Shakin' Stevens : discussion

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Shakin' Stevens. 60s/70s touring rock'n'roller with his band "The Sunsets". 80s europop mainstay. Rockabilly/Rock'n'roll revivalist.

Back in his 80s chart heyday, he seemed to largely appeal to kids, young housewives, and greying teddy boys. My opinion is the guy could sing very well, and based on some footage I've seen of his gigs, he was a star live performer. But not a very cool one amongst indie dudes, it has to be said. The songs he covered are simple, direct old rock 'n' roll, for the most part, with some blues and motown covers thrown in for good measure.

After many years of touring Europe as part of the alcohol-friendly rock'n'roll band "The Sunsets", Shakin' Stevens was into his mid 30s (quite old for a "debuting" pop star; and it makes him about 60yrs old now) before he found success as a solo singer at the beginning of the 80s, which continued until he all-but-retired in the early 90s. His sound during his time in the limelight was very much a commercial pop take on old rockabilly numbers (coupled with cuts of new tracks, written by himself and others).

Starting this topic, I've got to say that I like a lot of his songs (though I've only heard a subset of the singles he released, and none of the album-tracks or B-sides). Some of my preferred ones are 'Cry Just A Little Bit' 'What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For' 'Turning Away' and 'Oh Julie'.

As the Frank Black said in 'Levitate Me': "Shaky shake...........a-Shaky!"

Your opinions on Shaky? Hate figure? Pop god?
Your opinions on his songs?

― Louis Balfour (Louis Balfour), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 13:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Let me be the first to cite Morley's fine jest from the other day: "the Elvis that Shakin' Stevens is currently reviving is clearly the 1991-1994 corpse period".

― the bluefox, Wednesday, 27 April 2005 13:36 (twenty-one years ago)

He wasn't all that bad. I think the moment when people really started hating him was when his use of synths increased. I mean, personally, I think the synths in "Cry Just a Little Bit" work perfectly fine, but I can understand that purists were pissed off.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 13:36 (twenty-one years ago)

The Fall:
I hate the guts of Shakin' Stevens
For what he has done
The massacre of "Blue Christmas"
On him I'd like to land one on

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 13:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Shakin' Stevens vs. Mark E. Smith - a classic Left Wing vs. Right Wing battle!

― Pradaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Quite pleasant, pop fodder methinks. A decent voice coupled with very accessible faux-rockandroll. I've the benefit of only hearing his tracks recently (i.e. in the last few years).

He's so ooooolllllld now. Like that house of his!

― Garfield Odie (garfield), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Shaky is a Legend.

― musicjohn73 (musicjohn73), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Re: "Shakin' Stevens vs. Mark E. Smith - a classic Left Wing vs. Right Wing battle!"
well,, The Sunsets did benefit gigs for the revolutionary communist party in their early days! :P

Shaky = dance hero
"Look at them brothel creepers go!!!"

― dame Aunt Sally (dameauntsally), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 21:01 (twenty-one years ago)

The lyrics to "A Little Boogie Woogie In The Back Of My Mind" used to creep me out (originally done by Gary Glitter, hmmm), even though it was Shakey Goes Hi-NRG, and therefore a Good Thing in other respects...

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 21:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Fuck "indie dudes." Except no one does, do they?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 28 April 2005 04:49 (twenty years ago)

I think it'd be kind of funny if he got parkinsons disease.

― Sasha (sgh), Thursday, 28 April 2005 07:33 (twenty years ago)

I think it'd be kind of funny if you died of cancer.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 28 April 2005 07:45 (twenty years ago)

In the Punk vs Ted wars of Summer 77, there was serious talk of staging a Pistols/Shakey "unity" gig. Sniffin' Glue got quite excited about it. All sounds a bit Viz magazine in retrospect, but those were the times etc.

