The Flamin' Groovies are an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965, originally co-led by Roy Loney and Cyril Jordan. After the Groovies released three albums, on Epic (Supersnazz) and Kama Sutra (Flamingo and Teenage Head), Loney left the band in 1971. He was replaced as co-leader by Chris Wilson, and the band's emphasis shifted more toward British Invasion power pop.Power Pop: The ’70s, The Birth Of Uncool. Magnetmagazine.com (2002-09-07). Retrieved on 1 September 2013.
In addition to the band's role in the advancement of power pop, the Flamin' Groovies have also been called one of the forerunners of punk rock.Buckley 2003, p. 322, "The Flamin' Groovies really had more in common with the MC5, who deployed the same twin-guitar assault on white rock. Both would become regarded as forerunners of the punk rock movement,"
The band signed to United Artists Records in 1972, releasing just three more singles until 1976. The Groovies then signed to Sire Records and released three albums between 1976 and 1979, Shake Some Action, Flamin' Groovies Now (both produced by Dave Edmunds at Rockfield Studios in Wales) and Jumpin' in the Night. The 1976 album's title track "Shake Some Action" (also released as a single) became a power pop anthem and is revered by many, including Greil Marcus in his book, The History of Rock and Roll in Ten Songs. Wilson left the band in 1981, and the band continued in various forms, including the release of three more albums, before breaking up in 1991. After a couple of limited reunions with different lineups, the 1970s nucleus of Jordan, Wilson, and Alexander reformed the group in 2013, and the band's first post-reunion album, Fantastic Plastic, was released in 2017. Alexander left the reformed band in 2017, and in 2019 Wilson went on hiatus. Loney died later that same year.Flamin’ Groovies Singer Roy Loney Dies at 73 by Gil Kaufman, Billboard Hot 100, Dec 16, 2019
Career Beginnings Roy Loney and Tim Lynch, who met in first grade, had put together a Kingston Trio-type folk band with guitars when they were in junior high and high school. Beginning in 1965, after adding their friend George Alexander (whom they told to learn bass), they became a Rolling Stones-influenced rock band with drummer Ron Greco. Greco knew a 15-year-old lead guitarist named Cyril Jordan, who quickly became a part of the group, although Greco then left and was replaced by Danny Mihm. After playing together for about three years under various group names and not getting any record company offers, they decided to put up their own money and make their own EP, which they could also use as a label demo. That EP, 1968's Sneakers, was recorded on 4-track and mixed in about eight hours total and featured Jordan (guitar, vocals), Loney (vocals, guitar), Alexander (bass, harmonica, vocals), Lynch (guitar, harmonica, vocals) and Mihm (drums). As a result of its success, they were signed to a contract by Epic Records. Around the same time, their manager leased The Fillmore from Bill Graham, and they became managers of the venue.
During a stay in Detroit, the band would be exposed to local bands such as MC5, the Stooges, and the Frost, which caused the Groovies' sound to become heavier. During this period, they released 1969's Supersnazz. In Loney's words, the album was "all over the map" and "kinda grasping at every possible straw"; it contained both re-creations of 1950s rock and roll and more melodic songs that anticipated the power pop movement of the 1970s—a genre to which the Flamin' Groovies would eventually contribute significant work. However, the album's low sales led to their release by Epic. They then started doing national tours, and their further exposure to Detroit's musical scene "hardened up our sound a whole lot", in Loney's words.
At the instigation of Richard Robinson (a journalist and the Groovies' future producer), the Groovies then signed to Kama Sutra Records for their next two albums, 1970's Flamingo and 1971's Teenage Head. Jordan was unhappy with the sound quality of Flamingo." Teenage Head is listed in the 2006 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and Mick Jagger reportedly compared the album favorably to the Rolling Stones' contemporaneous Sticky Fingers.
Despite the critical plaudits, though, neither album sold well, which caused Loney and Lynch to lose interest and left the Groovies in limbo about their future. Loney and Jordan clashed over the band's direction, due to the former's preference for rock and rockabilly and the latter's interest in pop acts such as the Beatles. Jordan, however, felt the band was just evolving. Tim Lynch then left the band and was replaced by James Ferrell, shortly before the Groovies played a concert for the closing of the Fillmore West that was broadcast live on local San Francisco radio station KSAN.
Isolation and success Not long after the KSAN concert, Loney also left the band and was replaced by 18-year-old singer and guitarist Chris Wilson, who, along with Jordan, began to move the group in a more overtly power pop direction. Alexander had become friends with British music executive Andrew Lauder, and in 1972, the band reached a deal to sign with Lauder's United Artists Records ("UA") and to record with British producer Dave Edmunds at Rockfield Studios in Wales, even though the U.S. division of UA had already turned down the band. Retrieved 9 June 2010Cyril Jordan, liner notes to The Rockfield Sessions (1989). Retrieved 3 December 2017. The Groovies moved to Britain, where they remained for the rest of 1972,Cyril Jordan, liner notes for Slow Death (2002). Retrieved 13 November 2017. but the UA deal was never expanded beyond two single releases, "Slow Death"/"Tallahassee Lassie" and "Married Woman"/"Get a Shot of Rhythm and Blues", which United Artists preferred to Edmunds and the band's choices "Shake Some Action" and "You Tore Me Down". However, "Slow Death", an anti-drug song that Jordan had written with Loney, was banned by the BBC for using the word "morphine", which killed the momentum behind the signing. All seven songs recorded in 1972 by the Groovies for UA (the six named above plus Chuck Berry's "Little Queenie") were released in 1995 by EMI on the A Bucket of Brains album.Jon Storey, liner notes for A Bucket of Brains (1995). Retrieved 14 November 2017.
