THE LIFER

I hadn't thought about ol' Charlie Harper for years. I knew that the UK Subs were one of those bands that kept slogging through year after year with Harper still holding down the vocals. That seemed honorable. Not sitting still long enough for any tour to be called a reunion tour, I can get behind that. Harper is a diehard, and he gets my respect if for nothing else than not giving up.

I ran into a cover of the Junior Murvin's "Police and Thieves" that Harper did from a 2002 Clash tribute album (the Clash covered it back in 1977). I hate tribute albums, but this cover is actually pretty good, a little like the Clash's version if they had let it gestate for 25 years before going into the studio. There's some dub touches, and despite the crunchy guitars it sounds slightly more reggae derived, like the Clash should have done it.

Harper 1966

The UK Subs were a second generation UK punk band, gaining steam after all of the earlier bands (Sex Pistols, Clash, Buzzcocks, Damned) were already up and running. So it is that I never really knew much about them. Turns out that Harper is older than the lot of them, so old that Rod Stewart taught him how to play harmonica. Dude is 73, oh, and the UK Subs are touring this year. That makes his diehard status even more impressive.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:

Charlie Harper -Police and Thieves mp3 at Internet Archive
Junior Murvin - Police and Thieves mp3 at Snuthing Anything
The Clash - Police and Thieves (streaming) at YouTube
UK Subs - Tomorrow's Girls mp3 at The ModPopPunk Archives
Visit:
Cult heroes: UK Subs' Charlie Harper is less a punk than a heroic old soldier at The Guardian