Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 6-30-1971, Part 3: Flamin' Groovies

Here's the third set from the first day of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set features the band Flamin' Groovies.

In my write-up for the second set, I said I'm going to keep my write-ups short, and mostly rely on Wikipedia information. But this one is different, because it's the only set from these closing of the Fillmore West concerts I previously posted on this blog. So I'm deleting that post and making this new one, but largely keeping the old write-up. This version also has a new cover photo, taken from this exact venue (though on a different date).

In case you're not familiar, (the) Flamin' Groovies were an American rock band that always seemed to have a retro sound, even though they were formed in 1965. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, they had a kind of proto-punk sound reminiscent of the Rolling Stones when they were in their mid-1960s bluesy mode. Then, in 1971, Roy Loney, one of the band's lead vocalists, left the band. He was replaced by Chris Wilson, who led the band in more of a Beatles / power pop direction. Their other lead singer, Cyril Jordan, stayed with both versions of the band. They never had much commercial success, but they're kind of a hidden treasure if you're into rootsy rock and roll.

Here's their Wikipedia page, if you want to know more:

Flamin' Groovies - Wikipedia

There have been a bunch of official live albums by the band, but they're generally either from way past the band's prime or the sound quality is middling at best. One key exception is this concert. It has been officially released at different times under different names: "Slow Death, Live!," "Bucket of Brains," and "The Flamin' Groovies in Person." I'm posting it here because I was able to significantly improve the sound quality by the simple trick of boosting the lead vocals relative to the instruments (using the UVR5 audio editing program).

This seems to be the only soundboard quality live recording of the original line-up of the band. Roy Loney left the band in 1971, but that happened shortly after this concert. It seems the band wasn't high profile and/or wealthy enough to professionally record their concerts. This is a lucky exception, because this comes from a series of concerts marking the closing of the Fillmore West concert venue in San Francisco, that included lots of famous acts like the Grateful Dead, Santana, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. The performances were professionally recorded and broadcast on San Francisco radio stations, including this set by Flamin' Groovies. 

Flamin' Groovies played cover versions more often than not. But they could write very good originals as well. For instance, in my opinion, two of the songs here, "Slow Death" and "Teenage Head," are classic originals that should be much better known. "Road House" and "Doctor Boogie" are also originals, but the rest are covers.

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 I Can't Explain (Flamin' Groovies)
02 Sweet Little Rock and Roller (Flamin' Groovies)
03 talk (Flamin' Groovies)
04 Have You Seen My Baby (Flamin' Groovies)
05 talk (Flamin' Groovies)
06 Road House (Flamin' Groovies)
07 Doctor Boogie (Flamin' Groovies)
08 talk (Flamin' Groovies)
09 Slow Death (Flamin' Groovies)
10 talk (Flamin' Groovies)
11 Shakin' All Over (Flamin' Groovies)
12 talk (Flamin' Groovies)
13 Teenage Head (Flamin' Groovies)
14 Louie, Louie (Flamin' Groovies)
15 Walking the Dog (Flamin' Groovies)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RW7qv8tm

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MpOvtLq3gFsznTF/file

The cover photo comes from a concert at the Fillmore West, but from a different date. Specifically, it's from a concert on May 15, 1970. The version I found was in black and white. But I used the program Kolorize to colorize it.