Dave Edmunds

I’ve always liked rockabilly and roots rock but CB has made me appreciate it even more. We have talked about Dave Edmunds before but now, let’s go deeper into his great catalog. The first time I saw Edmunds was in a movie called Stardust. The next time I saw him really play was in the Concert for Kampuchea when Rockpile did a blistering version of Little Sister with Robert Plant.

Edmunds was born in 1944 in Cardiff, Wales. His first band was with his brother Geoff, they were called fittingly enough…The Edmunds Brothers in 1954. After that, they moved on to a band called The Stompers where Dave played lead and Geoff played rhythm guitar. Keep in mind that in those two bands, Dave was only 10 years old. His brother Geoff was 15. Dave went through several bands such as The Heartbeats, The 99ers, and in 1960 he was in The Hill-Bills and then in the Raiders. In 1965 he was with a band called The Image who briefly had a recording contract and he then joined a band called The Human Beans. The Human Beans later evolved into a band called Love Sculpture and that band is where he really started his career.

Love Sculpture played mostly blues standards with some punch. They did hit the charts with a song called The Sabre Dance. The song was originally in the final act of Aram Khachaturian’s ballet Gayane. Love Sculpture’s version peaked at #5 in the UK charts in 1968. It was helped by being played by the great British DJ John Peel. After two albums the band broke up after a US 1970 tour.

The name Rockpile was used as the title of a Dave Edmunds solo album in 1970 and as the name of his backing band when he toured that year. In 1974, Edmunds began working with Lowe on various studio projects. Then, in 1976, Rockpile came together, but still wouldn’t release material as Rockpile until 1980 even though they had recorded several songs before then as a band. This was due to Edmunds and Lowe being contracted to different labels, but in 1980 they were finally able to sign to the same label and Rockpile released the album Seconds of Pleasure.

in 1981 the band went their separate ways. According to the liner notes of the CD release of Seconds of Pleasure in 2004, Nick Lowe said. “We got together for fun and when the fun had all been had… we packed it in.”

Dave released 14 albums under his name. He is also a major producer. Some of the acts that he has produced are Foghat, Flamin’ Groovies, Fabulous Thunderbirds,  Stray Cats, Brinsley Schwarz, and so many more. So let’s take a quick tour through Dave Edmunds’ history.

Dave started off his solo career quite nicely! This song is probably the best-known out of his catalog. It peaked at #1 in the UK charts, #4 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada, and #3 in New Zealand in 1970. The song was written by  Dave Bartholomew.

In 1978 Edumnds released Tracks on Wax 4 his fourth album. I’m hooked on this album that CB told me about. Not a weak song on the album. If you want…and I suggest checking this album out. Here is the link to the complete album. I’ve lived a week with this album at work and at home. I picked one song from the album to place on this post…it could have been any of them.

For those of you who like Rockpile the band with Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Billy Bremmer, and Terry Williams…this IS a Rockpile album released by Edmunds. Since Edmunds and Lowe were signed to two different record companies…they could not release it under Rockpile at the time. Edmunds overdubs his voice over Lowe’s on some songs.

I cannot stop listening to this song. From Small Things (Big Things One Day Will Come). The song was written by Bruce Springsteen during The River sessions and one that did not get released by Bruce until 2003. Dave Edmunds released it in 1982. It peaked at #28 on the Billboard 100.

Now lets hear a song officially by Rockpile off the album Seconds of Pleasure released in 1980. This song rocks and it’s called If Sugar Was As Sweet As You.

I heard this when I was in high school and bought the single. Slipping Away was released in 1983. The pairing was odd but it worked. Jeff Lynne wrote and produced this song…even with all of the ELO studio enhancements, Edmunds still comes through. It peaked at #7 on the US Mainstream Rock Charts. I also like the Longhorn Danelectro guitar that Edmunds is playing in this video.

BONUS Track Today! 

