For Richard Hawley, a “little banger” is a top-notch single, one condensing everything about the performance and performer into what can he held on one side of a seven-incher. A flab-free, power-packed record. And it’s a mark of his discrimination that anything fitting the bill is a grade-A killer.
Little Bangers From Richard Hawley's Jukebox Volume Two follows-up a correspondingly styled comp issued in 2023. As before, 28 tracks are selected: indeed, the first collection was titled 28 Little Bangers From Richard Hawley's Jukebox. For a second time, Link Wray crops up. This time, well-known names who are new to this table include Jack Nitzsche, Duane Eddy and Chet Atkins – each responsible for the opening three tracks. Also here are Bo Diddley, Elvis Presley and Gene Vincent. Amongst the lesser-knowns and total-unknowns are Arvee Allens, Johnny Todd and The Yo Yo's (the latter presumably not the band producer Ed Cobb recorded and then put on record as The Chocolate Watch Band).
With respect to Hawley’s tastes, Little Bangers… deals in country, rock ’n roll, rocking instros (including surf), garage punk, the outré ends of beat and psychedelia, wild girl-pop and auteur soul. Mostly from the Sixties. As a listen, this has a flow. It opens with a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 punch: Jack Nitzsche’s “The Last Race,” Duane Eddy & The Rebels’ “Trash,” Chet Atkins’ “Boo Boo Stick Beat,” “Link Wray & The Wraymen’s “Comanche,” Dick Dale & The Del-Tones’ “Jungle Fever,” Bo Diddley’s “Mumblin' Guitar.”
After these explosions, “Put The Blame on me” by Elvis Presley with The Jordanaires. Of this remarkable 1962 recording, in his track-by-track commentary Hawley says that it’s “a sort of prototype garage rock. The chord sequence isn’t dissimilar to ‘I’m Not Your Stepping Stone.’” It’s evidence he hears things in a particular way, coloured by his life a songwriter and guitarist, his time in recording studios and his comprehensive record-collector know-how. For Gene Vincent’s borderline creepy “The Day the World Turned Blue” (from 1971), he draws a parallel with the Velvet Underground: “when you hear this, you can’t not think of (the VU’s) ‘Sunday Morning.’”
As well as the interpretive/musicological and taste sides of things, other factors are at play. He acknowledges the influence of his father and the records he had: records which were gradually sold off as his family’s home city Sheffield was decimated by the Thatcher years and the concomitant embrace of neoliberalism. There is a socio-political aspect to what’s heard here. Hawley has been rebuying the records he grew up with, the records which were absented. He has also been buying records – as he entertainingly describes – while touring. It comes across here that dates in the US are as much shopping trips as they are about being on stage. Closer to home, he picked up a copy of The Ventures' 1967 “Green Hornet Theme” single at a market in Chesterfield. Flipping it, he found the B-side “Fuzzy and Wild,” included here. It sounds exactly like its title. It also sounds like it had an impact on The Cramps’ “Garbageman.”
On the deep-digging front it’s great to hear Sunshine Theatre’s “Mountain,” a rare 1971 single from Wales which became known about after it was reissued in 2020 by Hyperloop Records. As Hawley says, “it’s such a fucking tune – light years ahead of its time. It could be Stereolab or someone like that.”
A particular favourite here is “Tracks to Your Mind,” a 1968 US B-side credited to The Sounds Of Lane. Lane was Mickey Lee Lane, a maverick US producer/songwriter/performer who was active on record from around 1960 to about 1968. He had written and recorded “Hey Sah-Lo-Ney,” which became a mod-soul staple in the UK. The Action recorded a version. “Tracks to Your Mind” is a mind-boggling garage rock-soul hybrid instrumental which moves like the clappers. It appeared on the flip of a single where the A-side was credited to the country-ish singer George McCannon. This might suggest that “Tracks...” is a throwaway. It isn’t. Reusing part of the backing track of “Hey Sah-Lo-Ney,” it is a kind of dub-adjacent reworking of the better-known track. Incredible.
A fantastic compilation. Little Bangers From Richard Hawley's Jukebox Volume Two is unreservedly recommended.
- Next week: The three CDs of CBGB - A New York City Soundtrack 1975-1986
- More reissue reviews on theartsdesk
- Kieron Tyler’s website
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