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"...The Meat Pies Are Here..."
Talk about yer British underdog unknowns. I was
the Rarities Manager at Reckless Records in Soho for nearly 20 years and Stack
Waddy albums on John Peel's Dandelion Records we're not as they say in
used-record parlance - growing on the ample side of your Aunty Godzilla's
posterior.
Listed in the 2018 Edition of the Record
Collector Rare Record Price Guide at £175 each - these grotty slices of early
Seventies boogie hedonism must have sold absolute jack at the time (with some
diddly squat thrown in for good measure). In fact I’d say I've seen actual
physical copies of their February 1971 and October 1972 LPs maybe three times
over four decades of collecting and listening. I suppose the egg 'n' greasy
chips Ten Years After boogie of Manchester's Stack Waddy just didn't blend in
with 1971 and 1972 - years dominated by sensitive singer-songwriters,
horizon-expanding Prog Rock and eventually the speckled face-glitter, lip-gloss
and boa-scarf prancing of androgynous Glam Rockers.
It didn't help either that with only two
original songs on the debut and three on the follow-up (all others were R&B
and Blues standards) and their almost deliberate grimy, lo-fi production values
courtesy of big fan British DJ John Peel - Stack Waddy felt like little more
than a glorified covers band. On the plus side – lead singer, harmonica player
and whistling shouter John Knail had a voice that was literally channelling
Captain Beefheart's vocal growl on every song - whilst guitarist Mick Stott
went Bo Diddley on his undoubtedly physically traumatised guitar. Not a bad
combo says you - and you'd be right - at times these low down, dirty, gutbucket
versions are like Budgie's no-nonsense aural assault - get in, do the gritty business
and leave. But then at other times they simply sound derivative – uninspired
and if they extend three-minute wonders to something more drawn out - overstay
their welcome entirely. The overall listen is a bit of both, truth be told. To
specifics…
This is not the first time for Cherry Red
Records and Stack Waddy – CR reissued both albums onto Remastered 'Expanded
Edition' CDs back in July 2007 with 9 Bonus Tracks on the debut and 5 on the
second. All 14 of those then Previously Unreleased versions have been gathered
onto Disc 3 here in 2017. So although there’s technically nothing new here -
Cherry Red's slimly packaged triple-disc card pack does offer up a very cool
reminder – once more making available genuinely desirable 70ts platters whilst
throwing Rarities, Out-Takes and BBC Concert Recordings into the sozzled
bargain. Here are the Repossession Blues and Milk Cow Booze...
UK released 17 November 2017 - "So Who The
Hell Is STACK WADDY? The Complete Works 1970-1972" by STACK WADDY on
Cherry Red Records CDTRED 713 (Barcode 5013929171336) is a 3CD retrospective
featuring their two studio albums "Stack Waddy" (1971) and
"Bugger Off" (1972) along with Bonus Rarities and plays out as
follows:
Disc 1 "Stack Waddy" (35:49 minutes):
1. Road Runner [Side 1]
2. Bring It To Jerome
3. Mothballs
4. Sure 'Nuff 'N' Yes I Do
5. Love Story
6. Susie Q [Side 2]
7. Country Line Special
8. Rollin' Stone
9. Mystic Eyes
10. Kentucky
Tracks 1 to 10 are their debut album
"Stack Waddy" - released February 1971 in the UK on Dandelion Records
DAN 8003 (no US issue). Produced by JOHN and SHEILA PEEL (credited at Eddie Lee
Beppeaux and Miss Pig) - it didn't chart. All tracks are cover versions except
"Mothballs" and "Kentucky" which are band compositions
Disc 2 "Bugger Off" (44:04 minutes):
1. Rosalyn [Side 1]
2. Willie The Pimp
3. I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man
4. It's All Over Now
5. Several Yards (Foxtrot)
6. You Really Got Me
7. I'm A Lover, Not A Fighter [Side 2]
8. Meat Pies 'Ave Come But The Band's Not Here
Yet!
9. It Ain't Easy
10. Long Tall Sally (Mainly)
11. Repossession Boogie
12. The Girl From Ipanema
Tracks 1 to 12 are their second and last studio
album "Bugger Off" ("Bugger Off! on the artwork, "Bugger
Off" on the label) - released October 1972 in the UK on Dandelion Records
2310 231 (no US issue).
