Article published in Sounds, 19th July, 1980
The Barracudas | ‘Cudas Go Folk Shock !!!! | YES, WELL, and here we are again, as someone once said. And maybe, on second thoughts, The Barracudas aren’t exactly a surfing band at all. “I’ve just done this 15-minute solo version of ‘Hey Joe’,” reports Robin Barracuda. “It’s kind of acid-rock, y’know? Sounds like Ian Curtis singing Max Bygraves.”
He wipes the sleep from his eyes as the dull afternoon light spills through the windows of the EMI building, and intimates that he’s only just woken up under someone’s dining room table.
Ah, fame. Since appearing on the cover of this magazine a few months ago, these slender young hedonists have seen their fortunes take a turn for the better.
Only seconds after the issue with the Chalkie Davies’ piccy of them clutching a makeshift surfboard hit the stands, the ‘phone started ringing.
After consulting with their landlords the foursome decided to take EMI’s money. Singer Jeremy Barracuda twitches amiably: “We’d like to say to all those people on independent labels that being on a big label is MUCH better, despite what you’ve heard. More money, more fun, more free drinks . . . ”
The Barracudas | ‘Cudas Go Folk Shock !!!!
More girls? How’d you boys go down in that quarter? Drummer Nicky sniggers. “We don’t go down too well, but they go down really well . . . “
SERIOUS is not a word that enters into The Barracudas vocabulary, but they have their devotions and allegiances. They shortly begin recording the first album, “following in The Flamin’ Groovies‘ footsteps” by waxing at Rockfield.
The producer will be solid workman Pat Moran. What happened to the Barracuda dream of using someone like Terry Melcher or Brian Wilson, a regular ’60s cult figure to complement their brash sounds of mutated nostalgia?
Nicky; “We had a cult producer and he was a cunt producer . . . ”
This refers to bubblegummer Kenny Laguna, whose work on the band’s current single, ‘Summer Fun, was a little misguided to say the kindest thing.
The other members feel there were faults on both sides. “Kenny made the fatal mistake many people make of thinking we can play and sing at the same time . . . it took him five days to figure out that we weren’t what he thought we were.”
Which was?
“Musicians, for one thing,” says Jeremy, “like a total ‘Holland’ 72 Beach Boys type of sound, when in fact we’re closer to The Cramps.”
One whole day, allegedly, was spent by Laguna playing with a fire extinguisher and doing, er, something with a spoon.
Says Robin, “The rest of the time he was on the phone or playing Space Invaders.”
The stuff, perhaps, of which legends, but not great records, are made.
“It was always my dream to be famous for 15 minutes,” comments Jeremy as regards that SOUNDS cover. “We clocked in at just over 12 . . . ”
Robin: “I was a has-been at nineteen! At the time we didn’t have anything to back it up. We didn’t have the technique, we didn’t have the contract . . .”
The Barracudas | ‘Cudas Go Folk Shock !!!!
Now that MCA, CBS, Sire and Magnet are either crying tears of regret or joy, EMI will have to learn how to market The Baccarudies’ new-found power: their songs.
There’s an instrumental called ‘Barracuda-Waver‘ (a tribute to the USA designation for Fernwood Flashers everywhere), a reportedly stunning little protest song titled ‘We Live In Violent Times‘ and the as yet unheard ‘Ballad Of Charles Manson‘.
“In the western desert, under a burnin’ sun Charlie Manson and the boys had a weird idea of fun They liked to take hostages and shoot ’em in the head And if that didn’t kill ’em they made sure that they were dead
(Chorus) Charlie, Charlie, look what you have done You coulda been a Beach Boy but you ended up a bum. Dennis Wilson liked your singin’ You had a weird idea of swingin’
On the farm things got intimate All the kids were illegitimate Charlie, Charlie, why couldn’t you wait Till we had a major him by Sharon Tate . . .”
This scurrilous country epic goes on to tell how Charlie made a living ‘pervertin’ folks” and suggests that if he ever sees the light he “should write a book and sell the rights”.
The masterpiece they may spew forth under another name. “It’s got a country, rockabilly, heavy metal sound,” Robin assures me.
THIS SCATTER-GUN multiplexity of junk imagery may appeal to idiots like me, but a chance of real mass appeal will surely depend on how well EMI can sell a unified Barracudas image.
Their demos have traces of everything from John Fogerty to Chocolate Watchband, but a lot of people expect sheer headbanging or wimpy pop.
“Take last night, for example,” says Jeremy, referring to a Music Machine bash, “Please take it! Some little kid, 15, lives at home, mother’s a paraplegic, father’s a miner, hears ‘Summer Fun’ on the radio, rushes out, buys it, brings it home, puts the stickers on the hamster cage.
He comes to see the gig and is expecting sort of The Osmonds crossed with The Beach Boys. He gets four bums who can’t play, definitely can’t sing, one of whom falls over every 10 seconds. And the skinheads at the front are giving Nazi salutes . . . ”
Sometimes you just can’t win. “I thought the 70s were shit till I saw the 80s,” guffaws Robin.
The Barracudas | ‘Cudas Go Folk Shock !!!!
Nevertheless, the single should be in the 75, hopefully, as you read this and EMI, they say, are behind them.
“For the record, you must write this, they have treated us very well,” says Nicky. “And,” adds Robin, “They have more secretaries with big knockers than CBS.”
One wonders how the corporate mind will take to the ‘Cudas’ impending transformation into a folk-rock outfit. Remember that they really mean it, too.
They didn’t check out any of The Beach Boys‘ UK gigs, in case you thought they were the kind of guys who collect the Wilson brothers’ toenail clippings.
“It’s just a basic progression from surf,” says Robin of the folk-rock genre. “All those guys like Terry Melcher, and P F Sloan used to write surf stuff for Jan and Dean. On the Dunhill label he started doing all this great stuff, protest things, trying to do something relevant. It was all the same cats who did the surfing records.
Folk-rock was something that lasted six months!” Nicky adds, “You’ll have to make it clear to the English fans that folk-rock does not mean Steelye Span. It’s The Byrds”
Folk chords
Robin: “Folk chords with a rock’n’roll beat! We’re not gonna be with acoustic guitars, we don’t believe in being nostalgic. Just because I love The Byrds, P F Sloan and The Grass Roots doesn’t mean I’m a complete wanker.”
Oh, yeah, and by the folk’n’way! The last time I interviewed you guys you claimed that David Barracuda was Tim Buckley’s cousin, something later denied in other publications by yourselves. Now come clean.
“It was a cheap joke,” says one. “No, it’s true! He is a distant cousin”, offers another. “I mean”, says a third Barracuda, “We like contradicting”.
SWINE. And what’s the point of all this? hordes of serious-minded, concerned young people will ask. Jeremy perks up.
“One thing the readership of your paper has to understand, Sandy,” Mmmmm? “We don’t have any point.” Thank our lucky stars for that. (Sandy Robertson)
Leave a Reply