Under The Influence

This album is far too short.

It kicks off with a great Rockabilly cover of the classic Strange Fruit. Actually, I believe the whole thing is a covers album, though I certainly don't know them all.

The song selection is varied and everything is given a top reworking to sound uniquely theirs. You can hear all sorts of different musical styles buried beneath the rock exterior.

Tears Of Rage is a great bit of americana, Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs is completely amping and Need A Job hits like a kick in the teeth - sounds a lot like Ivory Springer in some respects.

I really like this.

Thunder's passing has always seemed like such an injustice to me. OK, so he was the hardest rocking junkie punk in the whole industry... but still, he'd kinda cleaned up his act. Besides, he was still creating really kick-ass music - 1998's Copy Cats being a perfect example.

There are all sorts of interesting elements on Copy Cats (which, not surprisingly, is a covers album); Rockabilly, surf-guitar, rock, pop. Embarrassingly I'm unfamiliar with most of the covers on here. More research required methinks.

I always like to think of Thunders as a bubble-gum pop artist - the emphasis is often placed on the lighter side of the tunes. And listening to Love is Strange now I still think it's a valid description. As always his guitar work is exquisite - it always was on the studio recordings, it's when he stuck a needle in his arm and stumbled out onto the stage that things got a bit inconsistent.

R.I.P. Mr Thunders.