New Boots and Panties!! By Ian Dury

Ian Dury was renowned for thriftily buying his clothes secondhand with the hygienic exception of footwear and underpants. Sound advice! 

For some reason this album got shelved with the punk records back in 1977 but it’s more of a mix of funk and pub rock, with a nod to 50’s rock n roll. Chaz Jankel’s keyboards are a perfect foil for Ian Dury’s cheeky lyrics and earthy Essex accent. Session musicians Norman Watt-Roy and Hugh Charles who played on this record were then later recruited into Dury’s backing band The Blockheads.

Highlights for me on this are Sweet Gene Vincent, a tribute to the 50’s rocker, and My Old Man, a tribute to Dury’s dad and the awkward relationship they shared with feelings hidden and unspoken until it was too late. According to the wiki page Dury discovered later that the cover photo (featuring his young son Baxter) was taken around the corner from where his dad had died in a bedsit back in 1968.

https://album.link/gb/i/267608439