36. Dave Edmunds--Riff Raff

 #36: Dave Edmuds--Riff Raff (1984)

Top-Notch Tracks: "S.O.S.," "Something About You," "Steel Claw,"

Album Depth: "Busted Loose," "Breaking Out," "Hang On," "Far Away," "Rules of the Game," "How Could I Be So Wrong"

Weak Link: "Can't Get Enough"

Stand-Out Lyrics: "Now it looks like everything I had is going to fall to pieces in my hands. And if anyone can hear me, I am sending this distress: S.O.S."--"S.O.S."

"Darlin'! Oh, darlin'! If I could have you to call my very own, I'd work my fingers to the bone. I'd never roam. To you I'd always come home."--"Something About You"

"My girl, she said she'd stick it out. She kissed my fingers through the grille. She whispered she'd love no one else, but then she took off with a creep from the south side."--"Busted Loose"

"The politicians have forgotten this place, except for a flying visit by a black Mercedes at election time. They cross the line. And everybody runs to see the pantomime."--"Steel Claw"

"If it's true what the people say, then I won't take too much of your day. It's just one day soon I'm gonna be breaking out."--"Breaking Out"

"And now I feel I can't go on, but I'm learning how. And I feel like I'm a ship about to turn into a wreck."--"S.O.S."

"Never really knowing if you're coming or you're going, if you've finished or you've just begun."--"Hang On"

"A night in television wonderland. Just one more tale about a rich bitch lying by the swimming pool. It's the golden school. Life is easy when you make the rules."--"Steel Claw"

"And now I'm calling mayday. Nothing more or nothing less."--"S.O.S." 

Dave Edmunds--Riff Raff

Album Cover: 6 out of 10. It's pretty non-descript and straightforward. It's a guy and his guitar. According to Wikipedia, this was the American/Canadian cover. Elsewhere, the cover looked like this:

I like the first cover better, because A) it's the one I'm more familiar with, B) this one has that close-up of the face approach that I'm not at all fond of, and c) I don't know what all that other jibber-jabber is on the cover. (And everyone knows I don't have much patience for jibber-jabber.) In fact, after looking at this alternative cover long enough, I went back and bumped up the original cover from 5 out of 10 to a 6 out of 10.

Comments: I was a bit surprised to learn that this album wasn't released until September of 1984, because I so associate it with high school and my feelings for a certain girl who moved to Arimo a few years earlier. Maybe that's because Dave Edmunds' previous album, "Information," came out in spring of 1983, and to me the two albums are almost one composite. (I chose "Riff Raff" over "Information" for this list because of the overall depth of the album. It's got a great album flow, even being so considerate as to leaving the worst song on the album until the very end, making it more easily skippable.) 

I guess it's a testament to how slow I process my feelings that I associate this album with that girl even though I was nowhere near her at the time. When I felt heartsick and lonely, I would play these two albums, and they would intensify those feelings. I used to call it being in a "Dave Edmunds mood."

Of course, one of the main reasons I even knew about these Dave Edmunds albums was because Jeff Lynne wrote and/or produced several of the songs therein. (You may have noticed that I'm a bit partial to the musical stylings of Mr. Lynne.) 

The highlight of the heartbreak "Dave Edmunds mood" songs here is "S.O.S." But, some of the other songs would leave me pining away as well.

But, upon listening to the album again, I'm left wondering if this is really a heartbreak album or an album about breaking out of prison? I mean, "Busted Loose" is pretty blatant about it, and so is "Breaking Out."

Aside from Jeff Lynne's contributions, a couple of the best songs on the album, "Steel Claw," and "Busted Loose," were written by an Irish singer/songwriter named Paul Brady. His version of the song is pretty darn good. It's more raw and gritty, two things I don't normally like, but in this case they work well. In fact, it's such a good song that Tina Turner tried a take, beating out Dave Edmunds by a few months with her version of "Steel Claw" on the "Private Dancer" album in May of 1984. 

This album wasn't exactly a huge hit, and is a bit on the obscure side these days. How obscure? For one thing, the album is only available on cd as part of a double-album cd along with "I Hear You Rockin'," a greatest hits live album. Also, when I went to quote the lyrics for the "Stand-Out Lyrics" section above, I found that many of the songs have not yet had their lyrics added to the interwebs!!! I thought that all songs from every album ever made were on those Lyrics sites, but I was wrong. (And in one case where they did have the lyrics, they had them wrong. In "Something About You," the lyrics site said "I am alone" when the song quite clearly says, "I'd never roam.") So, I had to get my lyrics the old-fashioned way: memory! (Or, maybe listening to the album and writing the words down as I heard them.)

The good news is that it's been years since I've found myself in a "Dave Edmunds mood," so I can enjoy the music without feeling the misery. 

Up next: Flipping the switch on the big chair.