Amazon Music Bestsellers and Deals

Sunday 12 June 2016

"Get It" by DAVE EDMUNDS (Inside The 2015 'Original Album Series' 5CD Mini Box Set on Parlophone/Warners) - A Review by Mark Barry...





"...I Knew The Bride When She Used To Rock 'n' Roll..."


It feels like I've been waiting for this 5CD mini box set peach-a-rooney for years precisely because it contains many of my favourite Dave Edmunds albums – least not all is 1977's criminally forgotten "Get It" and the equally cool 1978 set "Tracks On Wax 4".

There's something about Dave Edmunds Rock 'n' Roll fixation throughout the whole of the Seventies that I've always loved. He rocked and his records were fun listens too. But what's perhaps forgotten is that his LPs mixed in his 50ts and 60ts obsessions with the ‘New Wave’ songwriting genius of Rockpile's Nick Lowe and Billy Bremner - not to mention the acidic tongues of Elvis Costello and Graham Parker. The result was albums - that although retro in feel and sound - were also somehow incredibly contemporary.

Oddly though - availability has always been an issue. Outside of Rhino's superb 1993 2CD "Anthology" career-overview – Remasters of his primo full-album catalogue have remained off the general CD availability radar until now. Well here at last is a salty 5CD set to sort out my DE needs – and it’s a humdinger too containing both "Get It", "Tracks On Wax 4" and much more. Here are the 'Worn Out Suits & Brand New Pockets'...

UK released September 2015 – "Original Album Series" by DAVE EDMUNDS (including LOVE SCULPTURE) on Parlophone/Warners/Swan Song 0081227952006 (Barcode same number) is a 5CD mini Box set containing the "Get It" album (Disc 2) that plays out as follows:

Disc 2 (31:44 minutes):
1. Get Out Of Denver [Bob Seger cover]
2. I Knew The Bride [Nick Lowe cover]
3. Back To School Days [Graham Parker cover]
4. Here Comes The Weekend [Dave Edmunds & Nick Lowe song]
5. Worn Out Suits, Brand New Pockets [Dave Edmunds song]
6. Where Or When [1937 Rodgers & Hart song – Roy Heatherton & Mitzi Green cover]
7. Ju Ju Man [Jim Ford cover] – [Side 2]
8. Git It [Bob Kelly song – Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps cover]
9. Let's Talk About Us [Otis Blackwell song – Jerry Lee Lewis cover]
10. Hey Good Lookin' [Hank Williams cover]
11. What Did I Do Last Night? [Nick Lowe song]
12. Little Darlin' [Dave Edmunds & Nick Lowe song]
13. My Baby Left Me [Arthur Crudup song – Elvis Presley cover]
Tracks 1 to 13 are the album "Get It" – released April 1977 in the UK on Swan Song SSK 59404 and in the USA on Swan Song SS 8418.

Everyone knows the visual story with these "Original Album Series" Mini 5CD Box sets – five single card sleeves with the original artwork front and rear – look nice but you can’t read the details. At least the CDs themselves have the track credits on each. It doesn’t say who remastered the four Swan Song albums or indeed if they’ve been even been redone (the Love Sculpture CD is the 1999 EMI Remaster) – I doubt it. The sound is great but there's no doubt in my mind that the Rhino Remasters of 1993 on the "Anthology" 2CD set are infinitely better. Having said that - as the bulk of these albums are late 70ts and early 80s recordings – the audio was on the money anyway – so for most casual listeners these CDs will sound just dandy.

The "Get It" album represents his most accessible and famous period - the late 70ts. Opening with a killer cover of "Get Out Of Denver" from Bob Seger's forgotten 1974 album "Seven/Contrasts" on Capitol Records - it was just the kind of thrashing Chuck Berry rocker Edmunds loved - though I'd have to say that my heart is with the wicked Seger original. Songwriting genius rears it's lyrically fab head in the utterly brilliant "I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock 'n' Roll)" - a genius rocker from Nick Lowe. "He's shaking hands with relatives with a glassy look in his eye...and his shirt and tie is real nice...but I can remember a time when she wouldn't have looked at him twice..." Lowe finally put out his take on "The Rose Of England" in 1986.

More New Wave Rockabilly comes with Graham Parker's wicked good "Back To Schooldays" where Dave gives it some Stray Cats arrangement. "Here Comes The Weekend" is a co-write between Edmunds and Nick Lowe and is superb mixture of The Everly Brothers harmonies meets Eddie Cochran's guitar (it was an obvious single). Other covers include Jim Ford's rocker "Ju Ju Man", the frantic Rock 'n' Roll of "Let's Talk About Us" - an Otis Blackwell winner made famous by Jerry Lee Lewis and sweet Gene Vincent's ooh-bop "Git It" - a song the stunning Steve Gibbons regularly played live. It ends on a back-to-basics Scotty Moore and Bill Black Rockabilly version of "That's Alright" - the Arthur Crudup song Elvis made famous in 1956.

Great stuff from start to finish...

No comments:

INDEX - Entries and Artist Posts in Alphabetical Order