THE DEPRESSIONS (Tonight I'm Gonna...) "SCREW YA"

From the punkettes of "Pussy Riot" we look back to the punks who sang "Screw Ya."

Hey, what if you take the Dr. Hook eye-patch look, a ton of peroxide off Billy Idol of Generation X, and instead of a Richard Hell "Love Comes in Spurts," go all Screw magazine with it, and snarl a Sex Pistol "Tonight I'm Gonna SCREW YA?" What happens??

Nothing.

Depressing? Well, if you've named the band The Depressions, you can probably handle it. Whatever became of E. Wright, the author of 'Screw Ya?" Or the girl on the receiving end of: "(I'll) bring tears to your eyes and cream to your thighs, I'm the best that you had so far yet!" What about other band members? Producer Paddy Bergin? (The good thing about rhetorical questions asked on the Internet, is that somebody or other will take it seriously and reply in the comments!)

I think I probably gave the record a good review at the time…(the time of getting paid, being part of rock magazines that had circulations of 200,000 to 500,000). I still have the album in pristine condition. Meaning, I've rarely played more than the amusing open track, a punk brag that you don't take too seriously. Or shouldn't. At the time, quite a few reviewers were actually offended. Typical was this from Record Mirror in the UK: "It's awful. Just dreadful…"Screw Ya" tells of the moronic behaviour of the lowest kind of male ego…male macho rubbish. It's third rate punk."

The review is from the UK because this thing never got across the pond. I may have been among the few who was so connected to the import field, that I regularly reviewed such obscure stuff (and had venues that appreciated a writer doing more than begging to hear the latest from Brooooos). The Depressions were apparently a pretty big hit in their home town (Brighton), where they debuted with promising singles, including "Get Out of this Town" and "Messing With Your Heart." After receiving offended and huffy reviews for this album, and doing some tumultuous live shows that seemed to generate disgust more than Sex Pistols-type admiration, they became The DP's and issued their finale, "If You Know What I Mean."

After all these years, there's two pieces of wisdom you can take away from this band: 1) a good way to handle depression is to screw and 2) it's not likely to happen if you approach a girl singing this song.

Sapristi! (tonight I'm gonna) SCREW YA