Ian dury hit me with your rhythm stick

Ian Dury (* 12. Mai 1942 in Harrow, Middlesex; † 27. März 2000 in London) war ein englischer Sänger, Songwriter und Schauspieler.

Dury, der selbst behauptete, in Upminster (Essex) geboren zu sein, war seit seinem siebten Lebensjahr wegen einer Kinderlähmung gehbehindert. Bis zum Alter von 16 Jahren besuchte er bis zum O-Level die „Chailey Heritage Craft School“, um dann auf dem Walthamstow College of Art bei Peter Blake Kunst zu studieren.[1] Dort lernte er Terry Day kennen, der ihn für Musik begeisterte und mit dem er einen studentischen Jazzclub gründete.[2]

Nach dem Gewinn eines Stipendiums konnte er ab 1964 seine Studien am Royal College of Art bei Blake fortsetzen. 1967 nahm er an einer Gruppenausstellung, Fantasy and Figuration, teil, gemeinsam mit Pat Douthwaite, Herbert Kitchen und Stass Paraskos im Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.[3] Seit 1967 lehrte er Kunst an verschiedenen Colleges in Südengland. Daneben war er als Graphiker tätig; so illustrierte er die britische Ausgabe von A. B. Spellmans Four Lives in the Bebop Business; in den frühen 1970er Jahren war er für The Sunday Times tätig.[4]

Mit seiner Ehefrau Elizabeth „Betty“ Rathmell hatte er zwei Kinder, Jemima und Baxter Dury.[5]

Ian Dury starb 2000 im Alter von 57 Jahren im Kreis seiner Familie an Darmkrebs.[6] Nach seiner Einäscherung im Golders Green Crematorium wurde seine Asche von seiner Familie in die Themse gestreut.

Seine musikalische Karriere begann Dury 1970 mit der Band Kilburn and the High Roads, zunächst unterstützt von Day und weiteren Musikern aus der People Band, die ab 1973 große Anerkennung als Pub-Rock-Band erhielt. Einem größeren Publikum bekannt wurde er aber erst in der zweiten Hälfte der 1970er Jahre mit der Band „Ian Dury and the Blockheads“. Mit dieser hatte er zwei große Hits, die beide weltweit mehr als eine Million Mal verkauft wurden, nämlich Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick, eine Nummer eins in Großbritannien, und den Rock-Klassiker Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll. Weitere Top-10-Hits waren What a Waste (1978) und Reasons to Be Cheerful (Part 3) (1979).

Die Band trat auch in Deutschland erfolgreich auf (unter anderem 1978 im Rockpalast und auf der Freilichtbühne im Hamburger Stadtpark).

Ian Dury sang mit seinem unverwechselbaren Cockney-Akzent vorwiegend selbst geschriebene Lieder, die teils klamaukhaft (Take your elbow out of the soup, you’re sitting on the chicken), teils zärtlich (Wake up and make love with me), teils nachdenklich (My old man), immer aber voller Wortwitz waren. In Spasticus Autisticus witzelte er auch über seine eigene Behinderung.

Anfang der 1980er Jahre löste Ian Dury die Band auf, veröffentlichte nur noch gelegentlich Platten und wandte sich der Schauspielerei zu. So spielte er Nebenrollen, unter anderem in Der Koch, der Dieb, seine Frau und ihr Liebhaber von Peter Greenaway, Piraten von Roman Polański, Judge Dredd von Danny Cannon (mit Sylvester Stallone) und eine Hauptrolle in Brennende Betten von Pia Frankenberg. Außerdem schrieb er Musicals, von denen Apples im Londoner Royal Court Theatre aufgeführt wurde, und 1985 den Titelsong zu der Fernsehserie The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾, den er auch selbst sang. 1999 nahm er zusammen mit Madness den Song Drip Fed Fred für das Madness Comebackalbum Wonderful auf.

In den 1990er Jahren war Dury als UNICEF-Botschafter aktiv.

2010 wurde sein Leben mit Andy Serkis in der Hauptrolle unter dem Titel Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll verfilmt.

"Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" is a song and single by Ian Dury. It was originally released as a Stiff Records single, with "Razzle in My Pocket" as the B-side, on 26 August 1977.[3] The song was released under the single name "Ian Dury", but three members of the Blockheads appear on the record – the song's co-writer and guitarist Chaz Jankel, Norman Watt-Roy on bass and drummer Charlie Charles.

