Monday, August 23, 2010

Ducks Deluxe - "Ducks Deluxe" (RCA, 1974)

It's hard to pick up a favorite record among so many others and twice as hard is to pick up a band as your fave among all those out there. True as it is from all the so called 'Pub Rock' scene for me at least,  it's not hard at all to pick on on Dr. Feelgood, the Count Bishops and Ducks Deluxe.
And you can't do no wrong with a band that had Sean Tyla (at the time ex Help Yourself) and a bunch of ex roadies (Martin Belmont road-ed for Brinsleys, Nick Garvey for the Flamin' Groovies!). I strongly believe that Ducks should have been bigger! I'm sure i read somewhere sometime, that Keith liked them so much that offered them a record deal with the Rolling Stones Records but... they were too punk rock even for an opportunity like this! On a good night Ducks were a "straight ahead hard driving punk rock band, drawing on the uptempo drive of the MC5, the true street drawl of Lou Reed, and the precocious teen angst of Eddie Cochran!" (source: Mojo magazine, May 1996). They sure not invented anything. A friend once moaned about them as a Chuck Berry recycling band... OK. I agree. But i can't see a bad thing on this statement! And that's what they were. A great band with a strong loving on American rhythm & blues and boogie! Dave Edmunds produced them (I'm pretty sure you might guess the end results, huh?), the Stones tried to grab them and the fans (what else?) adore them. They put out three classic albums, and when they finally split out, they transformed into great outfits like the Tyla Gang, the Rumor and the Motors! A couple of years ago re-united and still plow every little city across  Europe. An 'odds and sods' album is out there ("Side Tracks & Smokers") if anyone's interested.
That's their same name debut. Still the best, still the strongest of the three. Give a shot a lemme know...
320Kbps

Ducks Deluxe 

10 comments:

  1. Never were a punk band. Pre-punk. Helped lay hte ground work. Brilliant. I had many a mis spent night in the Greyhound listening to them.

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  2. In terms of music, surely no. In terms of ethos, YES definitely! I totally agree with you anyway, as they do helped lay the ground work! Thanks for stopping by and shared your thoughts anonymous.

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  3. You really can pick them another great band that never got the breaks hey that's why we love this stuff fine post

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  4. Great post - great album - so hard to pick a favorite song as they were all so good but would have to go with "West Texas Trucking Board" followed by "Daddy Put the Bomp"

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  5. Brilliant saw the pub rock supremos when they supported Brinsleys in Bangor Wales,any band that covered Eddie Cochran's Nervous Breakdown was bound to get my attention. Daddy Put The Bomp,Coast To Coast etc etc got me thru college.Up there with Dr Feelgood I reckon, many thanks
    Flip

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  6. Thanks for the post. I only recently discovered this band.
    For years I thought this was some pre-Dogs D'Amour project of that OTHER Tyla! Oops!

    A post over at sonsofthedolls blog encouraged me to finally check these guys out. Glad I did. As much as I love 70s glam-rock and shit like that, I'm glad that pub-rock bands existed to carry the torch of SIMPLE NO-FRILLS STRAIGHT-AHEAD rock and roll. We need all kinds of rock and roll.

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  7. "For years I thought this was some pre-Dogs D'Amour project of that OTHER Tyla! Oops!"
    - Don't bother buddy, Dogs D' Amour were also a great band. And I mean GREAT!

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  8. "any band that covered Eddie Cochran's Nervous Breakdown was bound to get my attention"
    - I'm all the way with you on this! Cochran was the main reason picking up this record many years ago. Then came an excellent piece on Pub Rock history via Mojo magazine and that was it, i was infected for good!

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  9. Excellent pub rock band from the 70's....saw them at the patti with the man band....they were rocking.....thanks for the share....very much appreciated...cheers.

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  10. These guys were the best

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