I do believe Roy Wood penned this after rolling out of bed, sipping tea in the morning while looking in the mirror as he painted his face. From the first clang of the bell to the four sets of rolling mallets banging on the bass drums to the Bleach Boys harmonizing on backups we are treated to Roy stepping out of the electric light and into The Battle of a Teen Ballad, 1963. What this tune says about the power of collaboration peels the onion that was Dave Edmunds’s
Subtle as a Flying Mallet – a mallet that Dave was tossing across the Rockfield studio at his lone reflection in the mirror at the same time Roy was orchestrating his own Spector-piece with twenty or so other dudes. With Dave, even after overdubbing his own backing vocals eighteen-bizillion times on “Da Doo Run Run,” I’m still left feeling that something’s missing. So when I want to feel alone, when I want to feel someone’s loneliness, I listen to Dave’s brilliantly flawed masterpiece; and when I want to feel
not lonely, when I want to be reminded why people need people, I put the needle on this A-side. “Angel Fingers” – what a title! – opens smartly with: “As I was lying in my bedroom fast asleep/Filled with those famous teenage pictures that you keep … ” From there the song sinks knee-deep into the
Shazam and “California Man” quicksand that is Roy Wood’s mind. Open up the gatefold of ‘74’s
Introducing Eddy and the Falcons and you’ll be staring straight into the Wizzard’s gourd, ‘cuz that there is this here song realized.
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