Although "Ranking Full Stop" by The Beat is credited as an original track, it's obvious that the band were quite generous with their interpretation of the Laurel Aitken rude reggae classic, "Pussy Price" which is Aitken's lament about the rising price for "women of the night".Take a listen to the video track below and you can clearly hear the similarities in the music of the two songs (the bass line though slower is a dead giveaway). In fact I have a copy of a live performance of The Beat on the West German TV show Rockpalast on July 23, 1980 where they perform a straight cover of the Aitken version.
Laurel Aitken - Pussy Price
I had trouble finding The Beat's version of Aitken's song from the Rockpalast broadcast, but I did find video from the TV show of them performing one of the best live versions of "Mirror In The Bathroom" I've ever heard.
Here are two more tracks from the same Rockpalast broadcast including "Big Shot" plus "Can't Get Used To Losing You" and "Hands Off She's Mine".
"Pussy Price" is available on the 'Woppi King' Laurel Aitken collection on Trybute.
1 comment:
Damn impressive. Thank you for the education.
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