Dave Edmunds and Carlene Carter did Baby Ride Easy in 1980. Carlene at the time was married to Nick Lowe.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

75 thoughts on “Dave Edmunds”

  1. Be still my heart! Dave is one of my favorite artists. Sabre Dance is amazing. And I’m so glad you included Baby Ride Easy. He and Carlene did my favorite version of that song. My favorite of his songs is Girls Talk. It’s never been off of my Sony Walkman, then mp3 playlist since it came out. I’ve run quite a few miles with that playing in my earbuds. 😀

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    1. I thought of you when we put the Carlene Carter video in. There are so many songs we could have included…I feel in love with that album Tracks on Wax also. He has a huge backlog of songs…and they are quality.

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      2. Glad you liked it! His producing credits along are outstanding. I think you will like it.

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  2. Stardust – now there’s a memory of a movie. I remember going to see both that and its predecessor, That’ll Be the Day, both starring David Essex. I had the soundtracks double albums to both movies too, they were great.

    As for Dave Edmunds, he never quite made it, did he? He gained lots of respect but never much commercial success. His single I Knew The Bride from 1977 – which you didn’t mention – is a great little comparative rarity.

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    1. I watched those movies when I was a kid. Stardust stuck with me the most because of the ending…but That’ll Be The Day was a really good movie.
      I Hear You Knocking was his biggest I would say right at the beggining. What surprised me the most is his producing credits. Diverse group there…Foghat? I had no clue about that.

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  3. Nice post, I like all of these tracks. That said, I only knew “I Hear You Knocking” and “Little Sister”. The latter I first heard by Ry Cooder who recorded a great soulful rendition of the tune for his 1979 studio album “Bop Till You Drop”.

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    1. I would have thought Slipping Away would have got played where you were…he has some great songs…love the album Tracks on Wax.
      Thats a cool Ry Cooder cut…I like about everything he does.

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      1. “Slipping Away” may well have been played on the radio in Germany. I just don’t recall it. I did once watch a Dave Edmunds live performance on Rockpalast – must have been sometime in the ’80s. But honestly, I don’t recall details of that broadcast either!

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      2. It fit both artists at the time. ELO just did Hold On TIght and Rock and Roll is King. Lynne was in that 50s mold at the time and it sure fit Edmunds.

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    1. I like both of those also. Oh yea…roots rocker most definitely. I like his version of Almost Saturday Night more than Fogertys…I also like the Georgia Satellites cover of it.

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    2. I hate to be the guy on this (obsessed with cover songs) but Queen of Hearts is an original song, Juice Newton covered it some three years I believe after Edmunds, but obviously had the bigger hit.

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      2. No, Dave did write but not a lot of his songs, this one was Hank DeVito and he is the one who later gave it to BT. DeVito co-wrote Sweet Little Lisa that was on the same album. There’s a great story about that songs recording.

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  5. A great talent on both sides of the mixing board. The great tunes I quickly think of by him that you didn’t get to are ‘Girls Talk’, ‘I Knew the Bride’, both mentioned by others & ‘Teacher,Teacher’ as Rockpile. The latter I was happy to find just last week I have on a Rhino compilation.
    If I remember correctly, didn’t he work on a record by his father in law …Johnny Cash?

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  6. Great post. I’ve loved his version of ‘I Hear You Knocking’ since I first heard as a kid. I had no idea that he did ‘Trouble Boys’ originally – I knew it through the Thin Lizzy version:

    And his take on ‘Baby I Love You’ was, I think, what The Ramones based their famous version on.

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  9. Good taste of some great music. Dave puts his stamp on everything he does. and his distinctive sounds comes through. Good job Max. Very cool to see all the positive comments and familiarity of Dave Edmunds music. He is a linchpin with the original rock n rollers. All the names he sings out in “Knocking” is a cool tribute by him. MAX ON WAX does it again!

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    1. Yea I wish we could have included more of the well known but it wasn’t enough room…plus I hope people give these songs they haven’t heard as much…. a chance. I think it’s enough familiarity to bring people in on his other music.

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      1. You did good man.
        (Just listening to Webb this morning. A lot of similarities with Edmunds. Good time rock n roll. I guess thats what the music started out as. These guys are the torch bearers. Webb’s ‘Big Time’ has the same vibe as the Springsteen cut you posted).

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      2. Thanks CB…Glad you like Wilder… they do seem related music wise. I’m going to try more Edmunds albums after this.

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    1. Thank you Randy! I wonder why he didn’t translate well to the Canadian charts? I couldn’t find much on Slipping Away either.

