By Spoiks
Quick,
tell me the name of the band that best combined punk angst with rockabilly
roots and created a string of quintessential pops songs for the eighties.
Yeah, I know, the Replacements right?
Wrongoroonie, soilder!. Not to say that the Replacements didn't gel,
that their shit didn't stick to the wall it was thrown against… but
the band the best defined the punk/roots sound was none other than Jason
and the Scorchers!
"Jason and the
whatsers," you yelp out like a wounded dawg. "I ain't nebber heard of
dem' mudderfuckers!" Yeah, you haven't, and it's a damn shame I say.
And why haven't you heard of them? That's the question you oughtta be
thinking when you take that torn up copy of "MAN SPECTACLE" into the
bathroom and turn on the sink so your moms thinks you're shaving. The
Replacements… man, they're all over the place, every Punk interview
or Rock footnote manages to squeeze in somethin' about Paul and the
Gang, but you can fit everything ever wrote about J and the Boys on
the palm of your hand and still have room leftover for the lyrics to
the Patti Smith version of "GLORIA."
Jason and the Scorchers
were rock enough not to be country, punk enough not to be rock and metal
enough not to be cool… that probably has a lot to do with why the underground
never gave them the props they deserved. Plus, they were sincere. When
the Replacements or Alex Chilton bust out a love song it was a "Post-Dylan
multi-layered statement on society's obsession with pseudo emotion."
When Jason and the Scorchers sang a love song, it was… a love song.
Their hillbilly licks came from a lifetime of being hillbillies, not
a half read copy of "Mel Bay's How to Play Country." Their metal and
punk grind came from the fact that they were white trash. Motherfuckers
were sincere, simple and square. And no matter what Huey L said, it
ain't never been hip to be square.
