Let’s be honest. The prospect of listening to an album of cover versions by Udo Dirkschneider, pugnacious former frontman with German rockers Accept, is about as mouth-watering as being force-fed a bucket of foul-smelling sauerkraut. But against the odds the soon-to-be 70-year-old has pulled it off with My Way.
His song choices – beginning with a fabulous version of Alex Harvey’s Faith Healer – are spot-on, his enthusiasm is tangible, and he still sings like a mutant bullfrog with its gills full of iron filings.
There are some odd ones, too. On an unhinged Nutbush City Limits he outs himself as a Tina Turner fan, and surprisingly reveals that the song “was one of the mainstays of our Accept rehearsal repertoire for years”.
- "A humorous and bewildered look at the modern world from a man who has never quite seemed a part of it": Julian Cope rediscovers melody on mischievous 37th solo album Friar Tuck
- "Open the dance floor, you’ll never get to do it again." Forget John Lydon's bitter and boring "karaoke" jibes, with Frank Carter up front, the Sex Pistols sound like the world's greatest punk band once more
And then there’s My Way – yes, that My Way – which will have Ol’ Blue Eyes spinning in his grave like an overheated Hadron Collider.
