After forming in Brighton in 1984, psycho trio Long Tall Texans made several compilation album appearances before signing to Razor for their debut album, Sodbusters, in 1986. Despite Radio 1 airplay for the singles Should I Stay Or Should I Go (demonstrating the band’s willingness to stray outside psychobilly’s loose boundaries) and Get Back Wetback, and even a session for Simon Mayo’s show early in 1988, the hit single never materialised.
Nevertheless, the Texans continued to build a formidable following and were at the peak of their powers when they released their third album, Saturnalia!, in 1989 on both standard black vinyl and as a snazzy picture disc. Though just 10 songs, the set was swaggering, confident, eclectic and also slightly contemporary, with Roger Tebbutt adding touches of late 80s production. Refreshingly, while all the key musical elements of psychobilly were present, the band sidestepped the genre’s more corny shock-horror elements, plumping for a more intelligent lyrical approach.
As Simon Nott mentions in his sleevenotes, some reissues of this album replaced the studio version of Get Back Wetback with a live one, but here it’s happily returned to its rightful place, while the live version is here among the four bonus tracks.
