seven full paragraphs on the band\u2019s Wikipedia page<\/a><\/u>; the short version amounts to egos and lawyers.<\/p>\nThe great irony is that once the four lads had cleared the necessary contractual hurdles to record as Rockpile, they made exactly one studio album before breaking up. It\u2019s as if they needed a strong leader running the show in the studio each time, because once they entered it as a democracy, the band began to fall apart. <\/p>\n
In the meantime, though, they made Seconds Of Pleasure<\/i>, a lollapalooza of retro-rock paying tribute to the likes of Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, and Chuck Berry. (The original album consisted of a 12-track LP supplemented by a four-track single; those 16 tracks comprise the bulk of the 2004 CD edition reviewed here, which adds three live cuts.) The early-rock stylings of Seconds<\/i> stood in sharp contrast to the prevalent genres of the day\u2014disco, punk, and AOR\u2014while offering a nod to the retro strain of the New Wave movement.<\/p>\n
The early-\u201960s musical frame of reference is clear from the first notes of opener \u201cTeacher, Teacher,\u201d a cover borrowed from \u201960s band the Creation. Lowe sings lead while Edmunds and Bremner provide close harmonies within a driving early rock arrangement, their voices meshing wonderfully. The song became a minor hit, which seems to have been as much a reaction to its uniqueness in the musical context of the times as to its quality; it\u2019s enthusiastically played and sung, but lyrically a pretty by-the-book \u201cI\u2019ve got a crush on my teacher\u201d number.<\/p>\n
Edmunds steps up to the mike for the cheeky Joe Tex cover \u201cIf Sugar Was As Sweet As You,\u201d a chugging boogie with exuberant vocals that, like its predecessor, commits the crime of fading out (don\u2019t blame the producer\u2026 they self-produced). Bremner takes a turn out front with the album\u2019s first Rockpile original, the early-Motown-flavored \u201cHeart.\u201d The group also pens \u201cNow And Always,\u201d featuring rippling guitar and an Everly Brothers feel; it\u2019s both melodic and sincere. A shuffling cover of the 1967 Kip Anderson soul-blues single \u201cA Knife And A Fork\u201d is less successful. <\/p>\n
Lowe contributes (and sings) an album highlight with \u201cPlay That Fast Thing (One More Time),\u201d a suitably fast-paced early-rock rave-up that has some Jerry Lee Lewis in its veins, not to mention Chuck Berry. The one real curveball they throw is an almost hyperactive cover of the Squeeze tune \u201cWrong Again (Let\u2019s Face It),\u201d leading into their own New Wave-styled \u201cPet You And Hold You.\u201d This brief diversion feels like their cue to return to the source with an exuberant cover of Berry\u2019s own \u201cOh What A Thrill.”<\/p>\n
The final quarter of the original LP is where Rockpile stashes some of its best work. Their self-penned \u201cWhen I Write The Book\u201d is a joyous celebration, and the tempo only increases for their driving \u201cFool Too Long,\u201d which Edmunds delivers with abundant sass. They close out with a genuine nugget, turning the 1962 Rockin\u2019 Sidney B-side \u201cYou Ain\u2019t Nothin\u2019 But Fine\u201d into a pumping rocker with Berry-adjacent guitar riffing and that simple, memorable chorus hook \u201cYou ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 but fine, fine, fine \/ And I wish you were mine, mine, mine.\u201d <\/p>\n
The original album\u2019s supplemental four-track single finds the quartet returning to the source to deliver four covers of familiar Everly Brothers tunes. Especially notable are a beautiful take on \u201cCrying In The Rain\u201d and a run at \u201cWhen Will I Be Loved\u201d that\u2019s much more faithful to the harmony-rich mid-tempo original than the raucous Linda Ronstadt version. <\/p>\n
The three live tracks tacked onto the CD version are a nice capsule of the band in a live setting, even if the song choices feel a little odd. \u201cBack To Schooldays\u201d is a tight, raw cover of a number by Rockpile contemporary Graham Parker. Then Lowe\u2019s \u201cThey Called It Rock\u201d delivers a rough-edged rockabilly anthem fresh out of 1962, before they finish with another Parker cover, this time a positively storming version of his \u201cCrawling From The Wreckage.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m glad I came back around to Seconds Of Pleasure<\/i>, because while this album was never going to win any lyric-writing awards, it really is a good time, and whenever Lowe, Edmunds and Bremner nail a multi-part harmony bit, it takes what the band is doing\u2014turning the clock back to around 1960, basically\u2014to the next level. <\/p>\n
Rockpile was a band out of time that burned hot and flamed out fast, though various combinations of the four principals continued to record together through the \u201980s. The magic captured here, though, was destined to be one-and-done, and while I wouldn\u2019t call Seconds Of Pleasure<\/i> a masterpiece, if you dig the sounds of early rock played with deep affection and exuberance, you should definitely search it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":35335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[11109],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-47226","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-rockpile","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47226"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}