You may know Stan Ridgway from Wall of Voodoo’s “Mexican Radio,” his band’s breakout hit from 1983, in which his face appears in a pot of baked beans*. You may know Stan from his collaboration with Stewart Copeland, “Don’t Box Me In,”* on the soundtrack to the 1983 Francis Ford Coppola movie “Rumblefish.” You may know Stan from “Camouflage,” a hit outside the US, from his first solo album.
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Stan has been writing and making music since the 1970s, when he formed Wall of Voodoo with Marc Moreland (RIP*), Marc’s brother Bruce, Chas Grey and Joe Nanini. Wall of Voodoo recorded two albums with Stan before he went solo, “Dark Continent” and “Call of the West.” They made an amazing cover of “Ring of Fire.” They played to their biggest audiences yet at the US Festival in 1982, and also went on “American Bandstand.” They taped an episode of “The IRS Show” with UK eternal presenter Jools Holland in 1981-82.
“Call of the West” is their masterpiece, an epic mural, turning the romance of the West on its noir head.
Stan’s songwriting is steeped in film noir and pulp fiction themes: dark city streets, bars, strippers, criminals on the lam. His voice is an elastic force, part carnival barker, part crooner, blowing into the harmonica for emphasis.
“The Big Heat,” his 1985 solo debut, proclaims its love of noir in its title and title track. “Camouflage,” a poignant ghost story from the Vietnam War, charted in the UK and Europe. Other great songs from that album are “Drive She Said,” “Can’t Stop the Show,” and “Walkin’ Home Alone.” “Rio Greyhound” is a bonus track from a reissue of the album in 1993.
His second solo album, “Mosquitos” (1989), features “Goin’ Southbound,” “Mission in Life,” and “Lonely Town.”
His third solo album, “Partyball” (1991), features the single “I Wanna Be a Boss,” “The Roadblock,” “The Overlords,” “Harry Truman,” and “Snaketrain.” (This album, unlike Stan’s others, featured a bunch of cool mini-songs, but those don’t seem to be included in any of the YT links, except the one for “Roadblock.”)
Subsequent songs and albums worth investigating:
“Big Dumb Town” (from “Black Diamond [1996])
“Mission Bell” (from “Anatomy” [1999])
“Afghan Forklift” (from “Snakebite” [2004])
“Big 5-0” (from “Snakebite”)
“Day Up in the Sun” (from “Neon Mirage” [2010])
“Lenny Bruce” (a Bob Dylan cover, from Neon Mirage)
“The Drowning Man” (from “Mr. Trouble” [2012])
“Priestess of the Promised Land” (from the album of the same name [2016])
“Police Call” from 1995’s “Drywall: Work the Big Dumb Oracle” (project with his wife Pietra Wexstun and former Rain Parade drummer Ivan Knight)
* Cooked by Bob Casale from Devo
* Covered by Petra Haden, which you really need to hear
* Marc Moreland died of renal failure in 2002; he was the inspiration for Concrete Blonde’s “Joey.”