Laughter (album)

Laughter is an album by Ian Dury & The Blockheads. It was released in 1980, and was the last studio album Dury made for Stiff Records. It was also the last studio album he made with The Blockheads, until 1998's Mr. Love Pants. Though a live album Warts 'n' Audience was produced in 1991.

The Blockheads had undergone a significant personnel change since the previous album, Do It Yourself. Chas Jankel, who played keyboards and co-wrote most of that album's songs, had left in the wake of a stressful tour. Jankel's place on keyboards was taken by Wilko Johnson of Dr. Feelgood. Johnson (real name John Wilkinson) had considered retiring from the music business until he was asked by Davey Payne and Dury, old friends from their pub rock days, to join The Blockheads. The new-line up first appeared on the 'I Want To Be Straight' single, which was released before the album, and reached number 22 in the UK pop charts.

Although Ian Dury was becoming harder to work with, the production of Laughter had started out as a relaxed affair, without the presence of Jankel and Dury. Rehearsals commenced in early 1980 at Milner Sound in Fulham, after guitarist Mickey Gallagher had returned from an American tour with The Clash. The group was, at that time, on hiatus after the grueling promotional tour in support of Do It Yourself. Spurred on by recording commitments, Dury took over the rehearsals to form the basis of his new album, and brought in Wilko Johnson, all without consulting the rest of the band.

At that time Dury was an alcoholic, and also addicted to Mogadons, a brand of sedative. Coupled with his bad reaction to celebrity, and his bouts of depression, these addictions caused him to be cantankerous, confrontational, argumentative, and controlling. Although these traits had come out during the recording of the group's previous album, they were at their peak during the record sessions for Laughter. Attempts to question Dury's judgment would cause explosions of defensiveness and aggression. He also insisted on synchronising the instruments to a robotic click-track, which aggravated a number of the musicians, especially Wilko Johnson. To make matters worse, guitarist Johnny Turnbull suffered a head injury, and was afflicted with mood swings. He eventually had a nervous breakdown.

The album was preceded by the single Sueperman's Big Sister intentionally spelt wrong so to avoid any copyright issues with DC Comics, the 7" release including an exclusive track 'You'll See Glimpses' while the 12" included the album's final track 'Fucking Ada', the single was Stiff Records' 100th Single and the label had the label for their very first Nick Lowe's Heart Of The City with those track names crossed out and the correct titles and artist (for Sueperman's Big Sister) written in as if by biro. Laughter was released the same month (November 1980), the album was not well received by critics and its sales were mediocre, the Soft As A Babies Bottom tour to support it however, was a sell-out success, regardless Stiff and Ian Dury parted ways afterwards and he signed a short-lived deal with Polydor Records without The Blockheads.

A number of Laughter's songs appear to deal with a lot of Dury's personal problems and demons at the time. Although he always denied Delusions Of Grandeur was about himself, most who knew him at the time felt certain it was. Others such as Uncoolohol (about alcoholism) Manic Depression (Jimi) and Fucking Ada (both about depression) also seem to make clear references to his troubles at the time, Hey, Hey, Take Me Away is confirmed to have been about the time he spent at Chailey's Special School while stricken with polio.

In an interview years later, Dury admitted of the album: "I called it Laughter to cheer myself up."

1 Track listing
2 Personnel
- 2.1 Additional Personnel
3 Re-releases
4 Sources

[edit] Track listing

"Sueperman's Big Sister" (Dury, Johnson) - 2:49
"Pardon" (Dury, Watt-Roy) - 2:39
"Delusions Of Grandeur" (Dury/, Gallagher) - 2:51
"Yes And No (Paula)" (Dury, Payne) - 3:06
"Dance Of The Crackpots" (Dury, Turnbull) - 2:35
"Over The Points" (Dury, Turnbull) - 4.08
"(Take Your Elbow Out Of The Soup) You're Sitting On The Chicken (Dury, Gallagher) - 2:34
"Uncoolohol" (Dury, Charles) - 3:01
"Hey, Hey, Take Me Away" (Dury, Gallagher) - 2:27
"Manic Depression (Jimi)" (Dury, Gallagher) - 3.48
"Oh Mr. Peanut" (Dury, Johnson) - 3:49
"Fucking Ada" (Dury, Turnbull) 5:59

[edit] Personnel

Ian Dury - Vocals
Wilko Johnson - Guitars, backing vocals
Johnny Turnbull - Guitars, backing vocals
Mick Gallagher - Keyboards, synthesisers
Norman Watt-Roy - Bass
Charley Charles - Drums
Davey Payne - Saxophones, harmonica, flute

[edit] Additional Personnel

Don Cherry - Pocket Trumpet
Will Gaines - tap dance on Dance Of The Crackpots
Ray Cooper - Percussion
Ivor Raymonde - Strings

Ian Horne - Sound Engineer, mixing
Rick Werhnham - Assistant Engineer
Chris Killip - Photography
Ray Gregory, Brain Love - Album Design

[edit] Re-releases

The album was re-released by Edsel Records in 2004 as part of a series of 2-CD Ian Dury re-issues. Previously the album had been re-issues to CD by Demon Records, initially with no bonus tracks then with the addition of "Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3" a song that had no real relation to the album and featured a different band line-up, Edsel's 2004 re-issue replaced the track with "I Want To be Straight" and "That's Not All", both sides of the first single with the Blockheads line-up that recorded the album and Sueperman's Big Sister's B-side You'll See Glimpses.

Edsel's re-issue also included a bonus disc of mainly instrumentals mostly recorded by The Blockheads before Dury became involved with the project and three songs, including the final version of Duff 'Em Up And Do 'Em Over (Boogie Woogie) the song Oh Mr. Peanut began life as. Despite being considered of good quality, Dury and Stiff compare Kozmo Vinyl were worried it might become an anthem for football hooligans or the small percentage of yob culture that followed him and bands like Sham 69 and Dury scrapped the lyric.

[edit] Sources

Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll: The Life Of Ian Dury by Richard Balls, first published 2000, Omnibus Press
Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Song By Song by Jim Drury, first published 2003, Sanctuary Publishing.