When first released in 1983 Hurt Me highlighted a welcome second side to Johnny Thunders. Entirely accoustic and with a mixture of back catalogue and cover versions here was the Thunders of You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory and It’s Not Enough (both reworked here). Hurt Me predated the MTV Unplugged craze and so felt fresh and alive. The songwriting isn’t 100% – Sad Vacation will always be maudlin and tuneless – but several previously obscure songs such as Diary Of A Lover and Too Much Too Soon are rehabilitated and some of the covers are choice, especially Stones obscurity I’d Much Rather Be With The Boys, done as a duet with the lush-sounding Charlotte. Easy Action boost the original LP by adding a couple of B-sides but record them from scratchy vinyl (even my copy is quieter).
The CD is housed in a newly-designed slip case containing some illuminating sleeve notes from Kris Needs and a second CD from the LP launch gig at Dingwalls on December 6th 1983. The tape sounds as though it was recorded in the midst of a boisterous crowd so sound quality is only reasonable. Thunders spends a lot of time demanding more reverb but still manages to perform most of the Hurt Me LP before retreating to the safety of a string of Stones covers including Play With Fire, As Tears Go By and a rare snippet of Wild Horses. Like many a Thunders acoustic gig the lack of a backing group appears to be an economy drive (more money for dope) rather than an artistic statement. His close proximity to the crowd leaves Thunders sounding uncertain and ill at ease so that the CD really only works as a historical document.
However the strength of the material and the performances on the studio disc plus a cleaner remastered sound makes this a recommended purchase for anyone who has already heard So Alone and LAMF and wishes to delve further into Thunders’ erratic recorded legacy.
From Bucketfull of Brains magazine
bucketfullofbrains.com
This publication is named after a Groovies LP, “I’d like a bucket full of Brains “ (beer) being the warcry of Groovies roadie John Seaton. So when original guitarist Cyril Jordan, bass player George Alexander and guitar/vocals Chris Wilson plus new drummer Victor Penalosa popped up in London for a brace of shows we were delighted to grab a brief interview with Cyril.
After well-received gigs in Australia and Japan the Groovies played their first UK gig for twenty-six years supporting Bruce Springsteen at the Olympic Park. “I don’t know if Springsteen asked for us himself. We know Little Steven and we used to open for Southside Johnny. We were on the road in Australia and we got an email from Live Nation booking the Groovies and that was it. The gig went well apart from the fact that we could not hear our monitors at all. They had $100,000 worth of gear on stage and they might as well have had none. We went down better and better towards the end of our set”
“Before we started rehearsing fifteen weeks ago we hadn’t played together for 32 years. By the third day the engine was back, George started turning into George, Chris started turning into Chris, I started turning into Cyril…it’s like the day after we broke up with Chris in 1980. Seymour Stein at Sire records had somehow dropped the ball on us and that threw us into turmoil. Most bands when their label drops them, they have management, they can still do gigs. But I was doing everything back then. I got the record deals, helped book the tours. Nobody would room with me because on the road my phone would start ringing at about 630am. We were all on cocaine, completely out of our minds. So the whole thing fell apart. We were trying to keep rock’n’roll alive and it was dying. George and I went on for another ten years. We toured Australia and the UK in 1987 with a much heavier sound. We had brought in Paul Zahl on drums and he had persuaded me to bring in his friend Jack Johnson who was a real heavy-metal style guitarist. During this last tour in Australia a lot of people said “Thank God the heavy metal guitar has gone” – we’re really known for a more jangly guitar style.”
“When George and I started talking about playing live again I suggested it might be a good idea to pull out some gems from the back-catalogue. Back in the day we always used to play what we’d just recorded, rather than what we’d released. So by the time we were playing The Roundhouse in 1976 we’d already dropped Slow Death from our set. This time we’ve got to do all those songs but only from the Shake Some Action era”
Cyril is adamant that the new incarnation is more than a nostalgia trip. “ We’ve already had three days recording in our producer Joel Jaffe’s Studio D in Sausalito. We cut three new songs. Chris and I wrote a new one called End Of The World, we re-cut Let Me Rock, the first song Chris and I ever wrote together, and we finally did a studio version of our live favourite I Want You Bad. When we get back off this tour we’re going back in for another two days. Chris lives in London, George is in Tucson, I’m in San Francisco and Victor is in San Diego so we need to record whilst we’re still together. But we are not doing a retro thing: we are picking up where we left off.”
