various artists - Boot Power Vol. 5 - 1970-1979

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We've reached the end of our Boot Power adventure with today's post of Volume 5. By now, you've found a boot's full of new bands to dive further into. My mission is complete.

Standout tracks here? Well, I'm partial to the punk tracks on the comp: Menace, Sham 69, Slaughter & the Dogs, those guys playing "Government Action". I'd never heard the Sensational Alex Harvey Band until downloading this. Now "Next" is a go-to record when making a glam tape. I also think I've mentioned it before; if you haven't checked out the (Hammersmith) Gorillas, do it now.

I'll admit to some real sadness when I come across an awesome blog with dead links. It's doubly bad when I consider a blog like Crazee Kids Sound, where I was aware of it in its heyday, but didn't dive in until they were defunct. So many cool comps and rarities, now lost to time. Enjoy it while you have it, I suppose.

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various artists - Boot Power Vol. 4 - 1970-1979

One of the fun things about the "Boot Power" series is how many awesome songs one discovers over the course of 100+ tracks. When would I have heard the Gorillas, or Protex, or the Sensational Alex Harvey Band? Possibly: my enthusiasm for seeking out music I don't know anything about hasn't waned as I've gotten older. I'm not sure, however, if I'd come across a track like Supernaut's "The Kids Are Out Tonight" if I would have been able to put it in a similar context that this curation provides.

That said, my favorite here is, and will always be, Cock Sparrer's "Trouble On The Terraces". Recorded in the same sessions that produced their self-titled 1978 debut, but not released until 14 years later, "Trouble..." is a perfect football anthem, as well as a great example of how pub rock transitioned into punk in 1976 and 1977. It's hard to believe that "Cock Sparrer" only came out in Spain, and wouldn't come out in England until it was released as "True Grit" in 1987. An OG pressing is rarer than hen's teeth, so, you know, now you know what to get me for my birthday.

As with the other collections in the series, there's some real cheeze amongst the rockers. That's fine, because they make a track like "Tired Guy of the Road" by Blood Chains really pop. Speaking of: don't let corny-ass band names sway you from listening. Some of the best cuts across the series come from bands like Giggles and Bilbo Baggins.

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various artists - Boot Power Vol. 3 - 1970-1979

There's a part of me that counts "Boot Power Vol. 3" as the weakest of the four volumes I've heard. I suppose that should tell you something about the quality of the whole series, because there are wall-to-wall rippers here. Maybe it's the sequencing; it just doesn't flow for me. But, damn, if that's the worst thing I can think to say...

The one-offs here really make this comp. I'd never heard Darren Burn before downloading this, but "Quick Joey Small" is just a killer song from a child singer who really didn't make any other records. Bilbo Baggins is easily my favorite Tolkien-inspired glam band of 1974. The Rebels featured Gaz from Angelic Upstarts, and have a fantastic proto-Oi! cut in "All Hate". The best of all of these is Hector's 1974 track, "Bye Bye Bad Days". Label mates of Elton John, they only released two singles as a band before they disappeared in 1976. This is the one that I find myself singing all the time. It's an ear worm in all the best ways.

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various artists - Boot Power Vol. 2 - 1970-1979

Photo by Daniel Meadows

It took seeing Giuda to be open to listening to glam and pub rock; it took "Boot Power" to fall in love.

"Boot Power", ostensibly, is a series of comps curated by the blog Crazee Kids Sound from 2008 to 2010. I'm not sure if Volume 1 was ever posted, despite the appearance of a cover in the "Boot Power" video. Volumes 2 through 5, however, represent one of the best collections of 70s terrace rock that I've ever heard. It's remarkable to me how listenable these tracks are. For every Bowie or Cock Sparrer track, there is a Slade deep cut, or a track like "Always Plenty of Women" by Heavy Metal Kids that I've never encountered. Is it a key difference between the music industries in the UK and US that these songs were big hits in England, but rarely tracked here? I dunno; I wasn't alive for most of it.

So I'm going to post each of the four volumes I have over the next four weeks. The original links on Crazee Kids Sound are dead (old Megaupload links), and I think these are definitely worth keeping alive and available. I'm leaving the Skrewdriver songs in each comp intact (for now); I feel like it's dishonest to remove the Chiswick-era recordings, especially since "All Skrewed Up" stands as a great proto-Oi! record that is a key part of this story. Yet I'll can't ignore that within five years, they had transformed into the leading neo-Nazi/RAC band in the land.

Yeah, come back each Friday, and I'll throw up a new volume. Enjoy.

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