It’s groundhog day…again…
(from the LP Split, Liberty Records 1971)
Oh, c’mon. It’s February 2. I had to.
The Groundhogs came out of the British blues scene of the 1960s, but by the early ’70s, they were a kind of quirky blend of hard rock and prog with some proto-punk edges. They were a strong influence on some segments of the pub rock and early punk scenes (the Fall covered another song from this album, “Junk Man”), and this song also lent its name directly to my beloved Cherry Red Records label. You’d never guess there was a connection between this slice of wiggy heads-down boogie and the label that epitomized the ’80s twee scene, but there you go. Pop music moves in strange ways.
–Stewart Mason
Stewart said,
February 2, 2007 @ 1:39 pm
Someone asked if the rest of the Groundhogs’ stuff is this good. This song is definitely their pinnacle, but anyone who likes it would likely enjoy both this album and the one that came before, THANK CHRIST FOR THE BOMB (Liberty 1970). Just bear in mind that it *was* the early ’70s, so there’s rather a lot of extended guitar wank.
Incidentally, I forgot to mention my most favorite part of the entire song: in the opening, after Tony McPhee’s initial iteration of the riff, there’s one single — and very loud — cowbell clank. It’s as if the drummer had been planning to add a cowbell track (which actually work really well with that riff) and then decided he couldn’t be arsed.