Listen: Girls Talk / Dave Edmunds DaveEdmundsGirlsTalk.mp3

And there are some things you can’t cover up with fancy production and expensive marketing campaigns. Like a bad song. Not the case here.

I was a Love Sculpture fan, followed Dave Edmunds Rockpile, and was as surprised as the next guy when ‘I Hear You Knocking’ became a US hit. I liked a bunch of those ’73 – ’74 singles too, when he dropped the Rockpile tag, ‘Born To Be With You’ a particular gem.

Then that whole Dave Edmunds / Nick Lowe partnership, also called Rockpile (sometimes) often resulted in soundalike singles and albums released way too frequently, and my interest drifted more often than not. But when these guys recorded a scorcher, regardless of who’s name it was issued under, there was no competing. ‘Girls Talk’ case in point.

Listen: I’m Movin’ On / Ray Charles & His Orchestra RayCharlesMovin.mp3

Listen: I Believe To My Soul / Ray Charles & His Orchestra RayCharlesBelieve.mp3

1959, the year this double sider mid-charted, also marked the end of his time with Atlantic. A few raw R&B singles spilled into his later ABC Records output, like ‘Busted’, but as it turned out, this was the end of a real deal era, not unlike Elvis pre-draft or The Rolling Stones with Brian Jones. Unfortunately there are many examples.

Love Sculpture covered ‘I Believe To My Soul’ on BLUES HELPING. It’s where I first heard it. I played the record a few years back, this after a long, long patch of collecting all the originals, and God did it sound white. Ouch. Still the recording is nicely time period, meaning plenty of crystal clear separation with lots of space exposing all the good and bad. Despite the sugary rockabilly of Dave Edmunds’ later stuff, he was obviously a pretty flash guitarist at the start. Ray Charles’ version is everything I could have wished for – brings me right to some fantasy juke joint backwoods honky tonk, whatever those places were described as. I like to think this is what it sounded like.

In similar fashion, The Rolling Stones OUT OF OUR HEADS included Hank Snow’s ‘I’m Movin’ On’. I was nuts about the track and convinced some friends to come see him at The State Fair. He was playing straight C&W by then though (’69), and did not rock out in the slightest. I bet it was probably way better than I could appreciate at the time.

Listen: The Stumble / Love Sculpture LoveSculptureTheStumble.mp3

An air guitar classic waiting to be. Obviously, Dave Edmunds was a very flash player from the start. Like just about everyone else at the time, he began his professional career in a, you guessed it, blues rock combo. I had a real spot for Love Sculpture, remember seeing them scheduled to play The Fillmore East and wanted badly to go. Couldn’t, thus not sure if they ever made it over.

Listening back to that first album, BLUES HELPING, from which this single comes, the vocals are very white and don’t really fly. Now I see why purists hated these bands. But the album holds a marker sentimentally, and clearly their playing was pretty spot on, as is obvious from this instrumental cover of Freddie King’s ‘The Stumble’.

Love Sculpture’s next album, FORMS & FEELINGS, included their big UK hit, ‘Sabre Dance’, coincidentally also an instrumental, showing off more of Dave Edmunds’ virtuosity. Dave eventually found his footing in rockabilly and jangly pop, where he recorded some classics, all lined up for a later post.