Being the band that influenced Kurt Cobain in terms of musical style and ideas is a hell of an achievement. But that is exactly what The Vaselines did. In interviews Kurt was always shy about his songwriting skill, and often pointed out he was only doing stuff that had been done before. He referred to both 'The Beatles' and 'The Vaselines' as huge and important influences. Well it is fair to say that the young music fans of the world knew full well who John, Paul, George and Ringo were, but Scottish rock-popsters The Vaselines would have disappeared of the musical horizon had it not been for Nirvana bringing attention to the defunct band.
The Vaselines were a delicate mess of a band, that released precious little material, but what did see the light of day was good enough that this album, which brings together a large portion of their material, is so much better than most 'Best Of' albums that cover 20 year careers. This CD was released stateside in 1992 long after the bands brief flirt with musical excellence had passed, although they did get back together in 1990 to play one single gig with Cobain and company in Edinburgh, an event that was by all accounts a highlight of Nirvana's existence.
I don't want to go to overboard with the Nirvana references, but certainly there are similarities in the music that would naturally bring fans of Nirvana to this CD. Both bands perfected the art of playing simple, beautiful pop songs mixed with enough angst and distortion that you had to listen hard to appreciate how pure the essential music was. Amateurish music captured at its greatest moment. Also two bands that released far too little material; of course it was in much happier circumstances that The Vaselines disbanding than Nirvana.
The Vaselines were essentially two people, Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, a gruff voiced man, and a 'little girl lost' voice that blended and complimented each other. The band and their music were all about contradictions, sounds and concepts that should have been total opposites, but which worked to perfection. Check out the opening track 'Son of a Gun' with its distorted feedback guitar start fading into a jaunty vocal and drum march that will bring an instinctive smile to just about anyone's face.
This CD features 19 tracks, and lasts a little under an hour. There are consistent themes. Sex, Drugs and Religion are featured heavily, although referenced in sly, tongue in cheek ways in tracks such as 'Rory Rides Me Raw' and 'Monsterpussy'. Tracks about a bike called Rory and a cat respectively, as the CD cover helpfully informs us.
Nirvana fans will recognize several tracks from the cover versions; more interestingly Divine fans will enjoy the excellent cover of 'You Think You're a Man'. Do you think there are many Divine fans reading this site? I hope so. Maybe John Waters will use this CD as the soundtrack for one last truly great bizarre, trashy movie. It would fit perfectly.
The Vaselines were from Scotland, a place that has produced more brilliant bands that have had limited success than just about anywhere else in the last dozen years or so. Artists like 'The Kaisers', 'Jesus and Mary Chain' and 'Belle and Sebastian' spring to mind, all different sounding bands that produced excellent songs first and foremost.
As Nirvana begin to fade out of the memories of music fans, so less and less people are going to stumble upon The Vaselines. Which is a shame because this is a CD that deserves to be discovered by all those people who realize, or in fact who don't realize, that you can have as much fun as you want with an excellent, simple pop song, and it will still be perfect, no matter the distortion or experimentation. All together now, "Jesus don't want me for a sunbeam".