Scruffy The Cat - Time Never Forgets - The Anthology ('86-'88)

Total download size: 2.60GB Total play length: 1:58:15

Cover art included, liner notes not included

"As easy as it is to get caught up in cheap nostalgia, there really was a golden time in power pop, reflected by the titular years of this all-inclusive compilation from one of Boston’s most beloved combos of the era.

Scruffy the Cat was a quintet fronted by the late Charlie Chesterman who wrote, played guitar and sang lead on the majority of the band’s material. All the group’s officially released 38 songs (two full albums, 2 EPs) are here, sounding better than anyone remembers in remastered form. These tunes jump out of the speakers with more jittery energy than a dozen cups of cappuccino. Musically it’s a combination of early Elvis Costello and the Attractions with a touch of Jason & the Scorchers’ tough country punk and the American jangle of the Byrds. But if a tune as crackling, hooky and instantly memorable as “Mybabyshe’sallright” couldn’t get national airplay, it’s no surprise the rest of the group’s impressive catalog suffered a similar fate due to the usual tale of poor promotion and bad breaks.

Chesterman’s vibrant twangy vocals are instantly recognizable, the production is appropriately minimalist and the nervy songs buzz with the barely contained vitality that only youth can bring. Whether they are borrowing the riff from Sly & the Family Stone’s “I Want to Take You Higher” for the opening of “Bus Named Desire,” digging into a Bo Diddley beat on “Shadow Boy,” ripping off a frenzied version of Del Shannon’s “Runaway” or tearing into their own garage rockabilly of “Mama Killed Hate,” there are amazingly few clunkers here. Certainly legendary producer Jim Dickinson (the Replacements, Stones, Dylan), who helmed the boards for the group’s second and final album, knew quality when he heard it." — Hal Horowitz

play pause	1. 40 Days & 40 Nights
play pause	2. Land of 1000 Girls
play pause	3. Life Is Fun
play pause	4. Tiger, Tiger
play pause	5. Buy a Car
play pause	6. Happiness to Go!
play pause	7. Mybabyshe'sallright
play pause	8. Shadow Boy
play pause	9. Upside Down
play pause	10. Time Never Forgets
play pause	11. Thomas Doubter
play pause	12. Never, Never
play pause	13. Hello Angel
play pause	14. Momma Killed Hate
play pause	15. When Your Ship Comes In
play pause	16. My Fate Was Sealed with a Kiss
play pause	17. Tiny Days
play pause	18. You Dirty Rat
play pause	19. Blue Russian
play pause	20. Shadow Boy
play pause	21. Runaway
play pause	22. Happiness to Go!
play pause	23. Capital Moonlight
play pause	24. Bus Named Desire
play pause	25. Betty Drops In
play pause	26. I Do
play pause	27. Beg, Borrow and Steal
play pause	28. Nova SS 1968
play pause	29. Kissing Galaxy
play pause	30. Bucknaked
play pause	31. Moons of Jupiter
play pause	32. Love So Amazing
play pause	33. Places
play pause	34. One Bad Apple
play pause	35. Just Like Cathy's Clown
play pause	36. Everything
play pause	37. 2Day 2Morrow 4Ever
play pause	38. Keith's Lament