For ages I wanted to see Billy Jenkins live. He was scheduled to play with the Voice of God Collective in the late '80s at the Sheffield Leadmill, but the gig was cancelled at short notice. I think the first time I saw him was the day after Valentine's Day 2002, when he played Ecclesall Non-Political Club in Sheffield, with the Blues Collective.
Since moving to London, well, I saw him three times last year. I bought this album on at Billy's lunchtime gig at the Royal Festival Hall ballroom on Valentine's Day 2004. Lucy bought the True Love Collection, featured heavily that day for obvious reasons, but I already had that from the 2002 show, so I bought this. Buying direct at gigs is my favourite way to get albums.
There's a reflexive doubling of the blues when Billy plays them. He wasn't born to a life of picking cotton in the dustbowl, but in South East London, so in Pissed Off Boy he sings about crap telly, traffic jams and his children fighting over Barbie Dolls. It's not making any claims to be the authentic blues, but when Billy clowns around sometimes you see that the clown is really SAD.
With tracks entitled Ain't Gonna Play No Jazz No More and Jazz Had A Baby (and they called it avant garde), you could say this album was "more songs about songs and songs" (as Robert Christgau once quipped about The Magnetic Fields). I know lots of people are suspicious of such self-awareness in music, thinking that it implies a lack of 'authenticity', whatever that is. I'm not in that camp because I like a lot of 'knowing' music, but nevertheless this album doesn't really convince me. Sorry.
Official site and lyrics MusicBrainz entry for this album
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