In this day and age it’s rare to find any further unreleased records from the heyday of the rock era, let alone one from a unknown band that is at the absolute root of a giant rock family tree…but Yep Roc has, and it’s a doozy.
Have you ever heard the band Eggs Over Easy? They are the American group who inadvertently jump started a UK music revolution that culminated in the British punk of The Damned, Elvis Costello, The Clash and Rockpile.
If you admire The Band but wish they weren’t so damn serious, The Eggs are the band for you. Their criminally forgotten Link Wray produced LP “Good and Cheap” released on A&M in 1972 opens: “We’re gonna have a little party/It’s gonna last for a week or two”. Welcome to the pub!
Gigging the Tally Ho, their Kentish Town local, in 1971, their punchy songs, soulful singing and stripped down effect/affectless sound were a breath of fresh air in the land of Yes and Pink Floyd. A whole flock of players, writers, producers and managers that came to dominate pub and punk rock first had their heads turned ’round witnessing the Eggs’ anything-goes mastery and their rapidly swelling audience of punters. Just listen to Nick Lowe testifying how he never truly got over the effect Eggs Over Easy had on him.
I’ll never truly get over the effect the Eggs have had on me, either. In 2006, I learned that original member Jack O’Hara gigged regularly at BB King’s in Times Square. I looked in the paper. There he was. I drove down to the gig and was seated for dinner. There he was. I said hi and there was that same beautiful bass voice I knew from the “Good and Cheap” song “Arkansas”. He said we’d catch up after the show and went up on the stage and proceeded to lay down three subtly smoking hours of Jimmy Reed, Jimi Hendrix and Santo and Johnny.
But my life wasn’t filled with anywhere near enough Eggs Over Easy music. “Good and Cheap” had been reissued on CD once in the UK but there was so much more that so few had ever heard: the unreleased Chas Chandler debut record “London ’71”, “I’m Gonna Put a Bar In My Car and Drive Myself to Drink” b/w “Horny Old Lady”, a punk-as-fuck single released on Buffalo Records in 1976, and 1981’s “Fear of Frying”, a record that ranged from home recorded madness to Big Star/Steely Dan shimmer. I knew that someday some smart record company would set the record straight and get this largely unreleased/unheard trove of music on the shelves.
That day has come. Today Yep Roc is righting the wrongs of forty years of music business oversight with one big, beautiful package (double CD or triple vinyl).
Do yourself a favor, check this release out. It’s some of the greatest American music I have ever heard. It’s funny, it’s sad, its reverent, it’s irreverent. It’s the whole ball of wax. It swings and stomps. It is stripped down and dressed in the richest harmony three fellas could create. I love it. It’s spare, it’s snappy, it’s straight ahead. It’s good and cheap. It has a warmth of spirit that radiates inclusiveness so open that anything could happen and everyone was invited……even Sid Vicious.
a href=”http://yeproc.11spot.com/eggs-over-easy-good-n-cheap-the-eggs-over-easy-story-pre-order-6-24.html” target=”_blank”>Good N’ Cheap: The Eggs Over Easy Story (Yep Roc)