1971 50th Anniversary: Teenage Head - The Flamin' Groovies

Here's another album in the short series of albums that have reached their 50th Anniversary this year. This time round it's Teenage Head by The Flamin' Groovies, released in March 1971 by Kama Sutra Records in the USA and Buddah Records in France. It didn't get released in the UK until August 1971 but not as a stand alone album, rather it was packaged as a Double Album with their 1970 album 'Flamingo' (see picture below) with the title 'Flamin' Groovies'.

The Flamin' Groovies are one of those bands that never really fitted in because either their sound was too dated (Rock 'n' Roll), too rough (Garage Rock) or ahead of its time (Power Pop) and it's hard to put them in one particular bracket because they were the square pegs in the round holes and even managed to find themselves closely associated with the American Punk/New Wave scene from 1976. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were also clearly part of their influences.

Teenage Head was their third studio album, though you would never really know that was the title of the album as neither the band name or album title appeared on the front cover or on the labels of the record. On the back cover it says, "Kama Sutra Records Presents The Flamin Groovies in Teenage Head".

All songs written by Cyril Jordan and Roy A. Loney except '32-20' (Robert Johnson, new lyrics by Roy A. Loney), Evil Hearted Ada (Loney) and 'Have You Seen My Baby?' (Randy Newman).

1. High Flyin' Baby

2. City Lights

3. Have You Seen My Baby? (this was released as a single)

4. Yesterdays Numbers

1. Teenage Head (This was released as a single in the UK when the Double Album, 'Flamin' Groovies' was relased in August 1971

2. 32-20

3. Evil Hearted Eva

4. Doctor Boogie

5. Whisky Woman

Teenage Head finally got a British release on Vinyl (with the original artwork) in 1988 on the Dojo label.

Teenage Head has been reprinted a few times on vinyl sice its 1971 release. In France it was released on CD for the first time and Big Beat Records in the UK Reissued it with five bonus tracks in 1990 (see picture above). Buddah Records Remastered the album in 1999 with an additional seven bonus tracks (see picture below).

The album might not have had the cultural impact or even the chart impact of other releases from 1971 but it's still a highly regarded album 50 years later.

1971 50th Anniversary: Dave Mason & Cass Elliot - Dave Mason & Cass Elliot (Blue Thumb Records)

I have been watching the Documentary Series 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything recently, well worth watching I think. I was only seven years old as the year began and hit my eighth birthday in May. I can't say that I really was aware of the place of music in the world at the time as I probably only knew about music from what I heard on the radio and what I saw on TV (back when there were only three TV stations - BBC1, BBC2 and ITV). It got me thinking about albums that were released that year, many of which I heard for the first time years later or because my Mum & Dad or my eldest sister might have had a particular album from the time.

Some of the albums that will be celebrating their 50th Anniversary this year are: Pearl - Janis Joplin, ZZ Top's First Album - ZZ Top, Tapestry - Carole King, Crazy Horse - Crazy Horse, Songs of Love and Hate - Leonard Cohen, Percy - The Kinks, L.A. Woman - The Doors, Thin Lizzy - Thin Lizzy, War - War, Ram - Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney, What's Going On - Marvin Gaye, Every Picture Tells A Story - Rod Stewart, Man In Black - Johnny Cash, Tarkus - Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Blue - Joni Mitchell, At Fimore East - The Allman Brothers Band, Who's Next - The Who, New Riders of the Purple Sage - New Riders of the Purple Sage, Imagine - John Lennon, Electric Warrior - T.Rex, 200 Motels - Frank Zappa, Tupelo Honey - Van Morrison, Madman Across The Water - Elton John, Led Zeppelin IV - Led Zeppelin, Black Moses - Issac Hayes, People Like Us - The Mamas and The Papas, Hunky Dory - David Bowie, John Prine - John Prine, Soul Revolution – Bob Marley & The Wailers to name but a few.

I want to focus on a couple of albums in the coming days that maybe were not as widely known at the time and today's choice is one that I didn't even know existed until yesterday evening. It's by Dave Mason & Cass Elliot (pictured above) and was released in March 1971 (recorded in 1970) on Dave Mason's own label Blue Thumb Records in the States and Probe in the UK.

Cass Elliot had released two Solo records and Dave Mason had been a part of Traffic from 1967-69, releasing three albums with them. Following his 1970 debut album 'Alone Together' he teamed up with Cass Elliot to record this album.

While sharing equal billing on the title of the album and also on Production duties Cass is mainly restricted to backing vocals. Mason wrote five of the songs on the album, while Elliot co-wrote two: the single "Something to Make You Happy" and her only solo song on the album, "Here We Go Again". This was the first time that Elliot lent her hand in songwriting since her days with The Big 3 and The Mugwumps, and also the last.

1. Walk To The Point

2. On and On

3. To Be Free

4. Here We Go Again

5. Pleasing You

1. Sit and Wonder

2. Something To Make You Happy

3. Too Much Truth, Too Much Love

4. Next To You

5. Glittering Façade

As this is so new to my ears I'm going to spend some more time listening. I like what I've heard so far. Seeing as the CD and LP are both unavilable I purchased the MP3 Download from Amazon this morning.