The failure of these singles effectively left the band in limbo for two years. During this lull, drummer Danny Mihm also left the band, replaced first by Terry Rae and ultimately by David Wright. In 1973, the Groovies re-recorded "Shake Some Action" as part of a deal with Capitol Records, but executive turnover at Capitol blocked that deal before the contracts were signed. In an effort to gain some leverage, the band agreed to release the Edmunds-produced version of "You Tore Me Down" as the first single on the brand-new Bomp! Records label in 1974. Some of the various released and unreleased recordings made and produced by the Groovies during this period (six demos from 1971, "Tallahassee Lassie" from 1972, one TV recording from 1972, and the two Capitol demos from 1973) were later collected on the 2002 Norton album Slow Death.
Finally, in 1975, Greg Shaw from Bomp! became the Flamin' Groovies' manager and arranged for them to sign to the new (but poorly distributed) label Sire Records, headed by Seymour Stein. Due to that, the Groovies returned to the UK and recorded and released (in 1976) Shake Some Action, again produced by Edmunds, which included the same recordings of two songs ("Shake Some Action" and "You Tore Me Down") that United Artists had passed on in 1972 but Stein loved. The album received rave critical reviews, similar to Teenage Head. The Groovies continued to tour continually and were supported by the Ramones and The Stranglers at the Roundhouse in London on July 4, 1976 (which was coincidentally the US's bicentennial) in the former band's first ever appearance in the UK. This concert has been widely noted as a seminal moment in the development of punk rock.
Sire's distribution was taken over by Warner Bros. Records in 1977, and so the Groovies returned to a major label; however, shortly before that, James Ferrell, who had been unhappy with the band's "Beatle-esque" direction,James Ferrell commentary, "The Flamin' Groovies" Facebook group, posted December 24, 2017. was fired and replaced by Mike Wilhelm, who had previously played with Wilson in the San Francisco band "Loose Gravel". The band then recorded two albums for Sire/Warners, 1978's Flamin' Groovies Now, once more produced by Dave Edmunds, and 1979's Jumpin' in the Night, produced by Jordan and Roger Bechirian. Wilson felt that Now was his favorite album and the band with Edmunds was in "one of our most creative times". However, Sire gave the album little promotion, and it didn't sell appreciably better. Edmunds also intended to produce Jumpin' in the Night, but, according to Wilson, his new manager Jake Riviera blocked him from doing so. Both albums included several covers of older material from other artists, which became an issue between Jordan, who wanted to include the covers (because he was trying to renegotiate his publishing rights with Sire), and Wilson, who did not. According to Jordan, during this period Warners also released a punk rock songbook that featured the Sex Pistols. the Ramones, and the Groovies.
Breakup The commercial failure of Jumpin' in the Night, as well as clashes between Jordan and Stein, led Sire to drop the Flamin' Groovies in 1980,Anthony Clark and George Alexander posts, "The Flamin' Groovies" Facebook group, posted December 16, 2017. although the band nevertheless added keyboardist Mark Dunwoody. Then, a failed recording session at Gold Star Studios in 1981 for a new album tentatively called Tour de ForceClark, Anthony. Liner notes for "Long Way to Be Happy" single, 2017. (in which only five complete songs were recorded in a three-week period, but four of them were covers) and the widening personal differences between Jordan and Wilson led both David Wright and Chris Wilson to quit the Groovies, with Wilson's departure taking place on Halloween night 1981. Wilson called the Gold Star sessions "a complete debacle" and referred to the time as being "like a messy family divorce"; all of the Groovies blamed the collapse of the Gold Star sessions on excessive drug use. As Jordan admitted, "We got tired. We were beaten up and cast aside, and the feeling was that this thing’s over, and you couldn’t stop that feeling with anybody in the band because it looked like it was." Despite that, Jordan and Alexander added new members, including the return of drummer Danny Mihm, and resumed touring.
However, after Wilhelm, Mihm and Dunwoody all left in 1982,Date correction based on newspaper clippings posted by Anthony Clark in "The Flamin' Groovies" Facebook group on May 18, 2019. the Flamin' Groovies once again had to reform. Later in the 1980s, the Groovies, now including Jordan, Alexander, guitarist-vocalist Jack Johnson, and drummer Paul Zahl, became involved with an Australian promoter named Peter Noble (the owner of AIM Records), who began to issue various Groovies live and studio recordings and reissue prior albums. After a 1987 live-in-the-studio recording in Australia for AIM entitled One Night Stand, and Sire/Warner's release of a 1989 greatest hits album focused on the Jordan-Wilson recordings entitled Groovies' Greatest Grooves, Noble put the Groovies on a financially mismanaged 80-day, 80-city tour of Europe, which shattered the group. The Groovies finally disbanded in 1991, with their last releases being the AIM compilation of demos entitled Step Up in 1991 and the post-breakup album Rock Juice (which used several of the same backing tracks as Step Up, according to Alexander) in 1993.Cyril Jordan.com. Cyril Jordan.com. Retrieved on 1 September 2013.
Post-breakup and partial reunions