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Monday 15 February 2010

The Slits 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine'


One of the central strands of 1977 punk was that 'they can't even play their instruments'. Seems to me (not that I was there) that The Pistols could all play, and at least half of The Clash were talented musicians when they started and more by the time they finished. Many of the other bands knew more than three chords.

When they started The Slits couldn't play. Ari Up, Palmolive, Tessa Pollitt and Viv Albertine had ideas, anger, humour and enthusiasm though. Assisted by Dennis Bovell's reggae production skills they made their first album Cut, an inspired mix of punk and reggae, with songs about shoplifting and typical girls. They mucked about with peoples' ideas of how a female punk band should look and present themselves. And like many punk groups they had a great cover version- I Heard it Through The Grapevine.

I_heard_it_through_the_grapevine.mp3

1 comment:

Mondo said...

Love this tune - still sounds so contemporary..

The Damned are another lot who get tarred with the 'novelty' brush. Anyone who makes the claim should try playing New Rose - it's no beginners riff.