Old Enough to Forget

Dave had been doing pretty well sitting in the producer's chair in the early '80s, his work with The Stray Cats was so good. However he was first and foremost an artist in his own right. For over a decade his solo career had chugged along at a steady clip but in terms of commercial success Dave seemed to bubble just below the surface. Most people if they know his name will generally site his 1972 hit "I Hear You Knocking" and that's about as far as it goes. For me that's how it started too. Over the years his name had appeared on enough recordings, including the band Rockpile, that when I found Information I snapped it up. The back cover listed Jeff Lynne on bass and synthesizer, and Richard Tandy on synthesizer, both from ELO. Jeff also produced a couple of the tracks which was a bonus as far as I was concerned. I've always loved this kind of straight ahead rock and roll. It's more varied than simply labelling it rockabilly ... it's just good old ...

Over here in Canada, well all of North America, Built for Speed was the "debut" album by Stray Cats. Back in England the band had released two fairly successful albums in 1981, and they generated enough interest to warrant a release over here. Cobbling together a eleven tracks from Stray Cats and Gonna Ball along with the title track Build for Speed hit at just the right time, and the band's raw rockabilly and '50s vibe caught on like wildfire.  Propelled by Brian Setzer's jaw dropping guitar work along with the one two punch of Slim Jim Phantom on his stand up kits, and Lee Rocker on the giant double bass, the band channelled the raw unbridled energy of a punk band with their old fashioned rock and roll. For most people, me included, this was where things started and stopped with respect to Stray Cats. While this didn't fit the definition of being a novelty act, the shtick wore thin pretty quick when they dropped the follow up in the summer of '83 it ma...

I had no idea what rockabilly or roots rocks was back in 1980. That's not necessarily accurate, as I really liked Dave Edmunds classic "I Hear You Knocking" from his 1972 album coincidentally titled Rockpile . Nick Lowe had some success with his '79 album Labour of Lust both of those guys would mine old time rock and roll and put a little twist on things. With Rockpile Nick and Dave were joined by Billy Bremner and drummer Terry Williams (who would later sit behind the kit with Dire Straits) and the band would release one album Seconds of Pleasure that yielded a minor hit "Teacher Teacher" that felt fresh and classic at the same time. There was a buzz about the album and I remember my buddy Gord who knew such things said this was a killer album. I never bought it, and never heard more than the one single, and then the album drifted into the abyss and would be one of those things I knew about but nothing about at the same time. Here I am sitting and grooving...

Whoever owned this before me, wrote "Bumpers" in black felt pen on the front of the album, on the back cover, and on both sides the album itself. So yeah, it was a pain in the ass trying to figure out how to remove most of the ink. I was pretty proud of myself, in that I was able to make it hardly visible on the front and back of the jacket. I had a defaced Wishbone Ash album, I applied my newfound knowledge and proceeded to nearly ruin the cover. Anyway, I dropped the dollar because I wanted to get "Cruel to Be Kind" a song I knew from back in the day, and if there was more than one good song it was all bonus. After all, it's not like I have a lot of his stuff. Although I was super close to picking up Rockpile's Seconds of Pleasure when it came out. The only other point of reference was Party of One back in 1990 because I really liked "All Men are Liars" which still cracks me up. Oddly enough the guys he'd form Rockpile with were here suppor...