surrender to the rhythm

​Various Artists (from the album Surrender to the Rhythm: The London Pub Rock Scene of the Seventies) available Cherry Red Records) (by Dave Steinfeld)
The folks at Cherry Red Records have been outdoing themselves this year — which is saying a lot. Surrender to the Rhythm: The London Pub Rock Scene of the Seventies is one of several fine box-sets this long-running UK label has released in 2020. Named after a song by Brinsley Schwarz, Surrender to the Rhythm boasts a whopping 71 tracks over three CDs. As usual, Cherry Red has done a great job with the packaging. The three discs come with a 50-page booklet that includes info about every track, not to mention vintage photos and liner notes by British music scribe David Wells. But that begs the question: what, exactly, is Pub Rock? Wells answers that in the opening paragraph with a quote from Brinsley Schwarz himself. ‘The songs were all from very different backgrounds’ said Schwarz. ‘It wasn’t a specific music, other than that there were no lengthy, tedious solos. It was any kind of music that people wanted to go and see, played in pubs’. There you go. The ‘no tedious solos’ bit is crucial — because Pub Rock, after all, is commonly credited with paving the way for the Punk rock explosion that followed. That said, Schwarz is also correct in his assertion that the Pub Rock scene included bands from very different backgrounds. Surrender to the Rhythm includes everything from Rockabilly to Blue-eyed Soul… from Beatles-style Pop to ‘40s-style Swing… and from Garage Rock to, for lack of a better term, Soft Rock. There are plenty of bands on this collection that would be considered obscure (especially to American ears), other groups that went on to achieve some degree of fame, and a few who somehow manage to fall into both categories. For example, while most of us aren’t familiar with the short-lived combo Flip City, it’s impossible not to recognize the lead singer as a very young Elvis Costello (then still known as Declan McManus). Ditto the band Clover whose vocalist Hugh Cregg, would achieve massive success in the ‘80s as Huey Lewis. And while not many people could name the other members of Brewers Droop, we can all agree that Mark Knopfler (who briefly played guitar with them) went on to some pretty great things. 
 
One interesting aspect of Pub Rock is that for a British genre, a surprising number of the bands featured on Surrender to the Rhythm played what would now be considered Americana. The majority of bands on the first disc in particular play R&B, Rockabilly and even Country on occasion! (Most of them are British but one of the very first acts, Eggs Over Easy, was made up of American expats.)  In addition to the Eggs and the Brinsleys, Disc One includes such legendary Pub Rock bands as Ducks Deluxe, Bees Make Honey, and, well, Legend! Disc Two, while still worthwhile, is a bit transitional and thus features fewer highlights — but there are some noteworthy exceptions. The opening track — “She Does It Right” by Dr. Feelgood — is blistering R&B, while the band Stretch offers a great funk tune (“Why Did You Do It?) and an interesting story. Then there are The 101’ers, whose single “Keys to Your Heart” features a young Joe Strummer on lead vocals. Disc Three covers the latter part of the ‘70s and contains one winner after another. Many of the artists here (Graham Parker, The Jam, Squeeze and, again, Elvis Costello) would go on to play major roles in the subsequent Punk and New Wave scenes. But there are some other gems as well, such as the obscure Blue-eyed soul of Cado Belle (featuring singer Maggie Reilly), a driving cover of the Garage Rock nugget “Dirty Water” by The Inmates, and one of the all-time great one-hit wonders, “Driver’s Seat” by Sniff n’ the Tears. All in all, Surrender to the Rhythm: The London Pub Rock Scene of the Seventies provides an exciting and informative overview of a distinctly British genre of music. (by Dave Steinfeld)
 
Listen and buy the music of Surrender to the Rhythm from AMAZON
 
For more information, please visit the Cherry Red Records website
 
 

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