REVIEW: DADDY LONG LEGS – STREET SERMONS (2023)

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The intros to my reviews -and this won’t shock regular readers – often have nothing whatsoever to do with the actual record. I could do the boring ones that tell you where Daddy Long Legs are from and all that type of thing. I figure at this point in the all-consuming march to being slaves to technology that you can all work Google and if you’re that bothered you’ll find it out.

Me? I’d rather use the intro’s to these things to get things off my mind (or work references to Frasier in, that’s cool too) and onto the page. Here’s todays thought – I would call it a sermon, but that’d be too on the nose…..

The phrase rock ‘n’ roll: I use it every day. I imagine if you’re reading this, then so do you. Do you know what it means? Could you define it? Is it just a feeling? Or when you hear a song, do you just know?

Here’s the answer: “Ding Ding Man” by Daddy Long Legs. Two and a half minutes of the filthiest noise. Is it a cazoo? I think so. I don’t care. If you can sound this degenerate with what amounts to a nursery rhyme to drugs (?) (and given that John Sebastian of Loving Spoonful is on this I don’t know why I bothered with a question mark) then brother, you’re in the most rock n roll band on the planet.

Daddy Long Legs first came to our attention back in 2019. They released a record called “Lowdown Ways”. It was a lot of fun. “Nefariousness is a given here. You can imagine Mick and Keef passing this around before recording the early Stones stuff, but amazingly there’s not a cover to be seen.” I wrote back then, and the same thing happens here. Only more so.

They begin with the title track. “Work with one another/not against each other” offers Brian Hurd. You could argue that its an anthem of unity. It’s just as likely he wrote it while in a Chain Gang. Whatever.

Either way, the thing gets going properly with “Nightmare”.  It’s everything you want – here’s that word again – rock n roll to be. And here’s Wreckless Eric to have a bit of a duet. Oh and there’s a scream that Andy Scott of The Sweet would be proud of.

Do you want your music to sound greasier than yesterday’s Kentucky Zinger Burger? Good. Get yourself to “Rockin’ My Boogie”. It’s astonishing. You’ll probably need a wash after listening to it.

In amongst all this, by the way, the musicianship is top notch. Hurd whips up a storm on “Harmonica Razor” and the boys can write a hook, my goodness. “Been A Fool Once” is so classic sounding that you’d swear you’d heard it before.

They are capable of moments of tenderness. “Star” is like one of those ballads that Jason and the Scorchers used to chuck in every so often, “You’ll Die Too” offers up a bit of social conscious, Mr Wreckless is back for a bit of surf rock on “Satin” (and honestly, if this isn’t used on a Taratino film where the main star goes on a rampage and kills everyone in sight then he’s lost his marbles) and “Two Dollar Holler” sounds exactly like a track with that name by this band was always going to. It’s quite something. And for all the fun we’ve had with this, then let it be said that Murat Aktürk can rip some slide guitar out as well as anyone.

There’s just something so inherently catchy about these, like an STI, but there’s no cream for this at the chemist. Even when they are trying to do a love song, like “Stop What You’re Doing” they sound raw and primal. You can’t polish this. Why would you try?

Indeed, as “Electro Motive Blues” – essentially front porch strumming if you’re at the gates of hell – ends things, you realise it’s a neat track they’ve pulled off here. Where some bands wrap up their darkness in a happy tunes, Daddy Long Legs are the opposite. There’s nothing outwardly scary about them at all. Yet, I still wouldn’t set foot in their houses, thank you. And that, right there, is rock n roll personified. I love it. I just don’t want it living next door.

Rating 8.5/10

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