Why Don't You Kill Yourself: the CBS Recordings - the Only Ones/Even Serpents Shine/Baby's Got a Gun

The Only Ones were one of those bands that just never got the credit they deserved. More influential than their peers, they produced some great songs that have never really caught the public's imagination. Stuff like "Another Girl, Another Planet" and "Inbetweens" is just brilliant though, and you can really see the similarities between the band's experimentation and the sound of bands today.

So the music's great. This is the CD to get if you want to get to know the band, as it's brilliant value for money. It has three albums and some b-sides, providing a great retrospective of this great band. My only gripe is that there's an alternative mix of "Baby's Got A Gun" but not the original track.

Ignore the cheap looking cover and the pointless paper copy of it which this collection comes in (Edsel clearly aren't very eco-friendly - though I'm sure a picture of Peter Perrett and co being placed in a purple-recycling bag is very symbolic?)and locate that button 'Add to Basket.' This comprehensive two-disc compilation does what it says on the tin - charting the CBS Recordings of lost band The Only Ones. It replaces the prior one-disc compilation 'The Immortal Story' and reminds you of one of the great lost bands - though I'd thoroughly recommend the 'Peel Sessions' album, which is rarely out of my car...

The Only Ones didn't have a good time of it - something that was made clear in a recent Uncut article on Peter Perrett and co, and something that will no doubt be evident in the proposed book on him/them mentioned in that article. Like The Stranglers and The Police, The Only Ones couldn't really be deemed punk - I recall a friend stating that they reminded him of early Dire Straits (musically) when he heard them! (Really, listen to 'Sultans of Swing' and things aren't that far away!)On CBS they didn't fit in and didn't really have hits and certainly weren't part of post-punk or the new wave either - add to that chemicals, accidents, personalities, and as many rock and roll cliches as you like and you have one of the great lost bands. The Only Ones' have since been namechecked by The Libertines/Pete Doherty (some Babyshambles at one point were relatives of Perrett), Luke Haines (The Auteurs/baader meinhof/Black Box Recorder), The House of Love and Belle and Sebastian, as well as featuring in the soundtrack to the excellent 'Me Without You' and having 'Lovers of Today' covered by The Pretenders (who were definite relatives in the power-pop sense - their version is found on their current 'Pirate Radio' box-set). Heck, Manic Street Preachers even dressed like Mr Perrett when they dropped the Clash-look!Which I guess means that The Only Ones belong to that index of cult faves who shouldhavebeencouldhavebeen, see: The Go-Betweens, The Sound, The Replacements, Big Star, The Auteurs, Denim/Felt, The Saints, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Ultrasound, Dark Star, The Chameleons and so many more...

42-tracks for £6quid-ish is screaminggreatvalue taking in their three albums 'The Only Ones' (1978), 'Even Serpents Shine' (1979), & 'Baby's Got a Gun' (1980) as well as bonus tracks 'Lovers of Today/Peter and the Pets', 'Special View/As My Wife Says', 'This Ain't All/No Solution (alternate mix)' and 'Your Chosen Life/Baby's Got a Gun (alternate mix)/'Oh Lucinda...Martin Hannett alternate mix.' The Martin Hannett-mix turns up on the recent 'Zero'-compilation of Hannett's work, so might be an in for a potential Only Ones fan beyond the familiar joy of 'Another Girl, Another Planet' which is found on such compilations as 'The Sound of the Suburbs.' True that the standard mix of 'Baby's Got a Gun' isn't here and didn't Keith Richards produce a version of 'Prisoners', or didn't it get that far and is just rumour?

These discs are packed with classics - 'Lovers of Today', 'Another Girl, Another Planet', 'Language Problem', 'No Peace for the Wicked', junky-lament 'The Beast', 'The Immortal Story', 'From Here to Eternity', 'Flaming Torch', 'Inbetweens', 'Curtains for You', another junky lament 'Miles from Nowhere', 'Why Don't You Kill Yourself?' (the title of this cd lost in sloppy graphic design!), 'Oh Lucinda', 'The Happy Pilgrim' & 'The Big Sleep' (the latter is as great as anything by Joy Division). The riff of 'Curtains for You' has the feel of glam-rock, while 'Breaking Down' showcases a jazzy-side which probably sounded too muso and Old Grey Whistle Test for the climate. Peter Perrett's vocals are great too, you can see Guy Chadwick and Luke Haines were listening to that too. The Only Ones were a great band, the Only Ones are a great lost band, and this compilation thoroughly showcases their joys. It would be rude not to...

How many times do you hear the intro to 'Another Girl, Another Planet' on an advert/program preview these days? Lots of, if you're unfamiliar with the work of the Only Ones.
Giving the lie to the maxim that true talent always wins over a hollow lie, Peter Perret and his gang somehow managed to slip blindly into a cult oblivion from their very lofty chart hit.
Genius without a doubt, a haunting sound from Addictionville, harmonies from heaven fresh from a new hell. Wildly influential even today, there's more here than we have any right to expect.