It was always gonna happen, I suppose.
The Action Rock Jukebox Series is ace. Screaming Crow Records have a brilliant roster and they had a brilliant idea. Lets get a bunch of their bands to record an 80s rock fave and put it out as a double A side with one of their own.
Plans are afoot to review the others too, but this one ….urmmm….caught my eye (not just a line from the song, either). And so it was that Germany’s Black Sheriff put their stamp on “Centerfold” , someone was going to, weren’t they? It is one of the most rock n roll songs in the history of the world.
It is not that, though, that sees me penning these words. Nope, rather it is the song is special to me.
You see, I’d bought other singles before, but I was six years old in February 1982 when I bought that one after loving it on Top Of The Pops. It ranks, therefore as the first “proper rock” song I ever bought.
Just one thing: what were my parents thinking, letting me purchase it? It’s filthy, listening to it now for the first time in years, as an almost 46 year old, and it’s a good job, then, that Black Sheriff appear ready to get down and dirty with the best of them.
On one hand there isn’t a lot you can do with “Centerfold”, ostensibly. On the other, no one told BS. See, not only do they play it as if they were the house band at a Hells Angels wedding, they don’t bother with a first dance, so much as have the bride jump naked out of the cake.
It sounds like it “taking them off in private” is just going to have to happen, and moreover, they add a “Paradise City” style crescendo.
Their own song “Johnny’s Fight” is more of the same. Back of the alley chug, bass groove that would shame Motorhead, and a quiet bit that you just know is going to explode: spoiler alert, it does. Oh and a hook and an acoustic ending, like they are busking it outside the pub.
The bottom line is this: this is why I’ve always loved these type of things. Why wouldn’t you want to hear a band you’ve never heard of do something brilliant? And why wouldn’t you want to hear an old classic with a new spin.
Rating 8.5/10