"...Pistol Packin' Mama..."
Like most fans of San
Francisco's all-partying, all rocking, all greasy FLAMIN GROOVIES – I've had
the 2009 Rev-Ola CD that offered up their kicking third and fourth albums on
Kama Sutra Records - "Flamenco" from June 1970 and "Teenage
Head" from March 1971. They’ve been snottily leaping around my mancave
shuffle plays for years now. And before that - the double-album you used to
pick up in secondhand record shops in the late 1970s that paired those two
crackers together for our voracious vinyl consumption and my Dustbuster
battered Garrard SP25 turntable.
Well reissue heroes ahoy but
England's Grapefruit Records have gone and decided to expand into the album
prior as well ("Supersnazz" from September 1969) and throw in a
whopping seventeen bonuses too – all three albums and extras newly remastered
in a cool and tactile pre Brexit mini box set. Why it’s enough to make me wanna
rub jam all over my soggy doughnuts (while its still legal like). Here are the
Super Snazzy details...
UK released 22 February 2019
(1 March 2019 in the USA) - "Gonna Rock Tonite! The Complete Recordings
1969-71" by FLAMIN GROOVIES on Grapefruit CRSEGBOX051 (Barcode
5013929185104) offers their second, third and fourth albums Remastered onto
3CDs in a Clamshell Box Set with Seventeen Bonus Tracks (Singles and Outtakes)
that plays out as follows:
Disc 1
"Supersnazz" Album + Bonus Tracks (47:12 minutes):
1. Love Have Mercy [Side 1]
2. The Girl Can't Help It
3. Laurie Did It
4. Apart From That
5. Rockin' Pneumonia And The
Boogie Woogie Flu
6. The First One's Free
[Side 2]
7. Pagan Rachel
8. Somethin' Else/Pistol
Packin' Mama
9. Brushfire
10. Bam Balam
11. Around The Corner
Tracks 1 to 11 are their
second studio album "Supersnazz" - released September 1969 in the USA
on Epic Records BN 26487 in Stereo (no UK issue). Produced by STEVE GOLDMAN -
it didn't chart.
BONUS TRACKS:
12. Rocking Pneumonia And
The Boogie Woogie Flu (Single Mix) - 18 July 1969 US 7" single on Epic
5-10507, A-side
13. The First One's Free
(Single Mix) - 18 July 1969 US 7" single on Epic 5-10507, B-side
14. Somethin' Else (Single
Mix) - 31 December 1969 US 7" single on Epic 5-10564, A-side
15. Laurie Did It (Single
Mix) - 31 December 1969 US 7" single on Epic 5-10564, B-side
FLAMIN GROOVIES for
"Supersnazz" was:
CYRIL JORDAN - Lead Guitar,
Vocals and Acoustic Guitar
TIM LYNCH - Lead Guitar,
Cello, Vocals and Harmonica
MIKE LANG - Keyboards
GEORGE ALEXANDER - Bass,
Vocals and Harmonica
DAVID MIMH - Drums and
Percussion
Disc 2 "Flamingo"
Album + Bonus Tracks (65:04 minutes):
1. Gonna Rock Tonite [Side
1]
2. Comin' After Me
3. Headin' For The Texas
Border
4. Sweet Roll Me On Down
5. Keep A Knockin'
6. Second Cousin [Side 2]
7. Childhood's End
8. Jailbait
9. She's Falling Apart
10. Road House
Tracks 1 to 10 are their
third studio album "Flamingo" - released June 1970 in the USA on Kama
Sutra Records KSBS 2021 (no UK release, but see Note below).
