It’s one of those things that make you believe in Robert Johnson-meets-the-Devil stories.
After being a fine revivalist rock band in San Francisco for a few years, a slightly altered version of the Flamin’ Groovies, 40 years ago this month, went into the studio and in a time of rock excess and soft rock slop; a time more than a decade removed since the first notes of the British Invasion, emerged with a startlingly out of time and yet timeless collection of yearning power pop—a kind of mix of early Beatles exuberance and intricate Byrds jangle not quite replicated before or since.
“Shake Some Action” was the best proto-British rock to come out of San Francisco since the Beau Brummels for sure, and something that would last even longer. Nothing they did since then could match it. And they almost didn’t have to try, since they already served up the masterpiece.
After breaking up once and for all in 1992, it’s a miracle the Flamin’ Groovies are back together touring after 20 years, covering their own classic LP along with other highlights of other rock ‘n’ roll they’ve loved over the years.
In the intimate Rock and Roll Hotel in D.C. on a cold Monday night, they rang out again, despite all manner of sound issues.
Too loud, bass heavy, and harmonies lost in the mix were all part of the problem. The band being raggedy as hell was the other part.
Chris Wilson, the Massachusetts born anglophile who has been living in England (and has a dang accent) tried to yell his way into his old vocal range, a technique that tended to shred his voice even more. He demanded whiskey as a remedy but that didn’t help.
“More treble!” more than one band member demanded as the show began, because treble was where their jangle lived. The precision of their songs and the intricacies of their guitars seemed threatened.
The problems seemed summed up in a fan’s out loud sarcasm, “Where’s Dave Edmunds when you need him?”
Wilson tried to actually answer, recalling the last time he saw the British guitar hero who produced their greatest LP (and now, we realize, may have had more to do with the magic than we thought).
Still, at the heart of the band was Cyril Johnson, the bespectacled guitarist and diehard rocker who founded the band with Roy Loney a half century ago and came up with all their great cartoon covers and logo.
Time hadn’t touched his skill on lead, and those guitar parts, matched with the indelible songs, made things hard to ruin.
They played seven songs from “Shake Some Action” in a 15-song set including their audacious remake of “St. Louis Blues” and terrific covers of “She Said Yeah” and “Don’t You Lie to Me.”
Johnson said they wrote “Please Please Girl” for the Beatles, joking “we were too stoned to know they had broken up five years earlier.”
The title song from the album capped the main part of the set before they returned with the Stones’ “Jumping’ Jack Flash” as the single encore.
Other covers included their version of Freddy Cannon’s “Tallahassee Lassie” minus the “woo’s” and a nod to another band of a similar vintage (and cool), NRBQ with its plaintive pop tune, “I Want You Bad.”
Other parts of the band’s career were only fleetingly touched. “Between the Lines” was their only original played from Now; “Yes I Am,” the only thing from their 1979 Jumpin’ in the Night.
A crucial early ’70s EP issued between Teenage Head and Shake Some Action that featured another couple of Edmunds productions got some attention, though. In addition to “Married Woman” they played the song from the EP they said got them banned from the BBC, the Loney co-written “Slow Death.”
The authenticity of the sometimes ramshackle show came from the long-running front line with Wilson and Johnson joined by longtime bassist George Alexander, with the only recent addition drummer Victor Penalosa, who seemed younger than most of the remarkable songs.
