One of the highlights (for me) on the recent Underground Garage Cruise was getting to sit in with the Flamin’ Groovies on two of their shows. The Groovies have always been one of my favorite “cult” bands. Amazingly, they have been together since 1965 (their first album came out in 1968!), and original member Cyril Jordan is still holding it all together with a bunch of younger guys.
It’s hard to explain exactly who and what the Flamin’ Groovies were, back in the day. Were they a San Francisco hippie band that played legendary shows at the Fillmore and the Avalon and Winterland? Yes. Were they championing vintage blues and rockabilly and 1960s pop songs in an era and a scene where that was just about the most uncool and unhip thing one could do? Yes. They’re a hard band to get a handle on at first, but once you understand where they were coming from, the songs and the band’s groove are absolutely life-changing.
They made a bunch of great albums during their career, but two stand as undisputed classics: 1971’s Teenage Head and 1975’s Shake Some Action. They really were two different bands. The early version of the Groovies, with my old friend (he worked at Jack’s Record Cellar for years) Roy Loney on vocals, was a bluesy-Stonesy band, one of the most rockin’ of the early 1970s. Teenage Head is like the greatest Rolling Stones album you never heard. After that, the band re-formed as a power-pop band, with 1960s clothes and haircuts, in the mid-1970s. The Shake Some Action album is one of those flawless albums, released to a record-buying public that didn’t get them. Every song on there is a killer.
Through many more years and lineups and albums, the Groovies soldiered on. I met Cyril at one of the Ponderosa Stomp festivals and had a great conversation with him about blues, rockabilly, guitars, and all the mutual friends we had in common. The dude is truly one of “us,” I thought.
That’s why I was so happy to hear from the Groovies manager, Barry Simons, that Cyril wanted me to sit in with them on the cruise. The original plan was for me to get up and do one song at each show: “Evil Hearted Ada” (their 1971 rockabilly classic—go listen to it on YouTube!) during their performance of the Teenage Head album; and “Don’t Lie To Me” during their performance of the Shake Some Action album.
During the first show, I wound up (at Cyril’s request) doing about half the show with them, playing “Shake Some Action” and “Don’t Lie to Me” and about half a dozen other tunes. I already knew the tunes backward and forward, so it was just great to jam with one of my favorite bands ever. Two days later, I played the whole show with the band as they performed the entire Teenage Head album. Man, they rocked—and with FOUR guitars in sync, it was loud and it sounded GOOD! The stage was levitating, the band was grooving so hard. Seeing Cyril all decked out in his original 1960s psychedelic clothes was so cool—the dude truly lets his freak flag fly, and still plays great. We need more people flying their freak flag like Cyril Jordan. A hero.
It was a big thrill for me, and hopefully I didn’t stink it up too bad for the other Groovies. Thanks for having me, Cyril, Barry, and the rest of the guys! Let me know if you ever need my services in the future! What a blast! (Some of the photos stolen from other Facebook posts—thanks for the snaps!)
See more photos at Deke’s original Facebook post!
