If they were kinda the Stranglers on "Cat n a Wall," they're kinda Rockpile on "Back Track." Nothing remotely original about it, but it's my favorite song on Packet-- Just a lively rocker with a nifty hook, and Glenn feeling his oats as a singer for the first time, plus Jools playing like he's trying to get into NRBQ. The one track here that really bears out the main strength of Squeeze at this point-- namely pure rock & roll energy. 3/5, but a higher 3 than the one I gave Cat.
Seems kinda throwaway but I do like how the piano hammers along. Also, there's some hints of things to come in the lyrics- interesting wordplay and imagery in "extras in another's dream", "by the way your belly dance/Took me back a thousand steps" (???) and "I'm doing what everybody's trying", among others. My summary of "Packet of Three" : "band trying a little too hard to be noticed"
Kind of a Chuck Berry/"Pump It Up" type song. Good energy, but a song like this needs great lyrics and these are decidedly average. STill good peformance. 2.5/5
Packet Of Three: Well, you gotta start somewhere. No worse than many other bands first outings. A-side is pretty good. Biggest problem is the unoriginality, and the underutilization of the vocal sound and the keyboards. 2.8/5
"Backtrack" This shows how Glenn Tilbrook's voice can elevate even the most mundane material. The song is little more than a "Too Much Monkey Business"/"Subterranean Homesick Blues" clone, but Glenn's vocal qualities emerge in the chorus above the punky thrash. As for the "Packet of Three" EP - it's none too shabby for a band starting out in 1978. Plenty of punky energy as you might expect, which makes it quite listenable, even if the band haven't yet found their own style. I'd give the EP a solid 2/5 on first impressions.
Backtrack This works nicely as a full-tilt rave-up, especially in the live concert version. The manic keyboard work is exciting and the energy is palpable. But it still remains the type of song that I would imagine countless other bands had in their repertoire at the time (the Blasters could do this in their sleep). A decent-enough souvenir from the early days. 3/5 Packet Of Three A collection that is considerably less than the sum of its parts. "Cat On A Wall" is great, the other two songs are serviceable. The band doesn't embarrass itself by any means, but the record is so far removed from what they were to become, and it's hard to view it from an impartial lens. It's pretty much Squeeze in name only. Their first full-length has many faults, and, while it is similarly detached from the band's more familiar style, there are numerous moments that are "Squeeze-like" and point towards the direction that would start to unfurl itself in earnest on Cool For Cats. It's fun to hear the band in its embryonic stages on Packet Of Three, and I can imagine myself listening to it every once in a great while. That said, it's also a very forgettable EP, so it's equally possible I'll never listen to it again. 2/5
Not so much a miracle of evolution - Chris and Glenn had been honing their songwriting chops for years, but they took a different approach to fit in with the punk era, which was commercially smart for them. Also, as we'll hear as the largely uncharacteristic debut gets discussed, Squeeze had to throw out most of their existing material as demanded by John Cale, who directed them towards edgier subject matters with often musically harsher results. One reason Cool For Cats feels a little bit like a truer 'debut album' as they were delivering more of themselves, although they have said they learned many valuable lessons from Cale during that process. It's also possible that certain songs they didn't record in 1978 were brought back for the second album. BTW, the entire EP eventually made it to CD as b-sides of this Annie Get Your Gun (live) single from the A Round And A Bout live album. I don't think they've been made available elsewhere. Squeeze - Annie Get Your Gun
Yep, this is how I first heard these tracks. I’ve never seen the actual EP in the bins anywhere, but I imagine not too many copies were ever available/sold in the US.
Back Track Even less appealing than "Night Ride" except for being able to hear Glenn's distinctive voice, and for being a minute shorter. 2/5 Packet Of Three EP This is the first time I've heard these songs and I will not be upset if it's the last. More of a curiosity than an essential debut must-have (unlike REM's EP Chronic Town). 2/5
A young Jools Holland (or is it Glenn?) singing immature lyrics with a sped-up Chuck Berry vocal rhythm. It's derivative as one might expect, and it could have been much worse had Jools' piano not given it the feel of his later piano boogies. "Backtrack" indeed. 2.5/5
I have both the Annie Get Your Gun CD single and the 7" vinyl Packet of Three Ep, "Cat On A Wall" gets the most plays, followed by "Backtrack". I'm glad to have them both but I can't go higher than 3/5.
