The 1980 Listening Post - Long John Baldry - Boys in the Band

Long John Baldry - Boys in the Band 

1980 Housekeeping

Long John Baldry

Boys in the Band

Genre: Pub Rock

2.75 out of 5

Baldry, with another album in 1980, strikes me as someone who has a difficult relationship with people. He’s pompous and condescending and the way he talks about women is repugnant. 

While the songs are actually songs, meaning there are notes and arrangements and chords, he, himself, is someone I just don’t want to hang out with.

Look, I’ve said since I was a teenager that what I want on my tombstone is “He was hard pressed to find 15 people he would willingly spend 20 minutes with”. That hasn’t changed. 

I just spent 40 with John for the second time in as many weeks and, yeah, that sentiment tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92HVmCHRTx4

The 1980 Listening Post - Lord John Baldry - Lord John Baldry

 Lord John Baldry - Lord John Baldry

1980 Housekeeping

Long John Baldry

Long John Baldry

Genre: Blues Pub

2.75 out of 5

I got really wasted one night and wrote down the following line: I was drinking some water with Dracula’s daughter. It is not a great line. Maybe someone else suggested it. I don’t recall. I just remember thinking….this is not good. 

“Standing on the corner, smoking mari-ju-wana” is worse. 

And that’s how this thing opens.

We really need 1980 to end. 

I don’t know who John Baldry is. He seems like he wants to be Willy DeVille. 

This is evidenced by his covers of Willy’s tunes. 

Seems he made his bones on the blues. What I notice is that he sings about other people, mostly female, and how they make him feel. Ok. That’s kind of what I expect from this genre. I just wish he brought more to it. 

The Mojo Nixon/Leon Redbone hybrid of “Love Me Two Times” was…something I never want to hear again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpE7sQkOeAo