In late 1980 I was cooler than you’ll ever be. I owned my local scene and establishing myself as ‘the kid’, got away with bloody murder. At age 14 I had the tough boys sneaking me in to punk clubs and assisting me down fire escapes to avoid the raids that happened on a far too regular basis. The most frightening of skin heads were kind and almost brotherly to me, I’m pretty sure they just figured I was nuts. I let them sleep on my floor and I was fearless enough to dodge through alleys to get things done.
I had a slight New York presence, that girl with the cat or that girl with ‘insert band name here’ and as for Boston? I had already determined them the weaker of the cities and was full on hating them. The Rat Skeller were for drunken Mics—yeah 14, what a meany I was.
But there I was on weeknights glued to college radio and if I wasn’t in their studio I was plugged in at home to hear what was new and make sure I judged it first. I had a DJ friend at a local college who looked like the dude from Sparks with his tiny moustache and sported a skinny tie with piano keys on it….wtf? Anyway, he was a way cool cat and on his night to spin the turntables (cuz yes, there were records) he popped in this little ditty. By the time it was time to flip the LP I was long long gone. I was a sucker for the pretty face and the drums just amped it up.
Adam and The Ants were ‘dandy’ ‘new romantic’ ‘new wavers’ and served up sound that not only was intoxicating but energetic and powerful. What the fuck was this pirate shit anyway? I adored the look and starting that day I hit up every thrift shop for ruffled shirts and would wear them open and torn like a ship wench… yeah.
So much so that at one point I had portions of my shoulder length hair in semi dreads that were twisted and tied with fishhooks and sinkers in them (fyi it hurts like hell if you get your hand caught in a hook) Always a bad ass my very first spray painted tag was “Ant Music for Ant People” the ‘A’s in circles for anarchy on the side of my Junior High School. I didn’t go there anymore at 14 but it was closer to my house and I went to a poshy private high school so it wouldn’t have been wise to spray there.
Anyway let’s have a listen to “Kings of The Wild Frontier”
“Dog Eat Dog”- hoe lee moley what the hell is this? I remember the double drum beat just killing me. ‘There’s a warrior without his pride”, to a kid fighting imaginary demons, this was a great rally song. The guitar was somewhat surf beat too if you think about it. But let’s face it s the drums that made Adam and The Ants so exotic . That tribal thing. Aye yae yae. The woops and whistles only added to the vibe.
“Antmusic” YES! That intro. To this day it makes me want to lace up the boots and stomp something. It’s weird now its nearly marching band in its tempo. “it's so sad , when you’re young to be told your having fun’. The lines condemning ‘their’ music to ‘try another flavor’ was exactly what my mind was thinking. “Do us all a favor”, this was the rally cry of the punk rock geek.
“Magnificent 5” This song is sorta stupid I used to skip it. It was far too story time and the lyrics ran over the music. Even today I think it’s the weakest song “he who writes in blood, don’t want to be read’, and the ‘must be learned by heart’ were lame catchphrases. Yeah this one sucked but thankfully it was followed by one of the best songs of all time- and apparently this was just for the US version. I rarely bought imports Id ‘borrow them’, so I only ahs the US version of this album. The tune?
“Los Rancheros” I thought a ranchero was an egg. No lie. So that song was pretty funny. The ‘oi oi oi’ start pleased my skinhead friends but otherwise the sing-along was lame. I still loved it simply because of the near yodel of the chorus. Adam had a way of making his voice exhaust as if out of air, it’s clear in this song and the corny bullet sounds are comical. This whole tune is rather silly.
“Physical (You’re So), ok drop um. This is dark night drunk sex, the kind where you wake up and can’t find your undergarments. I’m pretty sure that was the intent. Nails down the back, sweat soaked sheets set to music. But like all Antmusic there is the corny element, something just bit ‘off’. In this particular song, it’s the conversational element, ‘when you where the dress, you know the short one’. This again is antmusic for nerd people. Still smokin’ sexy though. Shoulda kept it an instrumental.
Why was that followed with ‘Feed Me To The Lions”? Gone are the cool drums replaced by vocals too clearly amped up. He’s not really even saying anything profound but in this song the vocal levels are stronger than the music and to me a huge mistake. Adam was a singer over GREAT music. Adam just singing and doing his own back up ‘to the lions!’, sounds cheap like they recorded it in his garage (next to Dave grohls bike?)
“Ants Invasion” I adored this song and I’m so happy I relistened to the album for the piece. What a dark nearly sinister sound. The whole ‘ant ‘ thing was pretty genius. Again this song showcases that way cool surfy type guitar and the drums came back! Again- can we get a ‘hellyeah’ for the insanity of the drum work on this album!
“Killer in the Home” is a direct rip off of The Surfari’s, but I didn’t know that then. “Kill- AH in the hoo ome”. When Adam stops being a sex bomb and tries to be cool he fails horribly. His music is from the pelvis- it should remain there
“Don’t Be Square (Be There), now this is more like it. Dance music with silly meaning. It’s hard to be seriously when you have a white stripe across your nose. “you might not like it now but you will’, I remember singing this to my uncool friends- they still didn’t like it after time BUT I did have a friend who just lusted after Adam so well I did spread the word on his greatness. “The Future will not stand still’ and who the hell is Dirk.
“Jolly Roger” reminds me a lot of Johny Rotten. That whole ‘it's your money that we want and your money we shall have’, sounds closely to ‘ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated’. This was still a fun song to play on the bar juke box and watch the Mohawks shout out the lyrics. Wow.. I forgot about that. There was a small corner bar I would go to where you could shoot darts and was decorated ala Brit Pub. This was in the jukebox. I spent a lot of quarters on it.
“The Human Beings” sucked- skip it.
“Press Darlings” by far the best song on the album. ‘We don’t play your little games’, the song pretty much rocketed this album to the top of my rotation. From what I know now this was only on the US version. These ‘dandy’ boys in pirate/pilgrim gear showed the arrogance of drag queens while still being men. That orientation questionable element made them all the more sexy. Adam could have gone either way- he was loved either way. His earlier stuff was way hotter but by the time he made it to the States he had cleaned it up an made it marketable. Well, to the college independents and 14 year old girls.
The Title Track “Kings of The Wild Frontier” closed the album right where it started. Deep dirty drumming and chanting lyrics. This is what Antmusic was and if this were just an EP with it would have been all the better. Looking back on the days when this was new are some pretty funny memories and those around me scoffed at my love of this new wave stuff, and from both sides.
My hardcore friends thought it amusing cuz if it wasn’t ‘1-2-3-4”, it was poser and my mainstream rocker friends thought I was from outer space for not loving Journey. It was a tough place to be, but I stuck it with the ruffians cuz it was more fun and as far out as I was, I was still always in.
Adam Ant hit some rough times,. Poor thing. He seems to be on the up and is touring the US this autumn. I’m glad it was scary to see his emotional decline in the news a few years ago. You want your idols to remain strong and proud, and swinging from a Jolly Roger. Antmusic for Antpeople, indeed.