Dave Edmunds - Repeat When Necessary

 

 "Repeat When Necessary" was the 5th solo album from Dave Edmunds. The Welshman had initially come to prominence as the guitarist in Love Sculpture, who had a top 5 single in 1968 with the high-speed, electric instrumental "Sabre Dance" from Khachaturian's ballet "Gayane". After Love Sculpture disbanded, Edmunds then had global hit in 1970 with the novelty song "I Hear You Knocking", which reached number 1 in both the UK and US.

Although a few minor hits of covers followed, Edmunds enhanced his reputation when teaming up to much critical acclaim with Nick Lowe, Billy Bremner and Terry Williams to form Rockpile . However, as Lowe and Edmunds were signed to different record labels, Rockpile were unable to release records under their own name. Instead, in 1979 the band went to work on producing two albums, Lowe's "Labour of Lust" and "Repeat When Necessary" for Edmunds. I bought both LPs but the price sticker on the cover shows that I bought "Repeat When Necessary" for £2.25 in Buffalo Records in Cardiff, which suggest I probably purchased it in 1981.

Although I preferred "Labour of Lust", I still thought "Repeat When Necessary" was a good album, but the two records were very different, with Lowe's being a mix of pop, new wave and country songs, whereas Edmunds' was more rock n' roll or rockabilly. 

The other noticeable feature was whilst "Labour of Lust" was nearly all Lowe compositions, "Repeat When Necessary" didn't include anything written by either Lowe or Edmunds. Instead, Rockpile guitarist Billy Bremner wrote or co-wrote three of the songs, former Emmylou Harris guitarist Hank de Vito contributed two songs, whilst Elvis Costello, Huey Lewis and Graham Parker provided one each. The remainder were covers from the 1950s and 1960s.

"Girls Talk", the first single from the album, is often referred to as a cover of the Elvis Costello song, but in fact, Costello gave the song to Edmunds, who significantly rearranged its structure, and Costello only released and recorded his own version a year later as the B-Side to "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down". It was included on "Taking Liberties", Costello's collection of B-Sides, out-takes, and songs not previously released in the USA, and as this blog comments on that LP, the version by Edmunds is significantly better.

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Similarly Graham Parker doesn't appear to have recorded his own version of "Crawling From The Wreckage" until it was included on a live album in 1996. It's a song that led to a change in BBC radio's policy after it was played immediately after a news bulletin which included a story about a number of deaths following a multiple motorway car crash. After several complaints, a review was subsequently introduced to ensure the first song after a news break didn't have any offensive or controversial references to the news content.

Personally, my favourite songs from the album at the time were "The Creature From The Black Lagoon" and the second single "Queen of Hearts". I thought side one was the much stronger side and can recall all 5 tracks, whereas I can now only remember two of the songs on side two.

Listening now to "Girls Talk", the production sounds a little dated by today's standards and the guitar solo doesn't quite seem to fit, but despite that it is still enjoyable to hear again. As always, Costello's lyrics are worth listening to, "There are something you can't cover up with lipstick and powder, thought I heard you mention my name can't you talk any louder ?"

The turbo-charged rockabilly "Crawling From The Wreckage" should have been a much bigger hit. I love the line "crawling from the wreckage, crawling from the wreckage, bits of me are scattered in the trees and in the hedges" !

Billy Bremner's "Creature From The Black Lagoon" remains a great song, has a great guitar solo and could easily have been another single from the album. It also has some superb "King Kong" imagery lyrics, worth repeating some of them at length :

"All he wanted was a lady, when at night he came up from the deep, he was feeling like any other lonely fella, decided to take one while the city was asleep. The unsuspecting maiden was clutched from where she lay and taken away to a hole down under the waters of the local bay. By the creature from the Black Lagoon, strange to see him back so soon. After his last intended did the dirty on him, didn't last five minutes in the swim"

"Sweet Little Lisa" is a slab of 1950's rock n'roll, notable for the the guitar solo by Albert Lee. "There ain't nobody gonna make me shout, ain't nobody gonna put me out, ain't nobody gonna make me do like my sweet little Lisa dos"

"Dynamite" closes slide one and was an early Cliff Richard song. Its perhaps the weakest track on the album.

