Rockpile – Fool Too Long

Happy April Fools Day!

Fool Too Long is a song from the 1980 album Seconds of Pleasure. The song was written by Nick Lowe, who was one of the key songwriters and vocalists in Rockpile. It’s a catchy rock tune with elements of power pop and new wave with the underlying old rock sound.

Nick Lowe (lead vocals, bass), Dave Edmunds (lead vocals, guitar), Billy Bremner (backing vocals, guitar), and Terry Williams (drums)— had been writing, recording, and playing live together for years before they released just one album at least under the Rockpile name.

One of the reasons they only recorded one album is record label issues. Rockpile was signed to different labels in different regions, with Dave Edmunds signed to Swan Song Records (co-owned by Led Zeppelin) in the United States and Nick Lowe signed to Columbia Records in the UK. These label differences complicated the band’s recording and promotional efforts. They actually recorded more but on other people’s records. They were the backing band for Dave Edmunds’s Tracks On Wax 4, side one of a Mickey Jupp album, and more.

Before the band recorded Seconds of Pleasure, the name “Rockpile” had already been used as the title of an album by Dave Edmunds that he released in 1970. Edmunds subsequently toured as “Dave Edmunds and Rockpile,” with a band that included Williams on drums. However, the group became known as Rockpile didn’t form until Lowe and Edmunds began recording together in the mid-1970s.

The album peaked at #27 on the Billboard 100, #29 in Canada, and #34 in the UK in 1980.

Fool Too Long

I should have realised babe a long time ago
When you told me that you loved me but you didn′t any more
You ran around with anyone all behind my back
You asked me to forgive you I went and took you back

Well I thought you learned your lesson then
But now I see it happen again
And I’ve been a fool too long
I had you figured out all wrong
I′ve been a fool too long
And I ain’t gonna be a fool no more

I should have seen the signs babe the writing on the wall
When all those other guys started coming round to call
You told me that you changed but that was just a lie
When you said I was your only I was just another guy

Well if I’m the one who pays the rent
I gotta have one hundred percent
Cos I′ve been a fool too long
I had you figured out all wrong
I′ve been a fool too long
And I ain’t gonna be a fool no more

…

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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.

52 thoughts on “Rockpile – Fool Too Long”

      1. Those were the best days. Pulling a mag off the stand and taking it home and devouring it.
        Paying for it of course before you left the corner store.

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  4. Don’t know this song but it’s not bad, which is no surprise given the band. too bad they didn’t do more together. I think a Dave Edmunds single (probably ‘Girls Talk’?) was the first thing I ever owned on the Swan Song label… not LZ!

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    2. I missed your reply….WP is ending my comment bar on the right short…I had to refresh.
      I think Bad Company was my first Swan Song label record….before Zeppelin! Rockpile was a great band

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      1. Max, I’m also having the comment bar coming up short again and again and WP generally acting weird in its formatting. Seems like every time they change something it’s for the worse.

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      2. Yes they do…also when you click on “reader” there is no way to get back to your posts and stats again. You have to type in your blogs name to get back or wordpress. The more they do yes…the worse it gets at times.

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      3. I have seen it do that from time to time on some people’s . I agree with Lisa, every ‘upgrade’ seems to make it more problematic. I had that Selena post a few days ago come up in all italtics. Don’t know why – I didn’t write it that way and when I look at my own dashboard and click the post, it looks normal. On the website, it’s italics. Not a big deal but still – what’s that about?

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      4. I just told her about the “reader” new look. Once you click into Reader you can’t go back unless you type in your blog’s address or wordpress.com again.
        The italics….I never heard of that.

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  7. That could be another posting – band/musician name changes due to contractual obligations. I’m thinking of the Phlorescent Leech & Eddie, who couldn’t use The Turtles or their own names. I just found an article on various Beatle appearances under other names (George Harrison’s guitar on Cream’s “Badge” and Dave Mason’s “If You’ve Got Love” for starters).

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      2. I would listen to complete albums when I was younger…I got out of it but since we have been talking I started to do that again. You find songs you wouldn’t normally.

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      4. I just listened to a Lowe album from a few years ago…great stuff. The album that I first found that out…besides my Beatle albums was The Kinks Give The People What They Want. I thought…damn…I like these album tracks.

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      5. Lowe has a bunch and hey so do the Kinks. My album listening started when I was pretty young so I kinda got that habit but the albums I was exposed to were all top notch in my book. That’s the trajectory I followed when I started CB
        This Rockpile was years later in my listening but fit the bill. Randy uses the cover for his heading.

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  10. Nice how you picked a song with fool in the title. Lots of good origin story bytes in your post. Good tune with sharp guitar and effective lyrics. Good harmony with the voices too. Nick Lowe gets around!

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    2. Lisa, this is an answer to your previous comment about WP ‘improving’ things. ‘Improvements’ my left butt cheek. They- the programmers- need to go back to the basic idea of ‘Keep It Simple’ and don’t ‘fix’ what ain’t broken. If it works, job done. Max is in the IT game and he must know first hand that there is no need for some of this tinkering.- I’m sure a lot of the upgrades etc are done on ‘look, we’ve done something new!’ Leave frikkin’ well enough alone.

      Sorry Max, a bit of a rant, We were talking Rockpile, not thick-as-concrete WP dip-schists.

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      1. Yes….it’s “improving” for the sake of improving. They want it to do X but they do not test it enough to see if it messes up Y and Z. I see it all of the time.

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  13. Pingback: Rockpile – Fool Too Long – MobsterTiger

  15. Nick Lowe, he of Rockpile, wrote about Rockpile’s problems with record companies in his classic “They Call It Rock.

    Hey long distance, it’s a rock and roll romance
    CBS is gonna pay a great big advance
    Hey Atlantic, come on take a chance
    Arista say they love it but the kids can’t dance to it

    Yeah, you have to read the real story into it, but it is there.

    And I have yet to hear a Rockpile song the kids can’t dance to.

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