“Hey Jimmy !”

“Yeah !”

“Now !”

“Yeah !”

“For God’s sake burn it down”

...and over the next (less than) 40 minutes Dexy’s Midnight Runners conjure up one of the greatest debut albums ever recorded. Dexy’s, in their initial Donkey jackets and woolly hats incarnation, were quite some band…or was that a gang ?

There are a number of reasons not to like this album. The horns sound ever so slightly off key all the way through; Kevin Rowland’s falsetto can get a little wearing at times; the “pretentious” count gets waaaay too high in places…BUT…

…”Tell Me When My Light Turns Green” is a thrilling rush of horns and Rowland duetting with himself; the horn driven instrumental ”The Teams That Met In Caffs” is as joyous and uplifting a piece of music as you’ll ever hear; “Thankfully Not Living In Yorkshire It Doesn't Apply” is a title to conjure with and you wonder how Kev fits all those words in to the meter sometimes; I’ll put Dexy’s version of “Seven Days Too Long” up against Chuck Wood’s original any day. Add in 2 top 10 singles (one of them a Number 1) and you’ve got some record in your hands.

I was lucky enough to see this line-up of Dexy’s live and it was a fearsome beast. In your face, totally wrapped up in what they were doing, convinced they were right, delivering Brummie Soul, daring you to disagree. They were a gang as much as they were a band, it felt like if you did disagree with them they’d jump off the stage and give you a good kicking. Shame about the dungarees later on, but this album is a helluva way to announce yerself to the world.

The Teams That Met In Caffs - https://youtu.be/JUp2m6kzn_0