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
Thank Christ For The Bomb
Groundhogs Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Weren't many planes to give support, hand to hand was the way they fought.
Young men were called up for the cause, for king and country and the cross,
In their naivete they thought it was for glory, so they'd been taught.
In 1939 once again there came the sound of marching men,
Occupying European land, all the way to North French sands,
But, in the final year of that war, two big bangs settled the score,
Against Japan, who'd joined the fight, the rising sun didn't look so bright.
Since that day it's been stalemate, everyone's scared to obliterate,
So it seems for peace we can thank the bomb, so I say thank Christ for the bomb (3x)
The lyrics to Groundhogs' song Thank Christ for the Bomb are a reflection on the devastating effects of war and the role of nuclear weapons in the modern world. Starting with the reference to the First World War, the song highlights how the soldiers fought mainly through hand-to-hand combat with minimal support from planes and modern technology. The reference to the naivete of young men being called up for the cause of king and country and being taught that it was for glory exposes the harsh reality of how soldiers were manipulated to fight wars on behalf of their leaders.
Moving on to the Second World War, the lyrics focus on the many lives lost and the destruction caused throughout Europe and North French sands by marching men. The reference to two big bangs settling the score, against Japan, highlights the destructive power of nuclear weapons and the effect they had in ending the war. The lyrics conclude with a message of stalemate and fear where no one wants to take the risk of using actions that could lead to obliteration, which is why the bomb is thanked for maintaining relative peace since then.
Overall, the lyrics to Thank Christ for the Bomb convey a message of caution against the consequences and destructiveness of war and nuclear weapons. They urge for peaceful resolution of conflicts and the use of alternative means to resolve issues that arise between nations.
Line by Line Meaning
In 1914 a war began, a million soldiers lent a hand,
The war began in 1914, with great force where a million soldiers took part.
Weren't many planes to give support, hand to hand was the way they fought.
Due to a lack of planes, they fought in close combat.
Young men were called up for the cause, for king and country and the cross,
The young men were called to fight for the cause, their country, and the religion they followed.
In their naivete they thought it was for glory, so they'd been taught.
They thought it was for glory because they were taught that way, being naive about the reality of war.
In 1939 once again there came the sound of marching men,
In 1939, the sound of marching men echoed due to the outbreak of another war.
Occupying European land, all the way to North French sands,
They occupied land in Europe, reaching North French sands.
But, in the final year of that war, two big bangs settled the score,
When the war was almost ending, two big bombs were dropped that ended it.
Against Japan, who'd joined the fight, the rising sun didn't look so bright.
Japan, who had joined the war, was defeated and their national pride was diminished.
Since that day it's been stalemate, everyone's scared to obliterate,
Since then, people have been afraid of using nuclear bombs, and the fear of total destruction has kept people in a stalemate.
So it seems for peace we can thank the bomb, so I say thank Christ for the bomb (3x)
The bomb has been the cause of fear, but also prevented wars by making people realize the true consequences of total war.
Contributed by Hudson I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@drrayman1435
It's nearly 8.00 in the morning...I hardly slept all night...yet, I'm not going to bed. I'm listening to this masterpiece for the second time in a row, while I kept playing it the whole week. A totally addictive album - you may listen to its songs in any random tracklist, the result will be the same - there are no weak tracks! One of the most dynamic, yet melodic and mellow blues-rock records I have ever heard! Extremely underrated band - and Tony 'TS' McPhee is a real guitar legend!
@jonathanwhite5640
Being there was a divine intervention,thank the lord
@earinsound
have you slept yet?
@drrayman1435
@@earinsound three years later? It would be rather odd not toβ¦Nice one, btw:)
@petemchardy3605
me to man I've not heard this for years π
@charlesflint9048
I saw the Groundhogs live at Repton School in 1971 during which they went through the βThank Christ for the Bombβ set, and I was blown away, 16yrs.old, my first live band. A treasured memory. I still love the album.
@tonygrey1484
The Groundhogs played Repton school!
@mikestokes1402
One of the best albums ever recorded in the last 50 years
@chrisefthymiou8289
ABSOLUTE CLASSIC NOW 50YEARS OLD. GROUNHOGS SO UMDERATED BUT THEIR STATEMENTS ON THIS ALBUM ASRELEVANT 2DAY AS WHEN IT WAS FIRST RELEASED. A GEM.
@kamonawannalayya
Jeesus canβt believe i am that old ! I forgot i even had this record 50 years ago ! And doctors told me i would be dead from cancer in 1 year 10 years ago !