Joe Ely review, 1981

At times unintentionally hilarious review for my college weekly, thanks primarily to my embarrassing ignorance about country music involving assumptions many city slickers no doubt share — and which certainly have at least some small basis in truth, even four decades later. My logic contradicts itself, partly resting on my deciding I disliked country because it, uh, wasn’t country enough — hence my valuing Ely’s apparent authenticity as a legitimate Lubbockite who has “ridden a horse or two.”

I had never been to Lubbock myself at that point. Also can’t swear I knew that the ’20s Jimmie Rodgers who helped establish hillbilly music and the ’50s schlockabilly who did “Honeycomb” (a “classic,” I say!) were two very different people. And I wish some editor would have chopped my empty asides about “it’s damn good” and “he does it well” etc.; you could easily trim the piece in half and lose nothing. But don’t blame me for the excised adjective missing before “fiddle players like Charlie Daniels.” Doubt I had any particular beef against fiddlers. Fascist (or fatass?) ones, however…

As for Joe Ely (who passed away a few days before I revived this on Substack), check out this Old Grey Whistle Test performance on youtube if you wonder why the Clash liked him enough to have him open concerts for them (and, I always thought, cop his rockabilly sound in “The Leader” on Sandinista!) — his band sounds more or less exactly like the kind of pub rock Joe Strummer exemplified in his pre-Clash band, the 101ers. Except Ely’s band rocks harder (maybe even as hard as the Count Bishops.) RIP.

maneater, 1981