Ian Dury: “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll” (1977)
Who needs the Sex Pistols when you’ve got sex & drugs & rock & roll?
Kronomyth 0.1: So much for taking the high road.
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll is the perfect introduction to Ian Dury. It’s catchy, clever, droll, perverse yet perfectly guileless in its perversity. Dury is as much storyteller as singer, a point made plain on Razzle in My Pocket, which recounts the story of Dury stealing a pocket-sized men’s magazine as a child. The 12-inch single version included an old Kilburn and the High-Roads number, You’re More Than Fair, and another tribute to Gene Vincent, Sweet Gene Vincent. “Sweet Gene Vincent” shifts gears in mid-song an interesting number that re-appeared on Dury’s first album New Boots and Panties. “You’re More Than Fair” works on several levels, literally, as Dury goes down on a girl as they go up his apartment. It would’ve been banned by the BBC long before Dury ever got to the line “I shall caress your clitoris as we reach the toilet.” Pure poetry, that. Dury’s no garden-variety pervert; he’s an artist with a crackerjack band behind him who just happens to think about women’s lingerie more than most of us—or more than most of us will admit, anyway. Rock on, Mr. Dury, rock on.
Original 7-inch single version
A1. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (Ian Dury/Chaz Jankel) (3:06)
B1. Razzle in My Pocket (True Story) (2:54)
Original 12-inch single version
A1. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (Ian Dury/Chaz Jankel) (3:06)
B1. Sweet Gene Vincent (Ian Dury/Chaz Jankel) (3:10)
B2. You’re More Than Fair (Ian Dury/Russell Hardy) (2:57)
The Players
Ian Dury (vocal, drums on B1) with Charlie Charles (drums on A1), Chaz Jankel (guitars and bass on B1), Norman Watt-Roy (bass on A1). B2 produced by Peter Jenner.
The Plastic
Released on 7-inch and 12-inch single on August 26, 1977 in the UK (Stiff, BUY-17), France (Stiff, 640.132/750.004), and the Netherlands (Stiff, SRS-510.032) with picture sleeve.
