SEARCHING FOR THE YOUNG SOUL REBELS

Dexys' surfaced in the late 1970s, Kevin Rowland formerly of punk act The Killjoys found his partner in Kevin Archer and the rest of the gang collective that made up the band. Nodding to Stax and Northern Soul they had total conviction and essentially played a punk version of Stax stuff. They briefly flirted with Two Tone, before rejecting them, and soon after Rowland began baiting the press with his own essays.

Amid their first few years, when they all looked like something out of 'Mean Streets' and 'Raging Bull', they produced one of the greatest debut albums with this, 'Searching for the Young Soul Rebels.' This is the album most often picked out by music critics, but that overlooks the fact 'Too Rye Ay' (1982) and 'Don't Stand Me Down' (1985) are equally fantastic, if not greater!!

The band were sharp as anything, they had the songs, they had the style and at one infamous point, they had the master tapes! The 11 tracks form a classic sequence, this is one of those albums that I have to play all the way through - of course there are highlights, 'tell me when my light turns green' seems to me one of those classic Dexys songs that define them as a band (the other I'd say is 'Let's Make This Precious'). Opener 'Burn It Down' (formerly 'Dance Stance') is punk Sam & Dave, audaciously sampling 'Smoke on the Water', 'Holidays in the Sun' & 'Rat Race' before Rowland hollers "FOR GOD'S SAKE! - BURN IT DOWN!!!" The namechecking of Irish cultural figures would have an effect on later releases by The Pogues and That Petrol Emotion...(The Undertones' 'It's Going to Happen' was apparently a Dexys-tribute). The cover nods to Rowland's Irish roots, something more fully detailed in 1985's 'My National Pride (formerly Knowledge of Beauty).'

The teams that meet in the caffs' is a fantastic instrumental, while 'seven days too long' feels like a twist on a Northern Soul stomp - 'love part one' would start a kind of spoken word interlude track that would recur on subsequent releases. & then there are the fantastic singles the scathing 'there there my dear' and #1 'Geno' - whose videos are also found on this reissue.

Rowland sacked most of the band shortly after - though with Mick Talbot, this line-up reformed a few years ago for a tour - the DVD of which is well worth tracking down. The next Dexys' record was very Van Morrison, though songs like 'Show Me', 'Let's Make This Precious', 'Until I Believe in My Soul', & 'Old' weren't that far away (I guess people write off that album cos of 'Jocky Wilson Said' & 'Come on Eileen'?). Dexys were in a world of their own and this debut from 1980 is as classic as it gets - the kind of record no one should be without.

1. Burn It Down

2. Tell Me When My Lights Turn Green

3. The Teams That Meet in Caffs

4. I'm Just Looking

5. Geno

6. Seven Days Too Long

7. I Couldn't Help It If I tried

8. Thankfully Not Living In Yorkshire, It Doesn't Apply

9. Keep It

10. Love Part One

11. There, There My Dear

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