"Fuck Off" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Wayne County & the Electric Chairs | ||||
from the album Blatantly Offenzive | ||||
A-side | "Fuck Off" | |||
B-side | "On the Crest" | |||
Released | 1977 | |||
Recorded | 1977 Marquee Studios | |||
Label | Sweet FA | |||
Songwriter(s) | Wayne County | |||
Producer(s) | Melvyn Slime | |||
Wayne County & the Electric Chairs singles chronology | ||||
|
"Fuck Off", also released as "(If You Don't Wanna Fuck Me, Baby) Fuck Off!!", [1] is the debut single by Wayne County & the Electric Chairs. It was released through Sweet FA, an imprint of Safari Records. [2] The single's B-side was "On the Crest". [3]
Playing piano on the record was Jools Holland, then a session musician in his late-teens. [3] [4] Described as "trashy, New York Dolls-influenced punk rock", the song was included in the book X-Rated: The 200 Rudest Records Ever!. [5]
The song begins with a boogie woogie feel, [6] with the piano part played by a then-unknown Jools Holland. [2] Toward the end of the song, however, the style changes to a punk rock style with a double-time feel. [6] In his 2007 autobiography, Barefaced Lies and Boogie-woogie Boasts, Holland describes that on arriving at the recording session at Marquee Studios in London, he discovered that the group had recorded a backing track for the song but had written no lyrics. County asked him to play "really burlesque". Holland wrote that the first time he heard the song's lyrics was when playing the record to his mother, his younger brothers, and his aunt and uncle. [7]
The song was written when Wayne County's band were still known as The Backstreet Boys. [nb 1] [8] AllMusic describes the lyrics as County's way of "chastising those who won't take [her] home". [9] Originally titled "(If You Don't Want to Fuck Me, Baby) Fuck Off", the song was planned to be released on the group's début album. The album was never released, though some tracks were included on 1976's Max's Kansas City. [8] The following year, the band renamed themselves as "The Electric Chairs" and the song was included on the 1978 compilation album Man Enough to Be a Woman and the Blatantly Offenzive EP. [10]
A dance remix of the song was released in the 1990s, remixed by Sleazesisters (DJ Pete Martine and Porl Young).
A bootleg dance version, "Fuck Off Sucker", was released as a white label in 2010 by That Queer Geezer, juxtaposing Jayne County's vocals over the instrumental of '90s dance anthem "Hold That Sucker Down".
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music described the song as "[an] enduring low-rent punk favourite", [11] and the Encyclopedia of Punk Music and Culture described the single as "seminal". [12]
Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities since the 1870s. It was eventually extended from piano to piano duo and trio, guitar, big band, country and western music, and gospel. While standard blues traditionally expresses a variety of emotions, boogie-woogie is mainly dance music. The genre had a significant influence on rhythm and blues and rock and roll.
Julian Miles Holland is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and has worked with many artists including Marc Almond, Joss Stone, Jayne County, Sting, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, George Harrison, David Gilmour, Magazine, The The, Ringo Starr and Bono.
Sweetnighter is the third studio album by American jazz fusion band Weather Report, released by Columbia Records in 1973.
Pete Johnson was an American boogie-woogie and jazz pianist.
Ian Andrew Robert Stewart was a Scottish-born English keyboardist and co-founder of the Rolling Stones. He was removed from the lineup in May 1963 at the request of manager Andrew Loog Oldham who felt he did not fit the band's image. He remained as road manager and pianist for over two decades until his death, and was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the rest of the band in 1989.
Clarence Smith, better known as Pinetop Smith or Pine Top Smith, was an American boogie-woogie style blues pianist. His hit tune "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie" featured rhythmic "breaks" that were an essential ingredient of ragtime music, but also a fundamental foreshadowing of rock and roll. The song was also the first known use of the term "boogie woogie" on a record, and cemented that term as the moniker for the genre.
Wayne County & the Electric Chairs were part of the first wave of punk bands from the 1970s. The band was headed by Georgia-born singer Jayne County and became known for their campy, foul-mouthed ballads, glam punk inspired songs and image which was heavily influenced by Jackie Curtis and the Theatre of the Ridiculous.