      Oh that is true… I knew about Bonnie Tyler because of Mike Gibbons…he was from there also…

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      1. I had no idea BT was Welsh but I really didn’t know much about her. I can’t figuire the chart thing with Edmunds and Canada, I know he had a following and songs from the Information album got some good radio airplay, as you mentioned Slipping Away did not chart here. Oh well he had a great career and his style I guess was not for everyone. We know that other musicians held him in high regard.

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      2. I guess it could have been the record company but that does seem odd. Oh yea he has had a great career in music and not to mention producing. Foghat to the Stray Cats and everyone in between.

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      4. It was early in his career…I think around 1972. What surprised me also…was that he used a wall of sound production at times. I read where on some tracks there are around 40 guitars in the mix…he did it more subtle than Spector.

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      5. He really was amazing in the studio, innovative and a perfectionist. It’s at the core of the unfortunate split with Nick Lowe I think who’s nickname was “Basher” a clash of styles but as you mentioned they gave us several albums and some great tunes!

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      6. It’s amazing on how many albums they all played on. I think…and I’m not sure but I read where it was a total of 5 albums they did…but of course only one that was relased as them…the others as solo albums.

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  13. “Sabre Dance” was always the music accompanying plate spinners on Ed Sullivan – that and Merrie Melodies were my introduction to classical music. These guys playing it makes me think of The Nice and Emerson, Lake, & Palmer.

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  15. The lad did like to rock. ‘Sabre Dance’ was a record that shone briefly here but was promptly forgotten. I don’t believe I’ve heard it on ANY oldies stations or retro tv shows since the turn of the century, and ain’t that sad?

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      3. The song I like best out of all of them is the From Small Things, Big Things Come…. I never heard that one before but CB sent it to me…I’ve been listening to it ever since.

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  17. Dave is still fab I caught him a few years back in concert and he was pretty much a fave from Baby I Love You onwards – his ‘Phil Spector’ production period, which also had Born To Be With You in 1973. I’d been mad on Sabre Dance as a kid, and that guitar work is still blisteringly exciting and under-rated, I Hear You Knocking is terrific, and Girl’s Talk is a gem, that’s how to cover Elvis Costello – notch it up a level. Slipping Away was a goodie, I bought the picture disc vinyl version, lucky me!

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  18. We are on a real roll together with you continuing to mention my favorite artists. Dave has made such great music that I will forever enjoy. He also was in the best live band I have ever seen. Rockpile live was magic!

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  20. I’m sadly one of those people who only knew Edmunds’ big hit “I Hear You Knocking”. Good to know he’s had a long, distinguished career as both an artist and producer. I’d never heard Love Sculpture’s “The Sabre Dance”, and wow, what virtuoso guitar playing!

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  21. Pingback: Dave Edmunds – MobsterTiger

  22. So much to comment on here…

    The four song opener of Get It blew me away when I first heard it, and still does:  Get Out of Denver, I Knew The Bride, Back to School Days and Here Comes the Weekend. 

    And then Repeat When Necessary, with Girls Talk, Crawling From The Wreckage, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Queen of Hearts and Home In My Hand. 

    (I’ve heard a few versions of Home In My Hand.  My favorite is the live take Brinsley Schwarz did on their Please Don’t Ever Change lp with Nick Lowe pattering about in the intro.)

    There are multiple recordings of I Knew The Bride released by the Rockpile members (Lowe, Edmunds).  Each is a little different, all are great and all are a whole lot of fun after you get over the similarities and the differences.

    “Slipping Away” seems to have been a regional hit.  I don’t remember hearing it at all in Los Angeles. 

    I love the brief mention of Hank DeVito, author of Queen of Hearts.  Hank has a long history in Nashville and was a long standing member of Emmy Lou Harris’ first band, The Hot Band.

    Elvis Costello wrote Girls Talk.  I always liked Linda Ronstadt’s version, too.

    The split between Edmunds and Lowe was more about management than about music.  Lowe speaks very approvingly of Edmunds in the studio in the book about Lowe, Cruel to be Kind.

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    1. Slipping Away was probably the second song I heard by Edmunds…the first was I Hear You Knocking which I loved…
      But yes….him and Lowe were just pure quality all over the place.

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