"Goo Goo Muck" by Ace Ambrose
Review
Ace Ambrose is, to say the least, an artist who keeps springing surprises on us all. Some are definitely down to her own playful attitude to engagement with her audience, others the product her considerable efforts to work round the significant obstacles fate insists on inflicting upon her in the most unfair manner: not least her health.
By now, her long long awaited EP ‘Doomsday Was Yesterday' should have been fully released in all its glory: had initial plans gone to schedule.
Therefore her abrupt announcement of a new single which has absolutely nothing to do with the EP was one of those surprises. And it's a cover to boot. Ace's version of Ronnie Cook and the Gaylads' 1962 track "Goo Goo Muck" (which is far better known via The Cramps' 1981 cover I guess) comes from yet another of her many groovy projects hitherto kept under wraps.
At this point, the story enters classic Ace Ambrose complexity & if I get a few facts off centre, my apologies as it really is weird & winding.
I believe it starts with a commission for the soundtrack of the Wednesday Addams television show: lots of artists being asked to cover the song. That alone is reason enough to congratulate Ace as it shows her name & talent is known internationally. Like so much in that world though, the bright idea seems to have been shelved (shame). However this perversely has actually worked in her favour: instead of languishing within the depths of a "various artists" compilation filled with similar fare, she was able (though not I believe without a struggle) able to obtain the cover licence (after Verity Pabla managed to retrieve her rights for her) & issue it under her own name.
As with many other aspects of her idiosyncratic career, that was not the only battle she had to fight: while she had no issues with the great musicians allocated to the recording (frequently "Hot Music Live" featured Ben Haines on drums and Micke Almberg Ross on bass & guitar) , to get her own guitarist collaborator Jack Tate involved, which she considered to be vital, required more tussling. I imagine that the powers that be regret taking this feisty artist on now, but it really is a shame how much combat she needs to undertake to fulfil her artistic vision. Credit too to another artist we often cite, Matt Cotterill with whom she recorded the track and to Lukas Pommier for mixing & mastering.
Beginning life as a garage/punk track, transformed into psychobilly by The Cramps, Ace certainly pays homage to what she's dealing with. She may not really have gone far down this road before, but given that genre as such has never been a ball & chain for her, that scarcely matters. It sounds like she's been doing this sort of thing for years. I await a whole album of psychobilly from her. The main difference is her vocal which is mixed high over a delightful backing which reflects the surf/punk sounds of the earlier versions: she certainly benefits from having insisted on Jack's involvement. Both previous recordings tend to involve varying degrees of camp tongue in cheekiness. Ace goes for something more realistic & is all the more chilling ( a googoomuck is a mythical monster) for ditching all bit a morsel of the schlock. As a role player par excellence in so many of her own songs, this latest one fits like a (leather) glove.
I personally love the song as I do the artist & have owned my copy a good many years. It intrigues me when current younger artists cover songs from "my" era which inevitably predate their own birth. Often, messing with old favourites can be tricky for me to process but I think this is a great one which stands up alongside The Cramps (which is superior to the original: that is often refered to a novelty song).
Check it out: prime Ace Ambrose even if not of her own composition.
Heaven knows when ‘Doomsday Was Yesterday' will actually appear, but in the interim, you can catch her live & acoustic on the HMV Empire balcony tomorrow evening (Thursday October 24th) and at the Love Music Hate Racism relaunch at the LTB Showrooms on November 9th.
