Angry Young Men

Clive Gregson and Any Trouble

One of the greatest consequences of the punk explosion of the late 80’s is that it opened the door for a lot of musicians who, while not exactly punk, were edgy and different and probably wouldn’t have gotten a shot at making a record before this cataclysmic event.  These artists were not sloppy amateurs reveling in freedom and rebellion, many of them were accomplished musicians and adults who had something intelligent and interesting to say but who brought the energy and DIY ethic of punk to their work.  Many of these artists have been categorized as “angry young men” as a direct comparison to the explosion in youthful authors in England in the 50’s who were referred to by this same name. 

Probably the best known of these angry young men was Declan McManus, AKA Elvis Costello.  Costello was not exactly the spitting image of a rock star in general or a punk rocker in particular; skinny, dorky, and bespectacled, he had worked as a computer programmer before launching his music career.  And while his work was light years away from the rough, raw, sloppy sound of classic punk, Elvis Costello brought a fierce passion and savage wit to his work that drew upon the energy and feel of punk.  Interestingly, on his first album, My Aim Is True, he was not backed by what would become his long-standing band the Attractions; instead, his backing band was Clover, which was essentially the band that would eventually back Huey Lewis as the News and achieve huge success in the 80’s with their working class bar blues rock.  This remains one of Elvis Costello’s greatest albums, with several outstanding cuts, including “Less Than Zero” (which was used as the title for Bret Easton Ellis’ brilliant first novel), “Watching the Detectives”, and “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes”.  

For his second album, This Year’s Model, Costello put together his own backing band, the Attractions, and released an album that was even more rocking and wild than his debut.  “Pump It Up” and “Radio Radio” are high energy blasts of 60’s garage rock; the organ on “Pump It Up” giving it the feel of 60’s garage anthems like “96 Tears”, and of course “Radio Radio” is his scathing attack on the complacency of radio programs in the 70’s. 

Costello would go on to release a flood of albums with the Attractions into the mid 80’s and as a solo artist to the present day, which explored nearly every niche of modern rock, including pub rock, punk/new wave, soul, torch songs, blues, country, folk, and traditional.  I particularly like “Everyday I Write The Book” off Punch the Clock and “Veronica” off Spike.  But to me his best work was his early frenetic stuff off the first two albums, which was so angular and intense and showed that punk/new wave could be as intelligent and literate (but still passionate) as anything by respected pre-punk singer/songwriters like Randy Newman.

Another artist who started as an angry young man but who swiftly moved beyond the limitations of this appellation was Graham Parker.  Parker and his backing band Rumour started from the ashes of the English pub rock scene (members of Rumour came from such respected pub rock bands as Brinsley Schwartz and Ducks Deluxe) and released a flurry of albums on the Stiff label in the late 70’s, all of which were intelligent and had intelligent lyrics and a thrumming musical feel, and none of which are presently available on iTunes.  But it was his fifth album, Shooting Out Sparks (which is available on iTunes), that set the bar the highest.   Filled with edgy lyrics and catchy hooks, this album is a bona fide classic.  “Discovering Japan”, the lead track, has an almost frantic energy to go with its repeating and catchy musical hook—its my favorite song by him; he spits out the words almost as if he’s racing to the end of the song and the lyrics are strange, merging Asian themes with what sounds like an anti-love or failing relationship rant.  This is by far my favorite song by Graham Parker, but this album has some other standouts as well.  “Local Girls” has a quietly rocking beginning before launching into Parker’s angry sarcastic lyrics.  “Saturday Night” has a chiming guitar lead and a propulsive beat, almost sounding like a more cynical, new wave version of Elton John’s “Saturday Night’s All Right For Fighting”.  “Don’t Get Excited” is another bitter rant about how boring life and other people can be. 

He was never truly angry, but Nick Lowe was also part of the same stable of Stiff singer/songwriters in the late 70’s.  I’ve only recently started to touch on his work; I’ve always been a fan of his sweet pop song “Cruel To Be Kind”, which has always reminded me of something by George Harrison (“My Sweet Lord” perhaps?) with its soft strumming guitars and sweet chorus.    I recently downloaded “So It Goes” from iTunes, which sounds a lot to me like a mash-up between “The Boys Are Back In Town” by Thin Lizzy and “Instant Karma” by John Lennon.  I definitely need to download more of his stuff.

