Doctor Feelgood: heroes of pre-punk, or the Canvey Quo?

i can't stop listening to "She Does it Right"

This was my Rough Guide to Pub-Rock on one of those Rough Guides threads:

Win Or Lose - Lew Lewis Reformer
Water - Roogalator
Another Useless Day - Black Claw
Back In The Night - Dr. Feelgood
What Have We Got To Lose - Bees Make Honey
Fireball - Tyla Gang
Coast To Coast - Ducks De Luxe
You Really Got Me - Hammersmith Gorillas
So It Goes - Nick Lowe
Between The Lines - The Pink Fairies
Girls Are Always Right - Any Trouble
Train Train - Count Bishops
Alright With Me - Jook
Romeo and The Lonely Girl - Ernie Graham
Reconnez Cherie - Wreckless Eric
Day Job - Meal Ticket

For me there were two strands to pub-rock.

1) The west-coast/country rock type of thing (Eggs Over Easy, Bees Make Honey, Brinsley etc). This was around from about 70-71.

2) Harder edged R&B based stuff that came through in 73-74 (Count Bishops, Hot Rods, Dr.Feelgood, Gorillas also maybe some of the street-rock bands like Pink Fairies could be lumped in here)

1975 was the pivotal year when the country rock thing started to sound old things really hardened up. Nick Lowe migrated from category 1 to 2, as did Brinsley and Bob Andrews with The Rumour. Early Graham Parker is still pretty Van Morrison/Springsteen-ish though - I was listening to a singles comp last night - I reckon the Jack Nitzsche productions are his best work. Discovering Japan and Local Girls are fantastic. Oh...and Protection's a great single too.

That's a good Spotify list. Downliner's Sect are an interesting bunch - first album was in 1964 then reappeared and fell in with the pub-rock circuit in the mid 70's. They're still going and quite often play in a pub/club near me (The Eel Pie Club).

Thanks, Dr.C. Good to see you're still around. Wish I could have put something from the first Ducks Deluxe album on the Spotify list; I'd probably have gone for Coast To Coast. That "I Fought The Law" cover doesn't represent them at their best, but it does show where Joe Strummer probably got his inspiration from for the Cost Of Living EP. That 1977 Downliners Sect single came out on the Raw label, which was run from my local record shop in Cambridge. It sat oddly amongst the rest of the label's punk-based roster. Count Bishops "Teenage Letter" still sounds completely fantastic; had forgotten just how good it was.

Yes, I'd forgotten that Raw single. There was a Gorillas single on Raw too IIRC.

what a great thread this has become, and ta mike t-d for clearing up the "pub rock = shit" dilemma, as i have to confess, i have fallen under this misapprehension myself, but clearly i need to fire up spotify and check that playlist out.

Raw Records put out quite a few non-punk releases IIRC, a few rockabilly reissues and the like.

xpost There was a 1977 re-release on Raw of the Gorillas 1974 cover of "You Really Got Me", then Raw put out an album and a couple more singles in 1978. The album's on Spotify, as is "You Really Got Me".

Don't remember any rockabilly reissues on Raw, but it would make sense as the shop it was run from was called Remember Those Oldies. It was a bit like the Rock On/Chiswick set-up, but on an even smaller scale. Raw also put out the debut Soft Boys EP, and Kevin Rowland's debut effort with The Killjoys.

RAW-12 Danny Wild & the Wildcats: Mean Evil Daddy / Old Billy Boogie / 200 Miles -78

I've got this one, found it in Oxfam for 15p.

Must dig out my Raw recds singles compilation. Killjoys are on it, as are Acme Sewage Company!
And Some Chicken + The Users of course.

I have been recently trying to persuade J.Hector to sing on a track, for a new project involving various guest vocalists. He maintains that he has now finally retired from the music biz!

Pub rock had that semi-revival in the early 80s, with bands from that novelty country scene, like Yip Yip Coyote, appearing on bills with Boothill Foottappers and the Blubbery Hellbellies. The latter were interviewed in one of the inkies and asked to defend themselves against the accusation of being pub rock. "What's the problem? Everyone goes to pubs. Everybody likes rock," was the reply.

xpost Yeah, just found a full Raw catalogue list and there's far more revivalist and non-punk stuff on there than I remember:

http://www.hiljaiset.sci.fi/punknet/labels/raw_e.htm

Weird, 'cos I used to visit that shop at least twice a week, for small label punk releases and its wide array of fanzines in the back room. Must have had my year-zero blinkers on!

