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Stiff Records was launched in
summer '76 by the Feelgoods' ex-tour manager Jake Riviera (real name Andrew
Jakeman) and Graham
Parker's manager Dave Robinson with backing from Lee Brilleaux, lead singer
of Dr Feelgood.
A shoe-string budget operation run from the organised chaos of the Notting
Hill office, Stiff created some of the best singles of 1976. These featured
such diverse talents as Nick Lowe, Lew Lewis, The Damned and Richard Hell.
Soon the big corporations sussed that something
was happening here and they wanted to know what it was. Stiff, finally
signed a distribution deal with Island early in '77 and promptly deleted
their entire catalogue of contemporary golden greats. And so succintly to "A
Bunch Of Stiff Records". A compilation album of the highest merit featuring
numerous Stiff luminaries, a few Stiff gunslingers and a couple of Stiff
stiffs.
IF IT MEANS EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE...IT MUST
BE A STIFF - TODAYS SOUND TODAY
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1. I Love My Label 2:58 (Nick Lowe) - 2.
Go The Whole Wide World
2:57 (Wreckless Eric) 3.
White Line Fever 2:42 (Motorhead) - 4.
Less Than Zero 3:12 (Elvis
Costello) - 5.
Little By Little 3:58 (Magic
Michael) - 6.
(Uncredited)
Back To Schooldays 2:51
(Graham Parker) - 7.
Jump For Joy 2:28 (Stones Masonry) - 8.
Maybe 2:55 (Jill Read)
- 9.
Jo Jo Gunne 4:59 (Dave
Edmunds)
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10.
Young Lords 3:28 (The Tyla Gang)
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11.
Food 3:31 (The Takeaways) |
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This compilation
"A Bunch Of Stiff Records" presents 11 songs, but only
10 were
credited on the sleeve.
The Nick Lowe ballad "I Love My Label" was new at the time and was a
recording from
the United Artists days and remained unreleased until the 1991 Nick Lowe compilation of
rarities "The Wilderness Years".
Nick Lowe also produced five more songs - four as Nick Lowe and
one as Stan Francisco for the great Takeaways' Food final track
of the compilation. Nick Lowe also played bass on this
particular song with Dave Edmunds (drums), Sean Tyla (guitar),
Larry Wallis (guitar) and a mysterious singer whose name was
withheld due to contractual commitment with major American
company. Today, mystery is still unsolved - was the mysterious
singer Mr Robert Zimmerman or another American boss, or Mr Tyla?.
Who could tell? The song still remains unreleased on cd. A
lost tongue-in-cheek gem. |
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NICK LOWE -
1977 |
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Of course , everybody knows the Wreckless Eric
brilliant "Whole Wide World",
but the 1977 compilation "A Bunch Of Stiff Records" was the very first appearance of
this classic and was credited as "Go The Whole Wide
World". The only cut on the album already released on Stiff at the time of 1977 was
the superb "Less Than Zero" by King Elvis Costello - Graham Parker
meets "10th Avenue Freezeout" filtered through a funky incest
calypso. "Less Than Zero" sounds today as refreshing as it
sounded in 1977. Elvis Costello was backed by The Shamrocks (a.k.a
Clover) and produced by Nick Lowe. This track is a slightly
different mix than either the version on "My Aim Is True" or the
single BUY11. Like the single, it doesn't have theremin-like
organ in the chorus which is on the "My Aim Is True" version,
but where the single has those fuzz-toned / distorted chords in
the chorus, this version has them softened and buried in the mix.
Also, you can hardly hear the guitar fill during the fade-out. |
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ELVIS COSTELLO -
1977 |
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Motorhead's "White Line Fever" was the
only other track on the Stiff catalogue, although it was never
actually released, until the first Stiff Box Set of 10 singles
(1979). Original catalogue was BUY 9.
When the fuss blew over and Motorhead
officially left UA, Stiff put White Line Fever onto this 1977 "Bunch
Of Stiffs" compilation.
Produced by Dave Edmunds, there is Magic
Michael, a name familiar only to anyone who watched Hawkwind support
acts in the early '70s, Magic Michael can be heard on the Greasy
Truckers compilation (1972) along Brinsley Schwarz, Man and Hawkwind.
His song "Little By Little" featured here on "A Bunch Of Stiffs" is
a typical Dave Edmunds "Wall Of Sound" production of the time,
it can remind "Eloise" by Barry Ryan. |
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MAGIC MICHAEL - 1977 |
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