Heavy Rotation - Flamin' Groovies

My buddy Phil has known me since I was 18…college days. He’s still on the West Coast and I enjoy our rambling conversations about the state of politics, film, music we’re listening to… In one of our last conversations, I put this forth, “Hey man, you ever get into the Flamin’ Groovies?” Phil, who has forgotten more about music than most people will ever know, responded, “You know what man? Nah, I never really got into those dudes.” Neither did I and I think that sort of sums up their career, which is a shame. They were dipping their toes into the old school 3 minute song format in a time of shambolic dreck at the same time that the Stooges and MC5 were doing their thing and managed to get completely overlooked by a lot of people.

Perusing the Norton Records site a while back, I came across “Slow Death”. These were some self recordings that the band made in the wake of Roy Loney’s departure from the group. Chris Wilson had taken over on vocals and the band had not yet abandoned the “American Stones” raunch rock stylings of Teenage Head and Flamingo in favor of their later British Invasion/Byrds-ish pop stylings. Slow Death was apparently a demo of sorts as the band was shopping for a new label and Great Caesar’s Ghost(!) was I blown away. It opens with “Sweet Little Rock and Roller” and keeps building. It’s as raw and primal as it gets. See the video of them doing “Slow Death” in France(1972) so I don’t have to continue sermonizing.



I ain’t done.

About a week ago I wandered into Newbury Comics and came across Teenage Head in their $5.99 bin. Ah-ha! More Groovies. The disc has barely left my car. On this one, they’re in full R&B/Blues rock mode a la Sticky Fingers Stones and if you believe the liner notes, Mick thought the Groovies did the better job. I don’t know if I necessarily buy into that bit of hyperbole but the rockers on this disc hit hard(see "Have You Seen My Baby" - a cover of a Randy Newman tune of all things!) and they breathe lots of energy into old standards like “32-20”.



Discovering these guys once again provides ample proof that there are still gems out there waiting to be found, even by those of us that too often resemble the characters in High Fidelity.