The Dripping Lips – Ready to Crack? – Review

The Dripping Lips

Ready to Crack? (Alive)
by Jon Sarre

If ya happen across this disc in yer favorite record store, it’ll probably have a big sticker slapped on the front readin’ “Featuring Brian James,” maybe followed by “(He played guitar for the Damned a million billion years ago and then he was in Lords of the New Church, who weren’t as good as the Damned, but the singer was Stiv Bators, who was in the Dead Boys)”. Suddenly, Ready to Crack by The Dripping Lips will instantly be more familiar than most of the other discs clutterin’ up the “misc D” section, which is okay, cuz it’s a pretty good record. Producer Jimmy Miller (whose credits include two of the greatest rock’n’roll albums ever made, Let it Bleed and Exile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones) gives James’ signature trebly interpretation of James Williamson imitating Johnny Thunders imitating Chuck Berry, Robbie Kelman’s I-know-I’m-singing-lyrics-dumber-than-anything-Dave-Vanian-wrote-but-I-don’t-care vocals, and the rhythm section doin’ their thing a sorta Flamin’ Grooviesesque psych-rock acid treatment (but since the Groovies were usually just rippin’ off the Stones, it’s probably better described as “Jimmy Miller on a budget”). Miller died before this record was released and I thought I heard Brian James had likewise passed on, but I can’t be sure cuz no one ever tells me shit (a little checking revealed that he’s still among the living).
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