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Flamin' Groovies

Teenage Head - Kama Sutra 1971

Tracks: 1. High Flyin' Baby / 2. City Lights / 3. Have You Seen My Baby? / 4. Yesterday's Numbers / 5. Teenage Head / 6. 32-20 / 7. Evil Hearted Ada / 8. Doctor Boogie / 9. Whiskey Woman / 10. Shakin' All Over* / 11. That'll Be the Day* / 12. Louie Louie* / 13. Walkin' the Dog / 14. Scratch My Back / 15. Carol* / 16. Out Theme*

Comments:

I burned hot on the Flamin 'Groovies because of their fine 1976 album "Shake Some Action". That album contains a wealth of fine melodic rock songs written by the group's front figures Cyril Jordan and Chris Wilson. The two subsequent albums "Flamin 'Groovies Now" and "Jumpin' in the Night" are almost as strong, while the following are more uneven and released at longer intervals.

After checking out the group’s more recent output, I wanted to look into their back-catalogue from before Chris Wilson joined. The songwriting team on ”Teenage Head” is now Cyril Jordan and Roy Loney.

The music is, like with the subsequent albums, strongly inspired by British blues rock; especially of The Rolling Stones. It's a really solid album in its genre, though, I somehow feel that there are fewer memorable originals like, on the Sire albums. It is worth emphasizing the strong "Yesterday's Number", which has both a nice melody and great sounding guitars. "Whiskey Woman" is a nice melodic rock ballad and another highlight, while the energetic title song "Teenage Head" has been a longstanding live favorite.

The seven bonus numbers are all covers and show the group as an extremely tight unit with a very good energy. Not much new is added to these classics, though, added a couple may be found a little longwinded. The strongest is their version of "Walking the Dog"

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