Red Rockers - Good as Gold

I love a surprise that has a surprise inside.

Recently I was out of town, and generally this means my wife gets to go shopping and I'm dragged along to carry the bags and pay for stuff. As it happens there was a little hole in the wall used record store that seemed to have a lot of grossly overpriced product, but the owner was a quirky character and we got to chatting. The filing system made sense to him, but was otherwise indecipherable to the rest of us. We got onto the subject of power pop and I mentioned a few albums I was looking for. His eyes would light up, as I made my inquiries. "Ooh, I have that one ... but not here." Or "Yeah that's a good one, it's upstairs but I can't get it right now. Are you from out of town? Oh, that's too bad." All the while he was rooting around and pulling out albums I wasn't asking about, and piling them in front of me.

Among them was this album by Red Rockers. It looked pretty interesting based on the cover, I scanned the back jacket but didn't really read it that closely. The other album I was interested in was still sealed, and I was hesitant to ask how much, but he preempted my question by asking me if I'd do $20 for the pair. It was still a little more than I wanted to pay - but one of them was still new and sealed, so why not?

He then went to the front and put on the Red Rockers album, and the first song was "China." I knew that song, but I didn't know who did it. Before I could stop myself I actually blurted, "Dude that sounds like China." If I'd have taken the time to actually read the track list I'd have known that, but knowing me without hearing the song, I likely wouldn't have made the connection. I can be thick like that from time to time. He then dropped the needle on a couple more tracks, but I was already sold.

I passed him my $20 bucks.

Based on this album Red Rockers were a fantastic new wave band that were as good as anything coming over from across the pond. From Echo & The Bunnymen, The Vapours to Modern English, take your pick - Red Rockers were the shit. The album kicks off with "China" that was one of those early '80s hits that should have been bigger, but there was so many great songs coming out back then it was a pretty crowded landscape. The whole album is one great song after another. Another standout is "'Til it All Falls Down" a song that I really like. 

I figured I should read up on the band. A little digging and it turns out these guys weren't English after all, but they sing in it ... so there was that. The band was actually from New Orleans, and when they first started out they were more like an American version of The Clash apparently. They were punk, and full of angst. Their first album Condition Red was released in 1981. They even managed to have The Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra sing on their cover of "Folson Prison Blues" which is actually pretty cool. It's as much rockabilly as punk, but it does feature a great chugga chugga guitar.

So when they dropped Good as Gold sounding very English, and adopting a decidedly commercial pop sound I'm sure it was a bitter pill for some of their early fans to swallow. For me though this is an album I wish I'd found back in the day, although I wonder where it would have fitted in with my penchant for straight ahead rock. I've found that my gravitation to the more new wave and alternative aspects of the '80s evolved after the fact.

The band's line up would vary over their three album, and seemed to be centred on John Griffith and stalwart bass-man Darren Hill. The line up on Good as Gold was rounded out by new drummer Jim Reilly and lead guitarist James Singletary, who had a nice touch and added some pretty cool textures to the songs.

The music here still retained the rockabilly and almost surf guitar qualities but the songs were accessible. Not to mention they were catchy. Of course, the rallying cry of "SELL OUT" just meant one of two things. Having the audience catch up to what is going on, or having a band deliberately chase after success. I get the sense that this was an almost natural evolution. Not having heard the band's earlier or later work until after I found Good as Gold it's always interesting to hear a band's trajectory over a short career.

To me, this album contains the angst of the dying throws of the late '70s first wave of punk and the transition into new wave infused power pop. Most of the album skirts between the two, while songs like "China" and the previously mentioned "'Til it All Falls Down" manage to achieve the perfect blend of the two.

The band would achieve a moderate level of success with Good as Gold, and the album would crack the top 100, and the single "China" cracked the top 20 rock charts. Striking while the iron was hot the band released Schizophrenic Circus but it didn't go anywhere. I've listened to this one a few times and it's a shame really as this was really good, but who knows what was going on behind the scenes.

After three albums between 1981 - 1984 they came, they saw, they burned out.  Still true to their word, on this one they were as Good as Gold.