Dance of the Screamers

Songs in Our Heart # 87

Dance of the Screamers (by Ian Dury and the Blockheads) (written by Ian Dury and Chaz Jankel; released May 1979)

 

 

 

 

 

[Ian Dury (1942 – 2000) was unique, a unlikely Essex mix of Music Hall, New Wave and Court Jester.  Some of the songs were plonking but many were really interesting in terms of structure and lyrical feeling, and the sound was sure – from Sweet Gene Vincent, Billericay Dickie, Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, Inbetweenies, This is What We Find, I Want to be Straight, Spasticus Autisticus to Lonely Town, he ranged from wickedly funny to sad, giving a savage yelp on behalf of the damaged.  Dance of the Screamers, from the underrated album Do It Yourself, is a beautiful, funky disco-dance number that sings the song of the lost, the pathetic, the clueless, the bereft, in stark yet poignant terms. Keep your elbows in and do the Screamers Dance!