Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins

Chuck Prophet, Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins

★★★★☆

Download this: Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins; In The Mausoleum; Post-War Cinematic Dead Man Blues; Alex Nieto

Master guitarist and accomplished songwriter Chuck Prophet is on top form with this latest collection of reflections and rejections. The pervasive tone of zeitgeist fatigue crystallises in “Post-War Cinematic Dead Man Blues”; but it’s there from the start, in the assertive anthem about the potency of cheap music, personified in the mysterious death of Bobby (“I Fought The Law”) Fuller in 1966: in the manner of Alex Chilton, Prophet somehow manages to be both wistful and euphoric at once. He’s clearly an encyclopaedic master of musical form, piling up influences across these tracks, notably the terse, hypnotic twitch of Alan Vega’s space-age rockabilly that drives “In The Mausoleum”. But the most effective borrowing applies the “Rockin’ In The Free World” riff to the police killing of “Alex Nieto”, which draws strength from Prophet’s repeatedly returning to the victim’s character: “Alex Nieto was a pacifist, a 49ers fan”. Powerful and personal, it’s a persuasive protest tribute straight from the heart.