I've been listening to Big Audio Dynamite again recently, the full run of albums, including the reboots as Big Audio Dynamite II and Big Audio, before reverting to the original name once more in the mid-1990s.
Of course, the one constant has been Mick Jones and much as I love The Clash, I was a little too young to fully appreciate them at the height of their powers and Big Audio Dynamite landed at just the right time, in my early teens. It's fair to say that Jones' creativity, thirst for mixing up guitars with beats and samples and his lyrical dexterity never faltered.
A Big Audio Dynamite selection is well overdue: I posted the first side of the Bad Attitude cassette compilation of 12" mixes a year ago yesterday; the flip side followed a few months later (links to Side 1 and Side 2).
In the meantime, here's a selection of videos covering each of their albums from debut This Is Big Audio Dynamite in 1985 through to 1997's final album Entering A New Ride, self-released online after then-label Radioactive rejected it.
I've opted for Medicine Show and C'mon Every Beatbox, not just because they're brilliant songs, but as they also feature the truly magnificent Neneh Cherry. I couldn't find a video for Other 99 so I've used a live performance from BAD's 2011 reunion tour with the original line up, which is great. No official videos from mini-album Kool-Aid by Big Audio Dynamite II as far as I can tell, but I've found what looks to these rheumy eyes like a fan-made clip . Likewise, there were no videos for any of the tracks from Entering A New Ride, but Nice And Easy features Ranking Roger, so it deserves an airing even as an audio-only clip.
I'll try not to leave it a year before the next Big Audio Dynamite post...
The first four albums with the original line-up were just fantastic, full of invention and head-spinning moments - I still play them regularly today. For me it was a long slide downhill after that. To be sure there were some great moments here and there along the way, but I felt that 'F-Punk' and 'Entering a New Ride' in particular were very pale shadows of a once great band. Listening to the later tunes for the first time in ages, it amazes me that Mick never got sued by Jonathan Richman for his lift of the riff from 'Roadrunner' in 'I Turned Out a Punk', or by Deep Purple for that 'Child in Time' sample at the start of 'Rush'!
ReplyDeleteIf my house was on fire and I could only rescue one BAD album, I'd grab the debut without hesitation. Much as I like the next three, This Is Big Audio Dynamite is pretty much perfect and I even struggled with No. 10, Upping Street nearly but not quite living up to the same expectation. I did stick around for Kool-Aid as I was drawn in particularly by Change Of Atmosphere (as Rush was titled then) but I didn't continue with any of the other albums through the 1990s. It was discovering Entering A New Ride and The BAD Files bootlegs online in the early 2000s that prompted to go back and fill in the gaps in my albums.
DeleteYou're spot on about the diminishing returns though. Entering A New Ride feels more like a hotpotch of demos, rough recordings and remixes than a proper album. And Comic Sans font on the cover?! Ouch!
Speaking of samples, and the sad news of Bernard Cribbins' passing the other day, BAD were clearly fans (then again, who wasn't?) as Megatop Phoenix uses snippets from both of Cribbins' Top 10 hits, Right Said Fred and Hole In The Ground.
It's BAD you know!
ReplyDeleteBut thankfully not Michael Jackson's BAD, CC!
DeleteLove BAD, the 1st 4 as Swede says are all pretty essential for me. Some of BAD II works too. Plenty of 'lost' songs in their back catalogue.
ReplyDelete...and plenty more material for future posts, which is a very good thing indeed.
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