“We’ve been getting royalties but the internet download thing has really hurt us – ten years ago my royalty cheques went down big time. Last November I was down to my last $40. I went to bed thinking what am I gonna do. The next morning the phone rings and it’s an associate of Val Kilmer who wanted to pay me $1000 to write out the lyrics to Whiskey Woman so he can give them to his daughter for her 21st birthday. You never know who is a Groovies fan – Kurt Russell, even Lucian Grainge – CEO of Universal. He told the Financial Times that the reason he got into music was going to see the Flamin’ Groovies with his brother Nigel.”
During their spell signed to UA in the early 70’s the Groovies were living in Chingford and were regulars at The Roundhouse. “We used to set up our own Roundhouse shows with promoter John Curd and I always used to look for up and coming bands. One time we played with the Troggs, we were very excited. We got to the Roundhouse and we noticed the Troggs were second billing and we were headlining, I said to John Curd “What are you doing, we can’t be headlining over The Troggs, Wild Thing is like Louie Louie”. Giving a helping hand to other bands misfired when the support to the Groovies July 4th 1976 gig got more coverage than the headliners. “I became very good friends with the Ramones manager Linda Stein. She was a real pothead, one of the only girls I ever knew who loved pot as much as I do. Being from California I had some really good skunk. We got real tight. She said I am managing a group and I wonder if they can open for you. She said they’re called the Ramones and she showed me a photo and it looked like one of our early shots so I said let’s bring them along. “
“Contrary to what you may have read on the internet we did not support the Stooges at their legendary Scala gig in ‘72 although we did come to watch them that night. We had first met the Stooges on our first tour in ‘68, we hooked up with them in Ohio – the Golden Earrings. Love Sculpture, the Stooges and us all on the same bill and we toured together for about three months. I didn’t even know Dave Edmunds at that time, I didn’t realise until I met him again at Rockfield in ‘72 that he’d been in Love Sculpture. “
The 2006 Rhino compilation At Full Speed did a good job in bringing together all the tracks recorded for Sire. Cyril is adamant that there are no unreleased outtakes and no prospect of a sonic upgrade to the subsequent Gold Star Tapes EP. “We were doing that with two guys from France. They didn’t pay the bill at Gold Star studios so we didn’t get a copy of the master. The tape they used for the record that came out was made on a $30 cassette records that was snuck into the studio without us knowing and put on the board whilst we were listening to a playback. Finally we got a 2” master tape from Dave Gold via a friend of Chris’, he sent us the tape for the $15 cost of postage. We had to bake the damn thing to stop the oxide falling off the tape. It’s got two songs on it, one Phil Spector song recorded by Darlene Love called A Long Way To Be Happy and an original that we never finished with the working title Don’t Forget To Write. We did a little bit of work on the latter, vocals and stuff but the quality of the recording is not up to par. “
Key to the Groovies renaissance is Victor, who first played with Cyril in his solo band the Magic Christians about seven years ago. Cyril is fulsome with his praise “We couldn’t have got here this fast without Victor. He knows all the drum parts exactly as they were on the record. It’s a gas. “ Victor admits that the Groovies are one of his top three bands of all time and that he’s been listening to them since he was four. His partner in rhythm George is amazed at the fan response. “I’ve been off the grid for so long, I had no idea that I would be treated with so much respect and adulation from so many fans. In Japan we had a lot of young fans who had discovered us on the internet, only a third of the audience were old geezers. One of the scariest things about Japan I ever saw was when we started playing You Tore Me Down and some people started crying. I was shocked. “
No tears tonight at the Scala but a full house of happy fans, albeit mainly blokes of a certain age. The Groovies took to the stage all looking commendably trim and youthful. They were joined by Mathew Fisher from Procul Harum on Hammond organ, only audible in the second half of the set. Cyril sported his vintage plexiglass Dan Armstrong which delivered his distinctive warm tone. Victor played (and looked) like the young Clem Burke – loud, precise and enthusiastic. George sang Married Woman to great effect and swayed and grooved gracefully throughout. Chris delivered an effective lead vocal on Slow Death but elsewhere it was the songs sung in unison with Cyril that worked best – You Tore Me Down, Feel A Whole Lot Better, I Want You Bad and the set-closing Shake Some Action. Teenage Head is so indelibly associated with the Roy Loney-era that it sat oddly here. Sadly there was none of Cyril’s excellent slide playing, although he is hoping to introduce some into future gigs. Three encores were demanded and delivered including a rather ordinary Roll Over Beethoven. Minor quibbles aside this was an intelligent reappraisal of the Shake Some Action years. The band plans to work up other Sire-era favourites such as Jumpin’ In The Night and Don’t Put Me On and introduce some new songs into the mix. Forty years after it was first recorded Shake Some Action still resonates, and so do the Groovies.
