Thursday, January 18, 2007

Dancing Did- And did those feet , LP 1982

Another post punk masterpiece!


Line up:
Tim Harrison: Voice and words.
Martyn Dormer: Lead guitar, synthesisers, voice, melodies.
Dick Crazies, Stuart Dyke, Wally or Roger Smith: Bass.
Ollie Harrison or Chris Houghton: Drums


The popular belief that British folk rock died with the last
days of Fairport and Steeleye at the end of the '70s takes a
damned good kicking from Dancing Did, punkabilly madmen who
looked at the directions drawn by Dexys on the one hand, Ten
Pole Tudor on the other, and then drove a gap-toothed grinning
juggernaut through the heart of all of them. Spectral rhythms
meet manic jigs on darkened moors and misty hills, and if
there's not a fiddle, bodkin, or pan pipe in sight, that's not
to say their presence isn't felt. "The Wolves of
Worcestershire" is almost Shakespearean in its lyrical vision,
while "Squashed Things" is the sound of the Cure meets the
Wurzels, and isn't the sort of song one would want to think
about while driving. Martin Dormer's guitar even sounds like a
lorry and Chris Houghton's drums are soft and squelchy beneath
it. Occasionally Dancing Did let their post-punk origins shine
through, in which case they remind one a little of Sad Lovers
and Giants. But their roots are as ancient as the concepts
behind "Badger Boys" and "Within the Green Green Avon-O," while
the self-affirming Dancing Did is to English gypsy culture what
the Pogues were to Ireland's tinkers.
Live, Dancing Did was one of the best times one could have
without leaving the early '80s. On vinyl, the magic is just as
potent as it ever was.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanx ..Atze

Anonymous said...

thank you very match

crenimugil-labrosus said...

thanks, been looking for this for ages