BONUS TRACKS (Recorded Live
in Studio A, 13 January 1971):
11. Shakin' All Over
12. That'll Be The Day
13. Louie Louie
14. My Girl Josephine
15. Around And Around
16. Rocking Pneumonia And
The Boogie Woogie Flu
17. Going Out Theme (Version
1)
Tracks 11 to 16 first issued
on the 1976 US-only vinyl compilation "Still Shakin" on Kama Sutra
BDS 5683
Track 17 first issued as one
of the six Bonus Tracks on the 1999 'Original Masters' CD Reissue of
"Flamingo" on Buddah 74321 71691 2
Disc 3 "Teenage
Head" Album + Bonus Tracks (52:07 minutes):
1. High Flyin' Baby [Side 1]
2. City Lights
3. Have You Seen My Baby?
4. Yesterday's Numbers
5. Teenage Head [Side 2]
6. 32-20
7. Evil Hearted Ada
8. Doctor Boogie
9. Whisky Woman
Tracks 1 to 9 are their
fourth studio album "Teenage Head" - released March 1971 in the USA
on Kama Sutra Records KSBS 2031 (no UK release, but see Note below).
BONUS TRACKS:
10. Scratch My Back
11. Carol
12. Rumble
13. Somethin' Else
14. Walking The Dog
15. Going Out Theme (Version
2)
Tracks 10, 11 and 15 first
issued as three of the seven Bonus Tracks on the 1999 'Original Masters' CD
Reissue of "Teenage Head" on Buddah 74321 71690 2 (Track 14 was also
one of those bonuses)
Tracks 12 and 13 first
issued as two of the six Bonus Tracks on the 1999 'Original Masters' CD Reissue
of "Flamingo" on Buddah 74321 71691 2
Track 14 first issued on the
1976 US-only vinyl compilation "Still Shakin" on Kama Sutra BDS 5683
FLAMIN GROOVIES for
"Flamingo" and "Teenage Head" was:
CYRIL JORDAN - Lead Guitar,
Slide Guitar, Percussion and Vocals
TIM LYNCH - Lead Guitar,
Cello, Percussion and Vocals
ROY LONEY – Guitar, Lead
Vocals and Percussion
GEORGE ALEXANDER – Bass and
Percussion
DAVID MIMH – Drums,
Percussion, Piano and Organ
Guests:
Commander Cody plays Piano
on three "Flamingo" album tracks - Comin' After Me, Keep A Knockin'
and Second Cousin
Jim Dickinson plays Piano on
three "Teenage Head" album tracks - High Flyin' Baby, City Lights and
Have You Seen My Baby?
Note: In August 1971, Kama
Sutra in the UK issued both the "Flamingo" and "Teenage
Head" LPs for the first time as a belated British double-album package on
Kama Sutra 2683 003, simply called "Flamin' Groovies" (it was also
issued in Germany entitled "2 Original LP's" on Kama Sutra 2623 101).
That 1971 British double album was again reissued in October 1976 (by Pye
Records) as "Teenage Head", but in slightly different artwork on Kama
Sutra KSMD 101.
DAVID WELLS provides the
superb October 2018 liner notes in the new and chunky 24-page booklet. Even
though its not part of the remit for this set - the notes explain how the
band's self-made 1968 "Sneakers" debut on their own Snazz Records
came about - a 7-Track 10" Mini LP of 4500 copies they sold themselves in
Tower Records (pressed up in three batches of fifteen hundred). Its artwork
(front and rear) is pictured on Page 5. There are trade adverts, a Billboard
piece from November 1970, publicity and live photos, rare single artwork and a
line of those Epic and Kama Sutra singles (including Promo copies). Interviews
with band members Roy Loney and Cyril Jordan are included illuminating the
hectic 1969 to 1971 period. Experienced and dedicated names like DAVID WELLS
and JOHN REED collated and organised the Box while Remaster Engineer OLI
HEMINGWAY of The Waxworks did the audio tweaking. Like the Rev-Ola CD - this
baby sounds amazing – huge presence and all the muscle you would want without
being over done...and I like the three single card sleeve repros...nice
Apart from the cover versions
of Little Richard's Rock 'n' Roll masterpiece "The Girl Can't Help
It", the barroom R'n'B of Huey Smith's "Rocking Pneumonia And The
Boogie Woogie Flu" (which Kama Sutra issued as a US 45) and the Eddie
Cochran twofer "Somethin' Else/Pistol Packin' Mama" - most of the
"Supersnazz" album sees us bombarded with flashy originals from both
Roy Loney and Cyril Jordan. "Love Have Mercy" and another single
"The First One's Free" rip and roar while "Bam Balam" and
"Around The Corner" round things off very nicely. And I have to admit
that I've never heard the single mixes - very nice touch.
