In 2007 Tony McPhee once again put a working band together for live concerts. To date the band is still working fronted by Tony McPhee despite having had a stroke.
During the early 1970s, The Groundhogs were among the most popular and successful groups in the UK, with three Top 10 LPs to their credit in under two years. Originally formed circa 1964 (and first known as The Dollar Bills before becoming John Lee's Groundhogs, to reflect their admiration for John Lee Hooker), the group was led by singer/songwriter/lead guitarist Tony (T.S.) McPhee. The first version of the group lasted about a year, after which McPhee joined Truth, who had released a UK Top 30 hit in early 1966 with a cover version of 'Girl', the Lennon & McCartney song from the 'Rubber Soul' album by The Beatles, before McPhee joined. They followed it up later in 1966 with another near-hit, a cover version of 'I Go To Sleep', a song written by Ray Davies of The Kinks, on which McPhee did play, but soon dispersed. From there, he briefly joined Boz & The Boz People (led by Boz Burrell, later of King Crimson and Bad Company), and then Herbal Mixture (with John Dummer - McPhee also worked with John Dummer's Blues Band, and appeared on their debut LP, 'Cabal', in 1968). And even before all that, he had turned down the chance to replace Eric Clapton in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, when Clapton went off on his legendary trip to Greece in the Summer of 1965...
In 1968, Roy Fisher, the manager of the early incarnation of The Groundhogs, was working as a photographer, and in that guise, went to Liberty Records, where he met Andrew Lauder, then a young A&R man for the label. Lauder told Fisher that if The Groundhogs could be reassembled, he would sign the group and they could make an LP. McPhee instantly agreed, and contacted bass player Pete Cruickshank, who had been in the original Groundhogs, and had also worked with McPhee in Herbal Mixture, and with the addition of drummer Ken Pustelnik and harmonica player Steve Rye, the group re-formed in 1968, when they released their debut LP, 'Scratching The Surface' (now reissued on BGOCD 15).
The producer of that album was Mike Batt, later the man behind the remarkable success of The Wombles. For the second Groundhogs LP in 1969, 'Blues Obituary' (with which the band tried to distance themselves from their image as a blues band, hence the album title), McPhee was the producer, and the considerably increased sales of that album (now re-issued as BGOCD 6) brought the band (now a three-piece, after Steve Rye's departure) to the brink of fame.
The LP which actually achieved that milestone was 'Thank Christ For The Bomb', released in 1970, which peaked in the Top 10 of the UK album chart. In 1997, McPhee recalled the circumstances behind the album with the attention-grabbing title, which ran against fashionable philosophy at the time (although some say that fearsome weapons like the Atom Bomb and the Hydrogen Bomb are the major reason for it being over 50 years since the last World War). McPhee refuses to take the entire credit for this revolutionary theory, admitting: "Well, it was forced on me a bit". Roy Fisher suggested that McPhee should think of something controversial for the new LP. "John Lennon had just made his famous quote about The Beatles being more popular than Christ, and everyone was up in arms. So Roy said 'Let's marry it up with the bomb. How about 'Thank Christ For The Bomb?'. So I went home and I had to write these lyrics, and my initial thoughts were that in the First World War, if you were injured you were sent home. And that was my first idea - a soldier is blown up and his toes are blown off so he goes home again. No, that's not enough. So I thought, well, let's make it the atomic bomb, really piss people off. My thought was, and it's been said by other people, that once something is invented you can't forget it, it's there, so there's no point in trying to pretend it doesn't exist. I always felt that through the ages, the broadsword must have been the ultimate weapon at one point, because they could chop people's heads off all over the place, and the crossbow and the longbow - there's always been the ultimate weapon, it's just a question of degree, really".
