“Wot” / “Strawberry Dross” (A&M CAP 2) August 1982
Captain Sensible | Wot | (A&M) 1982 | Depending on your point of view, Captain Sensible is either a bit of a laugh or the ultimate in punk sell-out.
Personally I enjoyed the irony watching someone I’d always regarded as terminally untalented soar to the top of the charts with a cover of a song which in my mind’s eye I can still see being performed in South Pacific as if it were yesterday (don’t tangle with me – I’m a closet Rogers & Hammerstein buff) and I can imagine there must have been considerable pressure on the Captain to follow up with something incredibly similar.
Instead he’s gone for a piss-take of rapping records with a pile-driver replacing the ubiquitous Claptrap, and it’s really rather funny.
B-side (‘Strawberry Dross’) is like a collection of short demos, also amusing enough for one to think the geezer might have longevity, a rare commodity at the moment. (Sounds, 07/08/82)
“I’ve had a gut full of you and I’m feeling bad, but you’re an ugly old boiler and ain’t I glad.”
Reaching new peaks of profanity, the bad Captain shows a deep sympathy for the feminist cause on this follow-up to the freak hit of the year. Hardly a rapper’s delight, the sensible one gets on down in the street and treads in something nasty.
Doesn’t it always happen? The single reviewer never trusts a good beginning to the day. Bitter experience says that somewhere along the line a dirty stain will appear on the horizon. This is it. (Melody Maker, 07/08/82)
As long as Captain Sensible got his A&M money upfront he shouldn’t have to worry. The Dolly Mixtures bite the dust on a Chic/Queen riff while the Captain endorses the work ethic, inexplicably sniping at Adam Ant partway through. (NME, 07/08/82)
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