It was a hit in the UK (are we seeing a theme)

Maybe I should have grown up in the UK. I could have been a Teddy Boy!

I could have been a Teddy Boy!

Way cooler than mere rockers, since the Teds affected an Edwardian look.

When I was younger, I was sorta' envious of women because they could wear such a big variety of clothes. Then I thought about maybe clutivating an Edwardian look....

In the sway of a teddy girl's hips
In the curl of a teddy boy's lips tonight

- The Soft Boys - "Tonight".

Most. Awesome. Guitar. Evah!

[link]

Just imagine the stage moves you could do....

Just imagine the stage moves you could do....

You mean like these?

And then, at the opposite extreme is this.

Of course, Rick Nielsen has been playing a FIVE neck guitar for years.

Julian Cope's got a fascinating take (and rant) in his longish Glamrocksampler essay and collection.

You can nab the actual music here.

The discovery for me was the Neil Merryweather track, "The Groove." Fantastic lead guitar not unlike Mick Ronson or Bill Nelson.

This is not really about the poppy end of Glam, but the hard rock dudes in eyeliner and the arty, bleak space mutant epics.

So more along the lines of obscurities like Peter Hamill's Nadir's Last Chance (glam dystopia, Bowie influenced) and Doctors of Madness (between glam and punk with electric violin). Though there are bits of Slade and lots of Bowie influences.

Not to oversell it but you do hear the kind of thing that Bauhaus, Suede and MCR took into their sound. A certain bleak grandiosity.

I really love Julian's writing. Here he discusses Craig Bell's bass on Rocket From the Tombs:

Then, they blast into the rock'n'roll guitar riff of "I Didn't Really Wanna Kill Myself" with five seconds of acceptable sonic shmeer, before, sure enough, bassist Craig Bell emerges from that mysterious bass-ment with a fresh dollop of Tony Visconti/Trevor Bolder overplay. Remember how Tony Visconti played bass on those early Bowie albums? He was never the ablest of bass players, but his co-producer's position meant that rock'n'roll's hoariest bass cliches were transformed into giant's steps glitterstomping across the sonic landscape, inspiring Trevor Bolder to similar heights/lows on the following LPs. Well, here in the Rocket from the Tomb's loft, lack of control means the guy with the loudest instrument wins, and he who dares is always Craig Bell. Right ON!

A certain bleak grandiosity.

Mmm, bleak grandiosity.

Bill Nelson

Whoa, talk about a name I don't hear thrown around much anymore. Now I suddenly feel a need to dig out those solo and Be-Bop Deluxe (and Red Noise) albums.

Now I suddenly feel a need to dig out those solo and Be-Bop Deluxe (and Red Noise) albums.

Julian Cope's mash note to the first Be Bop Deluxe album Axe Victim.

But it’s the final song ‘Darkness’ with its sub-title ‘L’Immoraliste’ that really nails the gonzo medal to the gatepost, and I can’t blame the raggedy ass backing band for this winner as the performance is Bill’s and Bill’s alone, well, along with a norkestra or three. Cringe you may for the first coupla listens to words such as ‘darkness, you are my true love’, especially as the tune is deffo ripped off Neil Sedaka’s ‘Solitaire’. And when Bill proclaims ‘darkness, you’re with me most every night,’ you gots to wonder what the nights are like when he manages to banish her. I wanna be there! I wanna be there! And yet even here at his closest moment to taking a massive Brechtian Brel-y flop off the nearest bridge, it still fucking works! Am I the most compassionate dupe alive or is this a really beautiful song? I think the latter. And when Doggen says to me occasionally: Explain Goths, I just don’t geddit. Well, I tell him that if he digs this song (which he does) then he understands Goths. For this little jewel sums up Goth in a nutshell and five years before the phenomenon was named. The Hollywood choirs of angels, the Gallic subtitle, the detectable northern accent, the portentous key changes, the French horn, the stops and starts, it all works and shows that it is (as he shamelessly proclaims) ‘no fashionable disguise’. Gimme William Nelson on the record because he approaches humanity in a disarming and delightedly unnerving manner.