Rockpile: Do You Know This Band? / Ep. 55

Rockpile?  The band?  How were they well-known in roots rock music circles and not so much with radio listeners and album buyers?  Or were they, and we just didn't realize it?

Rockpile began as the name of the first solo album by Dave Edmunds, released in 1972. Edmunds plays almost all the instruments except for bass and backing vocals, The album included a 1970 single, "I Hear You Knocking" - a #1 song in Britain

He billed his band as Dave Edmunds and Rockpile.  It eventually included  Edmunds (vocals, guitar), Nick Lowe (vocals, bass guitar), Billy Bremner (vocals, guitar), and Terry Williams (drums)

In their heyday, Rockpile recorded enough material for five studio albums, though only one (Seconds of Pleasure) was released under the Rockpile name. 

Tracks on Wax 4, Repeat When Necessary, and Twangin' - all Dave Edmunds solo albums- were released under his name. One more (Labour of Lust) was released as a Nick Lowe solo album. 

And then there was the great lost classic Seconds of Pleasure.  

We explore the music Edmunds made as his own, but actually with that Rockpile band. We discover some Nick Lowe (with Rockpile and without -sort of).  We tear into some post-Rockpile music from both artists, weave in how they may have influenced early Elvis Costello, and find a Huey Lewis and the News story, too.

Rockpile. It's a bumpy road worth the journey.  Let go.

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