The Screaming Blue Messiahs
A: I Wanna Be A Flintstone
(WEA 1988)
Somewhere between Rockabilly and Psychobilly (judging by this record alone, I'd be tempted to call it Sillybilly!), with a similar feel to the music as bands like Westworld (of whom more to come in another future blog entry).
I know nothing else about the band. I've got a 12 inch single of a Peel session of theirs, but am totally unable to recall anything of that so that's not going to help.
Just an aside – the lack of hair of the singer adds to a select
group of bald rock stars. He joins such luminaries as Buster Bloodvessel from
Bad Manners, Rob Halford from Judas Priest, Sal Solo from Classix Novaeux and,
I don’t know – ‘Angry’ Anderson maybe…
It’s a risky strategy; coming up with a catchy, but ultimately
daft, and throwaway song. It can catch people’s attention, and get popular (I remember
seeing this on Top of The Pops), but then you’re potentially tarred with that
brush forever. That’s fine if you want to carry on making silly songs, but if
you want people to take you seriously, it may not be the best career move. There’s
a great driving rockabilly style beat going on through I Wanna Be a Flintstone,
and the Flintstones related lyrics samples, and silly voices bring a sense of
fun to the record. However it isn’t particularly deep, and doesn’t really go
anywhere. It stops becoming repetitive by the virtue of being short –suggesting
that the band were canny enough to know that the joke has a time limit.
Turning the record over we find a tune called Jerry’s
Electric Church. This starts with some extracts of suitably churchy sounds;
prayer, sermons and the like. Then there’s a helicopter drone and a schplang of
guitars, whereupon the old rockabilly style beat kicks in, which coupled with
some nifty riffery drives the song along. I’m afraid that I found the lyrics
incomprehensible (sorry I must try harder next time). I’m hoping that it was a
coruscating take down of the hypocrisy of modern organised religion, (bearing
in mind the song’s title), but it could just has equally been as silly as the
a-side.
This is a fun record – but the kind that you hear, smile at,
nod in appreciation, and then probably forget about for the rest of your life.
A shame as I think this band seem to have more to them than a Flintstones addiction.
I must dig out that Peel Sessions E.P. and give it another go.
Next time, an even more ridiculous record…
