Another crucial track is the unrelenting "Cockney Kids Are Innocent," a song that originally appeared on Truth under the moniker "George Davis is Innocent," which might just be one of Sham 69's hardest songs.Īs previously alluded to, the lyrics to the songs became anthems, with choruses that one can't help but sing along to, as in the crushing "Hersham Boys," a song that sounds like it should be sung in a pub with its rowdy vocals and stomping drums, and "If the Kids Are United," which also has great verses like, "They can lie to my face/But not to my heart/If we all stand together/It will just be the start." Other songs with the same message of unity are "Unite and Win," "Tell Us the Truth," and the two intoxicating live songs "What Have We Got" and "We Gotta Fight." And who couldn't relate to the hilarious "Family Life," a song that begins with a little bickering between Jimmy Pursey and his mum. That record's title track, which is a masterpiece, along with the catchy "Borstal Breakout" with its Ramones-esque beat and feel, and the live "We Gotta Fight," if only because of its undeniable intensity and raw energy, are some of the highlights. The greatest material on this, the most recent compilation of Sham 69's bevy of work, are the selections taken from their first three records, most notably 1978's indispensable Tell Us The Truth. Now to discuss The Best of Sham 69-Cockney Kids Are Innocent, a nice amalgam of songs from the band's LPs up to 1980. Sham 69's importance in punk history is unquestioned, as the band has influenced such acts as Cock Sparrer, the Business, and the Dropkick Murphys, to name a few, and countless bands, incluing Rancid, Oi Polloi, 7 Seconods, Sick Of It All, and the Dropkicks keep the boys' legacy alive by covering their material.Īll right. Unfortunately in 1980 the band folded, but in 1987 the two main songwriters, vocalsit Jimmy Pursey and guitartist Dave Parsons reunited, unveiling a new form of Sham 69 that is still around to this day. Forming in Hersham in 1975, Sham 69 was one of the major constituents of the first wave of British punk, and is widely believed to be the creator of the phenomenon that has since been termed Oi! Between 19, the proletarian "Hersham Boys," released five LPs, creating music for the working class, by the working class complete with sing-along anthemic lyrics that the kids could relate to. Both of Sparrer’s 1977 singles for Decca flopped and they were subsequently dropped by the label.Before we delve into The Best of Sham 69, let's talk a little about this now-legendary band. Slaughter & the Dogs and Cock Sparrer were their only significant punk signings, and they didn’t help matters by declining to issue their 45s in the all-important picture sleeves (only promo UK copies of “Runnin’ Riot” had one, although it was issued properly in Spain). Unfortunately, however, Decca was relatively late to catch onto punk. They’d go on to rerecord and rerelease this track a few times over the next few years but, unsurprisingly, never improved on the original.įlipside “Sister Suzie” takes the anger and intensity down a notch or two, but still radiates energy with its glammy, mid-tempo stomp and unfashionably accomplished (and extended) lead guitar break.ĭecca was one of the absolute greatest of British ‘60s labels, issuing records by the likes of the Stones, Small Faces, Them and a million obscure greats, and it’s not difficult to imagine Sparrer being pretty excited to release their first single on a label responsible for classics by so many of their heroes a decade or more earlier. Nonetheless, while the stated inspirations might have been older than those of their less-established Summer of Hate contemporaries, Sparrer still managed to debut with one of the hardest records of the entire era, marrying brickwall riffing and driving pace to a concise melodic hook and clear, impassioned vocals in a hard-as-nails a-side rant that entirely sidestepped any of early Britpunk’s art school/poseur associations and anticipated the impending oi movement in a little over three minutes. Like so many of the first wave of punk rock bands that broke in 1977, east London’s COCK SPARRER had already been active for years in some form or another, playing street-level rock'n'roll inspired by the tough, straight forward British sounds of early Who, Kinks, Slade etc indeed, the band started out doing Small Faces songs and chose a Stones cover for their sophomore single.
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