Flamin' Groovies
Flamingo

«Ah, sorry, this has nothing to do with it, but since you surely know more than me, I've heard great things about a band called Flamin Groovies. Tell me their must-have album at all costs, just one, please, not more than one.».

«”Shake Some Action”, trust me.».

«Sorry to interrupt, but you can't pass up “Teenage Head” either. Get both and be at peace.».

«Yeah, but that's the FG mark 1; if you like almost pub rock, almost punk rock'n'roll then it's fine, otherwise it's better not to risk and go with your eyes closed to “Shake Some Action”.».

«Yeah, but FG mark 1 isn't that different from mark 2, in my opinion, if you like “Shake Some Action”, you'll like “Teenage Head” just the same, I've been through it, trust me, it's like that.».

«But maybe the best thing to start with is a compilation, you can surely find some at a good price around, or that half anthology of “One Night Stand”.».

«Eh, “One Night Stand”, you've mentioned the last really good piece of the Groovies. How we miss a band like that.».

«Okay guys, thanks to everyone, I'll see what I can get, maybe then I'll delve into the discussion.».

First thing I learned.

Never, I'll rewrite in uppercase and even underline it, NEVER ask the know-it-all to point you to just one album, the indispensable one if not more, because inevitably one thing leads to another and you end up with a list in your head that almost includes the complete discography.

Second thing I learned.

There's a before and after in the Flamin Groovies, and the watershed is Roy Loney: Roy, damn, he left quietly a couple of months ago, but let's put aside the sadness, because Roy is the voice of those Groovies and that's how I'll always remember him, the ones that, as long as he's there, are a rock'n'roll machine that levels mountains and opens waters; then Roy leaves, Chris Wilson arrives, and the Groovies become another thing, still very, very beautiful but another thing, those of «Shake Some Action», an album and a track to engrave in the sacred rock tablet.

Third and last thing I learned.

To know and get passionate about music, like many other things, you need a lot of curiosity. So first I bought «Shake Some Action», beautiful, then «Teenage Head», also beautiful, and in the end, I set to task to see if life existed on the Groovies planet before «Teenage Head».

«Flamingo»!

It took me a few years to get there, but it was worth it.

«Well done, fool, you could have asked me, and I'd have reeled off the Groovies' discography in no time.».

«Exactly, we would have told you the story of rock, from Elvis to the Stones. That's where the Groovies come from, what do you think?».

«Thanks again, guys, but the satisfaction of getting there on my own is unparalleled. And now excuse me, but I have things to do.».

And let it be «Flamingo».

Actually, two more lines before «Flamingo», just to properly introduce the Flamin Groovies with the words of Miriam Linna – part-time musician and head of Norton Records – who said bluntly that if the Rolling Stones had become fixated on Sun Records instead of Chess Records, well, then they would have been the Flamin Groovies.

Having said that «Flamingo», from the first time I put the needle on the vinyl up to today, for me, it is the Groovies' most beautiful album, it remains to say something about what's inside.

So, first and foremost there's a lot of thunderous rock'n'roll, year of grace 1970, well before pub rock and punk, and if someone mentioned those two little words – proto-punk – well, they'd be spot on. Someone else (the excellent Eddy Cilia, if I recall correctly, or Federico Guglielmi, no escaping it, the only two rock enthusiasts who still, for me, exude gold) writing about the cover of «Flamingo», described their image as halfway between the Stooges and the Rolling Stones. The songs now: «Gonna Rock Tonight», a programmatic title like few, strategically placed at the opening; «Heading for the Texas Border», an absolute masterpiece, and the Stones may have «Satisfaction» and a thousand other classics, but for those who understand rock in a certain way hard to describe in words, at least for me, this one track alone is worth all the Stones' classics; the remake of «Keep a Knocking», from Little Richard's repertoire; that other masterpiece «Second Cousin», which I like to think of as a tribute to the King and his «Kissin' Cousins» and also to the Saints who picked it up in their debut album seven years later, because the Flamin Groovies were a band that looked back a few decades but was a source of inspiration for a flood of new acts that would start treading the boards years and years after them, I’ll throw out a Jack White, just to say; and finally «Road House» which closes the circle beautifully, just as «Gonna Rock Tonight» opened it, just to reiterate without fear of contradiction that the Road House is a place for tough guys and loaded with electrifying blues, and Wilco Johnson and Dr. Feelgood will get there 5 years later, more or less.

Drowned in the marasma, there's still to say a bit about some blues heavily influenced by George Thorogood, a bit more rhythm&blues, a hint of psychedelia and a touch of indefinable, for good measure.

And this, in simple words, is «Flamingo», year of grace 1970, indeed.

The year before there was «Supersnazz», which sowed the seeds of «Flamingo» but, taken alone, remains a little off the beaten path, even though inside there are some great tracks; even earlier it was the turn of «Sneakers», which sniffed the air and surveyed the ground, but it certainly doesn't foreshadow the monument that is «Flamingo»; afterwards will come the wonder of «Shake Some Action» and other trials of a pure talent, always on the margins of the significant scene.

As if the Flamin Groovies had ever cared about counting.