Song of the Day 10/28: Flamin’ Groovies, “First Plane Home”

The Flamin’ Groovies were always in the wrong place at the wrong time.

They started out playing rock ‘n’ roll in the style of the ’50s and early ’60s – in San Francisco at the dawn of the psychedelic era. Their energetic live shows made them a popular bar band, but they completely whiffed on the zeitgeist.

Creative differences between songwriters Cyril Jordan and Roy Loney led to Loney’s departure and the arrival of Chris Wilson, prompting a move to London and a turn towards jangly guitars and Beatlesque songwriting – just as punk rock was sweeping that style out the door. To underscore their lousy timing, they headlined a London show in 1976 that had as its opening act a band playing its first show in the UK – the Ramones.

Jordan and Wilson turned out some power pop gems. They had a champion in British rocker Dave Edmunds, who produced several of their singles and albums, but couldn’t find a record company that gave them much support, so their records got little airplay and tepid sales.

They recorded one power pop standard, “Shake Some Action,” that gets included on a lot of genre collections and resurfaced in the 1995 movie “Clueless,” reviving interst in the band – just as it was breaking up. They reformed a few times with various combinations of former members.

This tune gives you a good idea of their ’70s sound. It appeared on their 1979 LP “Jumpin’ in the Night.”