One of the great lost sessions of recent times, Cleopatra Records have now seen fit to rerelease HeadCat Plays Buddy Holly. This unusual document is an actually quite faithful rockabilly take on the Buddy Holly songbook, a style actually not so far from his own slightly more polished oeuvre.
Who, then, HeadCat? The answer: Slim Jim Phantom, of the Stray Cats and the similarly inclined Danny B. Harvey. But that’s not all, as the third band member was no less than Lemmy Kilmister–yes, that Lemmy (is there another?)–before that. Drawn together by a love for the rock’n’roll of their youth, these apparently disparate souls from an ocean apart, first grouped for A Special Tribute to Elvis in 1999, as the Swing Cats. One suspects they may have had other shared interests.
In 2006 the trio returned for a set of greased-back standards, releasing Fool’s Paradise. To all intents and purposes, this release seems culled from those self-same sessions, if concentrating only on the Holly-related songs. So no “Cut Across Shorty,” “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” “Trying to Get to You,” “Big River” or “Matchbox,” these five songs replaced by three alternate versions of songs already in the package. To add to the mystique, many of the songs include snippets of studio conversation, to add atmosphere.
Anyone hoping for the sonic blast of Lemmy’s trademark bass rumble, assaulting senses and rattling ossicles, can look away now. Kilmister is here mainly employed on acoustic guitar strumming duties. That and singing. It is fair to say his raddled croak is not ideally suited to these midrange croons, all dialed at well under 11. Having said, there is some small charm around the delivery. If you find the timbre of Jonathan Richmond of appeal, imagine him with a (very) sore throat. But, I think, the main point is that, hey, it’s Lemmy, and your opinion will make or break on the strength of the affection you may, or not, have.
A fairly rudimentary choogle of guitars introduces “Fool’s Paradise,” with the vocals low enough in the mix to brush over some of the worst crimes against the melody. Phantom and Harvey offer an effective, if derivative, platform to drive it along, and it’s an OK start. “Tell Me How” sounds better practiced and, with enough JD in you, might come across as a belter. “2, 3, 4″ says Kilmister, changing his mind to “1, 2, 4, 5“, as he shambolically kicks a rusting version of “Not Fade Away” into gear. Vocally, they drop more notes than they catch, but it actually doesn’t matter, it coming across as potentially the most lasting track, even as it ends on an unexpected sixpence.
“Take Your Time” is then pretty dire, with risky-dink organ from Harvey. But, despite that, something somewhere hits a spot, if only in the so-bad-it’s-good rankings. This is garage rock for the mechanically inept. “OK, boys, have a nice clean fight” is Kilmister’s intro for “Well, Alright,” which, against further odds, manages to be just that. Phantom’s drumming is tightly precise and Harvey’s guitar solo drips with ’50s trebly authenticity. The listener will have by now noted the virtuous brevity on display here, with no song longer than two minutes 30.
“Learning the Game,” placed suspiciously presciently in the track order, might find you, like me, now quite won over by these shambolic snippets. A keyboard solo, Harvey again, is one of those odd baroque constructions that used to shoehorn into the middle eight of otherwise unrelated chord progressions. Is an irritated/amused “how’s it fucking start” too honest a way for Kilmister to start “Peggy Sue’s Got Married”? Just in case, his bandmates maintain some deliciously inept bv’s to take the pressure off. Straining at the top of all their respective ranges, it is disarmingly marvelous. The feel-good adrenaline similarly sparks up the zesty iteration of “Crying, Waiting, Hoping.” More cracking guitar, too.
The Bo Diddley-esque “Loves Made a Fool of You” runs with the same burst of energy, and it sounds as if fun is being had. Sadly, the instrumental closer “True Love Ways wrecks the mood totally, by way of an excess of Mantovani-style schmalzy strings, cheesy saxes and a harp, FFS, alongside a randomly tinkling piano. Harvey manfully gives it the full Hank B., but the overdose of kitsch is too damaging to redeem anything. I sort of see this may have been the intended mood, but dare say it was funnier in the idea than in the can.
Did I say closer? Silly me, with three otherwise discarded studio run throughs, or are they just different mixes? “Fool’s Paradise” gets a bit more audible piano, while “Peggy Sue Got Married” seems more fragile than it had seemed the first/other time around, and that’s quite touching. I’m afraid I couldn’t catch any different nuances within “Crying, Waiting, Hoping.”
I appreciate, at first glance, this review seems to administer little more than a good kicking. But it is in that little more that the real pleasure is to be gained. Yes, HeadCat Plays Buddy Holly is messy, muddy and mildly annoying, but it is also occasionally lovely, and, if undone is just a more advanced stage of looseness, it’s actually quite dandy.
HeadCat Plays Buddy Holly tracklisting:
A1. Fool’s Paradise (The Crickets cover)
A2. Tell Me How (The Crickets cover)
A3. Not Fade Away (The Crickets cover)
A4. Take Your Time (Buddy Holly cover)
A5. Well…All Right (Buddy Holly cover)
A6. Learning The Game (Buddy Holly cover)
A7. Peggy Sue Got Married (Buddy Holly cover)
B1. Crying, Waiting, Hoping (Buddy Holly cover)
B2. Love’s Made A Fool Of You (Buddy Holly cover)
B3. True Love Ways (Buddy Holly cover)
B4. Fool’s Paradise (Alternate Mix) (The Crickets cover)
B5. Peggy Sue Got Married (Alternate Mix) (Buddy Holly cover)
B6. Crying, Waiting, Hoping (Alternate Mix) (Buddy Holly cover)
“HeadCat Plays Buddy Holly” is available on Bandcamp.