"...Ten head
hunters...with a buzz saw...and they was comin' after me..." - the boys
tell us in the raw and raunchy guitar-pop of "Comin' After Me" - ten
state troopers chasin' close behind with meat hooks. But the Proto-Punk
edginess really starts to come screaming in on "Headin' For The Texas
Border" where the band is headed to New Orleans to get their mojo back. I
love the rapid guitars and the transfer gives it serious wallop. It's 1970 for
gawd sake but it could be 1976 - so damn sharp. They then cleverly switch to
Acoustic Rock 'n' Roll with "Sweet Roll Me On Down" as they Buddy
Holly 'ah-ha' through the chorus. I'm reminded of the British band Fumble who
also did Little Richard's brilliant "Keep A Knockin'" in the same all
out rocking way - letting the inner joy of this Fifties anthem rip. Roy Loney
stumps up another rocker in the excellent "Second Cousin" - the
lyrics straying dangerously into Jerry Lee Lewis lawsuit territory.
Things finally settle into a
Hank Williams saunter with "Childhood's End" - a very witty childhood
song from Ron Loney where he sounds amazingly like Mick Jagger circa
"Exile On Main St." doing his best Hillbilly impression. "Jailbait"
is a cool and snarly blues chugger where he pleads 'baby what you tryin to do!'
to a mean guitar barrage. The fantastic "Gonna Rock Tonight" is the
kind of out-and-out Rock 'n' Roll homage that Dave Edmunds would have loved
when his regal Zonophone 'Rockpile' album was in play over in Blighty - ooh-wee
baby indeed (and dig that huge grungy Bass solo too). The weird but utterly
wonderful "She's falling Apart" follows - a song that feels wildly
out of synch with the rest of the album but actually a song I return to most.
It then blasts into a frantic Punk-rocking finish with the trashy "Road
House" - rapid guitars a go-go.
For album number four we go
Dr. Feelgood with the fabulous slide guitar intro to "High Flyin'
Baby" – a superb little Ron Loney and Cyril Jordan rocker. We then return
to "Exile On Main St." with the boozy swagger of the acoustic barroom
"City Lights" and it’s hard to understand why this wickedly cool
Acoustic Blues was slagged off at the time (still sounds so damn good to me).
The hard-rocking and deliberately grungy "Have You Seen My Baby?" was
probably too much Rock 'n' Roll for delicate minds back in the day - but I love
it and "Yesterday's Numbers" that follows it which could have been
Brinsley Schwarz or Help Yourself or even Free - stunning acoustic Rock that
stays with you. Amidst the bonus stuff you’re clobbered with a fantastic loose
cover of Link Wray’s guitar magnum opus – the album outtake of
"Rumble". Jordan and the boys are clearly having riffage fun with the
famous menace Link’s song exudes – a very cool bonus indeed that even includes
giggles at the end from a band that would have worshipped at Wray’s feet in the
blink of an eye.
Summing up - how cool is it
to see these three storming platters in the one place and with so much excellent
bonus material too (Sundazed issued the debut in 1996 as an Expanded CD should
you want to check out their beginnings).
The New York Dolls, MC5 and
especially The Stooges are constantly name-checked as keeping the wild snotty
pure spirit of Rock 'n' Roll alive in the early Seventies - a time when Hard
Rock and Prog Goliaths dominated the chart landscape and bedsits of the world
threatening to swamp all three-minute blasts of proto-punk with hairy chests,
tales of wizards and semi classical pomp. I loved them too (truth be told) -
but spare a dime brother for the Bay's FLAMIN GROOVIES – fab, groovy and side
burning into the Devilish bargain. Well done to all involved...
