Rockin' Rod , Bobby told me he was inspired by Joe Kelley , as they did a lot of dates together on that tour I mentioned , and , he said he loved listening to him play , live. The only then - big name Guitarist he ever mentioned looking up to at teh time was Jeff Beck. Bobby told me , though , that the label brought in studio musicians for parts of "Action" , though , he was improving . No doubt , the whole band was . But , Allen Klein wanted it done his way. Even their post - CP singles show growth , but , they could'nt hit on a formula for another big - selling record.....Even though , now , they're credited for inadvertently creating the classic "Bubblegum" prototype with 'Do Something To Me". With Kasenetz/Katz's help , of course. Bobby , today , of course , is playing on top of his game.....He can throw in these fancy Blues - Rock leads and not detract from the song. Joe Kelley , I've seen once , doing that predictable Hendrix/70's Albert King -style Heavy Blues - Rock. Not bad , for what it was. Better than most of his peers who are still playing in Chicagoland. I don't know how many people were aware of BFTG when the first records came out. I did'nt , personally , see the records (Grossly overpriced , but , I'm not pinning that on Tim) until about 1986. I know I was'nt seeing their hilarious ads ,with Mort Todd's artwork and Tim's hilarious "Everything sucks !'' rants , until around that time , either......I DID'NT START BUYING THEM TIL I MOVED TO CHICAGO , WHERE I COULD GET THEM FOR $8 , but. I'd been aware of 'em for a while. The original "Nuggets " set WAS hard to score , affordably , and I , too , seldom saw the Sire re-issue. I found it with only one record , for about $3 , and bought it anyway , as I had a radio show , and wanted to play some of those songs. It IS hard to describe one's own music , if it's not just a cookie cutter , across the board , copy of an established genre. That's why it's more fun to let people tell you what it reminds them of , and see how close they are. Like , when I first saw Sons of Hercules , I told them , I can hear The Seeds AND Johnny Thunders in your music. They said , you're right on the money.
Rockin Rod Strychnine said:
I'm surprised that Bobby Balderrama would mention Joe Kelley as an influence as both their singles and albums came out roughly at the same time and they really weren't travelling all that much until after the releases. But then again, he probably meant that seeing him play encouraged him just to get better. Bobby's playing grew by leaps and bounds by the time ACTION had come out in 1967. Anyway....I just thought the term "garage punk" was a bit more unique than just "punk rock" so was surprised to find it used on the NUGGETS album. I didn't pick it up until 1996 (a friend had it but I never read the liner notes) as it was for years a very expensive album in its Elektra issue and Sire copies weren't that common in the 80s in Seattle. Crypt's BACK FROM THE GRAVE came out in 1983 so it wasn't that far into the 80s when the phrase became popular again but I didn't pick up on it until 1987 when I bought my first BFTG and saw the catalog that included GARAGE PUNK UNKNOWNS and I didn't start using the term to describe my band until 1991. It didn't even dawn on me to use the term when we started two years earlier because I didn't quite "get" it yet. I'd say we were a sixties style band. People would say "like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones?" So then I'd say "we're a punk band" but then we'd disappoint because we didn't play any Sex Pistols or Clash or Ramones style stuff. "60's style punk band" was confusing to people, but by 1991, Estrus Records and the Mummies were just taking off and then I thought, "wait, a lot of this stuff sounds like Crypt in a way", and then I finally got "Garage Punk" and what it really meant. Been using it ever since.