Dave Edmunds - Baby I Love You (1974)

As a follow-up to my recent Love Sculpture post, here's what Dave Edmunds got up to after he left the band. Although he is mainly associated with psychedelic rock with Love Sculpture, and pub rock and new wave with Rockpile, his natural leaning has always been towards 1950s-style rock and roll, and this is evidenced by his run of singles released between 1970 and 1975, the most popular of which were covers of 50's rockers. After Love Sculpture split, Edmunds had a 1970 UK Christmas Number 1 single with a cover of Smiley Lewis's 'I Hear You Knocking', which he came across while producing Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets' first album 'A Legend'. He had intended to record Wilbert Harrison's 'Let's Work Together', but when Canned Heat beat him to it he adapted the arrangement he'd intended to use for 'I Hear You Knocking'. This song was the result of a new recording process, as he'd bought a house in Rockfield, Monmouth, a few miles away from Charles and Kingsley Ward's famous Rockfield Studios, where he became an almost permanent fixture for the next twenty years. His working regime involved arriving at the studio in the early evening and working through till well after dawn, usually locked in the building alone, and recording all of the music on his own. The follow-up to 'I Hear You Knocking' was 'Down, Down, Down', written for him by ex-Move bassist Trevor Burton, after which he released his first self-penned song 'I'm Coming Home'. This was a short-lived phase, though, as his next three singles were covers of 50's and 60's classics, with the productions skills that he'd been perfecting coming to the fore on 'Baby I Love You'. Applying the layered Spector sound to his own productions, it was not unusual for him to multi-layer up to forty separately recorded guitar tracks into the mix, and this single was the most Spector-ish one that he released. A Neil Young cover was next, with 'Dance, Dance, Dance, being the most modern cover that he'd attempted, but that didn't last long, and 'Born To Be With You' was another cover from the mid 50's. In 1973 he produced some tracks for Ron Watts' blues band Brewers Droop, who had in their ranks a certain Mark Knopfler and Pick Withers, both later of Dire Straits. On one of the songs, 'Dreaming', Edmunds played harp, banjo, double bass, Fender pedal steel, 'secret sound', and sang all the background vocals, so I've included that song here as it's almost an Edmunds' solo single. His only acting role followed in 1974, playing a band member in the David Essex movie 'Stardust', and we close this album with two songs from the film's fictitious band The Stray Cats, once again very much in a 50's rock 'n' roll style. In 1976 Edmunds joined forces with Nick Lowe, Billy Bremner and Terry Williams to form Rockpile, but that's another story, so for now enjoy this four-year span of singles from the enigmatic recluse that is Dave Edmunds.   

Track listing

01 I Hear You Knocking (single 1970)

02 Black Bill (b-side of 'I Hear You Knocking')

03 Down, Down, Down (single 1971)

04 It Ain't Easy (b-side of 'Down, Down, Down')

05 I'm Coming Home (single 1971)

06 Country Roll (b-side of 'I'm Coming Home')

07 Blue Monday (single 1972)

08 I'll Get Along (b-side of 'Blue Monday')

09 The Promised Land (single 1972)

10 Baby I Love You (single 1972)

11 Maybe (b-side of 'Baby I Love You')

12 Dance, Dance, Dance (single 1972)

13 Hell Of Pain (b-side of 'Dance, Dance, Dance')

14 Born To Be With You (single 1973)

15 Pick Axe Rag (b-side of 'Born To Be With You')

16 Dreaming (from 'The Booze Brothers' by Brewers Droop 1973)

17 C'mon Little Dixie (from the film 'Stardust' 1974)

18 Make Me Good (from the film 'Stardust' 1974)

Love Sculpture - Think Of Love (1969)

Love Sculpture were a Welsh blues rock band, led by Dave Edmunds on guitar and vocals, with John David on bass and Rob 'Congo' Jones on drums. The band formed from the ashes of Cardiff beat group The Human Beans, who released one single on the Columbia label in 1967. While they are undoubtedly best known for their instrumental hit single 'Sabre Dance' in 1968, that was a departure from the usual material that they were producing, as they were a superb blues-rock band, who could give old blues standards a new lease of life. Their 1968 album 'Blues Helping' contained some stunning guitar-work from Edmunds, and remains a favourite of mine to this day. The 1969 follow-up 'Forms And Feelings' was even better, as they were by now writing their own material, and songs like 'Seagull' and 'In The Land Of The Few' are great songs. The US version of the album also featured a recording of 'Mars' from Gustav Holst's 'The Planets', but Holst's estate refused to license the tune for the UK version, so we've been denied the chance to hear that for many years.
During their career they recorded three sessions for the John Peel show, and it was the second of these which catapulted them to the top of the charts, as one of the tracks that they recorded was the afore-mentioned 'Sabre Dance' (apparently recorded in just one take), which so impressed Peel that he played it twice in the same show, and suggested that they release it as a single, which they duly did. You can actually find a recording of the second playing of the song on Youtube, with Peel's comments still audible at the end. Love Sculpture split up after a US tour in 1970, and Edmunds went on to further chart success with his number one single 'I Hear You Knocking', and then later collaborated heavily with ex-Brinsley Schwarz bassist Nick Lowe, forming the band Rockpile with him. This collection of hard to find tracks from his early bands includes both sides of the Human Beans single, some non-album Love Sculpture a- and b-sides, and some of their Peel session tracks which weren't from their albums, (including that legendary session recording of 'Sabre Dance'). There's also a single edit of one of the songs from 'Forms And Feelings', plus the 'Mars' track that we in the UK missed out on. So sit back and marvel at the guitar genius that was Dave Edmunds, before he moved on to a more rock & roll sound for his later solo singles.  

Track listing

01 Morning Dew (Take Me For A Walk) (single by The Human Beans 1967)
02 It's A Wonder (b-side of 'Morning Dew')
03 River To Another Day (single 1968)
04 Brand New Woman (b-side of 'River To Another Day')
05 Think Of Love (b-side of 'Sabre Dance' 1968)
06 In The Land Of The Few (single version 1969)
07 Mars (from the US edition of 'Forms And Feelings' 1969)
08 Do I Still Figure In Your Life (John Peel session 1968)
09 Evening (John Peel session 1969)
10 The Promised Land (John Peel session 1968) 
11 The Inner Light (John Peel session 1969)
12 Sabre Dance (John Peel session 1968)