46 Years Later, Rockpile’s ‘Seconds Of Pleasure’ Gets A Response Album

Philly’s pub rockers The Donuts are hosting a vinyl release show Saturday night at Kung Fu Necktie with power-pop group Foxycontin for their album written in response to Rockpile’s only studio album, 1980s Seconds of Pleasure.

The cheekily titled The Pleasure of Seconds has been in the works for nearly 10 years, according to The Donuts frontman J. Bear Claw. For those unaware, J. Bear Claw is Jon Houlon, of local alt country-folk outfit John Train. The rest of the band’s lineup is rounded out by Col. Montgomery Pie, Fathead, Wid, Birdman, and Dieter Affenschlüsselgruppe — all personas adopted for the band.

In 2018, a friend of the band asked them to learn and perform the entirety of The Pleasure of Seconds for a show at Kung Fu Necktie.

 ”I’d never done anything like that,” Houlon said. Houlon had always loved the album, and still owns the copy he scooped up in 1980. Fun fact about Houlon’s the record: the sleeve peculiarly features Rockpile’s U.S. dates for their 1980 tour, which could make his version worth more than your typical pressing.

The band agreed, and learning all 12 tracks proved somewhat tricky. But, the show was a hit. “People really seemed to get off on it.”

Houlon didn’t want the effort put into the project to go to waste. A few days after the show, he was sitting with his guitar and came up with “Substitute Teacher” as a response to the track “Teacher Teacher.”

The connection was loose, but there nonetheless.

Then the rest of the band got in on the fun. “Some of them came to me with just music and then I added lyrics,” he said. “Others brought complete songs.”

There was no dictating of which songs should be responded to, they all came together organically. The songs are in the vein of Rockpile, but not lifting from them directly. In fact, Houlon said “Substitute Teacher” borrows a bit from The Who.

Some response songs are on the nose, to an extent. For example, the original album features a track titled “Pet You and Hold You.” The band came up with “Respect and Behold You,” which turns the “definitely not feminist” Rockpile song into something “more considerate of women,” Houlon said.

Another is the meta “ Play ‘Play That Fast Thing One More Time’ One More Time,” referencing the track “Play That Fast Thing One More Time.”

“I don’t know how many people will be interested in it, but we’re getting a really good reaction from people who know it,” Houlon said of that response song. “They love it and they seem to be enjoying what we did with it.”

There’s also the response song to “When I Write the Book” — one of Rockpile founder Nick Lowe’s most popular songs — titled “Every Book I Never Read,” and the clap back to “A Knife and a Fork,” a song that would never be written in 2026, as it lambastes an unidentified woman for eating too much (their words, not ours).

 ”Our drummer [Fathead] is a rather large guy, so we had him sing [‘A Knife and a Fork’] and he’s always dying to get up on the mic,” Houlon said. He went on to write “Man of Generous Proportion” about Fathead. “He loves the song, and his wife thinks it’s the greatest thing ever.”

Piggybacking on that, Houlon noted the response album’s title, The Pleasure of Seconds, also has a food connotation in going back for more grub. Get it?

At Saturday’s show, The Donuts are planning to play the original Rockpile songs followed by their responses.  ”We’re going to pair off about six or seven of the songs with the actual Rockpile songs that inspired them.” They’ll also pepper some popular pub rock era songs into their set.

Houlon is excited to have their responses on wax, and worked with local artist and musician Alec Meltzer on designing the album sleeve, which directly references the late famous graphic artist Barney Bubble’s design from the Rockpile album. It should be noted, The Donuts’ album cover features chicken drumsticks, pizza slices, and a hot dog to lean into the aforementioned food theme.

“I’m 57, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Houlon said referring to The Donuts’ album.  ”It’s not a comedy album, but it is 100 percent cheeky.”