While eventually his work became more known for his jazz- and blues-infected lounge piano player style, Joe Jackson also was part of the angry young man crowd in the late 70’s as well.  From the angular, syncopated funk rhythm of “Sunday Papers” to the rapid-fire lyrical blast of his rocking “I’m The Man”, his earlier work crackles with energy similar to Costello’s and Parker’s.  “I’m The Man” is one my all-time favorite songs, a hilarious romp in which Jackson claims to have been behind every fad in recent memory, from yo-yo’s to hula hoops to kung fu, skateboards, and yes, even punk rock.   It is interesting to hear someone who was able to gain exposure primarily through the musical revolution punk produced could see that much of punk as a musical and culture movement was nothing more than the latest fad; in this way this song is a cynical take on the topic of punk rock in the same way Billy Joel’s “Its Still Rock and Roll To Me” seeks to diffuse the supposed newness and revolution of punk rock by showing that it was really just part of rock and roll as a whole.  Another great Jackson song is “Is She Really Going Out With Him?”, with its slow, loping bass line and Jackson’s plaintive lyrics.   Jackson’s later work pulled more on his training in classical and jazz, including “Breaking Us In Two” and “Stepping Out”, which incorporated bossa nova rhythms, and a lounge-y piano feel.

One of the less heralded angry young men of this era was Clive Gregson, leader of the band Any Trouble, who produced some outstanding music for Stiff at this same time period.  His work falls almost perfectly between that of labelmates Costello and Parker and Joe Jackson’s early work.  His voice is smoother and more soulful than either Costello’s or Parker’s, and his songs often are less hard rocking and angular, instead having a sweet pop sheen, with jangly guitars and a poppy rhythm section.  They only released two albums with Stiff and two albums with EMI in their heyday, with their first album, Where Are All The Nice Girls? by far their best.  “Yesterday’s Love” has the jangly feel of Buddy Holly or the Everly Brothers, but the frantic tempo of Elvis Costello’s “Radio Radio”.  “Second Choice” starts with a pulsing mod/ska guitar and rhythm that sounds like “Poison Ivy” by the Lambrettas or “Ranking Full Stop” by the English Beat; Gregson’s voice here sounds very close to Joe Jackson’s but is more soaring and emotive.   The chorus is simply magnificent, an excellent example of the lyrical craft of these artists:

A simple life is all I need
Two shots of fantasy and one of make-believe
I never tried too hard to make this succeed
You're the only one I need
I never felt the need to cry or rejoice
I never felt the need to raise my voice
I only wanted to be one of the boys
Now you made me second choice

“Playing Bogart” is simple and funny, a tale of a man wanting to meet a woman who is told by a friend she’ll be at a party and how he ends up not even talking to her but instead going home and smoking a cigarette.  “Foolish Pride” has a country edge to the guitar and a quieter, almost “Alison” feel to it; “No Idea” is more up-tempo and a clanging beauty that reminds me of Lloyd Cole and Commotions.  “Romance” also has a mod/ska feel to it with its rapid rhythm but again has a Lloyd Cole feel as well, like “Perfect Skin” with more literate lyrics. 

Any Trouble’s second album, Wheels In Motion, was slicker and more polished, but I do like “Another Heartache”, which captures some of the frantic but heartfelt feel of their first album.  I really just discovered this excellent band and anyone who likes Elvis Costello and/or Joe Jackson’s early work will truly enjoy this stuff.  Thankfully, both Stiff albums are available on iTunes.

In America, the angry young man movement didn’t reach nearly the same critical mass.  However, one obvious candidate is Tonio K.  Tonio K started his musical career in the 60’s playing with A Raik’s Progress (amazingly, their one single is uploaded on YouTube), and played with Buddy Holly’s former band the Crickets in the early 70’s.  By the mid-70’s he’d gone solo and released his first album in 1978, Life In the Foodchain, which contains several songs with trenchant wit and a sonic snarl, including the title track.  Tonio’s voice here sounds similar to David Bowie’s from his Berlin trilogy and the music has a bar band/R&B feel to it similar to “Young Americans”. “H.A.T.R.E.D.” starts slow, almost spoken-word intro but then launches into what has to be the angriest but also funniest breakup song of all time before collapsing in snarls of guitar feedback.  This song clearly captures the fury of punk and channels it into a breakup song rather than at society.  Hysterical.  “Sons of Revolution” is a sad, cynical look at the futility of youthful rebellion and how impossible it is for angry young men to change a world that’s greedy, unhelpful and discouraging.  Depressing but Tonio K. still sings it with fire and passion; his bitterness and cynicism don’t appear to stop him from trying to warn all the youthful optimists that the world will destroy them in the end. 

Tonio K. mellowed somewhat on subsequent albums but still retained his edginess and ability to turn a phrase.  In 1988 when his fifth album Notes From the Lost Civilization came out I was working as a college DJ in Southern California and I fell in love with his song “Without Love”; here Tonio has traded in some of his bitterness for a more optimistic mindset that nevertheless warns “It ain’t worth nothin’ without love”.  This song is beautiful, sweet, jangly 80’s pop with a strong positive message.