Cat On A Wall Great energy but the melodies are too generic of the time in the UK - bit rocky, bit punky - and the lyrics are nothing memorable either. But the saving grace for the song, and the thing that makes it worth listening to for me is the recognizable harmonies that leave you in no doubt this is a Squeeze song, even if the rest of it could have been made by lots of other bands around at the time. 3/5
"Cat On A Wall" has all of the best early Squeeze features, a surprisingly catchy melody, great Glenn Tilbrook singing (and a bit of Chris, too), and an interesting lyric. The variations in rhythm's don't fit expectations, but I remember liking this from the very first time I heard it on Packet of Three. The ending doesn't work, but given the times and their youth, I can look past it. I listen to it whenever I dig out my Squeeze CDs. 4/5
"Cat On A Wall" Never heard this before - Glenn's vocals are distinctive from the start, and once you get the vocal blend of the two of them it's unmistakably Squeeze, albeit in a rougher, more punkish-sounding way that we would get used to later. I don't think the song is a million miles away from what they would become - with the right production and performance I feel it could slot in as a filler track on Argy Bargy - but there is clearly better to come soon.
"Night Ride" If I hadn't been told who this was I wouldn't have guessed in a million years! The vocals sound like they were recorded in the 60s. I presume this is Chris singing, but he's not found his distinctive voice yet. Good energy but not a lot of Squeeze in it. I might have guessed at The Damned.
Night Ride Pretty straightforward pop-inflected punk. It maintains the energy of the first track on the EP, but the overall sound isn't as distinctive. It's fairly paint-by-numbers, and could be almost anyone. 2/5
It's Chris and Glenn together but it sounds like they blur together a bit. I remember when I first got this EP I wrongly thought it was Chris singing lead on every song, due to the sound quality/delivery. It's a better song than several on the actual debut album (which admittedly contains some howlers), if nothing special. Dr. Feelgood goes punk, with some very non-punk slide guitar.
"Night Ride" sounds like Squeeze is trying to fit in with their peers, when they should have been trying harder to discover themselves. It's competent late 70s pop punk, but I seldom return to this one. 3/5
Night Ride - A decent rocker hampered by the out-of-place slide guitar. In terms of quality I don't consider it any better than B-side material. 2/5
Going into this I had no idea I was going to compare Squeeze to AC/DC but here we are. A garage band rocker with lots of energy but not much finesse, probably a lot of fun for them to play- if they aren't embarrassed by it in the same way some of us are by old high school senior pictures
One very notable thing about "Night RIde": It's the only place that Glenn ever played bad guitar! The main riff is just dumb, and the slide guitar in the choruses is just plain wrong. Actually sounds like they're trying to do "Isn't It About Time" by Manassas! Saving grace is that they apparently have no idea this is a lousy song, so it's really amusing. 2/5
-What is known of set list histories? Curious to know how long these earliest songs lasted in set lists
A quick housekeeping note: I originally allocated a full day to discuss the entire Packet Of Three EP, but I'm changing that. Instead, we will move straight out of the final song "Back Track" into the start of the eponymous full length. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to spend a full day discussing an EP with less than nine minutes of music. This will not be the norm for full album discussion days, but I think it makes sense here. With that said, feel free to add your full EP comments and ratings to the discussion anytime today or tomorrow, if you're so inclined, and I will tally and post ratings. We will begin discussion of Squeeze tomorrow.
Night Ride A huge step down from "Cat On A Wall", far too much punk and not enough Squeeze, especially the vocals which sound nothing like Glenn and Chris at all, and I did wonder if it was Jools maybe ? It's not completely unlistenable, just not something I would ever deliberately want to play. 2/5
More a pub band -- and an average one -- doing a reasonable facsimile of punk. Too oniony, and the mustard is bland. 2.2/5
I am rubbish at keeping up with these song by song threads, but I did grow up hearing Squeeze a lot, and have a huge soft spot for them, so I'm pleased to see a thread on them and will likely enjoy reading far more than I'm able to contribute...
As referenced in my post earlier, today is also for discussion of the full EP Packet Of Three. Tomorrow I will begin holding up songs from Squeeze.
Back Track - Each track on the EP is worse than the one that preceded it. I don't care for the frenetic energy on this one. 2/5 Packet of Three - Cat on a Wall is the only track that makes the cut for my early Squeeze playlist. 2/5
It’s funny, I worked backwards from East Side Story to the debut and Packet of Three when I discovered and became a fan of Squeeze. “Quite a difference” is quite the understatement. As much as I love the band and Glenn and Chris as a team, Packet of Three isn’t something I would have returned to without this exercise. For me, PoT and the debut are their least interesting recordings until Domino (your results may vary). PoT is a 2/5 for me.
Backtrack is a solid, er, 1.5. Some punky pub rock with a dumb chorus. I quite liked “Cat on a Wall” and didn’t mind “Night Ride” in a generic UK punk kinda way, but this is a pretty poor effort really. How they got from this to “Goodbye Girl” in about a year is a miracle of evolution!
