Dave Edmunds: Repeat When Necessary

 Dave Edmunds: Repeat When Necessary

1979

Swan Song Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Girls Talk  2. Crawling from the Wreckage  3. The Creature from the Black Lagoon  4. Sweet Little Lisa  5. Dynamite  6. Queen of Hearts  7. Home in My Hand  8. Goodbye Mister Good Guy   9. Take Me for a Little While  10. We Were Both Wrong  11. Bad Is Bad


This is the Dave Edmunds album people usually single out as his best work...And I can't argue with that assessment...It's pretty great...For the first time, he has a really eye-catching album sleeve (all new wave red, blues and pinks) and some of his greatest performances are contained within...If I had to pick a definitive Edmunds album, I'd probably have to say Side Two of "Tracks on Wax 4" and Side One of "Repeat When Necessary"...

My God, I can still remember the night I first heard "Girls Talk." Back when I first discovered the (now closed) FYE and brought home a crates worth of cheap records and was slowly working my way through them all...I was sitting on the floor of my bedroom (where my record player used to be, before I dragged it into the living room to inflict my musical tastes on everybody else), drinking the usual Bud Light and Chelada...

 When "Girls Talk" came on...I swear to you there was an immediate electricity in the air as soon as that guitar came in with those big, chiming strums and the band quietly chugged behind him...And when he started singing that melody (which twisted and turned like a good mystery novel) I decided then and there to devote the rest of my life to the worship of that song...The greatest thing I had ever heard...

...and what made all this remarkable is that I had heard the song before...As written and performed by the song's author and one of my favorite artists of all time...Elvis Costello...

But Elvis' version, despite its awesomeness, couldn't hold a candle to Dave's...Listen for yourself if you don't believe me...

(Dave's version)

(Elvis' version)

(Even Linda Ronstadt (of the Ronstadt Center fame) got in on the action with a version that closely follows the Edmunds arrangement)

This was the moment I realized that Dave improves every song he touches...It's kinda his thing...And after the monumental opening of "Girls Talk" the rest of the album must be a massive disappointment, right?

NO! Next up is a song Graham Parker donated to Dave's cause called "Crawling From the Wreckage" and it's nearly as staggering...Just fast, simple rock n' roll, played so precisely and acutely attuned to every hook...

After that comes the bizarre pop horrorshow homage, "Creature from the Black Lagoon," which sounds sorta like Dave is trying to get airplay on Dr Demento, but its repetitive hook has a way of growing on you after the 20th repetition...

If I was a bit less of a Creature from the Black Lagoon fan (big ups, 3-D presentations on WNEM in the early 80's!!!) it might annoy me, but as it stands I have a huge fondness for it...It's definitely earned a coveted spot at the top of my Halloween playlist...

The remainder of Side One finishes with a couple of rockabilly tracks that on the surface appear to be the usual Dave Edmunds fare, but "Sweet Little Lisa" has so much power pop in its DNA that it can't help but distinguish itself...

When I first put on Side Two I was in for a huge surprise...WTF? IT'S THAT JUICE NEWTON "QUEEN OF HEARTS" SONG THAT PLAYED ENDLESSLY ON EARLY 80'S COUNTRY MUSIC STATIONS (nestled next to Eddie Rabbitt's "I Love a Rainy Night)....

But wait...This album came out in the 70's...I know that Juice Newton track didn't come out until the 80's...It turns out Dave was the first artist to record the song...His version is a few clicks faster and a little less Nashville perfect, but otherwise Juice copied the arrangement wholesale...Which was a wise choice...You can't improve Dave Edmunds...Only Dave Edmunds can improve you.....It's a cosmic law...

Anyway, she racked up the hits with her version and Dave did not...Which might be attributable to the Juice version being aimed at the correct audience...Dave was usually lumped in with the new wave/pub/punk rock thing, where hits are hard to come by and  a finely crafted country-pop number might be a bit lost....After hearing the Juice Newton version again recently, I was taken aback by how sluggish it seemed in comparison, despite it being an undeniably uptempo number...Then it struck me, that's another reason it probably resonated so well with country fans...See, country fans like shit slooooowww...Even fast country material is slow when you start comparing it to new wave tempos...You just can't tuck yer tight-fittin' jeans into yer boots and line-dance to the Dave Edmunds version...I mean, you could, but you might have to drink a cup (or two) of coffee beforehand...

(Miscellaneous Note: I use that brief overdriven fast-acoustic strum of the Edmunds version as a barometer of my record needle's health...If it crackles and cuts out, then I replace my needle...If it sounds fine, then I'm still good for awhile...)

The remainder of Side Two is your standard Edmunds popabilly...Good fun, but nothing too Earth-shaking (which is why I maintain that if you replace this side with Side Two of "Tracks on Wax 4" you'd have a flawless record) but there's another big surprise at the end...

IT"S THAT "BAD IS BAD" SONG FROM THAT HUEY LEWIS & THE NEWS "SPORTS" ALBUM!!!!

But wait...This album came out in the 70's...I know that Huey Lewis track didn't come out until the 80's...It turns out that although Huey Lewis wrote the song, Dave was the first artist to record it...Who cares, really...Song ain't that great either way...

So yea...As with any Dave Edmunds album from this  period, I recommend it very highly...Up there with his best stuff due to the appearance of  some of his best tracks...

 Here's "Crawling from the Wreckage" by Dave Edmunds...Enjoy...