Side two opens with the country/rockabilly crossover "Queen Of Hearts" which still sounds great.

"Home In My Hand" was previously covered by Brinsley Schwarz, and is a standard boogie.

"Goodbye Mr Good Guy" is more 1950's rock n roll and I could easily imaging Elvis singing it. The chorus is reminiscent of "This Old House", and Edmunds did produce some of Shakin' Stevens' early records.

The slower paced "Take Me For A Little While", covered by Dusty Springfield amongst others appears a little out out place, with a Phil Spector type production and Motown style backing vocals.

Bremner's "We Were Both Wrong" chugs along quite nicely but I couldn't help thinking it has has very close similarities in parts to Ringo Starr's "You're Sixteen" !

Huey Lewis' "Bad Is Bad" closes side two. Lewis, who released his own version several years later, plays Harmonica and it sounds like Dr Feelgood !

In summary, "Repeat When Necessary" was enjoyable to listen again, which its mix of musical styles. The first three songs are very much "modern" new wave for the late 1970s, whilst the subsequent material is a mix of 1950/60 rock n' roll, rockabilly, country and a hint of Motown. All good though !

Track Listing :

Side One :

1. Girls Talk
2. Crawling From The Wreckage
3. The Creature From The Black Lagoon
4. Sweet Little Lisa
5. Dynamite

Side Two :

1. Queen Of Hearts
2. Home In My Hand
3. Goodbye Mr Good Guy
4. Take Me For A Little While
5. We Were Both Wrong
6. Bad Is Bad

Released 1979
UK Chart Position : 39

Singles :

Girls Talk ( No 4 - 1979 )
Queen Of Hearts ( No 11 - 1979 )
Crawling From The Wreckage ( No 59 - 1979 )

 

 

Eddie And The Hot Rods - Thriller

 

Eddie And The Hot Rods' third album was a huge disappointment when it was released. At the time I thought it had one great track ( "The Power And The Glory" ), one half-decent ( Media Messiahs ) whilst the rest was virtually unlistenable. Whereas I had previously like Steve Nicol's high energy drumming, on "Thriller" I found it to be irritating, and I think one review described it as drumming as if he only had only one arm. As a consequence of poor sales of the album, The Hot Rods lost their recording contract with Island Records.

I probably only played the record three of four times, and it was never going to be confused with Michael Jackson's subsequent album of the same name. Hearing it again was not something I was particularly looking forward to but it wasn't actually as bad as I feared, and it wasn't a total dud.

The opening track "The Power And The Glory" remains a great song and in some ways is the "Do Anything You Wanna Do" power-pop anthem of the album. The screeching guitar and bass are great, the tune is decent and fortunately the drums are low down in the mix.

"Media Messiahs" didn't sound as good as I thought it was, but it had a nice guitar solo and is quite catchy.

Of the remainder, "Echoes" and "Breathless" were OK but unexceptional,"Circles" was another song with good guitar but an ordinary tune, and "Out To Lunch" was reasonable boogie, not too dis-similar to Dr Feelgood's "Lucky Seven", although that was hardly a great recommendation as it wasn't one of their better songs.

"He Does It With Mirrors" was just a mess, with feedback, an echo vocal and the guitar which seemed to be playing a different song."Take It Or Leave It" was just awful and "Living Dangerously" was a pointless rehash of "Get Out Of Denver". In many ways this summed up "Thriller" in that the band appeared to have run out of ideas and were no longer clear as to what they were still about or what direction they were heading.

Track Listing :

Side One :

1. The Power And The Glory
2. Echoes
3. Media Messiahs
4. Circles
5. He Does It With Mirrors

Side Two :

1. Strangers
2. Out To Lunch
3. Breathless
4. Take It Or Leave It
5. Living Dangerously

Released 1979
UK Chart Position :50

Singles :

Media Messiahs ( - 1979 )
The Power And The Glory ( - 1979 )

Eddie And The Hot Rods - Life On The Line

 

After the success of their first album, Eddie and the Hot Rods became a five piece with the addition of ex-Kursaal Flyers guitarist Graeme Douglas. Although not from Canvey Island, Kursaal Flyers hailed from Southend-on-Sea, so were still Essex Boys, and were known for the cheesy hit "Little Does She Know" and its famous line "Little does she know that I know that she knows, that I know she's two-timing me".

