Sounds
January 21, 1978
The Soft Boys
Red Cow
by Jon Savage
Aaah, Soft Boys. Soft Machine and Wild Boys? Maybe. Specialise in surreal shaggy dog stories/parodies laid over a solid Rock base. Recently out from Cambridge, new group in a position to profit from context of change offered by Punk....
Are at the same time very funny and very danceable. Lead singer, rangey, talks to/works at winning an audience -- spontaneity incorporated to reflect the reaction. Tonight people willing to listen, appreciative -- group unfazed by occasional shouts of "Psychedelic"...
Often, they are. Rhythm base is usually R&B, Punk (often with tricky time signatures -- remember them?) with frequent Haight St. flashes, and stoned lateral-think humour. Short and sharp. Song titles: "I Wanna Be Your Anglepoise" (dedicated to Joey Ramone?), "Trying To Talk To You Is Like Trying To Talk To A Gramophone", "Severed Sally", "Wading Through A Ventilator" (the 45), "The Face Of Death"...another (title lost) is "a protest song about people who are always right." Each song discreet, a world of its own, intense.
Still at the small club stage. An agreeable informality. Occasional harpist joins. Fine version of "Cold Turkey", "Heartbreak Hotel", and "Clear Spot"...the last hints at more serious undertones often obscured by looning (as in "Idiosyncratic World View"): for sure, as Iggy an all-pervasive influence in 1977, so Beefheart to be (one) in 1978 (Devo, Pere Ubu for two. Illustrate...) Give it then to The Soft Boys: "it" being time, tolerance, open ears....
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