads. Punk and New Wave and PostPunk and Psychobilly and Coldwave and Power Pop. Usually before they had been labeled.

We watched the new acts on maverick TV like "Saturday Night Live", the stellar "SCTV" from Canada, or most often on "Fridays", the L.A.-based competition. When Split Enz performed "I Got You" on "Fridays", it was the exact moment where my ambivalence faded and I was converted entirely to the new breed.

Sadly, my friend has passed on. To honor him on what would have been his birthday, this is a music playlist of all the wonderful music that Greg expanded my life with. When I hear these songs, Greg is eternal and as fearless as ever.

Thank you, my friend, for enriching our lives.

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"I wanna bite the hand that feeds me
I wanna bite that hand so badly
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools
Tryin' to anaesthetise the way that you feel"

- ELVIS COSTELLO


"She opened strange doors
that we'd never close again"

- DAVID BOWIE


"Electric angel rock and roller
I hear what you're playing"

- THE CARS


"By day we run, by night we dance, we do
I'm in love with the coming race
I've got the best, I'll take all I can get
I'm living for the Eighties"

- KILLING JOKE


© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• Thank You, Greg!, with Music Player!

• MUSIC 101: The 1980s, with Music Player!


• "Girl U Want" - Devo > Soundgarden > Polysics > Boyskout

• LADIES FIRST: "Demolition Man" - Grace Jones > The Police > Sting

• "Nightclubbing" - Iggy Pop > Human League > Grace Jones > Nine Inch Nails > Oasis

• "Love Is The Drug" - Roxy Music > Chic > Grace Jones > Duran Duran


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

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ROCK Sex: "Boredom"/ "Rip It Up" - Buzzcocks > Orange Juice

ROCK Sex lives a strange stray line.

Today, why all Indie bands exist because of The Buzzcocks.


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The Sex Pistols bulldozed the way for anyone to be a band. But The Buzzcocks proved you could record and release your own record.

The "Spiral Scratch" EP (1977) was self-recorded and released on their own label, the first Punk indie label ever. 'Do-It-Yourself' was the new revolution. Every upstart DIY act since owes them a debt of gratitude.

Here's their first single "Boredom", a deadpan and dead cheeky blast of energized ennui. Singer Howard Devoto makes sly puns while guitarist Pete Shelley subverts guitar heroes with a bored one-note solo that enthralls!

BUZZCOCKS -"Boredom" (1977)



The Punk ethos was to fearlessly try anything. Beyond the classic sound, the scene flourished into myriad styles with as many names.

Scotland's Orange Juice were wringers of the New Pop, which brought sunny melodicism back into the mix with askew angles. Amid the Disco chops and arch lyrics, they throw in lines from "Boredom" and a playful vamp on the guitar solo (at 2:10).

ORANGE JUICE -"Rip It Up" (1982)



The phrase "Rip it up and start again" perfectly summarized the PostPunk explosion of musics, and was used as the title to author Simon Reynbold's crucial overview, "Rip It Up And Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984".



© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• DON'T TREAD ON ME: The Original Punk of 1960s Garage Rock, with Music Player!


• The Kinks > Sex Pistols > The Kinks

• "I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone" - Paul Revere > The Monkees > Sex Pistols

• "Don't Gimme Me No Lip Child" - Dave Berry > Sex Pistols


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

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ROCK Sex: "Suzie Q" - Dale Hawkins > Creedence Clearwater Revival

ROCK Sex likes 'the way you walk and the way you talk'.

Creativity compounds itself in unexpected directions. Here's another example.

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The original version of "Susie Q" was by unsung swampabilly guitarist Dale Hawkins.

(The slamming guitar break by James Burton shows how Rock'n'Roll was the Punk of the times).

DALE HAWKINS -"Susie Q" (1957)



In the early to mid-'60s, it was subsequently covered by luminaries like Lonnie Mack, Gene Vincent, The Rolling Stones, The Everly Brothers, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and even the early Velvet Underground.

But it was the epic workout by Creedence Clearwater Revival on their debut album that many folks remember so well that they think it's CCR's song.

CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL -"Suzie Q" (1968)



Glam queen Suzi Quatro built her style out of '50s boogie-woogie and leather, and it was an easy association to make likening her to a real-life "Suzie Q":

SUZI QUATRO -"Can the Can" (1973)



Suzi's image clearly inspired Joan Jett and Gaye Advert, and her name may have inspired the Punk Suzie Q, SIOUXSIE SIOUX; on their first gig, they were called 'Suzie and The Banshees' before the spelling change.

© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• 1950s PUNK: Sex, Thugs, and Rock'n'Roll!, with Music Player

• 1950s Rock, A: The '60s Disciples, with Music Player
• 1950s Rock, B: The '70s Disciples, with Music Player

• HERE IN PURPLE VELVET NOW: The Psychedelic Revolution, with 2 Music Players!


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: A Music Player Checklist

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ROCK Sex: When WIRE Met Elastica

ROCK Sex sees how "a vital connection is made".

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I love Elastica because they were the sum result of a lot of great influences gelling into something unique.

Every act is the sum of their parts, it's true, but sometimes someone pulls it together just right for you. It's the difference between laying all the ingredients out on the table versus cooking them with your own touch.

Elastica expanded on some melodies from the great PostPunk band Wire, and get no end of grief for it from literalists. Whatever. I enjoy what they brought to already fine songs.

WIRE -"Three Girl Rhumba" (1977)


ELASTICA -"Connection" (1994)




WIRE -"I Am the Fly" (1977)


ELASTICA -"Line Up" (1995)


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Perversely, in light of all the flak they got in '95, Elastica returned in 2000 to also do a couple more songs almost willfully interpolating melodies from Wire.


WIRE -"Kidney Bingos" (1977)


ELASTICA -"Nothing Stays the Same" (2000)




WIRE -"Lowdown" (1988)


ELASTICA -"Human" (2000)



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Elastica's leader, Justine Frischmann also admired the arpeggiated use of guitars in the riff for this song...

THE STRANGLERS -"No More Heroes" (1978)


Though The Stranglers didn't get any grief from Bach fans for their baroque moves, Elastica didn't escape so lightly in kind for using the same playing approach with their own unique song.

ELASTICA -"Waking Up" (1995)




I say it's all good. We're lucky to have had each and get such great work between them.



© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• "Boredom"/ "Rip It Up" - Buzzcocks > Orange Juice

• LADIES FIRST: "Mind Your Own Business" - Delta 5 > Chicks On Speed > Pigface


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

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ROCK Sex: "White Lines" - Liquid Liquid > Grandmaster Melle Mel

ROCK Sex says, "Who needs to think when your feet just go?"

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Here's an example of the osmosis of that explosive early '80s New York scene.

LIQUID LIQUID -"Cavern" (1983)


And then in response...

GRANDMASTER MELLE MEL -"White Lines (Don't Do It)" (1983)



© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• "APACHE", HipHop's Sacred Secret Beat! - Bongo Band > Bambaataa > EVERYONE EVER

• "Amen Break" - How 6 Seconds From 1969 Propel All Modern Music

• "Soul Makossa" - Manu Dibango > Trovaioli > Michael Jackson

• "Good Times!" - Chic > SugarHill Gang > Queen > Defunkt > Ting Tings

• ROCK Orgy: "Genius of Love"


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: A Music Player Checklist

Read:
• • Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980–1983, by Tim Lawrence

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ROCK Sex: "Too Many Creeps" - Bush Tetras > Romeo Void > Sonic Youth

ROCK Sex would 'be warm in your coat'.

Here's another relay race...

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Many bands from the early '80s New York scene had varied takes on using funky rhythms with punky guitar, such as Talking Heads, James White And The Contortions, Defunkt, The Bloods, ESG, Liquid Liquid, Material, and Lizzy Mercier Descloux.

BUSH TETRAS kicked out the jams with this rebuke on urban living, propelled by the jarring jang of the deeply undersung guitarist Pat Place and bounding pound of bassist Laura Kennedy:

BUSH TETRAS -"Too Many Creeps" (1980)



Pat's guitar style had a strong impact on San Francisco band ROMEO VOID, who hit the big time with this poison pill, featuring the barbed lyrics of singer Debora Iyall:

ROMEO VOID -"Never Say Never" (1981)



Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth was responding to the misogynistic imagery in LL Cool J's "Walk Like a Panther" video with this next classic (featuring a raised fist of support from guest Chuck D of Public Enemy). But SY got their start in that same CBGB's scene of New York, and the "I don't wanna's" and rhythmic dissonance in this song really recall the Bush Tetras' song:

SONIC YOUTH -"Kool Thing" (1990)




© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• "Oh Bondage, Up Yours!" - X-Ray Spex > Free Kitten > Chicks On Speed > Pussy Riot

• LADIES FIRST: "Mind Your Own Business" - Delta 5 > Chicks On Speed > Pigface

• LADIES FIRST: "Kultes Klares Wasser" - Malaria! > Chicks On Speed


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

Read:
• • Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980–1983, by Tim Lawrence

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