Song of the Day 4/19: Dr. Feelgood, “Down at the Doctors”

I hoped it was just rockin’ pneumonia or the boogie-woogie flu, but the test strip says it’s Covid. Lee Brilleaux and Dr. Feelgood claim to have a cure — he’s gonna shoot some rock ‘n’ roll in my arm.

This isn’t the original lineup of the pub rockers who paved the road to punk — by the time of its release in 1978 Gypie Mayo, a more conventional player, had replaced the spiky Wilko Johnson on guitar, but Brilleaux is in his best dissolute form. The shabby white suit he always wore in the early years must have disintegrated by 1978, but true to form he delivers most of his performance with a half-smoked cigarette in hand.