Track Listing

1. Cartrouble (Parts 1& 2) (Original Album Version)
2. Digital Tenderness
3. Nine Plan Failed
4. Day I Met God
5. Tabletalk
6. Cleopatra
7. Catholic Day
8. Never Trust A Man(With Egg On His Face)
9. Animals & Men
10. Family Of Noise
11. The Idea
12. Zerox
13. Whip In My Valise
14. Kick!
15. Physical
16. Cartrouble (Parts 1& 2) (Chris Hughes Mix)
17. Friends
18. Cartrouble (Single Version)
19. Kick! (Single Version)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34268 in Music
• Released on: 2004-07-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Album Description
Original released in 1979 on Do It Records, Dirk Wears White Sox was the debut album release from Adam and the Ants and has long remained a fan favourite. In the early 1980s the rights to Dirk were acquired from Do It Records by CBS and the album has seen several re-releases over the years with tracks removed from the running order and re-recorded versions added. This expanded edition brings all of the tracks from the Do It Record's era, in their various versions together to create, for the first time, the definitive version of Dirk Wears White Sox. The tracklisting will be sequenced as per the original Do It Records release but also includes the later versions of "Cartrouble" as re-recorded by Adam and produced by Chris Hughes plus the original versions of "Kick", "Physical" and "Friends" that never made it to the final tracklisting but were re-recorded a couple of years later as B-sides to the single releases from Kings of the Wild Frontier. The album is packaged in a deluxe digipak with 12-page booklet featuring many rare or unseen photos from the early days of the Ants.

Customer Reviews

A Darker Sounding CD
Great stuff for Antpeople, although i think if you are more into the Prince Charming and later albums, this may take you by surprise. It has a much darker side to the cd than the others, this lies most in Adam Ant's punk roots, noisey but enjoyable.
The Whip in my Valise track is one of my favourite Ant songs, very crunchy guitar sound. I think all in all this is not his easiest listening of cds, but that makes it that bit more special

Essential Ants.
This is my favourite Adam & The Ants album and I am delighted that it finally got the remastered CD release that it deserved.

I have a battered copy of the original vinyl record and was a little dismayed when the previous CD release of 'Dirk..' had a different track listing and included different mixes of the tracks.

This release fixes all those gripes and it sounds wonderful, the packaging is fantastic too. Kudos to all involved. This is the way all resissues should be handled!

I love the whole album. It still sounds fresh to this day. The songs have a slightly dark humour running through them, but the album manages to avoid being depressing.

The thing that made the Ants stand out among a lot of the other "punk" (for want of a better word) acts around at the time was that they could actually play their instruments. This is evident all the way through and in my mind this is the best ever line up of the Ants.

Reissue of post-punk classic from 1979....
'Dirk Wears White Sox' (a title that would be used later in the chorus of 'Don't Be Square (Be There)' from 'Kings of the Wild Frontier') was the sole album from the original Adam & the Ants- a band who would largely become Bow Wow Wow and who were more famous at the time for appearing in Derek Jarman's 'Jubilee.'

This budget-priced reissue, released alongside the great 'Kings...' (1980) & the popular 'Prince Charming' (1981)is in many ways greater than the commercial peak Ant is known for. This is probably due to the fact that no hits are here, so we don't have the cloud of nostalgia and good feeling get in the way. The other thing is, this collection of songs is a fantastic display of post-punk - sounding not unlike peers such as Subway Sect, Josef-K, The Fall, The Slits & Wire. Thus the angular-guitar-pop on display makes complete sense today in an age of similar sounding acts including Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol & The Futureheads...

This version of 'Dirk...', overseen by long-time Ant-associate Marco Pirroni, offers up a wonderfully-packaged, remastered collection that not only includes the original 1979-album, but also the singles 'Zerox'/'Whip in My Valise' & 'Cartrouble/Kick' alongside a 1982 e.p. of remixed-tracks from the 'Dirk'-era. It's notable that two popular acts from the 1990s would cover songs from here- Elastica covering 'Cleopatra' (on a bonus-single with their debut) and Nine Inch Nails covering 'Physical' on their 1992 'Broken' e.p.

'Dirk...' is a great achievment and shows that Ant can do the indie-thing with ease- here it is perfected, so it makes sense that like Green Gartside (Scritti Politti) he shifted to pop from indie/post-punk/D.I.Y. Ant not only composes all the songs here, but he produces the record and plays several instruments alongside the tight-band that also includes David Barbe, Matthew Ashman & Andrew Warren.

I love it all, highlights include 'Tabletalk', 'Never Trust a Man (With Egg On His Face)- which is very Blur, 'Catholic Day' (a companion to Magazine's 'Motorcade'), 'Cartrouble (Parts 1 & 2)' & 'Animals and Men' (which predates The Art of Noise in the futurist-alluding stakes!).

An excellent collection, an album that deserves to find a posthumous audience in the climate with a penchant for post-punk and ultimately something that if released today by a new band would have the N.M.E. excited, provided the singer could get a drugs-problem and/or celebrity girlfriend!!!