"Gonna Rock Tonite! The Complete Recordings 1969-1971" by FLAMIN GROOVIES (February 2019 UK Grapefruit Records 3CD Box Set) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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RATING: *****

"...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...