Teenage Head

Georgia Satellites kind of groove

I mean- with a name like Flamin' Groovies, what else could they be but flamin' and groovy? honestly they're cute and upbeat but rather bland all things considered. my god is this a long album for what is very truly not a ton of substance.

This was a discount led Zeppelin. Some fine moments but utterly forgettable. 2.5/5 -> 3/5

Now this is like a parody of the prototypical album of the list. Be so for real, 1001 albums site. There is nothing I want less right now than to listen to the """Flamin' Groovies""". At least it wasn't super long.

Slur count = 1.

Highlight: 'Yesterday's Numbers'

People, including Mick Jagger himself, say they hear Sticky Fingers on this blues-rock record, but Teenage Head is also adjacent to Safe as Milk. For one, Cyril Jordan is more experimental than Jagger. For another, the blues is the matrix of Teenage Head, not just the base as it is for Sticky Fingers. Finally tho, the Flamin' Groovies are their own thing entirely, a damn good time & an impressive venture into living large & positive. 'But I'm a fool to go on wishing / Might as well go on w/ my fishing.' One hears rumblings of classic rock radio, e.g., Tom Petty, as well as very early furnishings of punk blues via The Jon Spenser Blues Explosion. It's really very, very good. My only grumble is that the production is sometimes thin. Still, quite an album.

First listen. It’s ok. I can only take so much white man blues. I’m also not a fan of the sleaze.

This is honestly just The Rolling Stones.

And given I'm pretty ambivalent on the Stones to begin with aside from their singles, I'm pretty ambivalent on this. And given that the only things of note regarding this album are that Mick Jagger name dropped it as good, and it's on the 1001, this will be added to my list of albums that should be removed from the list.

As I say for all Stones albums, the non-bluesy tracks are good, not huge on the bluesy tracks.

So yeah, decent album, with some garage rock-y moments. But that's all it is.

Yea... old school rock. Gets quite repetitive though

The Rolling Stones if they were completely inoffensive

The Rolling Stones comparisons are all very well, but they're more like a photocopy of a photocopy of a Stones Tribute act.

It's old fashioned foot stompin' good time music.

They take a song like Have You Seen My Baby - which Randy Newman sang on his 12 Songs album with a sort of defeated resignation and turn it into a rollicking barn stormer.

On Evil Hearted Ada they simply channel Elvis's great Mystery Train, only not as well.

Their rewrite of Robert Johnson's mean spirited 32-20 Blues brightens it up and turns down the nastiness, not to its benefit.

Sure it's a good time, but it's no Exile on Main Street.

I’m at a 5.

It just felt fun, really. These guys are obviously pretty technically proficient, especially in their guitar work. The recordings really emphasize the drums to add a lot of kick that cuts through the upper tones, and while I wish the bass had a little more oomph to it, I don’t think it really matters that much, given the nice blues-y rasp that’s often present in Cyril Jordan & Roy Loney’s vocals. I’m focusing on the technical stuff because these guys make it sound so simple, just like the ‘50s artists they’re clearly doing a lighthearted riff on. This feels like a tribute album in a way that still manages to carve out their own niche. I don’t know if Mick Jagger was necessarily right when he said these guys did their modus operandi with “Sticky Fingers” better, but that feels like a hell of a compliment regardless.

It’s very hard to describe why this album works so well because it’s just something you’re meant to feel; there’s an infectious energy to everything. They set up the point of each track lyrically, and then just let the instrumentals & their vocals ride the rest of the way, knowing when to turn up everything in a way that lets each song fly by. The only track that could turn up the tempo a bit more is “City Lights”, but I don’t mind given the yearning in that one. At a certain point, this album kinda coasts lyrically, but at that point, the tracks with a milkman stealing his girl, one threatening to shoot a cheater & a blatant Elvis pastiche have lightened up the mood enough that something as silly as “mow your lawn” or “walk your dog” as nonsensical sexual metaphors is easy to smile at.

“Whiskey Woman” is an especially good closer; there’s a nice CSNY energy to it that clicked for me, and I honestly think the tempo they kick into before the song closes could’ve gone for another few minutes. There’s moments like that throughout the album where their proficiency really kicks up & reveals a punk-ish side that they could’ve tapped into way more often. It’s a mark of a band that knows what they’re doing, & knowing that they’re using it to make tracks that just kinda feel silly, goofy & very human just feels nice.

Hence, a 5. I just found myself really drawn to this one, and it carries a really nice flow throughout. I can think of plenty of worse albums we could’ve gotten for our 1,000th, and getting a welcome surprise like this is exactly what going through the list is all about. I recommend it a lot & I’m very glad it’s on the list.

Rolling Stones vibes, recreating the lost magic of the 50s and early 60s. Old time rock n' roll doesn't really do much for me to be honest.

Out of place in its time, from 1976, and a five year wait from their previous record. This has pop gems on it which feel like the mid 60s meets the mid 70s. Unique and it day and still sounding really solid. Four stars.

fun yeah, not many thoughts about this

My first thought when I saw this pop up was 'this is gonna be awesome' and then I saw that it's actually from 1971 and not from like 2017 and for some reason I think it will be less awesome now. A modern return to 70s rock would be better than a lot of the actual 70s rock, at least for what's on this list. But a Dan Armstrong guitar and a Rickenbacker bass on the cover (not to mention the boots) - there has to be some great stuff on this record, right?
Apparently this gets compared to Sticky Fingers all the time. That's interesting to me because I've always felt like Sticky Fingers is an album that started with a lot of promise but ended up being kind of plain and boring. But yeah I definitely get some Stones vibes from this. Maybe some Iggy Pop thrown in here and there. I think I do like this record better than Sticky Fingers. It's just a better album all around. 3.75/5

La portada me lo ha vendido mucho peor de lo que luego es. Rock ligerito y divertido, alguna canción muy guapa en medio, nada del otro mundo pero entretenido.

If I must hear this before I die then I better live to 300

Listening to Teenage Head, you can really hear all those blues-rock and rockabilly vibes running the show. I totally get why people, Mick Jagger included, compare it to Sticky Fingers; it’s got that raw, sweaty garage feel and plenty of early 70s proto-punk swagger. But honestly, while some people might dig that rough-around-the-edges sound, to me it just feels like a generic rip-off of the bands that actually did it better, especially with all the repetitive riffs and basic blues tropes.

It’s not a completely terrible record, and if these guys were playing in my local dive bar, I'd probably have a good night. But as an essential, must-listen experience, it falls flat and feels entirely skippable. As already said, the similarities to the Rolling Stones are very apparent, except everyone has heard of the Rolling Stones and ain't nobody lamenting about not listening to this average rock album.

It was fine, nothing amazing.

Not a fan of these kinds of blues sounds.