Kiss Me Quick, Squeeze Me Slow ［3CD+DVD］

Mickey Jupp called himself an old rock & roller back in 1978. That year, he was a mere 34 years old but he had been rock & rolling for over a decade, first making waves with Legend, a proto-pub band whose 1969 debut incongruously appeared on the progressive Vertigo imprint. Despite the sly production by Tony Visconti, Legends first album didnt go far on the charts, establishing a pattern that dogged Jupp throughout his career: he was always slightly out of step with the times, never quite getting right enough to climb up the charts. Then again, as Will Birchs notes to the celebratory 2014 box set Kiss Me Quick, Squeeze Me Slow: The Collection make plain, Jupp never had the confidence within himself that others had in him. Time and time again, such luminaries as Wilko Johnson and Nick Lowe would testify to Jupps prowess as a singer, pianist, guitarist, and writer -- and both gentlemen had hits with Mickeys tunes, with Wilko recording Down at the Doctors with Dr. Feelgood and Nick cutting both Switchboard Susan and Youll Never Get Me Up in One of Those -- but concede he never had the desire to be a star; he just wanted to write songs and play some rock & roll. Unspoken in Birchs notes or anywhere else on the triple-CD/single-DVD box is how Jupp straddled two eras. He came up in the 60s and had ties to Procol Harum but his big shot at solo stardom arrived via the punk pranksters at Stiff, who assembled highlights from Legend for a 1978 LP (naturally titled Mickey Jupps Legend) and then put out Juppanese that same year. Originally, Juppanese was set to be produced by Procol Harums Gary Brooker but Stiff brought in Lowe and Rockpile to give the record some kick, resulting in a record that was caught between old-school 60s polish and a new wave back-to-basics sensibility. This was no isolated incident. Throughout his recording career, which essentially concluded with 1991s As the Yeahs Go By although there have been live releases and other ephemera since, Jupp showed equal allegiance to studio polish (he even had a record produced by 10ccs Godley & Creme) and spirited, mischievous rock & roll, which not only made him a hard one to peg but resulted in records that could be widely uneven. Thats why Kiss Me Quick, Squeeze Me Slow is so welcome. Not only does this distill Jupps catalog to its finest moments, but its purposefully non-chronological sequencing -- which is heavy on alternate takes and cheekily puts two versions of Down at the Doctors back to back -- winds up underscoring the singularity of Jupps three-chord vision as well as his consistency. He may have followed fashion perhaps a bit more than he shouldve, but from Legend through As the Yeahs Go By, Jupp was a first-rate purveyor of clever old-time rock & roll, as this fine box -- which functions as both a last word and introduction -- makes abundantly clear. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine