SLADE – "Coz I Luv You"

But Johnney, this is a man for whom being reminded of the Wonder Stuff is a BAD thing – and I’d have to distance myself from that viewpoint (Martin “Fiddly” Bell, take a bow). I vaguely remember how novel it seemed to have a violin as a lead instrument in a pop band, especially one that stomped to such effect. I think the NME likened their audience response to a Spurs “gig”. Not my favourite Slade track either, but the 70s are well and truly underway now.

Number 2 behind this was “Till” by Tom Jones. Has that lodged in anyone’s memory…?

BTW, guitar/violin dialogue inspired by Django and Grappelli – but the greatness of the violin punctum here is that, as T points out, one feels that it could veer into atonal Cale violence at any stage.

A Wonderstuff fan writes:

Their version was awful. However I didn’t hear it until after I’d first heard the Slade version being used in the Transit van advert. I like this track more than Feel The Noize but not as much as Merry Wobs Everybody.

(Circlesquare = def one of the best WS songs! But most of the stuff from that era = t0ss)

Whooah – surely a mistake – 5 ? Are you mad ? This is an awesome record – at least an 8. My first encounter with Slade was via this track and I thought it was ok at the time. It’s grown on me ever since and the violiny twiddly bits in the solo do it for me every time. Reminds me of a yiddish knees up – not that I’ve ever been to one. It’s follow up ‘Look Wot You Dun’ employed the same production and again featured Lea’s violin and IMO was an even better tune (though only made no.4). Having lost the dodgy skinhead image that set their early fanbase this was the first record to feature them with Nods familiar bugger grips and topper and Hills ridiculous fringe.

It’s strange that a group so successful in the UK made ABSOLUTELY no impression at all on the American charts. This entry reminded me that while I’d certainly heard of Slade, I’d never actually heard them per se–and if it weren’t for JohnneyB’s link above, I probably wouldn’t have heard them now, as the only “Slade” on the US download sites I frequent is a rapper. (I’m sure there’s some irony in all this somewhere.)

I have to ask myself why, considering my avid interest in British pop over the last 40+ years, I’d never made the effort to hear this group. I suppose I found the early skinhead image and the purposely misspelled titles truly off-putting (still do), so perhaps I imagined their music to be equally wretched. I was pleasantly surprised.

I surely wouldn’t call it a great recording–there’s a strain of generic 70s pop running all the way through it–but it’s catchy and the violin is, at very least, interesting. I’d probably give it a 6 or 7, depending on my mood.

But even if it’s not spectacular in and of itself, it’s better than most of the 1972 number ones–which is probably damning it with faint praise.

One of my favorite Slade songs! I don’t mind menace in my love songs, but I’m not hearing menace, just a minor key, maybe a potential mournfulness, building to desperation (don’t you change the things you do – but she might). What really got me was the reggae strum-strum-strum – yes I’m sure it comes from reggae, so does the walking bass and especially the dubbish echoes towards the end, ska-reggae turned into a stomp. No one else got this sound, ever. Something unique. (You don’t get the echo in the live version that Johnney linked, but you get the ending buildup. That tension I like to talk about between groove and climax is done about as well here as anything not by the Stones and Yardbirds.)

“Menace”… “evil”… “depraved congregation”… “hands bloody”. The briefest skim of your writeup quickly explains why I just enjoyed this song so much (an 8+ easy), dodgy ex-Goth and electric-violin apologist that I am.

Came up on random on my way to work this morning. 5 seems a tad harsh.

With the folk violin, the general air of menance and the swirling, circling nature of it all, I could well imagine Noddy leading the crowd in the la la las at the end, all waving their hands in the air, whilst Edward Woodward sings hymns inside a burning wicker man placed strategically in the grounds of Bantock House.

A 9 for me – unlike Tom, I like the violin and the general tone of the record. I didn’t like The Wonderstuff though.

I don’t think everyone thinks so – but the average vote for this is currently at 7.6, so it’s obviously rated a bit more highly than Tom thought to start with.

I can only give my opinion obviously. I quite enjoy CILY. Was surprised Skweeze Me Pleeze Me got a higher mark than it – when I reckon it’s the worst of their number 1s.

Turning point: http://musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-promise-springwater-i-will-return.html Ta for reading, everyone!

How long can this last?: http://musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/big-talk-tom-jones-till.html Thanks for reading, everyone!

Critic watch:

Paul Morley (UK) – Words and Music, 210 Greatest Pop Singles of All Time (2003)
Q (UK) – Top 20 Singles from 1970-1979 (2004) 18
Gilles Verlant and Thomas Caussé (France) – 3000 Rock Classics (2009)
Giannis Petridis (Greece) – 2004 of the Best Songs of the Century (2003)

Perhaps it’s because this song is in the key of D minor (‘the saddest of all the keys’ Nigel Tuffnell) that it unsettles people, it never quite resolves as, for example, Abba’s SOS does with its shift from A Minor intro into the major key chorus, and there’s always a kind of tension and tentativeness in the vocals as a result. Lea was/is an accomplished musician (just like Anderson) and this is my favourite Slade single even though Lea and Holder later bad mouthed it as ‘pop trash’. Nothing wrong with pop trash if you ask me.