Roy Loney

Teenage Monster —
California Born and Bred

Interview by John Battles

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     On The Stooges’ song, “Gimme Some Skin,” Iggy yells, “GET FUCKED, BABY!!!” “He might have gotten that from us, because he played on our stage when it said ‘Get Fucked Baby,’ real fuckin’ big. I didn’t know he did that, though, that’s interesting. That song, ‘Roadhouse,’ was originally called ‘Get Fucked, Baby.’ ‘Get Fucked, Baby’ was sort of our slogan for The Flamin’ Groovies. It was on the stage, but you could only see it from the stage, so it was for the bands, pretty much. People could see it from the floor, but it would have been backwards. It was flat on the ground, embossed (in large tile letters) into the ground.”

     In ’71 Kama Sutra released The Flamin’ Groovies – Teenage Head, considered by many fans to be the band’s greatest LP. The album was presented like a movie: The Flamin’ Groovies PRESENT Teenage Head. “Right, it was like a movie, Teenage Head Starring The Flamin’ Groovies.” It has one Loney original, six Loney/Jordan originals and covers of Robert Johnson’s “32-20” and Randy Newman’s “Have You Seen My Baby.” “Doctor Boogie” was from Dr. Ross. The album was, again, produced by Richard Robinson, this time in NYC. “To me, it sort of sounds like Beggar’s Banquet, definitely a Stonesey kind of thing, with a lot of slide and acoustic guitars. It’s definitely a Stones - influenced album. Jim Dickinson was in the studio, he played piano on a couple of tracks, and he was going, ‘Wowww, man, you guys know how to do this thang!’ He’d just come off of working with The Stones, and since we sounded like The Stones, he felt right at home. He said, ‘You guys are the real THANG!’ You know, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band played on that record a lot, too, but they had their name taken off because their manager said it would ‘Reflect badly on them’! (laughs) In the original Thank you’s, I think they’re all in there individually.” The LP is dedicated to (among many others): Zacherle, The Mad Peck, Ed Ward, R. Meltzer, Dave Marsh, Lon Chaney, Tod Browning, The Iguanas, Lilian Roxon, and Kim Fowley. “Teenage Head”/”Evil Hearted Ada” was a non-selling single. The amazing title song (“I’m a child of the atom bomb, of rotten air and Viet Nam”) has a LOT in common with The Stooges’ “Search And Destroy” which wasn’t released until two years later.

     Around the time of Teenage Head, The Groovies were going to play with Gene Vincent. “We met Gene. He was on Buddah at the time. He had decided that he wasn’t going to do rock’n’roll anymore, he was a country act.” Note: While Gene’s two unjustly maligned Buddah LPs leaned towards a country sound, he never really made the transition to country as Jerry Lee Lewis had. “Buddah flew us all down to L.A. for this big party for Sha Na Na at The Whisky, and that’s where we met Gene. He was a very sad man, a very broken man. Very nice, very sweet, but he just seemed kind of sad. He’d bloated up pretty big by that time. We said, ‘We’re on the same label, let’s do a record.’ I think the company was into it, it was just a matter of talking Gene into doing some rock’n’roll, and it just never happened. The Blue Caps play now, you know. I haven’t seen them, but I heard they’re great. I heard they’re like, not tight at all, but they’re just great to watch, they just dive into it head first. I’ve heard great things about the original Comets, too.”

     Teenage Head was the last real Flamin’ Groovies album with Roy Loney. A live gig was recorded at The Fillmore West on 6/30/71 and broadcast on KSAN. It was later released as Slow Death Live in Europe by Lolita and Eva, and later as The Flamin’ Groovies – Bucketfull of Brains (Voxx) with liner notes by Miriam Linna. The one time president of The Flamin’ Groovies Fan Club, Miriam was one of the first writers to really appreciate and write about the band. The group on the live album had James Farrell replacing Tim Lynch, who had been arrested for draft evasion. The great (if lo-fi) show opens with Roy saying “This is a new song. It’s gonna be on our next album. It’s called – ‘Slow Death.’” The excellent intense song (one of the best drug songs even written) was soon recorded by a new line up of Groovies, and was also covered by The Dictators on their Bloodbrothers LP. Not long after that live show in ’72, Loney quit and worked as an A+R man at ABC Records for four years. He helped promote The Ramones (a band he loves), The Dwight Twilley Band and Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers when the label briefly distributed Sire and Shelter. Loney was replaced with singer Chris Wilson (who had been in the band Loose Gravel with James Farrell). Cyril Jordan, the kid of the group, became the leader.