1972 Slade: Mama Weer All Crazee Now

Slade's third number one and the first time where it all came together. Both 'Coz I Luv You' and 'Take Me Bak 'Ome' displayed flashes of the tracks and traits that would become Slade's stock in trade but, as Eric Morecambe once said, they weren't always in the right order. 'Mama Weer All Crazee Now' doesn't do anything radically different to those two songs, but it takes time to file off the rough edges and present a more finished article.

The guitars still grunt and the drums still crash but now it's all to a purpose rather than noise for the sake of noise and that's largely because Slade now have a proper song that they can proudly push to the fore instead of burying it away under a cacophony of sound - 'Mama' moves away from any notions of love, devotion or a quick shag to the semi-meaningless nonsense that Slade did so well. And that was fine; the blast of the music and the hook of the chorus combine to disorientate like shellshock until you kind of know what Noddy's on about (getting pissed up on whiskey till he's crazee like a fule apparently) but kind of don't know too (a trick that Oasis, once learned, ran with 'till they dropped).

It's not fully realised - the shift of key and time signature between verse and chorus doesn't quite make for a smooth gear change, but it's not enough to derail the forward momentum of the song and it's easy to ignore because when Noddy tells you "I had enough to fill up "H" Hill's left shoe" then you'd better bloody believe him! 'Mama Weer All Crazee Now' is a blast from beginning to end.