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Thursday, 28 April 2005 07:46 (twenty years ago)

Let me be the first to cite Morley's fine jest from the other day: "the Elvis that Shakin' Stevens is currently reviving is clearly the 1991-1994 corpse period".

Ironic considering that Shakey did a stint on the West End stage in the late 70s impersonating the pre-draft Elvis. It was some sort of tribute musical, with three actors playing the Three Ages Of Elvis or something.

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Thursday, 28 April 2005 07:50 (twenty years ago)

I've never quite understood the popular success of all that rockabilly revival stuff right at the end of the 70s and the early 80s. I'm thinking of Matchbox, the Jets, the Polecats, the Stray Cats... why was there this boom? Ties in with the success of Grease I suppose. Was there a particular DJ championing it? Was it the legacy of Showaddywaddy or something?

― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:06 (twenty years ago)

The NME and the Face thought it was hip sometime around November 1980.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:07 (twenty years ago)

They did? Was this like Brit bohemians embracing Acker Bilk and trad jazz in the 50s/60s?

In the Punk vs Ted wars of Summer 77, there was serious talk of staging a Pistols/Shakey "unity" gig. Sniffin' Glue got quite excited about it

Maybe this mindest begat Tenpole Tudor. Sort of!

― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:09 (twenty years ago)

More or less every musical trend has had its revival at some stage or another. The late 70s/early 80s was the time for the rockabilly revival.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:25 (twenty years ago)

There was a big four-page article about this in Melody Maker circa July '77, which my dad loved reading. Cor, mass punch-ups in the King's Road - you don't get that anymore (except at the World's End end obviously, on a nightly basis).

I remember that PJ Proby portrayed the decaying elder Elvis in that same musical. Now there's someone whose extraordinary '80s output needs to be re-evaluated/reissued on CD urgently.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:32 (twenty years ago)

(xpost)

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:32 (twenty years ago)

(x-post in response to Geir)

Yeah, I suppose so. So was this the first occassion that rock recycled itself as a whole? I mean with such a dedication to replicating the past, rather than fucking around with past forms more creatively.

― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:36 (twenty years ago)

Of course there was the other side of the rockabilly revival coin, i.e. the Cramps and all who sailed in them.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:38 (twenty years ago)

(x-post hey everybody's doing it)

You mean the Savoy stuff?

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:38 (twenty years ago)

Indeed, particularly if we're talking about cover versions of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and that beyond-bizarre avant-electro thing he did which was named after a barcode, the exact name of which I can't recall at the moment, being at work and that.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:41 (twenty years ago)

It was like the Associates sing Merzbow.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:42 (twenty years ago)

So was this the first occassion that rock recycled itself as a whole?

I would say the entire blues/country revival of the late 60s/early 70s was the first occasion. That "back to the roots" approach was regressive to an extent that rock had never been before.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:44 (twenty years ago)

Which fall track was the "Shakin" part from?

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:45 (twenty years ago)

OK this turned out very xpost:

Did the short-simple-raw-song/no-dinosaur ethos thing of punk also help making Stray Cats et al seem hipper than might be expected seen from now?

He's so ooooolllllld now. Like that house of his!

Except that house was ole! Like me!

― OleM (OleM), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:52 (twenty years ago)

I would say the entire blues/country revival of the late 60s/early 70s was the first occasion

That was non-rock stuff though transplanted into a rock context. And blues and country had never really gone away, at least not to extent that rockabilly had fallen off the radar.

― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:55 (twenty years ago)

Shakin' Stevens was extremely hip when he became popular. Barney Hoskyns gave his Shaky album a rave review in the NME. A bit like Showaddywaddy but with cred. There was a big kerfuffle in the letters pages of the NME at the time about poor old Shaky only getting to number one after ten years of hard gigging while Sheena Easton made number one in America without breaking sweat. Moral? Points are deducted for sweating.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 28 April 2005 08:57 (twenty years ago)

Not just rockabilly. Shaky's cover of Holland/Dozier/Holland's "Come See About Me" is velly nice. Velly nice, I say.

― Louis Balfour (Louis Balfour), Thursday, 28 April 2005 09:50 (twenty years ago)

Did the short-simple-raw-song/no-dinosaur ethos thing of punk also help making Stray Cats et al seem hipper than might be expected seen from now?

Yes. That's exactly what happened. Then again, are they not hip now?

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 28 April 2005 09:53 (twenty years ago)

Are they? I hadn't noticed.

Their 1983 "comeback" single: "She's Sexy (And 17)" is a candidate for the worst single ever, as are at least three other singles in that 1983 chart posted wherever else it was posted.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 28 April 2005 09:59 (twenty years ago)

Worst single ever - Coast To Coast: "Do The Hucklebuck"

― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 28 April 2005 10:22 (twenty years ago)

Odd choice. Never bothered me one way or the other. Why "Do The Hucklebuck"?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 28 April 2005 10:25 (twenty years ago)

Oh, I hold school PE lessons entirely responsible for my loathing of this. Half an hour of solid hucklebucking in your pants and vest is enough to make anyone a bit funny like that.

― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 28 April 2005 10:43 (twenty years ago)

The Polecats' rockabilly cover of "John I'm Only Dancing" - classic or dud? I was quite fond.

The Stray Cats gave the game away when one of them started dating Britt Ekland.

Wasn't the first ever "revival" around 1968/69 when Chuck Berry/Little Richard etc re-surfaced and started doing big stadium gigs? From whence sprang Sha Na Na, I guess?

(Unless you count the "It's Trad, Dad" revival of, what, 1959/60?)

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Thursday, 28 April 2005 10:48 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

Petridish catching up with ILM three years later: News At Ten.

― Dingbod Kesterson, Friday, 9 May 2008 09:55 (seventeen years ago)

Also never forget that Shaky is the only pop star I know of to launch a drunken physical assault on Richard Madeley on live television... sorry, sadly the only pop star I know of to launch a drunken physical assault on Richard Madeley on live television

― Tom D., Friday, 9 May 2008 10:03 (seventeen years ago)

You know, when Shaky hit with "Hot Dog" and all that, I felt that this dude has worked damn hard since the sunsets started, and hell if he wants to serve R&R lite for a few bob, why not? deserves some payback for those years of being the credible rock&roll act.

(mind you, by the time "Merry Christmas Everyone", as produced by Dave Edmonds, came out, I was like *enough already*, but then as per so many others, the christmas hit tends to be the beginning of the ending for many chart acts...)

― Mark G, Friday, 9 May 2008 10:13 (seventeen years ago)

NME letter I recall at the time "This Ole House" went to number one:

"It takes Shakin' Stevens ten years of hard gigging to get to number one in Britain. Sheena Easton gets to number one in America without even sweating. Where's the justice?"

The response (CSM I think) was: "Simple. You get penalty points for sweating."

― Dingbod Kesterson, Friday, 9 May 2008 10:24 (seventeen years ago)

I always felt that Shaky usurped the Doo Wop Planet Madness that Darts were trying their best to develop and would have done if it wasn't for this cheeky little Welsh cunt.
Neither as good as Showaddywaddy though

― Fer Ark, Friday, 9 May 2008 21:47 (seventeen years ago)

Ha, I really thought this was just another smarmy Sufjan thread.

― Hurting 2, Friday, 9 May 2008 22:16 (seventeen years ago)

Neither as good as Showaddywaddy though

True.

― Ned Trifle II, Friday, 9 May 2008 22:38 (seventeen years ago)

fourteen years pass...

Still shakin' ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_Ffa5oba-E

― Eyeball Kicks, Wednesday, 12 April 2023 17:13 (three years ago)

... albeit in an armchair for much of the video.

― Eyeball Kicks, Wednesday, 12 April 2023 17:14 (three years ago)

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