It Hurts And Hurts And Hurts So Good

Millie Jackson delivering a  super cool performance of It Hurts So Good on US TV show The Ebony Affair in 1975.

Millie released the song in 1973 as a single and although it failed to crack the UK charts, it featured in the blaxploitation movie Cleopatra Jones, the soundtrack album shifting half a million copies in the USA.

It Hurts So Good was originally a single by Katie Love & The Four Shades Of Black in 1971, released only in the USA...and Spain, it appears. Despite being a red hot Muscle Shoals  Production, it wasn't a hit in either country.

Susan Cadogan then ad a crack at the song, Lee Perry at the controls, retitled it as Hurt So Good and, in one fell swoop, created both the definitive version and the big hit that the song deserved. Hurt So Good spent 3 weeks at #4 in the UK singles chart in April and May 1975.

Twenty years later, Jimmy Somerville attempted the same with his take on the Cadogan/Perry version and whilst it was also a hit in the UK, neither the recording nor the chart performance could hope to match the majesty of the above.

#70sTop30

A treat for you this morning with not one, not two, but three Dubhed selections. Nearly two hours of top tunes!

I've just completed #70sTop30, the latest musical challenge on BlueSky. If I'd been slightly more organised, I could have stretched thsi out over three posts, but no!

So, here's my 'unranked and random' selection in three rounds, each one running chronologically from 1970 to 1979.

The first selection can loosely be described as 'the hits', in that they all troubled the UK Top 40 singles in their respective year. 8th January could only have been a Bowie pick.

Rounds two and three is half-and-half well known and wilfully obscure, and the very last song is probably the only exception to the 'random rule' as I pretty much knew how I wanted to close the series pretty early on.

Given that I didn't give too much thought in advance about the overall selection and running order, it's not turned out too bad.

In keeping with previous 70s-themed posts, the cover art is a selection of UK Marvel first issues from my collection, most of which have been stored in a box and been unopened for years. As a kid, I loved how busy, loud and dynamic the comic covers were, demanding to be picked up from the newsagent's shelf, bought and read again and again.

Round One

1) Brontosaurus: The Move

2) Tokoloshe Man: John Kongos

3) Jungle Fever: Chakachas

4) Big City: Dandy Livingstone

5) Dance With The Devil: Cozy Powell

6) The Wild One: Suzi Quatro

7) Both Ends Burning: Roxy Music

8) Sound And Vision: David Bowie

9) Punky Reggae Party: Bob Marley & The Wailers

10) I'm Every Woman: Chaka Khan

Round Two

1) Clarence In Wonderland: Kevin Ayers & The Whole World

2) Gimme Shelter (Cover of The Rolling Stones): Ruth Copeland ft. Parliament

3) Sniffin' & Snortin' Pt. 1 (Vitamine C): Speed, Glue & Shinki

4) The Groover: T. Rex

5) At Home, At Work, At Play: Sparks

6) Jive Talkin': Bee Gees

7) Ninety-Nine And A Half: Trammps

8) Funtime: Iggy Pop

9) Dance Like A Star: The Human League

10) Spanish Bombs: The Clash

Round Three

1) Effervescing Elephant: Syd Barrett

2) Beautiful Brother Of Mine: Curtis Mayfield

3) Screaming Target: Big Youth

4) Willow's Song: Magnet

5) Fight Your Revolution: Keith Hudson

6) Koun'Toupack: Godchild

7) I Keep On Loving You: Susan Cadogan

8) Time's Up: Buzzcocks

9) It's The New Thing: The Fall

10) Memories Can't Wait: Talking Heads

Round One (40:43) (GD) (M)

Round Two (40:05) (GD) (M)
Round Three (34:38) (GD) (M)

There are a load of new musical challenges starting on 1st February. Time constraints being what they are, I'll likely only have time to participate in one. But which one?

#OrchestralManoeuvres 

Select your 28 favourite string arrangements in songs. Solo, full orchestra, electric, synthetic or sampled. Singles, b-sides, album tracks, live versions and remixes can all be included.

#Reverberations 

A month-long celebration of all things guitar. From 80s Indie and Alt-Rock, to Shoegaze and Grunge and beyond, up to the present day. Think My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Pixies, Cocteau Twins, Hüsker Du, Nirvana, DIIV, Just Mustard…

#StandaloneSingles 

Throughout February choose 28 of your favourite standalone singles. Post one per day, ranked or unranked. Lead tracks on EPs and singles tagged on to Best Of compilations can be selected, the main criteria is that they aren’t on an artist’s studio album.

#StrictlyInstrumental

Just post any instrumental song each day in February.

#WrongDisneySong

All February: for the Disney/Pixar film of the day (calendar provided)

Post a song that fits in some way — title, lyrics, theme, vibe, character — but isn’t from the actual soundtrack.

Keep The Fire Burning Inside

Some heavyweight grooves to make you move, courtesy of 14 reggae and dub legends.

All of these songs originate in 1975, although I can't be certain that the individual versions used here date from that year. 

