Customer Reviews

Flamingo/Teenage Head

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First of all, hats off to Rev-Ola for such a great job. The sound is pristine and punchy and you can hear all of the instruments clearly. I didn't like these LPs that much when I first heard them in 1976 because I preferred the "Shake Some Action" band more. However, after not hearing them for a long time I can appreciate them more. Flamingo sounds like if the Stones grew up listening to the Coasters and Sun Records, or if the Lovin' Spoonful survived the psychedelic era and came back roaring with a harder rocking sound. There are some tunes on this one (Flamingo) that have not dated well and sound a little hokey, but the highlights are impressive. The band is tight and energetic and Roy Loney marshalls a diverse range of influences in his vocal approach. He growls like Howlin' Wolf, snarls like Jagger and sings in a jivey manner like the countless early R&B singers he grew up listening to as a teenager. Teenage Head is more impressive as the band sounds more confident (as well as tight and energetic). All of the tunes are first rate and the LP is very much like Beggar's Banquet or Let It Bleed in it`s use of slide guitar and bluesy influences. One interesting note: the song Whiskey Woman sounds like Neil Young(!). The melody is similar to Cowgirls in the Sand. The extra two tunes are good too. Highly recommended.

Rev-ola is a fine label but I was listening to "Shes' Falling Apart" at the long fade out and the next song started a lot sooner than I rembered. So I pulled out an original Kama Sutra pink label copy to compare and there was about 15 seconds missing. I havent bothered to dig any deeper to see what else is up with this "remaster" but I can tell you that the original LP has much better dynamic range as well as a more open frequency response in the high end. This is a sad commentary because the CD format exceeds LP freq and dynamic range by a large measure. The question, as always, is what was used as source material. It probably wasn't a master tape. Buy at your own risk.