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.”
