Remember when real men with fluffy hair and very* tight trousers stalked the earth, writing slinky, catchy, hard rocking songs about murder, sex and Egyptian royalty, all whilst dressed as pirates?
Few have done this as well as Blue Murder did back in ’89.
Is that a pyramid down their pants? or were they just very pleased to see you? I think you know the answer, Ramesses.
Blue Murder have a slightly convoluted prehistory. To simplify it, axe slinger and reluctant vocalist John Sykes stopped being a Tyger and became a ‘Snake, before the biggest serpent of them all sacked him right after he had conveniently co-written their biggest selling LP.
Picking up the pieces Sykes became murderously Blue, but not before he had tried future Black – adios Cozy Powell, Ray Gillen and Tony Martin. Settling on Tony Franklin from the Firm on bass and Carmine Appice on drums, Blue Murder were ready to go.
Blue Murder was cut with Bob Rock at the helm and is one of those LPs that deserved a lot more than it got, at its best it combines some very classic Brit rock chops with North American radio flash and some genuine heft. Plus, you know, pirate costumes on the back cover.
Blue Murder kicks off with a ‘Riot’, naturally, straight away you get the band’s signature busy sound with Franklin’s bass giving everything a decidedly low-key funky sound. The production is brilliant, polishing it to a high sheen without losing the grit.
Next up is the what-the-fucking-fuck-were-they-thinking-even-back-in-1989-this-was-dodgy-as-shit, ‘Sex Child’. It’s just not very good either, no matter how much slippin’, slidin’, get down on your knees, come inside lyrics Sykes sprinkles over this odorous nonsense. You were much better than this Blue Murder!
Surely they could just have cranked out another track about ancient Egypt? ‘Check Out The Nefertitis On Her’, even?
Speaking of which we get ‘Valley Of The Kings’ which reaches out for grandeur and drama and grasps it too, albeit with some obvious nods to Zep and Rainbow. It is the one track on the LP that I think would have benefitted from a different singer to take the melody even further, maybe even Tony Martin who co-wrote the track in his brief time in the band; which is not meant as a criticism, its a really good track.
My fave track on Blue Murder is ‘Jelly Roll’, an excellent twanging shuffle-stomp of a song with a brilliant hook, that suddenly gets all serious and almost Beatles-y near the end. It is an absolute doozy.
Side 2 kicks off with the title track which has a real Thin Lizzy feel about its’ construction** and I just love the guitar solo on this ones so much, it is totally 80’s rock flash ridiculous, quite brilliantly so. Again just like ‘Riot’ the band just seem amazingly busy on this track, to great affect.
We hit the big she-done-wronged-me one next, ‘Out Of Love’. Leaving all my cynicism aside, it’s bloody great too, a really classy effort that manages to sound heartfelt. Shades of Gary Moore’s ‘Empty Rooms’ here and there about it. It’s the sort of song that makes me want to sway on my chair in a very earnest way.
Again Tony Franklin steals the show on ‘Billy’ a great melodic cops and hard times shot from the hip. It’s an excellent cut and I really dig the way Sykes makes his guitar squeal on this one.
Then we’re off to Egypt again for ‘Ptolemy’ and it’s great, the heaviest thing on the album. ‘Valley Of The Kings’ is the Blue Murder track that gets all the love, but for my money this is better, more concise. Again, there are tints of latter day Zeppelin here along with more axe heroics. After which ‘Black-Hearted Woman’ is energetic, but less memorable.
Blue Murder is a really great late 80’s rock album, great playing, great production and really good songs. The sort of thing that should really have taken them onto fame and fortune.
If I have a minor, piffling criticism of Blue Murder^ it is that you could trim a few minutes off the overall running time, it is a CD length album. Plus a couple of clearer typefaces here and there would have improved the cover design.
Sadly though, like ducks on the eve of the hunt, Edwardian teenagers, or a star-gazing stegosaurus wondering what that rapidly approaching glowing thing was, late 80’s rock was about to face a Seattle-based extinction level event, that nobody had foreseen. Equally sorrowfully, much like the hunter, the Great War and that comet, grunge was no respecter of the pirate costume.
So dig this one out if you own it, buy it if you don’t and charge your glasses in denial as we prepare to set sail on the Nile.
1159 Down.
PS: Brace yourself for this.
*VERY!
**Sykes also played with Lizzy towards their end. This LP is dedicated to Phil Lynott.
^other than its second track existing at all.
Interesting… will investigate.
Pirates and Egyptology, eh? Thanks for climbing to the crow’s nest on this one, Joe.
That young thing sure is stomach churning. There’s a song on an otherwise energetic Patto album that gives me the fucking creeps. And I just wrote up the Big Star debut for VC, letting ‘Thirteen’ go through to the keeper. Jeezus wept. Just grow the fuck up.
Anyway, thanks for the sea cruise mate.
Cheers Bruce. I have a (very good) album by Silverhead called ‘16 And Savaged’, which I can’t even think about.
How the times and social mores have, very VERY rightly, changed!
I really like this one. One of my favs. I finally got a copy on vinyl. So excited!! I also have the Rock Candy reissue on CD and a cassette.
It’s an excellent album, I prefer it to ‘87 era Whitesnake.
Talented man Sykes, does seem prone to falling out with people though.
My sister sent me a track from the album on one of the many compilation cassettes she used to send me. For the life of me, I can’t remember which track it was. It definitely wasn’t the one you feature here although that’s a pretty good power ballad.
They were really great, better than Whitesnake’s 87, I’d say.
Too noncey for my liking. I’m more into Mummies
P’typical!