| Dave Fagence Article (Page Two) |
| Have they been scrapped now? Not totally, we've still got them. The only one of Dave's Rodney's not on is 'I Once Knew Love' which we cut the day he left and that was the best track of what we did as far as fitting on the LP goes. The other stuff is far more Dave Edmunds oriented. Dave and I love each other so much and had so much respect for one another that I could never say, 'That's not what I should do,' because what he was saying was great, but not for what I wanted. I think he and I will do a country duet some day. The night we cut 'I Once Knew Love' was the night I first met Nick Lowe. I already knew Terry Williams because he had worked with us earlier. The bass player we were using got sick and Dave gave Nick a call and asked him if he would come and play. What made you decide to record in England? Because we wanted to do something totally different. I knew that if I recorded in Nashville that I'd end up like all the other girl singers. I wanted to do something totally left field. If an English girl was here recording with The Rumour it wouldn't be different but I was from Nashville and basically a pretty country chick so it was pretty left field. I needed to do something like that because I wanted to be myself and this way I had no influences at all because I didn't know anybody here. Most female singers are formulised at the moment; we wanted to do something that would be fun, different and spontaneous without any influences coming from anywhere. I don't think any of The Rumour have worked with a girl before. Anyone in Nashville can get Reggie Young or Mac Gayden, but no-one in Nashville gets The Rumour. Is it causing interest back in the States? They can't believe it, I'm the country rebel. It wasn't meant to be rebellious but I just couldn't hang in there and do it. Was the Warner Bros. contract signed here or in the States? I signed the contract on an airplane, a 747 Air India, we were all too high to land that day, just running around having fun. Was it a conscious thing to have a balance between numbers of your own and non-originals? I intended when we started to only use two of my songs, because I felt some of my songs were too country for the LP, and some we did try and cut came out too country, but as it ended up the band picked two more of my songs that they wanted to do; I was real happy that they did. I also tried to pick songs for the album that I wish I had written; I didn't want to get into a rut of being the singer-songwriter. I do want to do that, but I didn't want to pick stuff that wasn't as good just because I'd written it. You recorded a Tracy Nelson song and a Michael Bacon song; is that an indication of your personal taste in music? I've listened to Tracy's music for a long time and she's also a good friend. I went out on the road with her last January just before I came over to record and she had just written 'I've Been There Before'. I listened to her set every night and out of all her stuff in the set that was the best song, so I asked her if I could do it and she said 'Sure.' She ended up doing one of mine which is not on my album and I ended up doing one of hers that is on her album. Tracy and myself did my song as a duet on her LP; it's like two women talking about the same man. I didn't write it like that but it sounds like that sung as a duet. It's really strange for me to sing with Tracy; I felt like Minnie Mouse, she has this huge Goliath voice. She's my favorite singer but I didn't think I could ever sing with her. The reason I cut the Michael Bacon/Thomas Cain number, 'Alabama Morning', was because Michael has a studio in his house in Nashville and that's where I did all my demos to pitch to other people. I was into this songwriting trip and he and Thomas had this group and 'Alabama Morning' was their opening song and it used to give me cold chills every time I heard it. When I first said I wanted to do it I was kinda scared, I thought you had to weigh about 300 pounds and be black to sing that song, but I soon found out I was probably able to sing anything I wanted to. I'll probably always do Michael Bacon songs as long as he keeps writing, he writes real good songs. I had about four of his that we picked but I tried to be fair and spread it out in the end, I guess. It's a silly question, but how did Graham Parker's 'Between You And Me' come about? Well, we cut four tracks the first night we were in the studio and the last one was 'Between You And Me'. After the first three we were really groovin' and the band said 'Hey! There's a song of Graham's that you could do.' They played it to me and I liked it so they went and cut it 'cause they knew it anyway and I learned it right there, it was real spontaneous. Then I went back to the States and while I was away they went back in the studio and re-cut it, they flet they hadn't done as well as they could do, and Graham went in and sang over the track because I wasn't here. It was real funny, him singing his song in my key, you should have heard that! I wanted to make it a duet and keep sticking him in there all the time but I was afraid he'd get mad because it was in the wrong key for him and he sounded like a little chipmunk. How did the two Clover tunes, 'Love Is Gone' and 'Mr. Moon', get on the record? They came from Brinsley and Bob Andrews. They played me Clover's stuff and I really liked it. Martin Belmont, Brinsley, Bob and myself all sat down in a hotel room with loads of material and listened to everything and picked out our favourites, then we went into the studio and played them to Andrew Bodnar and Steve Goulding and we all had to agree on a song before we ended up doing it. I'm going to have to meet these Clover boys sometime. I'll tell you, I've heard so many stories about them, especially Johnny Ciambotti, from Nick Lowe, and Nick said if I ever wanted a good-looking guy in my band I should get Alex Call. So I want to see what he looks like 'cause if Nick Lowe says he's good-looking, he's bound to be just beautiful; but I'd really never heard of them until Brinsley and the boy kept telling me about them. The similarities between The Rumour and The Band are at times quite phenomenal... That might have something to do with the fact that Brinsley listens to The Band constantly. But even though they idolise The Band they still have their own identity. There's absolutely nothing I could say against The Rumour because they're just great, and they're also great producers. I'm going to go home and get a band as good as The Rumour and The Band because now I've been spoiled. I'm going to tour the States with The Rumour, then I'm going to get my own band. Graham Parker's going to Australia and stuff and I can't keep borrowing his band on their holidays or no-one will ever get any rest. It's really funny because I'm going to tour the States with a British band and when I come back here I'm going to bring an American band. |