I have a lot to thank that shop for. All the early Stiff releases, right from the start; Sniffin' Glue from the first issue (I started buying it from #3 onwards); the imported Pere Ubu Hearthan singles, etc etc.

Oh, way upthread there was a post about Mick Green surely being an influence on Wilko. Saw last night when reading inlay cards that Going Back Home (as posted upthread) was a Johnson-Green cowrite. So he was more than an influence ...

RAW-12 Danny Wild & the Wildcats: Mean Evil Daddy / Old Billy Boogie / 200 Miles -78

I've got this one, found it in Oxfam for 15p.

― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 12:05 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I have John Peel playing this on his show, on cassette.

x-post Oyeh from DBTJ was a Mick Green tune too.

mike t-diva and Dr. C, we could have used you on the Graham Parker thread the other day.

Which is here, in case you're interested: Graham Parker C/D

Butbutbut I posted to the Graham Parker thread in 2005 already!

Oh yeah, I saw that. I guess you're off the hook.

But you didn't comment on the hot button issue of The Up Escalator.

Ah, well, y'see, GP and I parted company after the Pink Parker EP. My interests were moving in different directions by then.

While we're on the wider subject of pub rock individuals ... is Bram Tchaikovsky worth checking out further? I really like Girl of my Dreams, which I've got on one of the Poptopia comps, and I was very impressed with the Motors on that Guitar Heroes thing on BBC4 the other day.

We have the Girl Of My Dreams EP and I was curious about the album and saw it used cheap somewhere while I was with the wife, who's a bit of a power pop afficionado, but she said not to bother buying it because it's crap.

At least a couple Bram T LPs are marginally worth $1 if you can find them for that price; Strange Man Changed Man (the one w/ "Girl Of My Dreams") a bit better than Funland from 1981. (Apparently there were at least two others, though that might just mean different titles in the US and UK.) A couple Motors LPs are better than either. (Think I discussed those somehwere on this board a year or three back.)

The famous Rolling Stone Record Guide -- the red version -- I seem to recall famously saying of the
album that it sounded like band setting the stage for a singer who never appears. Which was cruel but funny, even though it totally misses what Lee Brilleaux was doing. xhuxk still has a copy of the red book so he could check.

"Simple to an extreme, these Britons emulate but fail to match the early R&B-influenced exploits of groups like the Rolling Stones. Their LPs sound like sparse backing for a lead musician who never appears. -- C.W."

I need to catch up with the rest of this thread someday. I like both Feelgood albums I've got (Malpractice and Sneakin' Suspicion) but not necessarily more than my Bishops and Eddie & Hot Rods LPs. Don't understand the claim that the Feelgoods packed more punch.

btw, this is a really good two-disc / 49=song pub-rock compilation CD from a few years back:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Goodbye-Nashville-Hello-Camden-Town/dp/B000MTOSD4

And two related threads (which get fairly informative, I recall):

Origins of Pub Rock

Pub Rock

these Britons emulate but fail to match the early R&B-influenced exploits of groups like the Rolling Stones

Yeah, see, this is total bullshit. I'd rather listen to the first two Feelgood albums and the live album than anything the Stones did pre-1969.

I find that a whole album of Feelgood - even a greatest hits - is too much. Though that may be the result of all the Feelgood I have being 80 minute comps, rather than a taut 35-minute album, with a break halfway through to change sides. A band who were made for vinyl above all formats ...

Wow, those youtube clips and the trailer for the doc have made me completely rethink a band I guess I had completely written off unfairly. Thanks!

Those youtube clips are quite cool. I checked out the clips and am giving the UA Years Singles compilation a shot.

I also went out and checked out some Eddie & The Hot Rods and ordered their first two albums.

Thanks ILM!

I can't stop listening to "she does it right" and "roxette" - but hearing the whole first record it's pretty hard to escape the bar-band/blueshammer baggage of all the blues and r&b covers and rewrites. Maybe it's unfair to them, but even a great take on Route 66 is still Route 66 is still Route 66. Nothing wrong with that really but at this point in my life anyway, pretty hard to get all that jazzed about. The doc does look great though - the tag line "the best local band in the world" seems very apt - and again, those youtube clips are mesmerizing.

