Blasters - American Music/Troublebound

  by Daniel Cressey

published: 2 / 4 / 2012

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In the midst of the 1980s, film director Walter Hill needed a rock and roll band to put in his modern fable, 'Streets of Fire'. The scene required a band tear up the stage in a bar that was the epitome of a sleazy dive, populated by leather-jacketed, slick-haired, violent men, and women of a similar ilk. If you've seen that movie, you'll know the band chosen was the Blasters. The Blasters do rock and roll. And they do it very well. Their 1980 first album – 'American Music', re-released now – distils this genre down to its essentials and then tops it up with a shot of rockabilly and another of blues. If the songs aren't about getting into trouble, it's a fair bet they are about women, failing that, getting into trouble over women. They might not be winning any awards for musical innovation, but the Blasters do what they do with serious aplomb. By treating rock and roll with love but without reverence they manage to make what should seem tired and predictable exciting again. This might be only rock and roll, but it is glorious. To really get the flavour of the Blasters though, the listener should turn to the second half of this two-album set. The 2002 live album 'Trouble Bound' builds on 'American Music', taking many of the songs from that and a goodly sprinkling of extra tunes, and instils in them an even greater sense of urgency. If someone today again needed to film a bar scene with a band that embodied all that rock and roll should be, it is unlikely they could do better than look to the Blasters.

Track Listing:-

1 American Music
2 Real Rock
3 Barefoot Rock
4 I Don't Want to
5 Marie Marie
6 I Wish You Would
7 She Ain't Got The Beat
8 Flattop
9 Crazy Baby
10 Never No More
11 Buzz
12 She's Gone Away
13 Barn Burning
14 21 days
15 Love 24 Hours
16 I Fell In Love
17 So Glad
18 Ashamed
19 Lone Wolf
20 Red Rose
21 Trouble Bound
22 Long White Cadillac
23 Cryin
24 I'm Shakin
25 Blue Shadows
26 Help You Dream
27 Common Man
28 Hollywood
29 Too Tired
30 I Wish You Would
31 Sadies Back In Town
32 Dark Night
33 So Long baby Goodbye
34 American Music
35 One Bad Stud
36 Marie Marie

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/the-Blasters-79395426235/
http://theblasters.com/

Label Links:-

http://www.floatingworldrecords.co.uk/labels/retroworld/
https://www.facebook.com/floating.worldrecords
https://twitter.com/floatingwrecord

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