The Damned Inspiration: Captain Sensible’s five favourite albums
When The Damned came along, many people let out a massive sigh of relief.
Around them was this bigger explosion that felt like a major moment was happening, especially with disco fever and the rise of new wave. These weren’t bad, but from the outside looking in, the twinkling rhythms and pop-conscious melodies made it feel like you were either on the train or off it. And for those off it, a different kind of malaise set in…until punk came along and replaced it with everything left unsaid.
As Captain Sensible once said, “Punk put the UK at the forefront of the music scene for a couple of years. Not everyone liked it of course but the Damned, Subs, Mopeds [and so on] were a much necessary alternative to disco fever in general with the gigs at the time full of pogoeing spiky haired types having a bloody good time.”
Those in dire need of some kind of clarion call for something more rebellious, more like a societal mirror than anything else on offer, found the ultimate respite in bands like the Damned. A records like Damned Damned Damned had that urgency to it, the kind absent from all other musical subcultures that felt real, but also itching for something louder and more cutting. There’s a reason why ‘New Rose’ is considered the first punk single, and it’s because it was very much a cultural pivot that went on to influence several thereafter, from goth to metal.
As with most who set a historical standard by just showing up in their purest form, the Damned already came equipped with a hefty amount of influences. Captain Sensible, for one, has always been drawn to the impossible, like musicians who were seemingly born with their talent and carried that excellence into their own projects. One such figure was Andy Fraser, whose Andy Fraser Band left a particular imprint on him.
“It’s quite a soulful album; its just an amazing record – a hidden gem,” he said, praising Fraser’s bass playing by saying it’s like nothing he had ever heard before. Captain Sensible clearly has a thing for arrangements, too, as evidenced by his love for Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express. This record, in his view, is the purest form of musical art that offers a journey, all with an instrumental prowess that sets the bar high.
With great arrangements comes great chemistry, and no other record demonstrates this better than The Groundhogs’ Thank Christ for the Bomb, according to Sensible. “The songs are full of angst and drama too, not to mention fabulous interplay between the three band members, who go from massive crescendo to hear a pin drop writhing a few crotchets,” he said, placing them on a different level in terms of blues-rock than anyone else. Mainly because of Tony McPhee, who he said was “a real blues guy”.
Another that feels like his own little secret is Egg’s The Polite Force, mainly because of the way Dave Stewart used his organ with a fuzz pedal makes everybody think the record has a guitar on it. But that’s not all; it also has “Robert Wyatt-esque lyric construction”, which pushes it to its status as a “symphony in four parts”. Sensible’s fifth entry was Santana’s Abraxas, which, beyond all the reasons he fell in love with it in the first place, also transports him to a specific time and place.
“Abraxas is a beautiful stereo album and I used to rearrange the furniture in my girlfriend’s living room so I could lie between the speakers and listen to all the swirling Hammond and Carlos Santana’s guitar and the percussion breaks,” he said. “It’s a great album in stereo and I play the Gibson SG because of Carlos Santana. I said that’s the guitar for me if it’s going to make me sound anything like that!”
Captain Sensible’s favourite albums:
- Andy Fraser Band – Andy Fraser Band
- Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express – Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express
- The Groundhogs – Thank Christ for the Bomb
- Egg – The Polite Force
- Santana – Abraxas
