Aural Fixations

ROCKPILE
Seconds of Pleasure
DAVE EDMUNDS
From Small Things: The Best of Dave Edmunds
SOUNDTRACK
Porky's Revenge
(Columbia/Legacy)
Rockpile was one of the greatest roots rock bands in history, the equal of celebrated combos like Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Beat Farmers, etc. So it's a damn shame that the British quartet made only one album, 1980's classic Seconds of Pleasure. (There were actually a few more than that, as the band was originally convened as a revolving backup band for Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe, and thus appears on records like Lowe's Labour of Lust and Edmunds' Repeat When Necessary. But Seconds is the only LP to use the Rockpile name.) But what a record it is! Lowe, Edmunds, guitarist Billy Bremner and drummer Terry Williams do more than just rehash Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers; they create music rooted in classic 50s rock & roll and R&B that sounds as contemporary as any of the new wave with which they were associated. Covers of Berry's "Oh What a Thrill" and Joe Tex's "If Sugar Was as Sweet as You" (both sung by Edmunds) sound like they were written the day before the session instead of 25 years earlier. Lowe beautifully updates the Everly Brothers with the poignant "Now and Always" and Berry with "Play That Fast Thing One More Time, while Bremner gives a joyous performance on the 60s retro pop of "Heart." Edmunds' bluesy "A Knife and Fork" and "Fool Too Long" are reminders of early rock's prominent roots. Best of all are the songs that don't owe any obvious debt to the ancestors, yet fit in perfectly anyway. "Teacher Teacher," written by the Creation's Kenny Pickett and Eddie Phillips, and Lowe's spectacular "When I Write the Book" are timeless cuts that evoke an earlier, more innocent era of rock without pandering in the slightest. This edition of Seconds, besides having bright, clear sound, also has some excellent bonus tracks. This is the first CD appearance of Edmunds and Lowe's four Everly Brothers covers, originally included on a 45 with early copies of the record and highlighted by the melancholy "Crying in the Rain" and the rib-tickling "Poor Jenny." The disk is rounded out by a trio of concert cuts, rampaging takes on Lowe's hilarious "They Called It Rock" and Graham Parker's "Back to Schooldays" and "Crawling From the Wreckage" (from the Concerts For Kampuchea LP) that demonstrate why Rockpile was a legendary live act in its day. Seconds of Pleasure is one of the great, lost rock & roll albums; while never out of print, it's rarely gotten the acclaim it's long deserved. Hopefully this sparkling new version will give it a second life. (Trivial matters: The band split up following this triumph. Lowe and Edmunds resumed their solo careers, Bremner made an excellent solo record called Bash! and became a Nashville session player, and Williams joined Dire Straits.) [buy it]

I guess the folks at Legacy decided that as long as they were exhuming Rockpile, they should take a look at the catalog of one of its driving forces, roots rock true believer Dave Edmunds. (Does this mean reissues of their extensive Nick Lowe holdings are next? It'd be great to have pristine versions of Pure Pop For Now People and Labour of Lust. But I digress.) From Small Things: The Best of Dave Edmunds cherry-picks from the handful of albums Edmunds made for Columbia in the 80s, with too few ringers from earlier years. While the inclusion of his original version of "Crawling From the Wreckage," from the classic Repeat When Necessary (originally released on Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label), is appreciated, not including that record's "Queen of Hearts" (later a hit for Juice Newton in an almost identical arrangement) or "Girls Talk" (replaced here with an admittedly solid live version) kind of belies the "Best of" part of the title. Still, it does have Edmunds' original take on his oft-recorded "I Hear You Knockin'," plus the truly nifty "From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)" (written by Bruce Springsteen), "Slipping Away," his odd collaboration with Jeff Lynne that was a minor hit, and a surprisingly vital 2002 re-recording of Nick Lowe's "I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)," which he first waxed in the early 70s. But this collection is simply too stingy with a 30-plus year career to be truly worthy of its subtitle. [buy it]

Much better, believe it or not, is 1985's Porky's Revenge soundtrack. Edmunds contributes three snappy rockers, "Queen of the Hop," the Beach Boys-ish "Do You Wanna Dance" and the wonderful original "High School Nights," one of the best tracks he's ever cut; his "Don't Call Me Tonight" appears a bonus track. But he fills out the soundtrack with period covers from various friends and fans. The Fabulous Thunderbirds (whose Tuff Enuff he'd just produced on) add a solid take of "Stagger Lee," Jeff Beck faithfully moves through Santo & Johnny's "Sleepwalk" and Willie Nelson adds his magic to a warmhearted version of "Love Me Tender." Carl Perkins remakes his "Blue Suede Shoes" (yet again), and nearly matches his original; his "Honey Don't" is also a bonus track. Charlie Rich's "Philadelphia Baby" gets an itchy redo by the Crawling King Snakes, AKA Edmunds, Phil Collins, bassist Paul Martinez and Robert Plant on vocals. Best of all is an appearance by the late George Harrison with "I Don't Want to Do It," a Bob Dylan song he makes his own. Springsteen sax man Clarence Clemons also appears with "Peter Gunn Theme," but he doesn't do anything particularly interesting with that hoary old standard; it and the cheesy title theme are the only things here that can be skipped. That the soundtrack album for the final installment of one of the sleazier teen sex comedy series could actually hold so much compelling music is a bit of a shock, especially in these days of throwaway soundtrack collections consisting of castoffs from lame alternative rock acts. But Porky's Revenge stands out as a roots rock record as fine as nearly anything else Edmunds made in his long career. Michael Toland [buy it]