Five 1970s bands who sadly broke up too soon

ROCKPILE – 1980 (1 album)

Rockpile existed for almost a decade and played on plenty of albums, but they technically had just one release under the name Rockpile. That album, Seconds of Pleasure, swings back and forth between the power pop of bass player Nick Lowe and the old-school rockabilly of guitarist Dave Edmunds. Rockpile had been namedropped by Edmunds back in 1972, but that band wasn’t the same that emerged in the late 70s. By that point, guitar player Billy Bremner and drummer Terry Williams were backing both Edmunds and Lowe on solo projects.

Edmunds and Lowe are a Venn diagram of pop music. They converge on “I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll),” a song they both recorded. Written by Lowe and rocked harder by Edmunds, it is the virtual definition of power pop. That song is not on Seconds of Pleasure, but other Lowe confections like “Teacher Teacher, “Heart,” and “When I Write the Book,” give the album plenty of pop.

Edmunds, who always loved putting his spin on others' compositions, serves up a bluesier version of Squeeze’s “Wrong Way,” now called “Wrong Again.” And he offers a traditional pub rock take on Chuck Berry’s “Oh What a Thrill.” Edmunds and Lowe probably had to separate in order to seize control of their respective careers, but it was great to hear them together, however briefly. They left us wanting more.

Somehow, at the end of this brief remembrance of short-lived ’70s bands, it seems appropriate to mention that the day Seconds of Pleasure was released, the number 1 song in the land was a little ditty called “Another One Bites the Dust.”

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