Do It Yourself (Ian Dury & the Blockheads album)
| Do It Yourself | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Ian Dury & the Blockheads | ||||
| Released | 18 May 1979 | |||
| Recorded | 1978 | |||
| Studio | The Workhouse, Old Kent Road, London | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 40:48 | |||
| Label | Stiff SEEZ 14 | |||
| Producer | Chas Jankel, Laurie Latham | |||
| Ian Dury & the Blockheads chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Smash Hits | 9/10 |
| The Village Voice | B |
Do It Yourself is a 1979 album by Ian Dury & the Blockheads. It was the first album to be credited to Ian Dury & the Blockheads rather than Ian Dury alone, although Dury had used the full band name for the "What a Waste" 7" single of 1978. The album was released in the wake of the chart-topping hit single "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick", and reached number two in the charts, behind ABBA's Voulez-Vous. Do It Yourself sold around 200,000 copies, and was Dury's second Platinum album (after its predecessor New Boots and Panties!!).
Like New Boots and Panties!! before it, much of Do It Yourself was written at Dury's home, no longer a flat near the Oval cricket ground, but now a rented home in Rolvenden, Kent. Even though he declined point blank his management's attempts to get him to dust off and re-record old Kilburn & the High Roads songs like "England's Glory" Dury did resurrect one old song, "Sink My Boats", the very first song he and Chas Jankel wrote together. In fact, a number of other songs pre-date the rehearsal and songwriting sessions for Do It Yourself; the instrumentals for "Quiet", "This Is What We Find" and "Uneasy Sunny Day Hotsy Totsy" were all arranged by Blockheads members while they were still in their band Loving Awareness. Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: The Life of Ian Dury and Demon's CD re-issues of the album mistakenly credit the album as being composed entirely by Dury and Chas Jankel; in fact this was the first time Dury involved all of the band in the writing process and barely half of the tracks were Dury/Jankel compositions.
The recording session at Dury's house that also produced "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" was used to demo some of the new songs. These demos, later released on Edsel Record's 2-CD re-issue of the album, were for "This Is What We Find", "Inbetweenies", "Quiet" and "Uneasy Sunny Day Hotsy Totsy", along with the first version of "Duff 'Em Up and Do 'Em Over (Boogie Woogie)", a song that would remain unreleased but would eventually become the song "Oh Mr. Peanut" on the next album, Laughter.
Do It Yourself was recorded in The Workhouse Studios on the Old Kent Road, the same place where New Boots and Panties!! had been recorded two years earlier, under the production of Chas Jankel and Laurie Latham, though Latham's credit was downplayed to 'recording engineer' apparently because of Dury's feelings about producers' influence being overplayed. This was Jankel's first time producing and much of the album's 'softness' is usually attributed to his production along with a number of other things, including the 'echo-y' sound of "Don't Ask Me". The Do It Yourself sessions were notably the beginning of Ian Dury becoming nightmare-ish to record with. Success went to Dury's head and during the Do It Yourself sessions he began to exhibit control-freakery and took to being cantankerous, contrary, confrontational and argumentative, as well as performing a number of bizarre 'wind-ups' (including crushing a whole packet of McVitie's Digestive Biscuits and throwing them over Laurie Latham). His behaviour worsened and Jankel was forced to phone him and politely ask he stay away from the final weeks of sessions, which he did.
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