Apache Dropout - Edgar Broughton Band
In direct contrast we have the Edgar Broughton Band. One the great things about the Edgar Broughton Band is that you could play them in contrast to just about anyone, including themselves.
I remember the EBB as communist hippies, and they looked hairier and scarier that any other band I'd seen; they had a thing where they always performed for free, doing gigs in unlikely places such as university bars, local parks and children's playgrounds, often getting into trouble from local authorities.
With its lift from the Shadows, "Apache Dropout" could be the first sample ever. While it treats Hank Marvin's classic guitar work with respect, it speaks for a generation which has left the coffee bar respectability of Cliff Richard far behind. I remember that if I wanted to annoy my parents, scare them even, this is what I put on.
I've no idea what the words mean, and would like to say that this song is about the degradation of a noble tribe forced to live in urban squalor amid drugs and alcohol abuse on a modern day reservation. But it isn't.
But like the Apaches of legend, it's completely unforgiving and relentless, the vocal giving no quarter to anyone, let alone any kind of comfy, apple pie meaning. At the end of the track, just in case you think the fade is the triumph of melody in the struggle been the two tunes, you get the fade back in of the "dropout" theme.
What do you want? What do you want? I told you once I told you once You know when it's school You think that he's cool Learn to read and write How to read and to fight
What do you want? What do you want? They think they know What its all about Turn out tune in Drop out, drop out I told you once I told you twice You wanted a woman You wanted a woman You think that you love her I bet you another Adapt her, adapt her Adapt her, adapt her Drop out, drop out Drop out, drop out Turn on to men Drop out, drop out I told you once I told you once.......!
Never have the Shadows sounded more threatening or lived up to their name. Even if it isn't them playing.