Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
In a fair and just world Ian Dury would have been more than just a working class hero, he would have risen above the status of informed commentator, he would have surely been an assured laureate, esteemed in high circles, venerated as one of Britain’s finest poets…but then he would have been pressured to conform, to be seen as a voice of those that bore no consequence to how they took delight on keeping the lower classes in order; he would have had to show a kind of normalcy that was less about vision but of compliance, and the master word builder of his generation would never have allowed that.
To capture the essence of Ian Dury in any media takes courage. Andy Serkis, the man behind Gollum in Lord Of The Rings and Caesar in the incredible Planet Of The Apes reboot showed his warmth, depth, and personality to huge acclaim in the 2010 biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, but as a collective endeavour, to collate the music in such a manner that it pays rightful deference to the style, to the understanding of the different genres he was able to cross, and the sheer weight of inspiration he passed on to fans and other musicians, would be thought of as an impossible task.
However, the sense of pride and fierce cool that comes with the unveiling of the all-encompassing boxset of Ian Dury: Too Nutty To Be Naughty – The Studio Recordings 1977-2002 is as close to perfection for the collector and the admirer as we are as ever likely to find, and to add to the reasons, as Mr. Dury would perhaps insist, to be cheerful.
Whether as a solo performer or across The Blockheads range or with The Music Students, what comes across is an almost complete sense of the undertaking of modern urban poetry, of sneaky poetic voyeurism that dismantles the act of upper class pernicious perverted sense of privilege, and holds dearly to the truth that in the working class there is more joy and interest characters to be found and exemplified. Not content with turning history upside down, he revels in making it sound glorious, a revolution to the English language and a love letter to those who give music its beauty.
Despite the missing passion of Kilburn and the High Roads albums Handsome and Wotabunch!, the compilation box set is one of genuine performance from the beginning, an urgency of ever-increasing imagination and observation, realism, fortitude, and drama, all captured by a poet’s heart and a social conscious.
Ian Dury: Too Nutty To Be Naughty -The Studio Recordings 1977-2002 is the life story through song, never naughty but playfully mischievous, and it is always with regret the public lost such a soul before his time; and yet the song, the music, the ideals live on, and in this particular boxset the listener is given almost all there is to consume and be embraced by. Sheer class from an elegant speaker of the English language.
Ian D. Hall