The album made The Groundhogs a fashionable chart act, helped, interestingly enough by a certain disc jockey: "It did very well. I've got to say that John Peel broke that album because he had that Sunday afternoon radio show, and he did the same for us as he did for 'Sabre Dance', he played that to death and he broke it, and he picked on 'Soldier' as a particular track and he really broke that album". As an aside, one of Peel's reputed favourite all-time acts, The Fall, in fact covered a Groundhogs song from the album after 'Thank Christ For The Bomb', 'Split' (now reissued as BGOCD 76).
The group's next LP came out in 1972 and was entitled, 'Who Will Save The World' (BGOCD 77). After its release, Ken Pustelnik left the band, and was replaced by Clive Brooks. The band recorded the following LP, 'Hogwash' (BGOCD 44), later that same year. After that, the Groundhogs moved to another label connected with the group's new management, who had taken over from Roy Fisher after 'Who Will Save The World'. The new arrangements ultimately proved to be a mistake, and led to the band splitting up in April 1975, only for McPhee to launch a brand new Groundhogs line-up later that year, responding to popular demand.
The new lineup rejoined Liberty/UA, where they had enjoyed considerable success, and recorded a new album, 'Crosscut Saw', in 1975, and a year later, made 'Black Diamond'; both these LPs have now been reissued on a single CD (BGOCD 131). After that, The Groundhogs again split up as punk rock became the order of the day. McPhee reflects: "We were never fashionable, and I'm sure that was because music writers couldn't pigeonhole us. They couldn't say we were a blues band, they couldn't say we were heavy metal, because we were neither, we were a heavy metal blues band, so whatever they didn't like, they called us. If they hated blues, we were a blues band, if they hated heavy metal, we were a heavy metal band. In the early 1980s, I went back to London and did some blues gigs and got the Tony McPhee Blues Band together. Then the 'Hogging The Stage' live double album was released, credited to The Groundhogs, which reached the independent chart, and I thought oh, I give in, it's Groundhogs again. And the daft thing was that when we were doing the 'Half Moon' at Putney as the Tony McPhee Band, we did pretty well, we got 200 people in there, but when we called it The Groundhogs, doing the same set we got 500 people. It's stupid..."
John Tobler, 1997
Taken from the CD reissue of "Thank Christ For The Bomb" (1970), BGO CD 67
http://www.alexgitlin.com/ghogs.html
Eccentric Man
Groundhogs Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
My overcoat is full of poison
My trousers end six inches from the ground
Three inches from my shoes
Tied up with a piece of string and
Held together with free spoon glue
Call me an eccentric man
Call me an eccentric man
I don't believe I am
My bed is a park bench
And my sheet and blankets are newspaper pages
The people think I'm crazy
But I know I'm wiser than all the sages,
'Cause I have money they think that I'm a fool for doing what I do, but I know it's right
Call me an eccentric man
I don't believe I am
Call me an eccentric man
I don't believe I am
If ever I want to
I could have the comfort of my country home
But until that time
I'm quite content to have
Walls made of bridge stones
A carpet of moss, a ceiling of sky
And a brown rat for a watch dog
Call me an eccentric man
I don't believe I am
Call me an eccentric man
I don't believe I am
In Groundhogs' song Eccentric Man, the singer describes himself in a peculiar fashion. He first tells us that his chest measures 36 inches, but his overcoat is full of poison. The description already hints at an unconventional character or lifestyle. He then talks about his trousers that end 6 inches above the ground and are held together with a piece of string and glued with a spoon. These quirks make people call him eccentric. However, he disagrees with them and argues that he is a wise man. He claims to know what is right, and others are wrong. He further explains that his bed is a park bench, and he sleeps under newspaper pages for sheets and blankets. People think he is crazy, but he considers himself wiser than all the sages. He does have money and could live in a comfortable country home if he wished, but he finds content in the simple life he leads. His walls are made of bridge stones, and his carpet is the moss, and for a watch dog, he has a brown rat.
