Customer Reviews

Flamin' Groovies Now

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having found themselves out of step in psychedelic '60s San Francisco, the Groovies' rootsy blues rock 'n' roll led to some fine wax but little popular acclaim. Lead singer Roy Loney left the band, leaving it in the hands of guitarist Cyril Jordon, who regrouped in England, and in the mid-70s eventually found his way to the Rockfield studio of Dave Edmunds. The initial result was the 1976 album "Shake Some Action," whose retro British Invasion and power-pop sounds found favor among the DIY crowd.

This second effort with Edmunds capitalized on the direction of their first, but added more muscle to the productions. The Groovies dip back into their influences for British Invasion gems from the The Beatles ("There's a Place") and Stones ("Blue Turns to Grey" "Paint it Black"), and a derivative from The Byrds ("Feel a Whole Lot Better," perhaps besting the original). Even rootsier is the Elvis-styled twist on the pre-British Invasion Cliff Richard's hit "Move It," the Chuck Berry-styled cover of "House of Blue Lights," Buddy Holly's "Reminsicing" and a bluesy take on Paul Revere & The Raiders' "Ups and Downs."

All of this is strained effectively through Edmunds studio and production style, which at once captures the soul of early rock 'n' roll, but with an ear that's clearly informed by that which transpired over the genre's first 20 years. The original "Take Me Back," for example, takes in the wistful jangle of The Byrds, but with a middle break that pays homage to The Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby." And "Good Laugh Mun" opens like a Searchers tune and plays out with a "Pet Sounds" styled instrumental at the end.

"Shake Some Action" may have been this version of the Groovies breakthrough to popular notice, but "Now" is the full realization of their retooled vision and sound.

...this is an OK album, but rather dulls in comparison to the rest of their catalogue. Dave Edmund's production sounds just a bit too polished on some tracks (although it sounds right at home on "Between the Lines") that may have ben due to the fact that they were on the Sire label at the time. I miss the raw production of the earlier works which I believe would have carried home the great performances.

Despite all this, the remastering is good and it does justice to hear it in "Between the Lines".

The Groovies' take on "Feel a Whole Lot Better" manages to sound both like a slavish homage to, and an improvement on, the Byrds' original-no mean feat. In fact, the whole set, from the cover of Paul Revere and the Raiders' "Ups and Downs" to the Groovies' own "Good Laugh Mun," is somehow like the best music of the '60s, only better.

Weird but true. No wonder there's a whole Flamin' Groovies cult out there. (Oh, did I mention that Cyril Jordan is God?)

This album has great personal sentimental value, as I bought the vinyl version in the summer of '78. I played it non-stop, along with Eno's "Before and After Science," also released that year. So, perhaps my view is a bit clouded. But it has great cover versions, particularly the Byrds' "Feel A While Lot Better" and Beatles' "There's a Place." There's just a lack of guile and total sincerity about the way the Groovies approach the music of their heroes, even if they aren't the world's greatest singers and musicians. This isn't as good as the Roy Loney years, but it's still good.

This album was released about two years after their great Shake Some Action album. The Groovies had once again changed their sound beginning with that well regarded previous album to this, and working with producer Dave Edmunds again, continued to do great covers of pop tunes from the sixties as well as terrific original songs. What I like so much was their selection of some obscure songs that I wasn't familiar with, but they did a fantastic job introducing them to me. Also, their own original songs the band wrote were also great, and the Groovies never got enough credit for them as they didn't write that many. This album contains great covers of songs from the Byrds, Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Raiders, and even a great pre-Beatles Cliff Richard's song ("Move It"). It also has one of their best original songs, "Between the Lines." DBK Works did not include any extra tracks on this CD (I would guess there were none available any more), but they did a nice job of remastering it for CD, and it's nice to think that the members of the band hopefully got some residual payments from this official release.

The Groovies never got the credit they deserved at the time for their influence on the punk and new wave scene that was just starting in England and the states, but they reminded us of our roots from the sixties, and many bands would began to emulate those roots as an answer to some of the overblown bands of the seventies. Please give this CD a listen - it's a great album!