It’s been said of The Flamin’ Groovies that they sounded like the Rolling Stones, had the Stones sworn their allegiance to Sun Records rather than Chess Blues and that seems about right to me.

The Groovies, who started in San Francisco, circa 1965, never really caught on here and moved to England, getting caught up in the brief pre-punk enthusiasm for “pub rock” which saw them lumped together with bands like Dr. Feelgood and Dave Edmunds & Rockpile. By the time punk came around, they were all but forgotten, although they did have a song (“Shake Some Action”) on the Clueless soundtrack that a lot of people seem to know.

Below, The Flamin’ Groovies do their anti-drug anthem, “Slow Death” in 1972. This is pretty amazing, I must say.