The song is about living life on your own terms, not conforming to societal expectations, and finding contentment in the simple things in life. The eccentric man is free from material desires and the pressure of society's expectations. He may be misunderstood by others, but he doesn't mind as he knows that he is living his life the way he believes is right. The song is a celebration of individuality and not succumbing to the rat race.
Line by Line Meaning
My chest is a 36
My chest measurement is 36 inches in circumference
My overcoat is full of poison
My overcoat is likely metaphorically 'poisoned' or dangerous due to my unconventional lifestyle and beliefs
My trousers end six inches from the ground
My pants are six inches shorter than what would be considered normal length
Three inches from my shoes
My pants are cut three inches above my shoes
Tied up with a piece of string and
My pants are secured with a string instead of a belt
Held together with free spoon glue
My pants are patched with glue from spoons, suggesting I am resourceful and imaginative
Call me an eccentric man
Although others may perceive me as strange, I do not view myself in that way
I don't believe I am
I maintain a sense of self-assurance in the face of societal norms and expectations
My bed is a park bench
I sleep on a bench in a public park instead of a traditional bed
And my sheet and blankets are newspaper pages
I use newspapers as makeshift bedding
The people think I'm crazy
Others view me as mentally unstable
But I know I'm wiser than all the sages,
I possess a deep sense of wisdom and understanding that exceeds the insight of many so-called wise people
'Cause I have money they think that I'm a fool for doing what I do, but I know it's right
Others perceive my unorthodox lifestyle as foolish because I have the means to live differently, but I believe that my choices are just and fulfilling
If ever I want to
If I ever desire to do so
I could have the comfort of my country home
I have the financial means to own and live in a traditional home in the countryside
But until that time
However, at this moment
I'm quite content to have
I am satisfied with
Walls made of bridge stones
I construct my living space from stones meant to support bridges, a peculiar choice
A carpet of moss, a ceiling of sky,
My 'floor' is a covering of moss, and I leave the sky as my 'ceiling'
And a brown rat for a watch dog
I rely on a rat to alert me to potential intruders, again demonstrating my unique perspective on life and practical problem-solving skills
Contributed by Nora J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
StringRamblerBale
My chest is a 36
My overcoat is full of poison
My trousers end six inches from the ground
Three inches from my shoes
Tied up with a piece of string and
Held together with free spoon glue
Call me an eccentric man
I don't believe I am
Call me an eccentric man
I don't believe I am
My bed is a park bench
And my sheet and blankets are newspaper pages
The people think I'm crazy
But I know I'm wiser than all the sages,
'Cos I have money they think that I'm a fool for doing what I do, but I know it's right
Call me an eccentric man
I don't believe I am
Call me an eccentric man
I don't believe I am
If ever I want to
I could have the comfort of my country home
But until that time
I'm quite content to have
Walls made of bridge stones
A carpet of moss, a ceiling of sky
And a brown rat for a watch dog
Call me an eccentric man
I don't believe I am
Call me an eccentric man
I don't believe I am
ZenerSmytok
Excellent !. I only saw them once, and that was at Brunel University in 1974. It's great to hear this song again.
sniff rat
RIP Tony McPhee....I'll never forget that gig in '89
Clemens Ottawa
One of the very best blues-rock-LPs of the 70s for sure...
Brent Cheetham
10 out of ten, one of the all time greats
frank oconnell
I wore this album out in high school. Underrated blues and great lyrics.
al schlueter
This is just way too cool. I need more Groundhogs.
Paul Bangkok
Great stuff from the hogs. Saw them many many times in the 70's one of my favourite bands as a youngster, still love them 40 years on :)
Saw hoim on his solo tour at St.Albans when he gave an explanation of the T>S initials :)
Tony Killeen
Saw Groundhogs play this live on 3 March 2017 - epic! Only Ken Pustelnik from the line-up who recorded the album, but still absolutely superb! Prior to that, I saw them 43 years before.
getstek
Astonishing band with a mindblowing song. Thanks Hogs :D
phil osophical
The final gtr break is absolutely blistering