The 1981 Listening Post - Status Quo - Never Too Late

 Status Quo - Never Too Late

#101

March 13 1981

Status Quo

Never Too Late

Genre: Status Quo

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Never Too Late

Don’t Stop Me Now

Requisite 80s cover: Chuck Berry’s “Carol”.  Talk about wearing your influence on your sleeve. The British retro-glammers (in which I include Nick Lowe among many others) were always a bit more Chuck Berry than they were Buddy Holly, weren’t they? 

Was Status Quo the British Cheap Trick? Are Cheap Trick the American Status Quo? Chronologically, it would have to be the latter. Either way, that’s what you are getting with Quo. Solidly written pop songs, played with Glam Pop accuracy. Those harmony drop ins on the title track chorus are a lost art. Something that belongs in 1974 and, even though it’s deeply anachronistic in 1981, it’s a welcome sound. 

I loved Just Supposin’ but I think this one is “Quo by the numbers”. This is the sound of a band that knows how to do something and can do it in their sleep. So they went to sleep and wrote a bunch of songs that sound like them.

But, again, I wish I had investigate Status Quo when I was younger. I seem to like them more than I don’t. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzspExG8VO0&list=PLmj07D0CvvvVVPmrdxGv6R19ZoE5kpZhp

The 1980 Listening Post - Status Quo - Just Supposin'

 Status Quo - Just Supposin'

#384 

October 17 1980 LISTENING POST ADMIN DISCOVERY

Status Quo

Just Supposin’

Genre: Power Glam Pub Pop

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

What You’re Proposing

Run to Mummy

Don’t Drive My Car

Lies

Dammit. 

This is also not available on the streamers. But, I made the mistake of listening to the opener on Apple Music as it’s one of Quo’s biggest hits and it sounds freaking delicious. However, since the rest of the album ISN’T available, we are relegated to YouTube and someone’s personal rip of the record and it sounds terrible. 

But this record doesn’t sound terrible. It sounds like Status Quo. A band that I should know a LOT better since they opened for Queen a bunch of times. But I never investigated them. 

This is right in that Nick Lowe/Bay City Rollers/Paul McCartney nexus (that I bet they actually invented if not perfected) and it really works. Each track has me wanting to search Ultimate Guitar for chords and anxious to get to learnin’ some Quo. 

From what I understand this is a bit of a departure for Status Quo, but I can’t really speak to it since I have only heard one other record of theirs and it’s from 1986. But, listen to “Over the Edge” and tell me that they aren’t kin to Cheap Trick. 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA7JjreSl-32XAZGLAbHwXH7Ape2nFzlN

The 1986 Listening Post - Status Quo - In the Army Now

Status Quo - In the Army Now

#339/2019 LISTENING POST ADMIN DISCOVERY

August 29 1986

Status Quo

In the Army Now

Genre: Glam Rock/Power Pop

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Rollin’ Home

In Your Eyes

In the Army Now

Dreamin’

Red Sky

REQUISITE 80S COVER:

Ian Hunter’s “Speechless”. A dynamite piece of Glam Rock. 

When this record fired up I was, first, struck by how much the opener sounds like Dave Edmunds. Until I read that it was written by John David, a frequent collaborator of Edmunds’. And Edmunds produced that track as well as the other David penned track, “Red Sky”.  So, that makes a lot of sense.

Then it hit me that I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Status Quo record. It’s like they don’t exist anywhere. Nobody writes about them. They don’t get any love. But…they are beloved. I know this because I kept hearing their name mentioned in conjunction with Queen. 

But they don’t sound like Queen. 

Except that they do! When Queen is at its most cheeky (Think: “Good Company”) they could be bill-mates with these guys.

AND they kind of remind me of The Bay City Rollers and I have a great deal of affection for those Scottish kids as well. And, of course, early Sparks.

How did these guys escape me? 

No idea. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o3GSAG-HOw&list=PLBJ7ztNazTVB7ksm8D_mnP71tByNBLZ2D