Stiff Little Fingers Guitar and Drum

The list of reasons why influential punk bands from the famed 1977 movement should not reunite and emerge in today’s modern “punk” scene is quite long.

Stiff Little Fingers apparently checks that list routinely.

Not only do none of those reasons apply to SLF, but there are at least 14 reasons why this band should, in the words of Bob Dylan, keep on keepin’ on. That is because every song on their May 2004 release “Guitar and Drum” is worth listening to, not that you’ll listen to an album like this only once.

The title track is, like much of the album, an exasperated lament about the current state of popular music and how it has turned “artists” in robots, and fans into sheep. But the band, whose lineup has been retooled several times over the years, sounds less like a band that won’t bow out gracefully, and more like a band that knows it has a responsibility to remind the industry and its followers what a great combination good music, intelligent songwriting, sincerity, and passion can make.

About the scourge of Boy Bands, lead singer/songwriter and original founding member Jake Burns sings,

“Well it might make all the young girls’ hearts beat faster/ But it don’t amuse this cynical old bastard… I believe in the power of guitar and drum, I believe in the hope held in a song, I believe that the music makes you strong, I believe in the power of guitar and drum.”

“Guitar and Drum” leads into the second song on the album, which might be the important punk rock song written in the last two decades. The song is called Strummerville, and it sounds as though it may have began as a personal letter from Burns to the late Joe Strummer, who, at the forefront of the original punk rock movement, inspired Burns to live the life he has for the last 27 years. It is an emotional Good-Bye and a heartfelt Thank You, a way for Burns, guitarist Ian McCallum, bassist Bruce Foxton, and drummer Steve Grantley to join their fans in paying their respects to a legend. Joe Strummer is the reason many of us learned how to appreciate music.

The album, a surprisingly eclectic mix in the face of many one-dimensional bands, also includes a song called “Walking Dynamite,” an interesting peephole into the younger years of Sonny Liston, the troubled, controversial, yet phenomenally successful hall-of-fame boxer. The genius of the song lies in its asymmetrical beat, which gives the listener the impression that Burns may just be bobbing and weaving, sticking and moving, while singing the verse.

Punk bands with polished musicians face the additional pitfall of sounding too polished. SLF teeters on the edge of this but never falls victim to it on the track “Can’t Get Away With That,” a playful tune that never strays too far from the point.

And no one can question the band’s desire on “Still Burning,” a fiery song in which Burns preaches “I won’t acquiesce/ Or take second best/ I’m never satisfied/ Cause there’s a fire inside won’t be denied/ And I’m still burning, see you’ll never put the spark out in my soul.”

“Who Died and Made You Elvis” and the smartly but not overbearingly political “Protect and Serve” are nothing less than classic SLF songs; both could easily have appeared on any previous album and blended perfectly. This album is melodic but energetic, reminiscent but creative, introspective but not pretentious. It proves, in essence, the power of guitar and drum.