Disc 3 "Hunt The Stag - Outtakes, Live and
Rarities" (62:39 minutes):
1. With One Leap Dan Was By Her Side, 'Muriel'
He Breathed
2. Ginny Jo
3. Hunt The Stag
4. Mystic Eyes (Alternative Version)
5. (Almost) Milk Cow Booze
6. Leavin' Here
7. I'm A Lover, Not A Fighter
8. Here Comes The Glimmer Man
9. Nadine
Tracks 1 to 9 first appeared as Previously
Unreleased Bonus Tracks on the July 2007 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue of
"Stack Waddy" on Cherry Red CD MRED 318 (Barcode 5013929131828).
Tracks 1 and 2 above recorded November 1970 at the Marquee Studios for an
aborted 2nd album - Tracks 3 to 10 recorded May 1971 for the same
10. Mama Keep Your Big Mouth Shut (Live At The
BBC, 1971)
11. Repossession Blues (Live At The BBC, 1971)
12. Lawdy Miss Clawdy...Meets Sooty 'N Sweep
(Live At The BBC, 1971)
13. Jack & Jill Meet Blind Pugh On The Spot
(Live At The BBC, 1971)
14. Mama Keep Your Big Mouth Shut
Tracks 10 to 14 first appeared as Previously
Unreleased Bonus Tracks on the July 2007 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue of
"Bugger Off" on Cherry Red CD MRED 331 (Barcode 5013929133129).
Tracks 10 to 13 recorded liv at The Paris Theatre, 22 July 1971 and broadcast
12 September 1971 by the BBC. Track 14 is a studio version of "Mama Keep
Your Big Mouth Shut" that first appeared as an exclusive track on the 1972
Dandelion Records Sampler LP "There Is Some Fun Going Forward" on
Dandelion 2485 021
STACK WADDY was:
JOHN KNAIL – Lead Vocals, Shouts, Whistles and
Harmonica
MICK STOTT – Guitars
STUART BANHAM – Bass
STEVE REVELL - Drums on "Stack Waddy"
JOHN GROOM – Drums on "Bugger Off"
The slim outer card slipcase houses three
singular card repro sleeves (as listed above) and a well laid-out, expertly
annotated 20-page booklet with new September 2017 liner notes from NIGEL CROSS.
Each of the single card sleeves (no gatefold for the debut unfortunately)
contains a CD with the three variants of the Dandelion Records label - the two
CBS-distributed colours and the Polydor-distributed variant for the 3rd. The
booklet's a feast of memorabilia photos - colour snaps of the four-piece in
(drunken) full flow, UK label repo's of the rare 45s for "Road
Runner" and "You Really Got Me" along with a unique Euro pic
sleeve on Polydor for "You Really Got Me" featuring the cover of
Zappa's "Willie The Pimp" on the flipside. There's Dandelion Records
headed letters announcing the debut 45 of "Road Runner" for July 1970
with the album supposed to arrive in September 1970 (it was delayed until
February 1971) and even a poster of the 'Progressive Blues Festival' at the
Pavilion Gardens in Buxton, Derby where DJ shaker and maker John Peel saw,
loved and signed the band. Peel’s liner notes for the second LP are here as is
John Tobler’s article for the underground Zig Zag magazine reviewing the 2nd
album in October 1972. The band’s Bassist Stuart Banham also contributes
reminiscences.
There is no mention anywhere of mastering so
I'm presuming these are the 2007 versions (no engineers named). These LPs were
always lo-fi and that's reflected in the Remaster - but the recordings are
still punchy and well done with Disc 3 offering up a tantalising prospect of
what Stack Waddy might have been had they had more time to crack the markets or
perhaps even just used live shows as their released LPs.
Overall - you can't help thinking that much
like Humble Pie who would have to wait until November 1971’s "Performance:
Rockin' The Fillmore" to unleash their explosive brew on a stunned world
(a full four studio albums since 1969 behind them on two different labels) -
Stack Waddy must have been an awesome thing on a good night in the live
environment. But even die-hard fans of Blues Boogie and Hard Rock would have to
admit that both LPs seem ever so slightly muted in terms of sheer excitement –
something lost in translation.