Another great clip from that Kursaal show, married to a good song ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvCRKJc8xF4

very nice, indeed. the guitar play and the singing match perfectly. they are both really raw in a primitive, tribal kind of way. one of the great half forgotten english bands of the seventies. they beat about any punk band in terms of power and rawness. except early joy division maybe. the difference to punk was that punk usually was a lot faster and less rooted in african rhythm music.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jan/21/pub-rock-dr-feelgood

Blimey, you're quick!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiLlKq8uUWM

there was a lovely interview on radio 2, sounds of the seventies yesterday with wilko.

http://thequietus.com/articles/03658-oil-city-confidential-dr-feelgood-wilko-johnson-and-a-spot-of-word-association-review-and-interview

Dr. Feelgood has become synonymous with pub-rock. The band became the movement’s most visible and successful act, and its slashing, choppy, pick-less guitarist Wilko Johnson has been cited as an inspiration by everyone from Joe Strummer to Paul Weller, whose first album with The Jam, In The City, bears a strong pub-rock influence. The only problem: Dr. Feelgood’s music is actually pretty damn bad. Bland, brittle, and mechanical, it sounds like blues-rock pumped out by technicians rather than musicians. The energy and chops are evident on hit albums like 1975’s Malpractice and 1977’s Sneakin’ Suspicion, but even the group’s live record, Stupidity—which hit No. 1 on the UK charts in 1976—lacks anything resembling wit, personality, or memorable songs. After a dose of Dr. Feelgood’s tuneless, monochrome R&B, it’s a surprise most listeners didn’t go running for the nearest Yes album. It’s a sad irony that the most prominent pub-rock band is the last one newcomers should check out—not that they really need to bother at all.

Which arsehole wrote that?

Terrible misjudgment by that writer on the AV Club. It's not that I particularly like Feelgood, but the writer is completely missing the point of what their purpose was, and why they endured. And hasn't bothered looking at the live footage they link to.

Who cares what their purpose was, they came out 35 years ago. I listen to music cuz it's good, not for its "purpose" or historical import or the context it was made in. Only one question: does it sound good to me? And I've never heard these guys, so I have no dog in the fight.

I think you would like them bill

Based on your recommendation, I will give them a shot!

start with Down By The Jetty

Well, if no one cared what Feelgood "meant" then they certainly wouldn't have endured, so in this case it is relevant - see MikeTD's posts upthread.

Really? Maybe they would have endured cuz the music sounded good. Which I dont know, because I havent taken Herm's recommendation yet.

I don't listen to anything in 2010 just because it may have meant something or had some cultural impact in '72 or '82 or whatever, when I was 2 and 12 respectively. I listen to it because it sounds good to my ears. And because I've never heard Dr. Feelgood, once I do, it's like it was just recorded yesterday to me and I'll judge it that way. Mind you, this is coming from a guy whose favorite decade in terms of what I listen to is overwhelmingly the 1970's.

Everyone says Down by the Jetty is the best Dr. Feelgood album, but I also like Malpractice and the live album, Stupidity, a lot. I think I like Malpractice better than DBTJ, in fact. The one thing I will say against them is that the songs Wilko Johnson sings are usually major momentum-sappers. He just doesn't have anywhere near the vocal aggression of Lee Brilleaux.

I can see that, Wilko is all about the guitar really. I don't think the albums really do him justice but if you squint you can hear him slashing the fuck out of that guitar

Oil City Confidential is available on iplayer and is fecking fantastic http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00s2y91/Oil_City_Confidential_Dr_Feelgood/ someone should give Wilko Johnson his own show, absolutely fascinating, funny, mesmerising individual.

Finally watched Oil City Confidential last night and am instantly in love with this lot. Temple's best film by far.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Through-City-With-Wilko-1974-1977/dp/B0076WFTS8/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1332076784&sr=1-1

I assume this is pretty much all the essential material by the band Dr Feelgood. With the exception of the Oil City Confidential documentary.
& whatever bootlegs from the Wilko era are around.

Think i might finally indulge in buying something by them. Not sure why i haven't already. Did enjoy the doc when I caught it on BBC4 or whatever.

300ft GOLD LEE BRILLEAUX

http://focalpoint.org.uk/e-petition/