As an impressionable youth I was knocked flat by a double header of the Flamin’ Groovies and the Ramones, London Roundhouse, July 4th 1976 (The Stranglers were third on the bill so it was just short of a perfect evening). That night the Groovies were terrific, and I have followed their subsequent adventures with great interest . This gig was their first in the UK since 1987 and I was delighted to DJ for them and the support, The Bermondsey Joyriders. Here are the records I played:
City Slang – Sonic’s Rendezvous Band
Jail Guitar Doors – Clash
Looking For the Magic – Dwight Twilley Band
Flavor Of The Month – Posies
Do Ya – Move
Happenings Ten Years Time Ago – Yardbirds
Gone Dead Train – Randy Newman
(Come On Baby Let’s Go) Downtown – Neil Young and Crazy Horse
Color Me Impressed – Replacements
In The Street – Big Star
(I Thought) You Wanted To Know – Chris Stamey and the dBs
THE BERMONDSEY JOYRIDERS
This Perfect Day – Saints
Rock & Roll Queen – Mott The Hoople
2000 Light Years From Home – Rolling Stones
A Million Miles Away – Plimsoulls
I want You Back – Hoodoo Gurus
32-20 – Charlatans
Me And My Uncle – Fortunate Sons
Roxette – Dr Feelgood
Looking At You – MC5
Get Out of Denver – Bob Seger
Beck’s Bolero – Jeff’s Beck
Have You Seen Her Face – Byrds
THE FLAMIN’ GROOVIES
Let It Rock – Rolling Stones
Lovers Of Today – Only Ones
Fire – Robert Gordon
In A Lonely Place – Smithereens
Layla Part 2 – Derek and the Dominoes
Albatross – Fleetwood Mac
It’s All Over Now Baby Blue – Them
Before the gig I interviewed Cyril Jordan and this plus a live review will appear in the next edition of Bucketfull of Brains magazine (and eventually on this site)
At a Promises Auction in support of our local school’s PTA, Martin and Sarah bid for and won an evening of me DJing.
They used this as an excuse to throw a party for friends and neighbours on what turned out to be a beautiful summers evening. Here’s what I played:
Summer In The City – Lovin’ Spoonful
Hilly Fields – Nick Nicely
For What It’s Worth – Buffalo Springfield
Something In The Air – Thunderclap Newman
God Only Knows – Beach Boys
Say You Don’t Mind – Denny Laine
Alone Again Or – Love
The First Cut Is The Deepest – PP Arnold
Changes – David Bowie
Walk On The Wild Side – Lou Reed
Life’s Been Good – Joe Walsh
(Don’t Fear) The Reaper – Blue Oyster Cult
All The Young Dudes – Mott The Hoople
Higher Than The Sun – Primal Scream
Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand
7 Nation Army – White Stripes
Heroes – David Bowie
Sympathy For The Devil – Rolling Stones
Hello Goodbye – Beatles
Woke Up This Morning – Alabama 3
(White Man in) Hammersmith Palais – Clash
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll – Ian Dury
I Wanna Be Adored – Stone Roses
Come Together – Primal Scream
Family Affair – Sly & the Family Stone
Miss You – Rolling Stones
Love Is The Drug – Roxy Music
Where Did Our Love Go? – J Geils Band
Rock The Casbah – Clash
Too Much Too Young – Specials
Girls 7 Boys – Blur
Hear Of Glass – Blondie
Fame – David Bowie
Dance To The Music – Sly & the Family Stone
Loaded – Primal Scream
Back In The USSR – Beatles
This 5 track covers EP on New West Records acts as a fund-raiser for Slim Dunlap, former Mats guitarist whose stroke last year has left him with big medical bills and no insurance. Whilst original Replacements Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars are all here Chris only plays on an over-produced solo rendition of Slim’s Radio Hook Word Hit, leaving Tommy and Paul backed on the other tracks by Kevin Bowe on guitars and Peter Anderson on drums. The record has an offhand feel, almost like The Mats gigs in their heyday where whimsical cover versions such as If I Only Had A Brain were de rigeur. Here they take a crack at Everything’s Coming Up Roses, possibly the bands none too subtle message to Slim . Producer Ed Ackerson makes the band sound like they’re in their rehearsal space, and it suits them. Slim’s Busted Up gets a Bo Diddley beat and too much piano. The real gem here is Gordon Lightfoot’s I’m Not Saying, where Paul copies Nico’s phrasing and slips in a little Johnny Thunders reference whilst the band reel off the chords in true beat group style. The following Lost Highway by comparison is little bit ragged, a little bit pub-rock. But it’s heart is the right place, it’s in a good cause and the record is worth having just for I’m Not Saying .
