In September 1980, XTC released an album called ‘Black Sea’ in the UK. (Unless you happen to be a big brit music fan, the British New Wave band 'XTC’ probably means nothing to you. Here in North America, “Making Plans for Nigel” was probably the only XTC song I am vaguely familiar with.) The album contained a track called “Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me)” starring none other than yours truly (i.e. Franklin John Rock).
The album reached No. 16 on the U.K. album chart, so God only knows why they decided to release 'Sgt Rock (Is Going To Help Me)’ as a UK 7" single in December 1980. I mean, the song really isn’t even that good. I mean, the guy is calling Sgt Rock to help him pick up chicks? Weak. Sgt Rock ain’t got time for that.
The band’s vocalist and lead guitarist, Andy Partridge, had a few choice words to say about the track:
“Right, I’m standing up here and now, and saying this song embarrasses the s**t out of me. Of all the tunes that I’ve written, that made it to tape, this makes me cringe the worse. It’s not the music, that’s solid enough. All the instruments in the track mesh nicely enough, but the lyrical sentiment, oh dear. It was supposed to be ironic, you know, nerdy comic fan imagines two dimensional hero can help him with his unsuccessful chat up technique. It did not work. It just came out limply crap. Virgin insisted it be included in this set, otherwise I’d gladly erase it from our history. We all make mistakes.”
and
“Just a simple admiration song. Sgt. Rock is a U.S. comic character who commands a troop known as Easy Company. He is brave, handsome, and successful, not as one empty headed girl wrote in to complain to a music paper, ‘likely to cause violence to women’.”
and
“The least favourite of all my songs. It was written as a joke about a little weed who looked up to Sgt. Rock. It was a nerd’s sad fantasy.” [In response to Dave Gregory comment about it getting a lot of airplay]: “I know, but I just wish we hadn’t released it. There’s something very … crap, really. Something banal about it”.
Posted above is footage from a 1982 Rockpalast television performance.
Sorry folks, I have no sources for these quotes, so you’ll just have to take my word (or rather this site’s).
Hey DCinthe80s tumblr followers! This song is just begging for a fan-made video to be made accompanying it! What say you?
Wednesday night! The Videotheque is back with more amazing music videos! I’ve remastered a ton of new videos for this week’s show so stop by! Wed 7pm pacific. Twitch.tv/djtelevandalist