Jumping on the punk bandwagon, the single "Do Anything You Wanna Do" was released under the shorter moniker "The Rods" although the song itself was more of a classic power-pop anthem rather than punk, and it gave the band their best ever chart placing, peaking at number 9 in the charts.

"Teenage Depression" was essentially a collection of songs penned by guitarist Dave Higgs, plus three covers, of raw, loud, in-your-face hi-energy R&B and a precursor of punk rock. Ironically, the release of "Life On The Life" led to Eddie and the Hot Rods being labelled as a punk band by many, despite the album being much more radio friendly. The change in style was also indicated by only one song being written by Higgs, the 8 minute long psuedo-psychedelic "Beginning Of The End". 

Indeed, the majority of the tracks were written by Douglas and producer Ed Hollis, with also occasional  contributions from the other three members of the Hot Rods. Rather than moving more to punk rock, the impact was instead actually, a move to the mainstream. Not that this was detrimental, and I liked the album, although not as much as "Teenage Depression". Despite there being nothing worthy of the label "R&B", I still thought it was good, but I couldn't say I like the cover art-work.

After a gap of nearly 40 years since I last played the album, I could still recognise six of the songs on the track listing, with only the last three songs on side one being a blank.

The outstanding "Do Anything You Wanna Do" is lyrically still as relevant today as it was back in 1977. "Tired of doing day jobs, with not thanks for what I do, I'm gonna be someone now, I'm gonna find out who". It remains a pop classic, with Byrds' like guitars, hand-claps and sing-a-long verses, never mind the chorus. The only surprise was it that it wasn't a top three song in the charts.

I bought a copy of the single "Quit This Town", albeit from a shop that sold surplus ex-Jukebox records at dirt cheap prices after songs were no longer in the charts. It's a fantastic short pop song, with a great guitar break, and a memorable chorus that clearly inspired The Jam's "Going Underground" three years later.

The reason I couldn't remember the last three tracks on side one was fairly clear, they are the weakest songs on the album. "Telephone Girl" is a fairly standard boogie and like "What's Really Going On" has a funky guitar part. It's hardly Punk, or even R&B for that matter.

"Ignore Them ( Still Life )" was a return to the bass, drum and guitar rhythm from the core of "Teenage  Depression", and seems to be an auto-graphical tale of troubles they got into on a tour of Belgium. As a result, it sounds like they probably would have voted Brexit.....

The title track "Life On The Line" opens side two. It has a slightly slower tempo, some great guitar and a good hook for the chorus.

"( And ) Don't Believe Your Eyes" is another pretty pop song with angst lyrics, much in the vein of "Quit This Town". It has a tasteful guitar solo but listening to it now the drumming seems to be trying to inject some unnecessary urgency where it isn't need, and out of touch with the feel rest of the song, and frankly a bit irritating. However, it's still a good song despite that.

"We Sing.....The Cross" is a mid-tempo guitar led instrumental with a gradual increase in pace as the track progresses. I remember it was heavily criticised at the time of it's release, but it sounds fine to me.

The closing number is "Beginning Of The End" which has many similarities to "On The Run", which was the last track on "Teenage Depression". It's the only Dave Higgs contribution and lasts over 8 minutes, but has a better middle eight to make it more memorable.

In conclusion, "Life On The Line" is still a good album. Despite some reviews, it isn't Punk, but has three outstanding power-pop songs, and several other track hard to categorise but still worth a listen,

Track Listing :

Side One :

1. Do Anything You Wanna Do
2. Quit This Town
3. Telephone Girl
4. What's Really Going On
5. Ignore Them ( Still Life )

Side Two :

1. Life On The Line
2. ( And ) Don't Believe Your Eyes
3. We Sing...The Cross
4. Beginning Of The End

Released 1977
UK Chart Position : 27

Singles :

Do Anything You Wanna Do ( No 9 - 1977 )
Quit This Town ( No 36 - 1977 )
Life On The Line ( No 55 - 1978 )