Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick

(Stiff, 1979)

BULLETIN! Pub rocker goes disco 12”-style with some funky sax skronk ’n’ cocaine danciness! “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick” is a big improvement on the chummy rockarolla that makes up the first Ian Dury record, its mad vocal bark and mindless Blondie groove eschewing the self-conscious Bonzo Dog cleverness that makes the more “British” Dury material so painful and unfun. “There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever Bastards” falls into the aforementioned too-thunk trap on the B-side, its amiable music-hall toot being a total studied drag, but the A is freaked and funky enough to make the whole thing a fine use of vinyl. For those who want dancekicks, it’s better than mod bods like, say, !!!. Nighttime decadence with a goofy wink.