History[edit]

The song was written by Ian Dury and Chaz Jankel in Dury's flat in Oval Mansions, London (nicknamed "Catshit mansions" by Dury) that overlooked The Oval cricket ground. The pattern of work adopted by the pair involved Dury presenting Jankel with his hand-typed lyric sheets. According to Jankel in Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: The Life of Ian Dury he would be repeatedly given the lyric for "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll" but Jankel kept rejecting the song, only for it to be at the top of the pile again the next time, only to be rejected again. This went on until Dury sung the song's guitar riff to Jankel and sang the song's title in time with Jankel's riff.

Later, Jankel heard the Ornette Coleman tune "Ramblin" (from his 1959 album Change of the Century, which included also Charlie Haden and Don Cherry) and heard exactly the same bass riff being played by Haden. Dury once apologised to Coleman for lifting the riff but, as Coleman explained, he (or possibly Haden) had lifted it himself from a Kentucky folk tune called "Old Joe Clark". An alternative version to this story exists: as Dury explained when he guested on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, he had apologised at Ronnie Scott's Club for the riff lift to Haden, who responded by saying there was no need for an apology as he had lifted it from an old Cajun tune.

The single did not chart, selling around 19,000 copies (a small amount for a single in 1977) but won critical acclaim. The original single was deleted after only two months.[citation needed] "That was the company's policy at the time: to go for fast sales on every single and then to delete it," Jankel recalled. "So we didn't get much chance to climb up the main chart."[4]

Released as it was in the height of the popularity of punk rock, the song was misinterpreted (as it often is to this day) as a song about excess as its title and chorus would suggest. Although the single was banned by the BBC, a number of Radio 1 disc jockeys, including Annie Nightingale and John Peel, continued to promote the record. Dury himself, however, maintained that the song was not a punk anthem and said he was trying to suggest that there was more to life than a 9-to-5 existence (such as in his track-by-track comments in the sleeve-notes of Repertoire Records' Reasons to Be Cheerful: The Best of Ian Dury & the Blockheads compilation). The verses themselves are at times somewhat riddle-like, although always suggestive of an alternative lifestyle:

Here's a little bit of advice, you're quite welcome, it is free
Don't do nothing that is cut-price, you'll know what they'll make you be
They will try their tricky device, trap you with the ordinary
Get your teeth into a small slice, the cake of liberty

Although the song made the phrase "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" more popular, it has been around at least since the late 60s[5] and early 70s.[6] The title of the song was later used in many other song lyrics.[citation needed]

Re-releases[edit]

The song has become a staple on punk rock, new wave and Ian Dury compilations but initially the song was not available in the abundance it is today. In keeping with Dury's own policy of not including his singles on his albums, the track was not officially included on his debut album New Boots and Panties!!, though a 12-inch version of the single was released in France in November 1977, with both tracks from his next single "Sweet Gene Vincent"/"You're More Than Fair" replacing "Razzle in My Pocket" as the B-side, and again in December as a free give-a-way to guests at the NME's Christmas party that year (of which only 1,000 were pressed). This time "Razzle in My Pocket" was replaced by "England's Glory" and "Two Steep Hills", two tracks recorded live by Ian Dury & The Kilburns, the final phase of Dury's pub-rock band Kilburn & The Highroads. Five hundred more copies of the NME's version of the single were re-pressed for a competition the magazine ran but following this it was not available until Juke Box Dury, an Ian Dury singles collection released in 1981 by Stiff Records. Since then it has appeared on every Ian Dury compilation.

Versions[edit]

Stiff Records organised a joint tour for Nick Lowe, Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric, Larry Wallis, and Elvis Costello, five of their biggest acts at the time, with the intention of having the bands alternating as the headlining act. Ian Dury and the newly formed Blockheads soon became the stars of the tour (it was surmised that Elvis Costello would be the main attraction, having had chart success) and the nightly encore became "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll". A version can be heard on the Live Stiffs Live (1978) compilation live LP released after the tour called "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll & Chaos", credited to Ian Dury and Stiff Stars. It features four drummers and four keyboard players, plus vocals by Wallis, Wreckless Eric, Edmunds, Lowe, and Dury, and by the end (at 5 minutes and 22 seconds).

Another live version can be found on the Ian Dury & the Blockheads live album Straight from the Desk (2001), though much of it is not the song but Ian Dury introducing the band and their respective solos, with only the first half of the song and a repetition of the title at the song's climax included.

When Edsel Records The track was re-released the New Boots and Panties!! (1977) album on the bonus disc. It features two later Blockheads members, Norman Watt-Roy and Charley Charles.

Samples[edit]

The song was sampled in the 2007 single "Sex & Drugs" by dance act Slyde. The video features footage of Dury singing the lyrics.

What did Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick mean?

Who played sax on Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick?

Is Ian Dury still alive?

When was Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick in the charts?