''Bodyswerve'' is the debut solo album by former
Cold Chisel
Cold Chisel are an Australian Pub rock (Australia), pub rock band, which formed in Adelaide in 1973 by mainstay members Ian Moss on guitar and vocals, Steve Prestwich on drums, Les Kaczmarek on bass and Don Walker (musician), Don Walker on pia ...
vocalist
Jimmy Barnes
James Dixon Barnes ( Swan; born 28 April 1956) is an Australian rock singer. His career, both as a solo performer and as the lead vocalist with the rock band Cold Chisel, has made him one of the most popular and best-selling Australian music a ...
. The album was released on 10 September 1984 and went to No. 1 on the
Kent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music historian David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July 19 ...
Albums Chart.
[ Note: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1974 until ]Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival Records (Australia), Festival, Sony Music ...
(ARIA) created their own charts
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent t ...
in mid-1988. It contains covers of tracks by
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cooke (; January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964) was an American singer and songwriter. Considered one of the most influential soul music, soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred to as the "King of Soul" for his distin ...
and
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and songwriter. One of the most iconic and successful Rock music, rock performers of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and her "electric" ...
. "
No Second Prize" was the album's first single.
Details
"No Second Prize" was originally demoed by Cold Chisel but never recorded by them. It was written in 1980 as a tribute to Chisel roadies Alan Dallow and Billy Rowe, who died in a truck crash. "Daylight" was also originally a Cold Chisel song. That band's version later appeared on the 1994 album ''Teenage Love''. A version of this song was also used in a TV commercial promoting
milk
Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...
. "Vision", "Daylight", "No Second Prize", "
Promise Me You'll Call" and "Thick Skinned" were all remixed for inclusion on 1985's ''
For the Working Class Man''. The album title is a
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
term for a
feint
Feint, a French term that entered English via the discipline of swordsmanship and fencing, is a maneuver designed to distract or mislead. A feint is achieved by giving the impression that a certain maneuver will take place, while in fact another, ...
.
Barnes later said, "One of the reasons my first album was so rough was that I was jumping in the deep end. I didn't have a clue, but I thought that was the best way to go."
Assembling the band
For his first solo recording, Barnes said he wanted people he felt "safe with". Drummer Ray Arnott had recorded with Barnes on Cold Chisel's final album, ''
Twentieth Century''. Bruce Howe had been a bass player with
Fraternity
A fraternity (; whence, "wikt:brotherhood, brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club (organization), club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular ...
that Barnes had sung with for a short time in 1975. Barnes said, "As far as I could tell, Bruce only played upstrokes, so his sound was very aggressive." Mal Eastick had played with
Stars
A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of ...
. Seeking a second guitarist to make the band more "hard rock", Barnes chose ex-
Dingoes
The dingo (either included in the species ''Canis familiaris'', or considered one of the following independent taxa: ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or '' Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient ( basal) lineage of dog found in Austr ...
guitarist Chris Stockley, who played, "old-style rock, like
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as the "Ar ...
and
Gene Vincent
Vincent Eugene Craddock (February 11, 1935 – October 12, 1971), known as Gene Vincent, was an American rock and roll musician who pioneered the style of rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his backing band the Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-a-Lula", is ...
".
Track listing
All tracks composed by Jimmy Barnes; except where indicated
# "Vision"
# "
Daylight
Daylight is the combination of all direct and indirect sunlight during the daytime. This includes direct sunlight, diffuse sky radiation, and (often) both of these reflected by Earth and terrestrial objects, like landforms and buildings. Sunlig ...
"
# "
Promise Me You'll Call"
# "
No Second Prize"
# "Boys Cry Out for War"
# "Paradise"
# "
A Change is Gonna Come
"A Change Is Gonna Come" is a song by American singer-songwriter Sam Cooke. It initially appeared on Cooke's album '' Ain't That Good News'', released mid-February 1964 by RCA Victor; a slightly edited version of the recording was released as a s ...
" (
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cooke (; January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964) was an American singer and songwriter. Considered one of the most influential soul music, soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred to as the "King of Soul" for his distin ...
)
# "Thick Skinned" (Barnes,
Ray Arnott)
# "
Piece of My Heart
"Piece of My Heart" is a romantic soul song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967. Franklin's single peaked in December 1967 at number 10 on the '' Billboard'' Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart ...
" (
Jerry Ragovoy
Jordan "Jerry" Ragovoy (September 4, 1930 – July 13, 2011) was an American songwriter and record producer who wrote several pop songs including the instrumental " Time Is on My Side" (under the pseudonym of Norman Meade for Kai Winding), which ...
,
Bert Berns)
# "Fire" (Eastick)
# "World's on Fire" (Barnes,
Richard Clapton, Eastick, Howe, Arnott, Stockley)
Personnel
*Jimmy Barnes - lead vocals
*Mal Eastick, Chris Stockley, Jimmy Barnes
- guitar
*Bruce Howe - bass
*
Ray Arnott - drums
*Steve Hill - keyboards
*
Renée Geyer,
Venetta Fields
Venetta Lee Fields (born 1941) is an American-born Australian singer and musical theater actress, and vocal coach.
Fields was a backing vocalist for touring American and British rock and pop acts of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as working as a ...
, Shauna Jenson - backing vocals
*Chris Stockley - mandolin
*Viv Riley, Barry Gray - bagpipe
Charts
Weekly charts
Certifications
See also
*
List of number-one albums in Australia during the 1980s
References
{{Authority control
1984 debut albums
Jimmy Barnes albums
Albums produced by Mark Opitz
Mushroom Records albums