The Stray Cats album ‘Built For Speed’ came to the US right in time for me. Deeply in to the punk scene it was a refreshing and up beat sound to hear when the world got too heavy, it also gave me lead foot. There are some albums just made for drivng and ‘BFS” was named perfectly. In the summer of ’82 I literally greased myself in to a pair of black leather cigarette legs jeans and a ripped up Cats tshirt, teased my hair into a massive heap of madness, smeared fire engine red lipstick on, strapped on heels I couldn’t even take a step in.. hopped in that car and drove to New Haven to see the boys at Toads Place. Ahh.. 15.
Brian Setzer, Slim Jim Phantom and Lee Rocker were pomp’d up greaser boys with pasty skin. Setzer had the most adorable speech impediment (still does) and movie star looks. My school friends loved “Rock This Town”, the albums opening track. I thought it sucked. I loved the bass in it though, that’s about it. I was actually just happy those broads appreciated something worth hearing considering in their cars all I got were The Doors and Pink Floyd- what the hell was that crap?
Enough.. ok lets track by track this thing, DaddyOH
“Rock This Town”, this is the tune that got the Cats on the map. A doorbell ring for the United States, almost a parody video. It’s horrible, skip it.
“Built For Speed” has that nice hollow Carl Perkins happening. This actually sounds rockabilly Slim Jims bass is flawless and never ending “haven’t gotten round to getting’ license plates’, this song was sung too loud at God awful hours.
“Rev It Up and Go”, this vocal always came across as somewhat odd. Yes, its Setzer ‘this old heap just won’t die’ This tune actually gave Lee Rocker a moment in the spotlight, He was the least dynamic bass and snare drummer. Poor kid always in the back while Setzer and Phantom hogged up front. But the minimalistic drum set makes this tune air drum worthy. Despite that odd lyric pitch.
“Stray Cat Strut” another winner on the radio and another tune I hated. In retrospect perhaps I made it my goal to hate whatever anyone else liked-that’s it. This song still annoys me to this day though…
“Little Miss Prissy” is a kick ass old school rock and roll tune that let everyone know Setzer could play a guitar. “She loves but you aint worth the time” This tune is a great story and if you can pick only one song from Built For Speed I suggest this and one other- that we haven’t gotten to yet. Shh.. this one is dance worthy.
“Rumble In Brighton” was the song of my summer. The bad boy visuals had my attention and the odd Brit references made this American Rockabilly all the more cool. Yeah I know they broke in the UK first but still- they brought back some decent slang.
The ascending guitar totally amps this up. ‘GO CAT GO’, that and the fact that I hung out with way too many skinheads during that time ‘lookin’ mighty mean’, made it all the more familiar.
“Runaway Boys” was a tune my best friend loved. She wailed that one so much so that I got sick of it. Now all 30 years later it’s really a cool tune, still sick of it though. I’ll give it another 30 years.
“Lonely Summer Nights”, reminded me of the TV show Happy Days, but the croon! So pretty. Imagine this in contrast to the bands I was most listening to such as Fear and Crass and you can understand why I found it so refreshing. Aww, listen to Setzer doing the gimme the girl back blues.
“Baby Blue Eyes” picked it all back up again. It was all and good but the screams became a joke. Sounding like he was getting a band aid pulled off or something. Just too much to not annoy. But an upbeat simplistic pure rockabilly song.
“Double Talkin’ Baby”, this is a great dance ditty. “please make up your mind”, yeah….The thing about the Stray Cats is there aint much variation. A bass pluck is all it takes to change a mediocre song to a great (or terrible) one. What I find is that as happy as this music makes me- it’s certainly not something I could listen to on a regular basis. This is summer cruise night sound tracking.
“You Don’t Believe Me” sucks so bad that I don’t think I heard it all the way through until today. That needle jumped this crap. Still sucks same goes for “Jeanie Jeanie Jeanie”, cork it.
Live the band was intense. I swear one of the best shows I had ever gone too. So much so that I actually removed the giant red heels to dance around. Oh and if you’re wondering how I was able to get in to Toads at age 15, I can only respond that I had been going there since I was 13 so someone wasn’t minding that door. Thanks Guys! Shows were 18, 19 or 21+ in those days, yup, didn’t bother me a smidge.