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«Go For It», the third and last studio album by the Stiff Little Fingers that you need to know and have, not necessarily at all costs but keeping it at hand is definitely a good thing.
Before there was «Inflammable Material», February 2, 1979.
According to Mark Perry – the one who runs the fanzine «Sniffin' Glue» and the Alternative TV band – punk died the day the Clash signed with CBS, which was January 29, 1977.
In practice, always according to Mark, the only punk albums are the debut by the Ramones and «Leave Home», also by them, April 23, 1976, and January 10, 1977.
The first Stiff Little Fingers album was released on February 2, 1979, and if punk is dead, then «Inflammable Material» is the best testament it could have left, 13 tracks, 12 classics, and sometimes enthusiasm pushes me to define even the closing «Closed Groove» as a classic.
So classic that if the Clash are par excellence the only band that matters, it doesn't surprise me that for many, the Stiff Little Fingers matter more.
Then came «Nobody's Heroes», March 7, 1980.
In an ideal ranking, it stands one step below the debut, 10 tracks, 8 classics, and a slightly less iconic cover.
The Stiff Little Fingers perhaps did not understand Mark Perry, perhaps they played something that is not punk, but there is also a live album – «Hanx!» – which encapsulates the best of the first two and is one of the best testimonies of the genre.
Which genre, you decide.
And here is «Go For It», it's April 17, 1981.
In the usual ideal ranking, it's two steps below «Nobody's Heroes», three below «Inflammable Material».
But such is the esteem and respect that the Stiff Little Fingers have earned in two years and a bit that we – myself and those for whom they matter even more than the Clash – when the detestable compilers of rankings are busy with other matters, without letting them notice, we grab «Go For It» and place it a step higher.
The importance of having it at hand.
«Go For It», the one with the not-so-great cover – not-so-great in general, not just compared to the other two, which are iconic in their way – 10 tracks, one classic.
The classic is there, right at the start, «Roots, Radicals, Rockers and Reggae».
In its intentions, it must be the new «Johnny Was», the new «Doesn't Make It Alright», reggae on a collision course with punk, tight rhythm, scratchy guitars, shouted voice without grace.
It's not the new «Johnny Was», nor the new «Doesn't Make It Alright», but it comes damn close, sticks in your head like a nail hammered down all the way due to its length, like any respectable classic.
So, those who know «Go For It» even by hearsay, actually know «Roots, Radicals, Rockers and Reggae».
And then it's an original, as are «The Only One» and «Safe As Houses», other reggae incursions – here you find few traces of punk but you don't miss it – that foreshadow a decade in advance the arrival of my beloved Scum Of Toytown.
As original are the other seven tracks that make up to 10, no covers.
A few surprises, the instrumental «Go For It», useful to open future concerts, like «Durango 95» by the Ramones, except «Durango 95» is decidedly better; and the horns in «Silver Lining», beautiful, really very much so.
Many confirmations.
Above all, that the Stiff Little Fingers are an extraordinary band, capable of representing the sentiment of a generation, engaging, compelling, like only Rory Gallagher in their homeland.
Then, that they play a street-style rock'n'roll, less dirty and scratchy than the year before and the one before that, but for those who like that a punk song can also be sung and not just shouted «Go For It» offers more than one memorable moment, like the overwhelming «Kicking Up a Racket» (the one closest to being a classic), a «Gate 49» that seems aimed straight at conquering the American market as «Hanx!» did a few months earlier (it goes wrong on both occasions, of course), or «Piccadilly Circus» that closes brilliantly.
That then a (dramatic) singability is also present in every second of «Inflammable Material» and, even more so, of «Nobody's Heroes».
«Go For It» is the natural evolution.
The album of achieved maturity.
And it isn't always a bad thing, not even 40 years later.
Not even for a punk band.
Not even if punk died on January 29, 1977.
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