The self-titled debut opens with the album's
one and only single "Road Runner" - a cover of the Bo Diddley (Eugene
McDaniels) classic paired with "Kentucky" on the B-side - one of only
two band originals on the album (penned by all four). Dandelion S 5119 was UK
issued 24 July 1970 but received little airplay and reputedly had distribution
problems because of a change over from CBS to Warner Brothers. Up next came
another Diddley Daddy connection - the Jerome Green song "Bring It To
Jerome" which had been covered by Diddley on his 1958 Chess Records debut
album "Bo Diddley". What strikes you about the opening duel salvo is
two things - Knail's rasping almost hysterical Beefheart kind of voice and the
raw nature of the band's performance as loosely captured by Peel. Stack Waddy
reminded you of booze and bars and bands playing with cheap equipment rammed up
too loud. Their cover of Jethro Tull's "Love Story" is a clever take
on a familiar song, the same for the Cyril Davis shuffler "Country Line
Special" - but their decidedly ordinary version of "Susie Q" was
done better by Creedence over on Liberty Records (originally a hit for Dale
Hawkins). And in a song that should have been bread and butter to the band -
their Muddy Waters "Rolling Stone" version is oddly unappetising for
such a bulletproof standard. The day is saved by Van Morrison's Them and their
"Mystic Eyes" - here turned into a six-minute droning guitar-blaster
the Belfast band would have been utterly bemused by. Stack Waddy's debut album
ends on "Mothballs" – the album's other original - a sort of second
rate Chuck Berry knockoff that's good rather than great and has some really
naff production.
While the debut could lay claim to a sheer
passion that still reverberates to this day – the band should have seen the
writing on the wall. Without their own tunes and an audience for that
crash-bang-wallop Stack Waddy sound – LP number two would be the end of them –
and it was. Peel rejected the aborted ‘Marquee Studio’ sessions for the second
platter as 'too polished' and we can hear them on Disc 3 (he actually had a
point). But despite its derivative and slightly desperate title ("Bugger
Off! for God's sake) – their second slice of re-booted covers and three
originals is far better in my mind that the debut.
For sure a band doing "The Girl From
Ipanema" or "Long Tall Sally" in 1972 was already very old hat -
Sha Na Na territory – even if Stack Waddy make a convincing and
original-sounding stab at both. But the covers of Zappa's "Willie The
Pimp" and The Kinks incendiary "You Really Got Me" shine here as
does the incredibly Punky opener "Rosalyn" where Stack Waddy feel
like The Stooges had a baby with The New York Dolls. There's a wonderful
down-home boogie to the Bobby Womack standard "It's All Over Now"
(made more famous by The Stones and Rod Stewart) and I can't help thinking it
could have been a shoe-in for a second single but by the album’s release Dandelion
Records had run out of money and the band run out of love and stamina. Not that
it shows on the LP. Their own "Several Yards (Foxtrot)" is pure dirty
Rock - grungy guitar over on the left - wailing Harmonica on the right with
Knail giving it some "I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby" growls. A
fantastic screw-it-all boogie and chug takes "Meat Pies..." close to
Ten Years After at their dirty best (another good original from the band). The
vocals are all over the place on "It Ain't Easy" (like Lee Brilleaux
of the Feelgoods doing a rough demo) - another messy little boogie beast that
feels like fun even now (think Status Quo circa "In My Chair" with
Harmonicas). Five and half minutes of their own "Repossession Boogie"
shows just how 'Ten Years After' Stack Waddy were – a fantastic little rocker
that mixes in Bluesy let-that-boy-boogie-woogie lyrics with huge power chords
and frantic Harp – the band on fire as they my-mama-told-me that sucker.
The first nine tracks of Disc 3 are the guts of
the aborted second LP and as good as the 'when did you blow in' "Ginny
Jo" is - both it (a Ten Years After vibe), the pained "(Almost) Milk
Cow Booze" and the stodgy "Hunt The Stag" (a sort of poor man's
Black Sabbath) are weak - so it was a smart decision to go with what was
released. Their 3:45 minute take on Chuck Berry's "Nadine" sounds
like Stack Waddy have just become an embryonic Dr. Feelgood - great fun.
Another welcome inclusion for heavy-heavy 70ts nuts is the very grungy studio
version of "Mama Keep Your Big Mouth Shut" that turned up as an
exclusive on the Dandelion Records LP sampler "There Is Some Fun In Going
Forward" - the kind of snarling beast that would get some bands bottled.
STACK WADDY will not be for everyone and that's
for damn sure - but those who love their Rock with a nasty, lowdown snarl
should look no further...
