Wanna Meet the Scruffs?

Sleevenote from CD release 1997

In 1990, when Rhino Records was in the planning stages for an upcoming series of releases chronicling power pop, project coordinator Gary Stewart asked me to make a list of tracks I deemed appropriate. The file cabinets began clicking in my head, and the most powerful nodes were immediately activated.

Among the first songs I came up with was "My Mind" by The Scruffs. For me this song was the epitome of the power pop idiom and ethos, with its beautifully lilting jangle, singer / songwriter Stephen Burns yearning yet forceful vocals, and guitarist Dave Branyan's classic licks. When I offered "My Mind" as a potential selection to Mr. Stewart, his eyes lit up and he yelled "yeah!" (I guess he approved!). The track is tenth on the first volume of this series, called D.I.Y.: Come Out And Play-American Power Pop 1, coming right after a song from one of The Scruffs' best mates, Tommy Hoehn.

Wanna Meet The Scruffs, the album which contains the aforementioned "My Mind" as well as 12 other power pop gems, had long been on many pop fans wish list to be reissued on CD, including those of luminaries Jordan Oakes, who publishes Yellow Pills, the fanzine that has served as a prototype for the genre, John M. Borack, well respected writer for Goldmine magazine, among others, and Bruce Brodeen, pop music's greatest champion and owner of the prodigious pop music label and mail order emporium, Not Lame Records (in fact, Brodeen had expressed interest in reissuing the CD himself, until he found out that Stephen Burns had already set the wheels in motion). Our wishes have now come true with the CD release of Wanna Meet The Scruffs, one of a series of several reissues of Scruffs material, most of which has been previously unreleased.

It's certainly no surprise that Wanna Meet The Scruffs has become a legendary pop album. Part of it lies with the band's association with Memphis cohorts Alex Chilton and Chris Bell of Big Star, with whom Burns had done some recording. In fact, Wanna Meet The Scruffs was recorded at the same place as Big Star's classic albums #1 Record and Radio City, Ardent Studios (in 40 hours yet-can you imagine even the most prudently recorded album being finished in that amount of time today!?). Another reason is the music itself, which is taut, angst ridden power pop, owing debts of gratitude to the Beatles, The Raspberries, and Big Star, but coming from an original angle as well, with arrangements that slightly bend tradition, but in a very engaging sort of way. The songs on Wanna Meet The Scruffs run the coarse of male teen angst, from invulnerability to depression to fantasy, and over again, and this emotional roller coaster is eloquently conveyed through Burns rich, tortured vocals, Branyan's guitar which adeptly moves from muscular to sensitive as the situation requires, and the propulsive drumming of Zeph Paulson. Those who own the LP can never forget the opening screamer "Break The Ice", "My Mind", "Frozen Girls", on which Branyan runs the fretboard like he's being chased by a swarm of bees, the closing line "she's as cold as they come" helping to convey that emotion, the utterly catchy "This Thursday", the frighteningly portentous "I'm A Failure" ("I'm only 23 and it's the end of me" can certainly be a roughly approximated epitaph of several pop musicians), the intense closing cut "Bedtime Stories", and the fragile "She Say Yeah", whose longing background vocals by Rick and Dave Branyan will bring tears to your eyes. This track further piques our interest because of the lyrics, which ever so subtly come from the female point of view, not unlike The Raspberries "Go All The Way".

We're part of a fortunate time now; there has been a proliferation of the internet and a burgeoning contemporary pop music scene all around the world, and with that there's been a commensurate interest in the music that has influenced all of this. With so many of today's artist's doing the DIY thing, we've wanted to pay our respects to those who came before. We've recently been blessed with a richness of CD reissues of classic pop albums, from the quintessential power pop album The Toms to the twofer of The Searchers Sire Records LPs, as well as the enhanced CD issues of the first two Dwight Twilley albums and the debut release by The Rubinoos. The CD that you're holding in your hand (to borrow a cliche), Wanna Meet The Scruffs, is a more than welcome addition to the family, and kudos should be given to Stephen, Dave, Zeph, and Rick for this fine, fine album, and to Stephen for taking the reigns and bringing this and other Scruffs reissues to life!


David Bash
Discoveries Magazine