Thursday, June 12, 2008

flamin' groovies



Time to get down n' dirty, and hose down the sump.

It would be hard to overestimate the impact of the Groovies on the British pub circuit from the mid to late 70s. From the gritty R&B of Wilko Johnson's Dr. Feelgood to the jangling guitars of a hundred power pop wannabes, the spectre of San Francisco's little league champions was never far away. They might not have been as big as the Grateful Dead but they were probably more influential in the UK in terms of inciting a minor riot.

Co-written between Cyril Jordan and Roy Loney before Loney's departure in 1971, this is the sound of someone having second thoughts long after the second helping has spiralled into an orgy of Roman proportions.

FLAMIN' GROOVIES: SLOW DEATH from "Grease" EP (Skydog) 1972 (US)

FLAME GRILLED

2 comments:

Your driver said...

Oh my brother! I have been listening obsessively to The Dictators' version of Slow Death. More or less a straight up cover of The Groovies original. I've also been struggling to learn Shake Some Action on the ukulele. Not part of the traditional Hawaiian repertoire and I don't know that I can make it work, but trying is fun.

ib said...

Hey, Jon. Good cooking! I didn't know The Dictators did a version of this. I'd like to hear Shake Some Action played on a ukelele, that's for sure. What a great song! Keep it going until you get there. What time is it where you're at, anyways ? My blog says 1.OO PM. Is that California time ?