Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Motörhead - "The Dave Edmunds Tracks" (Excerpt from "On Parole" Reissue, 1997 - EMI)

This is not an official release. I borrowed these Dave Edmunds produced tunes from the 1997’s re-issue of “On Parole”.
But let’s take things from the start. Almost all Motörhead fans agreed to the fact that the best ever line-up was Mk2. The one that had Lemmy, “Fast” Eddie Clarke and Philthy Animal Taylor. I was surprised when I finally came to conclusion that MANY of the fans had a blur on this and think of the aforementioned personnel as the original… If you are one of these, let me tell you this – WRONG!
The original line-up of Motörhead had except of course for Lemmy, the psychedelic punk legend of the Pink Fairies, Larry Wallis on guitars and Lucas Fox on the traps. “On Parole” was actually the first Motörhead recording and it was planned to be released by United Artists. For many reasons (chickened?) the company put it on naphthalene and after band’s success in the late 70s, hit the streets in 1979 just to cash in.
What it had inside its grooves, were all the known debut’s tracks but on a different approach. And that’s the interesting part of the story! I’m sure you all know about Rockfield Studios on Wales and the man behind them, Dave Edmunds.
Dave Edmunds except for a wide known roots rock n’ roll artist (perhaps the last true of an era) was also and excellent producer. He produced among others the Flamin Groovies, the Stray Cats and Ducks Deluxe, giving the original 50s or 60s touch all these bands needed. So what the hell happened with Motörhead?
Lemmy and co. picked him up and cut together four demos of the well known now “On Parole”, City Kids”, “Motörhead” plus Motown’s (!) classic “Leavin’ Here”.
Well, this is your only chance to catch up Motörhead stripped to the bone (more..?), steeped on rhythm & blues, much boozier than ever with an end result sounding like the BEST PUB ROCK BAND IN THE WORLD! Something like Ducks Deluxe on speed! The noise’s still here but you really need to hear this and understand what I’m trying to tell. Even if the tracks are already familiar and many times heard by you, here have something how shall i put it...? Original. You have the sense that Chuck Berry sew there and played all the licks! You think that this thing captured on Memphis Tennessee and SUN studios instead of the island. To these ears these 4 blasts, remain the best recordings of the wild beast under the sulfurous mark of Motörhead! A devastating session that deserves every bit of the legend around it!  
320Kbps



The Dave Edmunds Tracks





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