Such is the task of trying to date releases when many Jamaican 7" singles bore very little info, let alone the year of release. I guess they weren't considering that half a century later, saddoes like me would be trawling the internet, trying to track down the merest snippet of info about a song. "Internet"? What's an "internet"?!

No matter, what binds them all together is a bass, skank, skunk and a trunk full of quality tunes. Some of the finest voices to ever grace vinyl, from Pat Kelly to Susan Cadogan to Gregory Isaacs to Bim Sherman to Louisa Mark and U-Roy.

Augustus Pablo appears twice, the second appearance via Baby I Love You So, my introduction to the great man via the cover version by Colourbox in 1986.

And Burning Spear's Marcus Garvey is one of the greatest albums of all time.

1) 555 Crown Street (Single Version): Augustus Pablo

2) There's A Song (Sing About Love): Pat Kelly

3) King Tubby's Badness Dub: King Tubby

4) Carry Go Bring Come (Discomix): Justin Hinds & The Dominoes

5) Fever (Live) (Cover of Little Willie John): Susan Cadogan

6) Darkest Night: James Eastwood

7) Dreadlocks Love Affair: Gregory Isaacs

8) Resting Place: Burning Spear

9) Danger (Album Version): Bim Sherman

10) Jah Jah Jehoviah: Ronnie Davis

11) Baby I Love You So: Jacob Miller & Augustus Pablo

12) Blue Boots (Album Version): Eric Donaldson

13) All My Loving (Cover of The Beatles): Louisa Mark

14) Joyful Locks: U-Roy

1975: Marcus Garvey: 8

1990: Crucial Cuts II: 9

199x: Classics: 2

1998: Breakout (bonus tracks): 13

1998: Trojan Dub Box Set: 3

2003: Cool Ruler: The Definitive Collection: 7

2004: The Bunny 'Striker' Lee Story: 14

2005: Tom Middleton Presents Crazy Covers Vol 1: Cosmosonica: 5

2005: Trojan Roots Reggae Box Set: Forward Jah Jah Children: 10

2006: The Essential Augustus Pablo: 1, 11

2007: Sun Is Shining (Mojo magazine promo CD): 6

2009: Emmett's 10/09 Playlist (Art Decade blog): 12

2015: Reggae Discomixes: 22 Essential Extended Mixes: 4

Keep The Fire Burning Inside (46:28) (GD) (M)

Never Hurt Nobody

On 8th August 1980, The Clash released the single Bankrobber. It was a standalone release bridging the albums London Calling and Sandanista! and their second biggest UK chart single (peaking at #12), after the title track of the former which got one place higher in 1979.

 

The above is Don Letts' official video for Bankrobber, mainly showing Joe, Mick, Paul, Topper and Mikey Dread in the studio and on stage and intercut with a loose narrative of a bank job. The heist was filmed in Lewisham and stars Clash roadies Barry 'The Baker' Auguste and Johnny Green. Both were reportedly stopped and questioned by police during filming, who clearly thought they were genuinely up to no good!

 

In 1996, Audioweb's self-titled debut album contained their own version of Bankrobber. It too was released as a single (featuring Half Pint aka Lindon Roberts) and provided their biggest hit and sole UK Top 20 in February 1997. Directors GobTV provide some interesting background to the making of the video to accompany the YouTube clip.

 

The CD single that I bought at the time additionally contains a live version and a couple of remixes, which you can also find in it's entirety on YouTube. 

 

Mikey Dread was at the controls for the original recording of Bankrobber. He also delivered an alternative version, Rockers Galore...U.K. Tour, which appeared on the B-side of the 7" single and subsequently on 1993's Super Black Market Clash compilation. Here's Mikey performing a cover of Bankrobber as a tribute to Joe Strummer at Glastonbury in 2004.

Fast forward to 2005 and Chumbawamba included a short and sweet a capella version of Bankrobber on their album A Singsong And A Scrap. I've not heard this before and I like it a lot.

 

A decade later Combat Cancer, a fundraising tribute to The Clash featured a couple of versions of Bankrobber, closing with this 'live 'n' loose' take by Nick Welsh and Susan Cadogan. A good cause and lovely to hear the latter, but not a version that I'm likely to return to repeatedly.

In July 2020, Dub Pistols - perhaps unsurprisingly - took on the challenge, with vocals by head man Barry Ashworth and guest Seanie T. It was released on 7" vinyl with the King Yoof Dub version on the flip side, which is equally pleasing.

 

Speaking of dubs, back in 1980 Mikey Dread produced a version of Bankrobber intended for the single. Inexplicably, the record label decided not to release a 12" single of Bankrobber but it did pop up later that year as a combined edit on Black Market Clash, a 10" compilation available in the USA and Canada only. To bring things full circle and to a fitting close, here's Bankrobber/Robber Dub in it's full glory.

 

This post is dedicated as an early happy birthday to Joe Strummer, who would have turned 71 on 21st August.