| Bodyswerve | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Jimmy Barnes |
| Cover: | Bodyswerve.jpg |
| Released: | 10 September 1984 |
| Studio: | Rhinoceros Studios, Sydney |
| Genre: | Hard rock |
| Language: | English |
| Label: | Mushroom |
| Producer: | Jimmy Barnes, Mark Opitz |
| Next Title: | For the Working Class Man |
| Next Year: | 1985 |
Bodyswerve is the debut solo album by former Cold Chisel vocalist Jimmy Barnes. The album was released on 10 September 1984 and went to No. 1 on the Kent Music Report Albums Chart.[1] It contains covers of tracks by Sam Cooke and Janis Joplin. "No Second Prize" was the album's first single.
"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. "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 term for a feint.
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."[2]
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 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. Seeking a second guitarist to make the band more "hard rock", Barnes chose ex-Dingoes guitarist Chris Stockley, who played, "old-style rock, like Little Richard and Gene Vincent".[3]
All tracks composed by Jimmy Barnes; except where indicated