![]() We had that symbiotic understanding.”īut there is one thing Jankel now regrets about the song: “I wish we’d trademarked the actual phrase itself. ![]() We could write something on our own, and it would automatically feed into the other’s subconscious. ![]() “I think when you listen to Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll you’re hearing one of the best examples of an extraordinary partnership. Working with somebody that positive gave me extra confidence, which was important because I fed off of it. He felt that he was better than any lyricist around, and that I was as good a composer as anyone at the time. “Ian often said we were up there with Lennon & McCartney. It was a partnership that the former used to claim was as good as anyone. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll is perhaps the finest song to emerge from the fruitful songwriting partnership of Dury and Jankel. Into The Valley: The Story Of The Skids, the forgotten heroes of Scottish Punk.Wilko Johnson Q&A: "Lemmy sussed me out as a speed freak".The Likely Lads Of British Rock: Squeeze.His argument was that these words weren’t poetry.” ![]() He also refused to have lyrics printed on any record. The genre was certainly strongly influenced by R&B, according. “That was typical of Ian’s approach, though. Rock and roll music principally emerged from the influences of blues and rhythm and blues music. “Ian felt that people had already paid for the single so why should they be asked to buy it again? However, it all got a little confused when the French version of the album – which did have the track on it – was imported into the UK and began outselling the official British version. Given its popularity, it’s remarkable that the song was left off Dury’s debut album New Boots And Panties! Now it tends to be the one we do to open the set.” As Ian Dury & The Blockheads, we regularly closed our own shows with the song. You didn’t have to be Pavarotti to pick up on the melody line. “It was a good song for crowds to chant along to. “I think that’s when we understood this seemed to have taken on a life of its own, and people were relating to it,” says Jankel. Sex & Drugs… became the nightly encore climax, with everyone joining in. Its potency was underlined when, in ’77, Dury went on a Stiff Records package tour with Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Larry Wallis and Wreckless Eric. They weren’t a celebration of excess or debauchery, but a detached description of what was going on at the time, and still continues to this day.”ĭespite its limited chart action, the song rapidly gained anthemic status when it was performed live. In that respect, Ian was something of a journalist, although a lot of people misunderstood what he was talking about in the lyrics to Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. There’s also Reasons To Be Cheerful and Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, which had the same sort of impact. “Ian was brilliant at coming up with titles which could be slogans.
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