Flamin' Groovies
Now

You made three albums steeped in the basic moods of rock 'n' roll and blues that only the Rolling Stones could match; the first is called «Supersnazz» and it's a good album, next comes «Fandango» (excellent), the third on the list – «Teenage Head» – is a masterpiece that blows you away.

And with hindsight, much hindsight, everyone declares that punk owes everything or almost everything to «Raw Power» and «Teenage Head».

It's obvious that you sold heaps of those three albums, and now you're lounging by the pool in your villa in San Francisco, bay view, enjoying all those crisp dollars flowing abundantly from every mattress and cushion.

Then you wake up and find yourself, as always, having to scrape by to put the scattered pieces back together.

Because you're one of the Groovies and Roy left you, shouting that he can't bear the tide of indifference surrounding you anymore.

Because when you, in San Francisco, play «Teenage Head», San Francisco is infatuated with Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead, and as much as you want to be the first and only and greatest rock 'n' roll band in San Francisco, what do those bongo-playing hippies know about what rock 'n' roll innards are like and what they smell like.

Fact is, at least, you're able to piece the fragments back together: Roy out, Chris in.

Chris is a genius.

Guys, what does it take? If trying to out-Stone the Stones hasn't brought home the bacon, just start doing the Beatles, trust me.

Done and done, our guys churn out something called «Shake Some Action», one of the most astonishing guitar riffs in the history of rock – something like «Marquee Moon» and little else, to be clear – and all around a knockout album that, while keeping its roots firmly planted somewhere between Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry, sets its sights on both the infamous St. Pauli district in Hamburg and Liverpool and the Cavern Club, essentially those Beatles there, the ones who, before wrecking their brains with mental gimmicks and abstruse philosophies, demolished instruments with merseybeat, exported it to the United States, and invented garage music.

It's 1976, the debut stride of the Ramones positioning a well-placed barrel of gunpowder and a fuse long, very long, really long, someone takes the trouble to unroll it right to the last millimeter and it's so long that it reaches London, on December 31, 1977, Dee Dee begins to count one, Johnny takes out the lighter, two, hands it to Tommy who starts to flick it, three, and passes it to Joey, four, and when the flame hits the fuse, everything explodes.

Now, you created that music from nothing, when you played «Teenage Head» those punks Dee Dee and his brothers didn't even have an idea how to form an A chord on the guitar, and now they piss on «Shake Some Action» and the Beatles because the toilets at CBGB are too much even for them.

Chris is a genius.

As are the bigwigs at Sire, who call in the Groovies and offer them a slot, while in a secluded corner those four ruffians position a barrel and fuse, utterly indifferent to the Groovies and the bigwigs who dole out pocket money.

Now, if in 1976 at Sire, just to say, there are Dead Boys, Richard Hell with the Voidoids, Ramones, Talking Heads, when it comes to betting on a name, who does good old Seymour bet on?

Exactly, anyone but the Groovies.

Who, for their part, take a sabbatical year, lest they end up in the punk whirlpool and someone remembers «Teenage Head»?

And we find ourselves in 1978.

The punks whined, screamed, and shouted for a season, and then it was all over.

The Groovies, instead, are still there, eager to try again, «Shake Some Action» slid into indifference but it can't rain forever, Chris boldly asserts, the new songs are amazing, 1978 is our year, I feel it, and he boards the plane with the others headed to Wales, to Dave's house.

Let's not change a comma from «Shake Some Action».

«Now» is the twin of «Shake Some Action», but for some freak of nature, it arrived two years late, so it's the junior.

In the non-figurative sense, for many, too many, it's already something if you have a copy of «Shake Some Action» on the shelf, don't even think of putting «Now» next to it to collect dust and mold, with all that post-alt-nu goodness swirling around every corner.

Yes, but…

But «Now» is yet another, beautiful, passionate, and engrossing Groovies album and the only concession I make is that it's minor because it has one less «Shake Some Action» than the major one.

Yes, but…

But when I lower the needle on the first groove of side a, the most beautiful «Feel A Whole Lot Better» I've ever heard pierces me, goodbye to the Byrds too, I stake my claim.

But when the needle scratches the last grooves on side b, there's that «There's A Place» I wish would never end, and when it starts to fade, I start turning up the volume knob, higher and higher, like Mike with the grappa.

Byrds and Beatles, and Chris is a genius.

And then the Stones.

One, lesser-known, «Blue Turns To Grey»; two, famous, «Paint It Black», I put my hand in the fire for the Byrds, I'd put it back for the Stones too and goodbye to them too.

And then, between explosive reinterpretations of Paul Revere and Cliff Richard, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis, that seem to bring everything back home, when Roy was still part of the gang, because «Now» will make a splash and Roy will have what's Roy's; in the midst of it all are the original songs.

There's a «Between The Lines», a «Take Me Back», and even a «Good Laugh Mun» that could be on any major album by the Beatles or the Byrds and turn into classic jingle jangle and no one would have anything to say.

There's a «Yeah My Baby», a «All I Wanted», and a «Don't Put Me On» that are sparkling rock 'n' roll in the style of any Chris Montez.

What do you know about who Chris Montez is, if you never gave a chance to those four ruffians who pissed on «Shake Some Action»?

Immense Groovies.

Who are Cyril Jordan, Mike Wilhelm, and Chris Wilson, voices and guitars, George Alexander on bass and David Wright on drums. And Dave Edmunds who plays piano and sings, produces and even provides the house and the victuals.

And anyway, they're all geniuses, not just Chris.

Chris, perhaps, is just a little more of a genius than the others and will prove it once the Groovies' story concludes, finding well-deserved fame and glory in the ranks of the Barracudas.