The origins of rock and roll are complex. Rock and roll emerged as a defined musical style in the United States in the early to mid-1950s. It derived most directly from the rhythm and blues music of the 1940s, which itself developed from earlier blues, the beat-heavy jump blues, boogie woogie, up-tempo jazz, and swing music. It was also influenced by gospel, country and western, and traditional folk music. Rock and roll in turn provided the main basis for the music that, since the mid-1960s, has been generally known simply as rock music.
Jayne County is an American singer, songwriter, actress and record producer whose career has spanned six decades. Under the name Wayne County, she was the vocalist of influential proto-punk band Wayne County & the Electric Chairs who became known for their campy and foul-mouthed ballads, glam punk inspired songs, and image which was heavily influenced by Jackie Curtis and the Theatre of the Ridiculous. County in particular was known for her outrageous and unpredictable stage antics as well as possessing a distinctive singing voice. She went on to become rock's first openly transgender singer, and adopted the stage name Jayne County.
Soul Mining is the debut album by British post-punk/synth-pop band the The. After a bidding war between major record labels which resulted in the group signing with CBS Records, Johnson began recording the album in New York City, but the initial recording sessions were aborted after the album's first two singles and Johnson returned to London where he wrote and recorded the rest of the record. Musically, Soul Mining is a post-punk and synth-pop album with influences of the early 1980s New York club scene, while Johnson's lyrics focus on relationship insecurities and social alienation, with imagery derived from dreams.
"Boogie Chillen'" or "Boogie Chillun" is a blues song first recorded by John Lee Hooker in 1948. It is a solo performance featuring Hooker's vocal, electric guitar, and rhythmic foot stomps. The lyrics are partly autobiographical and alternate between spoken and sung verses. The song was his debut record release and in 1949, it became the first "down-home" electric blues song to reach number one in the R&B records chart.
The "Mess Around" is a song written by Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder and then-vice-president of Atlantic Records, under the pseudonym of A. Nugetre, or "Nuggy". It was performed by Ray Charles, and was one of Charles's first hits.
Deviation is an album by the American singer Jayne County. It was released in 1995 by Royalty Records in the USA, RPM Records in the UK and Rebel Rec in Europe. Outside of the US, the album was credited to Jayne County and The Electric Chairs, although none of the original Electric Chairs were on the recording.
"Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" is a song initially recorded on December 29, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It was released on March 1, 1929 by Clarence "Pinetop" Smith on Vocalion Records, a piano rag that cemented boogie-woogie as the name of its entire genre, which eventually evolved into rock and roll. Along with "Crazy About My Baby", "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" is sometimes cited as "the first rock and roll song", being an early instance of a danceable 12 bar blues with backbeat.
Boogie rock is a style of blues rock music that developed in the late 1960s. Its key feature is a repetitive driving rhythm, which emphasizes the groove. Although inspired by earlier musical styles such as piano-based boogie-woogie, boogie rock has been described as "heavier" or "harder-edged" in its instrumental approach.
"Guitar Boogie" is a guitar instrumental recorded by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith in 1945. It was one of the first recordings in the style later dubbed "hillbilly boogie" to reach a widespread audience, and eventually sold nearly three million copies. It was the first guitar instrumental to climb the country music charts, and then crossover and also gain high rankings on the popular music charts. "Guitar Boogie" has been interpreted and recorded by a variety of musicians. It is among the songs discussed as the first rock and roll record.
Safari Records was a British independent record label based in London, England, and operating between 1977 and 1985. Safari Records was formed early in 1977 by Tony Edwards, Andreas Budde and John Craig who previously ran Purple and Oyster Records. With the label's founders living in Paris, Berlin and London respectively, the plan was to develop a pan-European record company that would release pop records. Licensing deals were struck with Teldec in Germany and Disques Vogue in France, in the UK its product was pressed and distributed by Pye and later by Spartan Records. Most notable of the label's acts were Wayne County, The Boys, Toyah and the South Africa's first multiracial band Juluka.
Jools Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra is a rhythm and blues band led by boogie-woogie and former Squeeze pianist and television personality Jools Holland.
Val Haller was a British musician. Primarily a bass guitarist, he was also a vocalist, keyboardist, and composer. Haller played with Wayne County & the Electric Chairs, The Flying Lizards, The Lords of the New Church, Paint and Savage Republic. He was half of the duo Autumnfair.
Ladyva is a Swiss musician, boogie woogie, blues and jazz pianist, singer and composer.