Saturday, October 21, 2017

Still Blazin': The Flamin' Groovies Are Back

Cyril Jordan and Chris Wilson of the Flamin’ Groovies. 
Photos by Mark Murrman (Courtesy of Mother Jones)
The rock and roll life is not one of smooth sailing and gentle seas. Any band of consequence will usually tell you its journey is a crazy one. 

As Moulty of the Barbarians told Garagerocktopia some time ago, being in a rock and roll band is like being married to five people at the same time. Ergo, most rock bands last on average about 2 ½ years. 

We didn’t demand any documentation, but to us, that sounds like a pretty good estimate.



When it comes to loco rides, few take a backseat to the The Flamin’ Groovies. That odyssey commenced  in 19 hundred and 65  -- and is far from over. Guitarist Chris Wilson – incidentally, a friend of Moulty’s -- was kind enough to chat with us about what that ride has been like.

With a history that spans six decades, the Flamin’ Groovies really warrant a book more than a blog article. Wilson was absolutely gracious with his time, but if we had really given the Groovies the depth they deserve, we’d probably still be on the phone right now.

Wilson talked to Garagerocktopia by phone from his home in Gresham, Oregon, a short drive from Portland – arguably the coolest big city in the United States – and close to the beautiful Columbia River. He described himself as being “ethnically cleansed” from London, forced out by the hyper-gentrification afflicting the city of late.

But lest we get our mope on, there’s exciting news: The esteemed San Francisco band has just released the album Fantastic Plastic, the first since 1979 teaming Wilson with band founder Cyril Jordan and bassist George Alexander.
 
The new album nicely encapsulates what, musically, the band is all about. Songs like “What the Hell’s Going On?,” “Fallen Star” and the Dylan-esque “I Want You Bad,” rock in time-honored Groovies fashion.

“The songs on Fantastic Plastic sprung up organically,” said Wilson. “We get inspiration from everywhere. It can be from a great author; it can be from the gutter, it can be from a dog’s eyes, it can be anywhere. Cyril would run an idea by me, and I’d say yay or nay; it also went that way vice versa. It was like making a house of cards with two guys.”

Some of the songs also harken back the group at its rootsiest. “Cryin’ Shame,” with its shimmering guitar lines, echoes ‘60s country-rock. Though Wilson said it wasn’t a conscious effort, other Fantastic Plastic songs, like “Crazy Macy” (inspired by a character on an Untouchables episode) have a noticeable country feel.


“Cyril and I have always been influenced by the great country artists, guys like George Jones, Billy Lee Riley, people like that,” said Wilson. “I also learned my trade in church, but I actually learned close harmonies by listening to the Everly Brothers. We were influenced by that brand of country music.”

Other songs have a more bluesy lilt, such as “Just Like a Hurricane,” which one could imagine bellowing from a shotgun roadhouse somewhere on Highway 49. Sadly, the song ended up being an homage to Merry Clayton, the iconic backing vocal on the Stones’ anthem “Gimme Shelter.”

“’Just Like a Hurricane’” was written for her,” explained Wilson. “We did a show for the Master’s Series at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland in 2013. Cyril and I played with Merry and many of the Rolling Stones most amazing back-up musicians, people like Clayton, Bobby Keys and Ian McLagen. Soon after that, she was hurt badly in an automobile wreck. We were going to can the song but we decided we would do it in her honor.”

At its earliest, the Flamin’ Groovies were one of many American bands shooting for the bluesy sound of the Stones. A Reader’s Digest version of the band’s history: It was founded in the mid-‘60s by guitarist Jordan, Alexander, and singer Roy Loney. By the time the lineup had gelled a bit, the Flamin’ Groovies were a decidedly rootsy combo, with a style at times sharing commonalities with both the blues-rock of the Stones and the country leanings of Buffalo Springfield. That orientation helped the group achieve a moderate but loyal following and decent sales.

The lineup would change a bit through the ‘60s and late ‘70s, and the LP Teenage Head, with its unvarnished, garage-y mood, established the Groovies as a band that, yes, could both sell albums and please critics. Wilson enlisted in 1971, and the band’s sound would lean more towards a power pop sound – and draw an even wider audience.

Part of a musically-oriented family, Wilson appreciated a variety of genres from both sides of the Atlantic. He took special relish in recounting introductions to American blues musicians, people whom, as he grew up, were especially venerated in the United Kingdom.

“I met a lot of the old bluesmen,” Wilson recalled. “Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Muddy Waters, and they were the nicest people I have ever met. One time, James Cotton heard me play and asked ‘where’d you learn to play that thing, boy? You play fantastic – keep puffing away.”

