Joe Bonomo's book notes

Largehearted Boy features Joe Bonomo's Book Notes today - a list of ten great songs that the Fleshtones (the subjects of Joe's book Sweat) have covered over the 30-plus years of their SuperRock existence. Here's just a couple of them:

“Cara-Lin,” The Strangeloves (1965)

A lot of people think that “Louie Louie” is the Fleshtones' sonic cornerstone, but “Cara-Lin” has always sounded to me like the one that The Fleshtones wouldn’t exist without. An irresistible hip-swinging groove, funny yell-along words, and an hilarious back-story involving three Jewish guys from New York pretending to be refugees from the Australian outback. Only in the 60s? The Fleshtones have been playing it since they formed.

“Anarchy In The U.K.,” The Sex Pistols (1977)

Historic: The Fleshtones were the first American band to play this song. They learned it from a mix-tape brought over from the U.K. by a friend, a local NYC rock journalist. The Fleshtones worked up a ragged, speedy cover and debuted it at Max’s Kansas City before Never Mind The Bollocks was released in the U.S.

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I've probably said this a million times already, but Joe's book is a great, great piece of American rock'n'roll history. Well worth reading!