Old Enough to Forget

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...

I have no idea why I remembered Ian Gomm. The title to the album Gomm with the Wind always stuck with me, and I knew there was a song I knew, but couldn't remember. It was "Hold On" and while it wasn't a big hit, it did get some radio play and Ian was very much part of that early bunch of power pop acts who were crossing the pond. It's a fun song, and Herbie Flowers bass is a sonic punch to the gut. The album contained a dozen pop nuggets with only one song going over three minutes and at that was by seven seconds. There were a couple of covers, one by Chuck Berry, "Come On" that was really cool, and the Lennon-McCartney "You Can't Do That." It was get in, get out. Keep it tight. None of the songs felt incomplete they were just right. The album was released on Stiff /Epic and label-mates included Nick Lowe, who's "Cruel to be Kind" had been co-written by Ian Gomm, along with Ian Dury and the Blockheads and the legendary Pointe...

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...

Well, for a dollar I'm not going to get too bent out of shape over some idiot with the initials "BB" who thought adorning the album with their initials was a good idea. I thought since I'd managed to get an entire name printed in block letters off a Nick Lowe record, I'd have no problem with two little initials. There's the rub ... as you can see I managed to fade it a little, but I quickly realized I was also rubbing off the album art too. So I stopped rubbing before I wouldn't be able to see. Enough of that, as much fun as it is to write out thinly veiled juvenile masturbation jokes I think I'm edging close to losing it, so I'll stop. Okay, now I'll stop. Sorry. But they started it. Do they have mulligan's in blogwriting? Or am I supposed to do the honourable thing and delete stuff? Let's just start again, but as a compromise I'm leaving the other stuff as a reminder to myself to show what happens when I write without really think...