Despite the long-lasting relevance of the Flamin’ Groovies’ music, Wilson denied that he ever had in mind the idea of producing a classic. He said he was merely trying to make music people enjoyed listening to.

“Like most young people at the time, I really didn’t know what the future would hold,” Wilson explained. “It was this long glittering road with so many things. Some of those things, especially at the time, were awful – the possibility of nuclear war, racial unrest, things like that. I had no idea where any of this was going to go.”

But Wilson also recalled with fondness what life as a rock and roller was like during some of those very same days.

“The ‘70’s were a golden time,” said Wilson. “My star was shining. I was recording in some fabulous studios in the Welsh countryside, then later on driving around the streets of London. It was incredible and it felt like anything was possible.

“But they were also days of outright hedonism. We used to annihilate ourselves with alcohol and drugs and women, to a point bordering on dangerous. If we had had more money, we might not even be having this conversation. I’d have gone down like so many of our friends did.”

Anyone with even a smidgeon of appreciation for power pop or garage rock almost certainly has “Shake Some Action” on some device, CD or vinyl somewhere. The song, an absolute essential, was recorded and ready for release by 1971. But, as has happened with revolting frequency in the music biz, the suits and their corporate horse-pucky games kept the song under wraps for, as Eddie Boyd might say, five long years.

That it still managed to catch people’s ears – and is still doing so – speaks for itself, though we hasten to add it’s by no means the Groovies’ only great song. “Whiskey Woman,” and “I Can’t Hide,” “Slow Death” and myriad others show the band at its rootsy best.



With the gruff sound of Teenage Head and the power chords of Shake Some Action, many have dubbed the band founding fathers of both punk and power pop, but Wilson is a tad reluctant to accept those designations.


“I’m not so sure about that,” mused Wilson. “There are a lot of artists from that period who could be roped in as progenitors of that style – Eric Carmen and the Raspberries, for example. We’ve also been called progenitors of punk, and I have no idea how anyone could have come up with that.”

What is indisputable is that the Shake Some Action album did emerge at about the same time as other early power pop songs, short, to the point and featuring the same kind of upbeat style and alluring hook.

Later that decade, the Flamin’ Groovies shows were opened by a New York outfit with, at the time, only a cultish following. Those dates introduced Ramones to wider audiences than they may have mustered on their own.

Post “Shake Some Action,” the Flamin’ Groovies story sinks into episodes all-too-familiar. Subsequent albums Flamin’ Groovies Now and Jumpin’ in the Night would certainly have their devotees, but both rang the registers less than anticipated. Amidst constant quarrelling, Wilson departed the band in 1980. The Flamin’ Groovies slogged through the ‘80s until finally calling it quits in 1993.

But there was also an epilogue, a familiar one that’s a lot cheerier.

As we have seen time and time again, all is not always said and done on the first go-round with a band as influential as the Flamin’ Groovies. As with so many of the bands we have profiled here, platinum albums might not ring the Groovies’ walls, but their vinyl albums would inspire minions of
rock and rollers to come.

Amongst those minions were the Hoodoo Gurus, set to launch a comeback tour of Australia. Through a series of oddball events in 2012, the Flamin’ Groovies would find themselves onstage once again, opening for the Hall of Fame down-under band, which in turn helped the Flamin’ Groovies launch a comeback of their own.

“I had once met Tim Pittman, who was the promoter of those shows,” recounted Wilson. “His brother lived down the street from me and Tim had given him my phone number. Later we went to the neighborhood pub and over a couple of pints, he laid this whole thing about opening for the Hoodoo Gurus out. At first, I was reticent about it. But in 2011, when Tim told me that the Hoodoo Gurus really wanted the Flamin’ Groovies for the tour, that got me to thinking. I met up with Cyril and we patched things up.”


Though Wilson did detail some times less than hunky-dory, through much of the interview he talked like a man who, in his seventh decade of life, seemed to have few complaints. Closing the interview, he offered a few tips.

“Steady your feet and stay on them the best you can,” advised Wilson. “Keep plugging away, and as you get older, you find out what will get you through the night without killing you.”

“If you’re not here then you’re out of it. We’re still here. That’s what counts.”

Here at Garagerocktopia, we're always looking for cool bands and awesome garage rock related stuff to report on. We have reason to believe that a fair number of regular readers here are musicians themselves. Please feel free to send us your music and information. We won't guarantee a write-up, but some we've had some very awesome artist step up. Email us or you can visit our Facebook page.

Rock on!










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