In late 1979, there was a song on the radio: “Dirty Water”. a fun remake of the Standells hit from 1966. It entered the charts (at #89) 12/08/1979, and peaked at #51 (on 01/19/1980). This was Christmas break of my freshman year in College, and I remember hearing the song with Pittsburgh-centric lyrics at the time (“down by the banks of the rivers three” and “Pittsburgh you’re my home”. I picked up the record, and the lyrics are “the banks of the river Thames”, and “London you’re my home”. Well, I was chaffed, but it’s still a good song. I can’t find much evidence on the internet, but I did find one forum that mentions they did “a bunch of different versions for markets around the US”.
Meanwhile, the rest of the album is pretty solid. Very retro (retro from 1979, that is!), I guess it would sort of reminds me of early 60's Stones, or possibly Kinks... . Wikipedia called them both a pub rock band” and garage rock revivalists. Nothing too dramatic, but good. The album has a solid horn presence, which works quite well. Allmusic has a nice summary: “First Offense is about as derivative as it gets. But it's also rockin' and highly infectious” ( First Offense is about as derivative as it gets. But it's also rockin' and highly infectious).
The back cover lists 4 band members:
- Peter Gunn - Lead Guitar / Vocals
- Bill Hurley - Vocals
- Bem Donnelly - Bass Guitar
- Tony Oliver - Rhtyhm Guitar
Yep, no drummer. The additional credits say John Bull played drums on Dirty Water, and "Eddie" on all other tracks.
Also, the horns are by The Rumour brass section.
Best song (IMHO) is Dirty Water, along with Love Got Me. But the slow blues number If Time Could Turn Backwards is especially excellent. Everything else is solid, there are real bad songs.
Back cover:
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