Do Anything You Wanna Do – Eddie & The Hotrods

I am not doing a punk/new wave/ pub rock theme week. And yet I can’t post Tonight and The Quads and not put forward this luxury chocolate biscuit of a song.

Eddie and The Hotrods are one of the greatest and most under rated bands in the entire cannon of Rock Und Roll music.

That’s not to say they don’t have a devoted following of obsessive fans decades after their time in the trenches. They do. That’s not to say they haven’t been written about, lauded and reappraised thoroughly in hindsight since their Pub Rock heyday. They have been.

That’s also not to imply I was there, I know all about them or that I have an insight you can’t glean by just listening to Do Anything You Wanna Do. I don’t. I did know a bloke called Keith who roadied for them who I was good mates with for a bit, but that’s it. That’s as close as my story and Eddie And The Hotrods stories get to overlapping.

However, I want you to listen to the song. The fuggin’ brilliant rock and roll masterpiece of understatement that is the song. It’s edgy but melodic, it’s got attitude but it’s not aggressive. It’s hummable and it’s got layers of assured musicianship. It’s recorded in the 70’s but sounds like it could be from the 50’s or just out next week. It’s garage rock and yet it’s total pop.

Honestly. I don’t think I know of a better sound than Eddie & The Hotrods playing Do Anything You Wanna Do. Maybe some of my favourite Ramones tracks, perhaps perhaps one or two R.E.M tracks. Also Most People Are DJ’s by The Hold Steady and Sucked Out by Superdrag but it’s a short list.