Written as an homage to the Wilko Johnson era of Dr. Feelgood, these singles were released digitally on May 10 (Lee Brilleaux’s birthday). You can download them here.
“I Don’t Get It” takes me back to the days of rock n’ roll when you grabbed the boy (or girl) and pulled him (or her) onto the dance hall. It has that great vibe of days gone by, with some cool guitar licks and a pace of delivery (running at just over 2 minutes) that means it passes by in the blink of an eye. Soundwise, I always quite liked “One after 909,” a throwaway Lennon composition, and this one took me there! Catchy chorus, positive vibe—there you go!
“1975” – “Yes, sir, I can boogie, but I need a certain song” – and just maybe this could be the song. It is really hard to listen to this track and not have the desire to get your skirt on and dance around the room, to the utter dismay of the cat! There are some classic grooves, and you can just hear the guitar shouting out how happy it is to be alive and entertaining. “Never lost that rhythm since 1975,” they sing, and they haven’t, that’s for sure; they’ve got it.
In summary, you are in safe hands here, these guys are established music demons and create positive vibe songs that got me in the mood to dance around the kitchen! Thoroughly enjoyable music to enjoy.
To give you the background to these tracks, I will first let John Simpson explain how the two songs mark a return to his rhythm and blues roots.
“In early 2013, I had the idea to put together The Feelgood Band and play the music of the Wilko Johnson era, Dr.Feelgood. Then, almost as if fate decreed, in July 2013, Fender released a limited run of 400 “Wilko Johnson” signature replicas. I duly bought one, and little did I know that within two years I would be playing that Telecaster with Wilko watching on. He told me I was “more Wilko than Wilko.” I was flattered to be told I was even somewhere close to the man himself. Within a couple of months, Wilko had jumped on stage with the band, played my Wilko Telecaster, and signed it. I left the band after 10 years, while the guitar, which had played upwards of 250 gigs, was put to rest. Not long after Wilko passed, I was telling Pete about the guitar, and he mentioned the band’s 10th anniversary.
Pete Feenstra takes over at this point,
“I asked John if he still played his Tele, and he mumbled, Not really, but then he added; “I can’t resist the urge to give it some Wilko occasionally.” So the germ of an idea was born. We’d only done pop stuff up to this point, and I thought it would be interesting to explore a new style of writing. “I Don’t Get It” happened very quickly. I scribbled it on a south London train one morning, John cut it in the afternoon, and then took a day to research his collage of photos, including Wilko Johnson, Dean Kennedy, Will Birch, Lew Lewis, French Henri, and Malcolm Wilkinson. John Sparkes. “1975” took longer as I was trying to lyrically match John’s intense, choppy guitar lines to evoke the era of the time. I was amazed by how much we could cram into just over 2 minutes.”
By Stevie Ritson
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