Dave Edmunds: Subtle As a Flying Mallet

Dave Edmunds: Subtle As a Flying Mallet

1975

RCA Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Baby, I Love You  2. Leave My Woman Alone  3. Maybe   4. Da Doo Ron Ron  5. Let It Be Me  6. No Money Down  7. A Shot of Rhythm and Blues  8. Billy the Kid  9. Born to Be with You   10. She's My Baby  11. I Ain't Never  12. Let It Rock



The true measure of how good a record store is lies in how many Dave Edmunds records line its cheap bins... That's what's so great about Dave Edmunds...He put out some of my all-time favorite records, yet they're always cheap and plentiful...I can't recall ever paying more than $3.00 for one...Score!

If you're not familiar with his work, he's best known as an interpreter of 50's rock...The albums are mostly covers or donated songs so it's a good thing he's probably the world's best cover artist of all time...I've never heard a song that he hasn't improved...This is a guy who does his own versions of Bruce Springsteen, Nick Lowe, John Fogerty and Elvis Costello and always betters them...He's a studio obsessive making sure every screw is tightened, every harmony is in place, but his best records somehow sound effortless until you start paying too close attention to their moving parts...Keep in mind, I loved his stuff this much at a time I didn't especially care for per-British Invasion 50's-early 60's rock...He does such a good job on this genre that I couldn't help but finally see why that era was so special...He usually speeds it up a bit, makes it  a bit more modern and punchy and improves the melodies and harmonies...He often succeeded in turning old timey rock n' roll into shimmering power pop...I honestly believe that everyone on planet Earth should own at least 7 Dave Edmunds albums...

That said, "Subtle As a Flying Mallet" is probably my least favorite Dave Edmunds album I own....It's his second solo album (he had a previous band called Love Sculpture), I don't have the first one, so I'm starting here...When you think of the standard Dave Edmunds sound (tightly wound rockabilly power it's mostly missing here...

This is one of those albums that is more remarkable for its technical achievement than the music contained within...Not that there's anything wrong with the music...Y'see, Dave spent his time holed up alone in a studio, working around the clock to re-create uncanny renditions of Phil Spector Wall of Sound classics that are virtually indistinguishable from the originals...This was probably huge news in 1975! If you wanted that Wall of Sound for you own album, you could now contact Dave Edmunds to produce your next record and there was virtually no chance that you would get a gun pointed at you and no B-movie accesses would wind up dead!

Here are my two problems with the album:

1. The thing that draws me into a Dave Edmunds album is the differences...He tends to improve every song he touches, so when he merely copies a song note for note, a lot of the magic is lost...

2. The song selection, though awesome, is a tad over-familiar...Another big draw is how deep and obscure his cover choices usually are...He usually succeeds in turning you on onto a bunch of time-lost treasures, but I've heard most of these...I can imagine though, if you were as unfamiliar w/ Phil Spector as I'm unfamiliar with 50's rock there might be some surprises here...I dunno...

That said, it's a very listenable album, it's just not what I'm looking for when I'm looking for a fix of Dave Edmunds...That's why I rarely play this album...That said, there's a few things of interest here: "A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues" is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for. Trebly, tightly wound rock n; roll...There are a few other songs ("Leave My Woman Alone," "No Money Down," "Let it Rock") that foretell the bulk of his career (hell, he even teams up w/ Nick Lowe for a couple tracks) but they're noticeably lacking in the live-wire excitement he would gain once punk and new wave came around to kick him in the ass...

For these reasons, I say skip it, unless you've already used up the other Dave Edmunds classics and need something new to listen to or if you're a die-hard Wall-of-Sound fanatic that used up all the Phil Spector classics and need something new to listen to...I feel kind of bad not recommending it since it really is a remarkable achievement and everything here is good...Eh...Find it cheap...

Here's  "A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues" by Dave Edmunds...Enjoy...