Mr. Love Pants

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Mr. Love Pants
Mr. Love Pants cover
Studio album by Ian Dury & The Blockheads
Released 1998
Genre Rock
Length 46:44
Label East Central One/Ronnie Harris Records
Producer The Blockheads
Ian Dury & The Blockheads chronology
The Bus Driver's Prayer & Other Stories
(1992)		 Mr. Love Pants
(1998)		 Straight From The Desk
(2001)

Mr. Love Pants is a 1998 album by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, released on East Central One under Dury's own label Ronnie Harris Records (named after his accountant).

The album would be the last studio he would make before his death in 2000 of colorectal cancer. It was his first studio album for six years following The Bus Driver's Prayer & Other Stories in 1992 and his first studio album with The Blockheads for 18 years since Laughter in 1980 (though they had produced a live album Warts 'n' Audience in 1991) and is considered by many to be the true successor to his seminal 1977 album New Boots and Panties!! - on his BBC documentary Dury dismissed all of the albums between Do It Yourself and Mr. Love Pants as inferior.

The album took around five years to complete and the writing commenced at Acre Farm, Twyford (near Reading, Berkshire) in 1993. Initially Chas Jankel worked with Ian Dury after returning from living in America for most of the eighties, but arguments between the two and soundman Ian Horne lead to Jankel leaving, at least two songs "Itinerant Child" and "Bed O' Roses No. 9" were written before he did however. Deserted Dury called Merlin Rhys-Jones who had been in the Music Students (Ian Dury's band for the album 4,000 Weeks' Holiday) they wrote ten songs together there, two would eventually make the album - "Jack Shit George" and "Cacka Boom" before arguments over money caused Rhys-Jones to leave.

It is generally considered that Ian Dury's first bout with cancer is what prompted him to reform The Blockheads and work with them solely, which he would do for the rest of his life. Ian Dury's new minder Derek Hussey aka Derek the Draw who managed to get Jankel and Dury talking again only for a bizarre phonecall from Ian involving touring America and a fictitious uncle of Jankel's lead to Chas having his solicitor write to Dury and Mickey Gallagher saying he would never play with the band again, though he relented after discovering Dury had cancer.

The album was recorded at Air Studios, which was also being used by Michael Jackson and was surprisingly trouble free compared to the troublesome recording sessions usually caused by Ian Dury, again his personality changes are attributed to his first bout with cancer - the only major incident being Dury randomly deciding to replace new drummer Steve Monti with Bernard Purdie but after constant opposition from his band Dury relented, it was unlikely Purdie would have joined anyway apparently he had a notorious reputation as 'Mr Bullshit' and always saying he wanted to join bands.

"Itinerant Child" was to be released as Ian Dury & The Blockhead's first single in 18 years (since 1980's "Sueperman's Big Sister") and a video was recorded but East Central One nixed the idea, in the end "Mash it Up Harry" was released instead on both CD and 12" record. The album is named after a song written by a friend of Steve Monti called Dean, Dean was furious and thought that the band had stolen his song.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

All tracks composed by Ian Dury and Chas Jankel; unless otherwise stated

  1. Jack Shit George (Dury, Merlin Rhys-Jones) - 4:23
  2. The Passing Show - 4.24
  3. You're My Baby - 3:30
  4. Honeysuckle Highway - 4:49
  5. Itinerant Child - 4:46
  6. Geraldine (Dury, Mickey Gallagher) - 3:37
  7. Cacka Boom (Dury, Merlin Rhys-Jones) - 4:49
  8. Bed O. Roses No. 9 - 5:19
  9. Heavy Living - 5:08
  10. Mash It Up Harry - 5:55

[edit] Personnel

Produced by the Blockheads, Engineered by Kevin Paul, Juw & Eon, Mixed by Laurie Latham with assistance from John Bailey

[edit] Additional personnel

  • Storm Thorgerson, Sam Brooks, Hannah Evans - Cover Design
  • John Crossland - Graphics and illustrations
  • 'Duncan Poundcake' - Band Photographs
  • Rupert Truman, Sam Brooks - Dog photographs

[edit] Trivia

  • 'Duncan Poundcake' the photographer credited for the album booklet's band photographs is a pseudonym for Ian Dury
  • The lyrics printed in the booklet incorrectly give the line 'it's a stone fucking miracle there's no-one dead' as 'it's a stone bloody miracle there's no-one dead' even though the version on the album contains the stronger expletive.
  • Though not her actual name "Geraldine" was a real waitress in a delicatessen in Henley-on-Thames, London that Dury and Gallagher visited regularly.
  • There is a final sound-bite tacked onto the end of the "Mash It Up Harry" that starts at 5:13, it is Ian Dury interacting with his mother's dog Lucky late one night in his flat.
  • the reason for the 'no. 9' suffix on "Bed O Roses No. 9" is because Ian Dury had his manager see how many songs were called "Bed Of Roses", then changed the name accordingly, there were 8.

[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.