The Flamin' Groovies: Shake Some Action (2LP, 50th anniversary, Spirit of '76 campaign) [RHINO]

Why you'll love it

This 50th anniversary deluxe 2LP set adds a full disc of alternate mixes, session outtakes and a live set from The Roxy in Hollywood on August 12, 1976, all heard here for the first time. Pitchfork praised the album's "effortless pop perfection."

This edition

• 2LP set
• 50th anniversary deluxe edition
• Remastered
• Gatefold jacket
• Fold-out photo and liner notes insert
• Pressed in the USA
• Stereo mix

About the album

Few bands have reinvented themselves as thoroughly as the Flamin' Groovies did after a five-year break. With Roy Loney gone and Cyril Jordan now steering, the San Francisco band traded their blues and rockabilly roots for a gleaming, guitar-led sound that looked straight back to the British Invasion, and they dressed the part too, in velvet-collared three-piece suits and Cuban heels.

Dave Edmunds produced at Rockfield Studios in Wales, and the title track, cut back in 1972, became the band's defining moment, a chiming, yearning rush of guitars that AllMusic called a brilliant evocation of British rock circa 1966. "You Tore Me Down" came from those same early sessions, "I Can't Hide" and "Yes It's True" are pure jangling joy, and covers of "St. Louis Blues," "She Said Yeah" and "Misery" show where their hearts lay. The bonus disc digs out alternate mixes, a version of "Sweet Little Sixteen" and a Roxy set that tears through "Under My Thumb" and "Please Please Me."

Newly based in England, the band found themselves lined up alongside the Ramones and the Sex Pistols as punk took off, and the record went on to shape American power pop for decades. The album title comes from a line in the 1965 war film None but the Brave, which is the sort of research we can respect.

Also at Kops: more The Flamin' Groovies on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Sire / Rhino (cat# R1 728815), a reissue of the 1976 album.