Shakin' Stevens - Shaky
#445
September 1981
Shakin’ Stevens
Shaky
Genre: NostalgiRock
2.75 out of 5
Highlights:
I’m Knockin’
Baby You’re a Child
I’m Lookin’
Stevens was on the forefront of the 50s rockabilly revival so this is album has about 40% covers. His sped up “Mona Lisa” is a treat, as are so many of the others, like “It’s Raining” and “You Drive Me Crazy”. But what really comes across is how in love with the genre Stevens is and that comes through on his own songs like, the excellent “I’m Knocking’”.
Stevens is an earnest practitioner of the form and there’s this wave in 1982 that he can ride. But, Stray Cats and Rockpile and Dave Edmunds and others are doing similar things and adding an 80s flavor to it. I like it when the form is pushed forward not reflected upon as though it’s preserved in amber.
The Stray Cats were rockabilly as emancipatory music. Stevens belongs in the reactionary category. It was better back then, he seems to be saying. Or at least, it was great.
I’m not as intrigued by that.
I’m highlighting a couple original Stevens tracks cuz you know what? They’re pretty derned gud.
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