Flamin' Groovies - A Bucket of Brains - Non-Album Tracks (1971-1973)

I've been meaning to post more from Flamin' Groovies, but I have so much music to post that I never seem to get around to it. (Apparently they don't use the "the" in their name, though that's how I think of them.) I've only posted one concert so far. I have a series of stray tracks albums to post, but I haven't readied the cover art and such. Here's one I do have all ready to go though, so I'm going to post it a little out of order. 

 

Flamin' Groovies had a few fairly successful years, from about 1968 to 1971. But they had two leaders, Roy Loney and Cyril Jordan. Loney left in 1971, disenchanted by the music business and the failure of the band to break big. He was replaced by Chris Wilson, who became the new main lead singer. This bad would find more moderate success in the later 1970s, especially with the song "Shake Some Action," which would become an all-time power pop classic. But in the early 1970s, they had some lean years. This album roughly corresponds to that time.

Around the time the band lost Loney, they also lost their record contract. They signed to a new record company in 1972, and released two singles, "Slow Death" and "Married Woman." "Slow Death" in particular should have been a big hit. I love that song. It really should be considered a classic too, but not enough people know about it. It didn't even make the charts because it contained the word "morphine," so the BBC and other radio stations banned it. The band was planning to put out an album called "A Bucket of Brains," but after the two singles failed to gain any traction, their contract was cancelled.

It turns out the band did record a fair amount of songs in the 1971 to 1973 time frame, with many of them produced by British rocker Dave Edmunds. That included a 1973 version of "Shake Some Action," though in my opinion the longer version released in 1976 that would eventually be considered a classic is significantly better. Different versions of these songs would be released decades later, under the album names "A Bucket of Brains," "The Rockfield Session," and "Slow Death." I've compiled them all together here, and it's a good length for an album.

Here's a Wikipedia link that tells the story about this album that failed to exist at the time, here:

A Bucket of Brains - Wikipedia

 

I've added two bonus tracks. These are unreleased. They come from a French TV show where the band was filmed playing live in the studio, with no audience. The sound quality is excellent. However, they're different versions of songs already on the album, so that's why they're only bonus tracks.

 

This album is 48 minutes long, not including the two bonus tracks.

01 Slow Death (Flamin' Groovies)
02 Tallahassee Lassie (Flamin' Groovies)
03 Married Woman (Flamin' Groovies)
04 A Shot of Rhythm and Blues (Flamin' Groovies)
05 Little Queenie (Flamin' Groovies)
06 Sweet Little Rock and Roller (Flamin' Groovies)
07 Let Me Rock (Flamin' Groovies)
08 Dog Meat (Flamin' Groovies)
09 Blues from Phyllis (Flamin' Groovies)
10 Jumpin' Jack Flash (Flamin' Groovies)
11 Shake Some Action [1973 Version] (Flamin' Groovies)
12 When I Heard Your Name (Flamin' Groovies)
13 Roll Over Beethoven (Flamin' Groovies)

Little Queenie [French TV Version] (Flamin' Groovies)
Slow Death [French TV Version] (Flamin' Groovies)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16670410/FLAMNGROVIS1971-1973ABucktoBrans_atse.zip.html

The album cover is based on the 1972 single of the song "Slow Death." I removed the name of the B-side near the bottom, and changed the words "Slow Death" to "A Bucket of Brains" in the exact same location as the original.