Rockpile - "Hours of Pain"

 

Rockpile recorded one album under its own name, but the band had recorded three albums by the time Seconds of Pleasure was released in 1980.

However, because members Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds were signed to different record labels, they recorded solo albums under their names even though they were essentially Rockpile albums. These included Edmunds' Tracks on Wax 4 and Repeat When Necessary and Lowe's Labour of Lust.

The band also backed Carlene Carter (Lowe's wife) on most of her album Musical Shapes.

Finally, in 1980, Edmunds fulfilled his recording contract by releasing Twangin'... (which was made up of outtakes from previous sessions and was performed mostly by Rockpile), and the band was free to record an album under the Rockpile name for the first time. Seconds of Pleasure was released in October 1980, and the band had a hit with "Teacher, Teacher." Besides Edmunds on guitar and Lowe on bass, the band included Billy Bremner on guitar and Terry Williams on drums.
  
But in 1981, there were reported tensions between Lowe and Edmunds, and the band broke up -- or well, it sort of did. Edmunds went off on his own, and the remaining three worked on Lowe's next solo.

After waiting for so long to be able to issue an album as a band, it seems both crazy and kind of sad that when it finally did happen it was so short-lived. I wanted to see what a 1982 Rockpile album could have been had the band remained together.

SIDE A
1. From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)

2. Burning

3. Me and the Boys

4. Stick It Where the Sun Don’t Shine

5. Laughter Turns to Tears

6. Warmed Over Kisses (Left Over Love)

SIDE B
1. Let Me Kiss Ya

2. Queen of Sheeba

3. Generation Rumble

4. Tired and Emotional (and Probably Drunk)

5. Zulu Kiss

6. Dear Dad

When it came to determining which songs from Edmunds' D.E. 7th album to include, I checked to see which of the tunes he performed on tour that year. Those were "From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)" (a song given to him by Bruce Springsteen), "Me and the Boys" (by Terry Adams) and Chuck Berry's "Dear Dad." Feeling I needed at least two more tracks to not only fill out the album but to increase Edmunds' contributions, I also added "Warmed Over Kisses (Left Over Love)," which was a hit for Brian Hyland in 1962, and "Generation Rumble" written by Benny Gallagher.

Since Lowe's Nick the Knife is essentially a Rockpile album minus Edmunds, it was fairly easy to choose songs. "Heart" from that album is a remake of a Rockpile song from Seconds of Pleasure, so I didn't see any reason to include that. As with Edmunds, I looked to see which songs from Nick the Knife Lowe performed live that year, and that included three: "Burning," "Stick It Where the Sun Don't Shine" and "Let Me Kiss Ya,"  all of which were released as singles. I felt I needed a couple more tracks, and "Zulu Kiss" is the only other song released on a single (as a B-side). I also added "Queen of Sheeba."

Seconds of Pleasure features two songs sung by Bremner, and I wanted to include tracks with him as lead vocalist as well on this album. But Bremner didn't record a solo album until 1984. However, I've discovered that he released a single in 1982 and that gave us two songs to add to this album: "Laughter Turns to Tears" and "Tired and Emotional (and Probably Drunk)."

I think this is a good album, and it benefits from having three different vocalists, which provides more variety than the solo albums. For an album title, I thought of the previous album's title, Seconds of Pleasure, and came up with Hours of Pain. And for the cover, I took an image of dance steps and added the words.