Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / [HIGHLIGHT] The Genius of Wilko Johnson & the Legacy of Dr. Feelgood - From EP 385

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[HIGHLIGHT] The Genius of Wilko Johnson & the Legacy of Dr. Feelgood - From EP 385 · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Here's a clip from our latest episode of Booked on Rock.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Mark Wilkerson, the author of pub Rock. It's part of
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Bloomsbury Publishing's thirty three and a third series genre, Doctor
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Feel Good one of the defining pub rock bands. What
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: separated them from everybody else?
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and there's some you know as you as you
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: read the stories, and I always tell people like, like
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: when I was a kid, you know, when the pub
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: rock thing was going on, I was like five six seven,
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: so I wasn't going to pubs and checking out pub
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: rock bands. But I will never forget seeing Ian Durry
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: on the t on TV for the first time. You
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: don't forget seeing Wilco Johnson performing on TV or or
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: our of you seem so the I think one of
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: the main things that stood out that separated Doctor Feel
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Good was these characters in the band. I mean, they
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: were a phenomenal band too, and they were one of
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: those that, like I talked about, these bands weren't smiling
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: at people. Wilcoe with glare you know, would stare you
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: down and machine gun you with his guitar. Uh, and
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: they would compare like they would kind of liken Lee Brillo,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: who was the lead singer and harmonica player for Doctor
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: feel Good and Wilco who's the guitarist to like a
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: like like a mob boss and his and his machine gunner.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: You know, like Wilco would kind of lean in and
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: like machine gun people while Lee Brillo is sneering at you.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: So they had attitude. Their songs had some serious bite
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: to him. And this character Wilco Johnson, I mean he
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: moved across the stage like if Julian Temple did a
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: fantastic documentary about about will about Doctor feel Good called
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Oil City Confidential, and you see this like footage of
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Lee Brillo standing up on stage singing and all of
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: a sudden you'll see like Willcock just go across the
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: screen room quick. And this is like that's how he moved.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: He would just kind of like go It's like he
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: was on a track. He would like go forward, he'd
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: go across, he'd go back. I remember somebody who described
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: him it as a broken dollic.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: But he's also influential as a guitarist, right, he had
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: a yes.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Really interestential guitarist. He's another one of those guys that
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: that that was. I think he was right handed. He
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: played it his off. He played his wrong hand guitar.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: I think he was a lefty and he and he
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: learned to play right because he couldn't, you know, find
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: the correct guitar, and that made his approach very kind
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: of idiosyncratic. Uh. He had a real percussive way about playing.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: He didn't use a pick. He would just he would
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: just kind of flick the strings with his fingernails. And
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: you know, I was just listening to to rock Sette
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: just just before I got on here their first single,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: and his guitar is just so unique. He's just one
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: of those guys. He was a really endearing, interesting character,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: but he was also just a unforgettable uh stage presence
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: and and yeah, his his his technique on the guitar.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: So yeah, that's what doctor Fieldger were one of the most,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: if not the most successful and popular pub rock band.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: They really you know, blew up and made a mark
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: and they were very influential. There's a in that Oil
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: City Confidential documentary there's a they talked to Clem Burke,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: the drummer from Blondie, and he talks about how the
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: guys from the Ramones were in the UK. Well, no,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: he was. He was in the UK. Sorry, in the
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: mid seventies. I think it was though one of the
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: guys from the Ramones somebody took a Doctor Fieldgod album
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: back to New York and he said he was at
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: a party and the Ramones were there, and Richard and
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: the guys from the Blondies and all that, and they
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: were they loved Doctor Field good. They were into it.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.