The summer of 1983, which I've mentioned was the best summer of my life, had great music and great videos. Dave Edmunds' "Slipping Away" was one of those.
Welshman Dave Edmunds had been around a while already. He'd first scored a hit in the late sixties in his band Love Sculpture with a rock version of the Sabre Dance. In 1970, Edmunds had an international hit with "I Hear You Knocking." He and his pal Nick Lowe played in various bands in the British "Pub Rock" scene, with Gram Parker, Brinsley Schwartz and others. He finally formed Rockpile with Nick Lowe in the late seventies. They only produced one album, but it's a must-have.
I saw Dave Edmunds at Chicago's Park West in the summer of 1982. Though that was the worst summer of my life, the show was a stand-out. It was one of the best live shows I've ever seen.
1983's "Slipping Away" was produced by ELO frontman Jeff Lynne. It was Edmunds' only entry, beside "I Hear You Knocking" to make it into the US Top 40, and just barely; it made it to #39 for a week. However, it got lots of play on the then-new MTV, where it found a place in my heart as a reminder of an awesome summer.
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4 comments:
I've never forgotten it. Dave Edmunds is one of my rock heroes.
I was thinking of you in relation to Dave the other day Mr. Yen. It was so good of you to send me those cds along with the Phil Ochs a while back. One of my university friends was a huge Edmunds fans along with one of my brothers-in-law and he has a niche carved into my musical psyche.
Holy Crap! I love this video and song. They used to play it all the time on MTV. At least it seemed that way at the time. Reminds me of hanging out with Lulu in her parents' basement. Our family didn't have cable. In fact, my dad still doesn't have cable. How does he live?
Dr. Monkerstein-
I was reading in the Stone years ago about how Dave Edmunds ended up producing the Stray Cats. They said they were practicing and he sat in on their practice because he'd heard about them. They said they went to meet him to figure out who was back there drinking all their vodka. He's such a rocker!
Dale-
It was my pleasure to send you those-- the least I can do for all the enjoyment I've had reading your blog.
TenS-
I remember that it got heavy rotation on MTV.
When I lived in the dorms, they put a couple of video machines in the lobby of the dorms-- Pacman and something else. The games were so popular, and made so much money for the dorm, that they were able to pay for cable for the dorm with it. Getting MTV and CNN was way-cool.
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