The 1981 Listening Post - Stiff Little Fingers - Go For It

Stiff Little Fingers - Go For It #134 April 17 1981 Stiff Little Fingers Go For It Genre: Punk 4 out of 5 Highlights: Just Fade Away Hits and Misses Picacdilly Circus I know that all the punters in England were hanging out with Don Letts in the late 70s/early 80s and their musical shifts reflected that (Looking at you, “The Only One”). Here we see it affect Stiff Little Fingers on the very first track, a skittish, nervous cover of Bunny O’Riely’s "Roots, Radicals, Rockers and Reggae” and, well, we all know how I feel about opening your record with someone else’s tune. In this case, the track is excellent and right in SLF’s wheelhouse but that just has me wondering why they chose to open with someone else’s track, especially since, as often happens, the album explodes right after that the original “Just Fade Away” and I wasn’t expecting the title track to be a rambunctious choo-choo train of an instrumental. There is so much energy coming out of this record, it’s a shame no one talks about these guys anymore. https://music.apple.com/us/album/go-for-it-remastered/695460161

The 1980 Listening Post - Stiff Little Fingers - Nobody's Heroes

Stiff Little Fingers - Nobody's Heroes

#97

March 7 1980

Stiff Little Fingers

Nobody’s Heroes

Genre: Punk Wave

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Wait and See

At the Edge

Nobody’s Hero

I Don’t Like You

Tin Soldiers

So, here’s another moment when I lose all my punk credibility. 

I’ve never heard this record. I really loved “Now Then…” when it came up in this retrospective but, since I was always moving forward I never went back to their early stuff. And this was a band that I read about all the time. Their underground PR was terrific. And, I always assumed they were on Stiff Records. They were not. See? No cred.

Like 999 the future of Pop Punk is in this record. If Jake Burns had less gravel in his snarl and could sing a lick this is melodic punk. As it is it’s terrific and maybe, just maybe if he could actually sing just a freaking smidge better they might have jump started the Pop Punk revolution 14 years early. Then again, if Dickie from Mighty Mighty Bosstones could have a hit sounding like he, too, is gargling with razor blades, maybe it’s just a timing thing. 

He almost gets there on “Tin Soldiers” where he basically turns Stiff Little Fingers in The Jam with edge and I’m here for it.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/nobodys-heroes/697036927