FLAMIN' GROOVIES - Supersnazz LP

180 gram vinyl.
Highly recommended.

One of those groups revered for their authentic and passionate rock and roll which seemed to get lost in the sauce of time even though they were sharing stages with the likes of Iggy & The Stooges, the MC5, Mountain, Commander Cody, Boz Scaggs, Cold Blood, Cactus, Mitch Ryder, Sopwith Camel, Barry McGuire and many others. One of the Flamin' Groovies' albums (Teenage Head) is even rumored to have been closely studied (admired?) by none other than Mick Jagger for its pure raunchy rock 'n roll that arguably outshines The Stones' own Exile On Main Street. But this review is about the band's first full length album called Supersnazz which was put out by Epic Records in 1969. A wonderful listen, the album is in some ways a tad disjointed, with slinky covers like "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu" and rockers like Eddie Cochran's "Something' Else." Often seen as one of the precursors to the power pop movement of the mid-late 70s, the reality is that the Flamin' Groovies were mining some of the same blues based boogie rock twists on the jugband flavors many other bands around the world were mixing in to their sound such as The Lovin' Spoonful, Savoy Brown, Badfinger, etc. Some of the songs have an acoustic flavor with Beatle overtones, other tunes such as "The First One's Free." "Pagan Rachel" might have been an B-side outtake from The Kinks Village Green Preservation Society era (1968) with tack piano and campy "ooh la la" refrain.