Cumulative Packet Of Three Song Rankings 1. Cat On A Wall - 3.5000 2. Backtrack - 2.3571 3. Night Ride - 2.2000
Today we begin discussion of the band's eponymous debut full-length album Squeeze. While this was the title in the U.K., the album was marketed under the name U.K. Squeeze in other parts of the world to avoid confusion with similarly named American and Australian groups. Like the Packet Of Three EP, Squeeze was produced by John Cale, except for the songs "Take Me I'm Yours" and "Bang Bang" (also the only singles released from the LP). Those songs were produced by the band. Writing and recording According to Glenn Tilbrook the process for making their first album was rewarding but also frustrating: "For me, U.K. Squeeze wasn’t really very representative of what we were doing at the time. When we worked with John Cale in the studio, he threw out all the songs that we had written. When most bands make their first album, they go in and do a lot of stuff that’s been going down well in their sets; well, that wasn’t the case with us. He told us to write new songs – which we did. He was an inspirational guy to work with, but I felt that it was almost like we were writing for what he wanted rather than what the band itself was. When you’re in a position to be making a first album, it’s (A) awe-inspiring to be making an album, and (B) difficult to assert yourself against somebody who knows the ropes." Chris Difford's approach to writing the lyrics for the album was different as well. According to an interview with Bud Scoppa, Difford found the process of working with Cale to be challenging: "I remember, he came up and said, 'Lyrically, you’re quite soft; have you ever thought about writin’ about musclemen?' I said, 'That’s never occurred to me, actually.' And he said, 'Well, go away and do it – I wanna see songs like that on the album.' So my perception of what the band was at that point was completely different from the way he saw it, obviously. He had us doing some awfully strange things." Release The initial A&M Canada and A&M U.S. LP pressings were released on limited edition red vinyl. In 1997, the CD was released in the UK with two bonus tracks, as part of the Six of One... box set. The set included the band's first six studio albums, each digitally remastered. These CDs were made available for individual purchase in 1998. In 2007, the album was digitally remastered and released in Japan. It contains 4 bonus tracks, one of which is a single edit of Take Me I'm Yours. The other bonus tracks are taken from B-sides from the singles of the album. It also contains the bonus tracks from the 1997 re-release. Track listing All songs written by Difford and Tilbrook except "Wild Sewerage Tickles Brazil", which is credited to the band as a whole. "Sex Master" – 2:21 "Bang Bang" – 2:04 "Strong In Reason" – 4:14 "Wild Sewerage Tickles Brazil" – 3:49 "Out Of Control" – 4:44 "Take Me I'm Yours" – 2:51 "The Call" – 5:17 "Model" – 2:59 "Remember What" – 2:51 "First Thing Wrong" – 3:43 "Hesitation (Rool Britannia)" – 3:45 "Get Smart" – 2:06 Personnel Chris Difford – rhythm guitar, vocals Glenn Tilbrook – lead guitar, vocals Jools Holland – keyboards Harry Kakoulli – bass Gilson Lavis – drums
Looking forward to going over this album - there are some strange and dodgy things on there. Hope at the end we can at least mention the sheer nuts outtake 'Deep Cuts', from the 1998 reissue bonuses....
Today's song is "Sex Master" Squeeze - Sex Master Lyrics | AZLyrics.com Written by Difford and Tilbrook.
John Peel Session from August 1977 "Sex Master" begins at 5:08. "Cat On A Wall" is also included, along with "Model" and "All Fed Up", which we'll be covering in the upcoming days.
Another one not to forget - 'Blood And Guts', which was on the original version of Cool For Cats that A&M rejected. Saw release on the 1996 Excess Moderation compilation. Back to Sex Master, like Night Ride, Backtrack and some others from this era, they are nowhere near their greatest moments but I consider them to be good fun nonetheless. Supposedly this was written after Cale suggested Chris wrote about fetishes. They must have been keen enough on it to play it on the John Peel show, though they had to retitle it 'Evil Master' and the chorus has an entirely different set of lyrics... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Funny how Squeeze start their first album referencing the riff from "I Want to Hold Your Hand," just months before Devo did the same thing. Or maybe Devo was referencing Squeeze? As noted, Sex Master is a short step from Packet of 3-- main difference soundwise is that Cale likely realized how good a drummer they had. Lyrically, Chris gets a few good one liners in but doesn't really come up with characters or a story. You want a song about fetishes, there's a better one on the next album. I concur with "big dumb fun" as a bove, though not all that big at two minutes flat. 3/5 (BTW, anyone with Song By Song can look up the story of their initial meeting with Cale-- It's hilarious and certainly explains any lingering grudges on his part)).
2/5 seems like a low score for this trifle, so I’ll give it a 4/10 instead, which seems more like it.
