The British pub rock band that inspired a generation of punk musicians
Dr Feelgood did it right, and with ferocious Canvey Island intensity
Fifty years ago in March, a relatively unknown British band released its second single, a song that kicked off its debut album two months prior. Like the band’s first single, not to mention its sole LP, this follow-up 45 was a tree falling in the music forest, failing to reach the U.K. charts.
But She Does It Right, written by guitarist Wilko Johnson, showcases nearly everything that made Dr Feelgood, the hard-driving R&B quartet from gritty Canvey Island, a pub rock legend and a major inspiration for the punk explosion brewing in England in the mid-seventies. These elements include:
A relentless, slashing, staccato guitar attack from Johnson that bridges the clean, raw sound of Mick Green from Johnny Kidd and the Pirates with the distorted, raw sound of punk
A growling, barely controlled, and somewhat unnerving lead vocal from Lee Brilleaux
A driving rhythm section – courtesy of bass player John “Sparko” Sparks and drummer John “Big Figure” Martin – that almost lends an aura of physical violence to this and many other Dr Feelgood songs
Formed in 1971 by four young men from Canvey Island, a windswept community of oil refineries and oil refinery worker houses built on a marsh east of London, Dr Feelgood kicked around in the sticks for a couple of years before deciding to give the burgeoning “pub rock” scene in London a shot. A reaction to the bloated contrivances of progressive rock, pub rock was the kind of “back to the basics” movement that hits the reset button on popular music every now and then.
A knife to a pub singalong
Pub rock wasn’t a musical genre per se: Country-inflected Brinsley Schwartz, for example, was vastly different than rockers Ducks Deluxe, who were vastly different than the fifties- and British music hall-inspired Kilburn and the High Roads. Rather, the rise of pub rock beginning in 1971 reflected a desire among the listening public for more authentic performances and less dry ice and bombast. Just strip shit down and keep it real. Mostly, though, mean it!
Dr Feelgood meant it, and then some. They played balls-to-the-walls blues and R&B with a fervor that hadn’t been seen live since the Rolling Stones a decade earlier. Dr Feelgood shoved their street-sharpened, aggressive brand of blues and R&B right down the throats of stunned, frenzied audiences. The Canvey Island gang brought a knife to a pub singalong.
“There wasn’t a rock group on the planet capable of sustaining the shock and awe Dr Feelgood created on stage for more than three minutes at a time,” writes John Blaney in his 2011 book, A Howlin’ Wind: Pub Rock and the Birth of New Wave. “Everything about them; their look, their attitude, their power, their street cred, drew audiences like moths to a flame. Such was their impact that without them there may never have been a following wave of musicians to stick the boot in.”
If that sounds like hyperbole, check out any number of videos on YouTube of the original lineup performing live. Dr Feelgood’s impact on audiences in London and, later, around the U.K. and Europe, cannot be overstated. This was a band that was electrifying and somewhat menacing on stage. The white-hot intensity of their throwback R&B is palpable, even on a digital screen.
Seeing Dr Feelgood in a packed London pub in the mid-seventies must have been an unforgettable experience. They certainly made a huge impression on Joe Strummer of The Clash, John Lydon of the Sex Pistols, Paul Weller of The Jam, J.J. Burnel and Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers, and many others.
‘I can imagine the band doing this’
Every band with ambition soon realizes that strictly doing covers is a dead end; a viable future in music depends on quality, commercial original material. Dr Feelgood’s live act initially consisted of American rock ‘n’ roll, blues and R&B covers, both classic and obscure. That had to change if the band wanted a record contract. In 1973, guitarist Wilko Johnson took it upon himself to pen some tunes for Dr Feelgood.
“The first song I remember writing for the band was She Does It Right. The whole thing was because I’d thought of that riff [starts singing the riff]. You know, that’s it. It took ages walking round and round the room, to think of the phrase for the title. I kept thinking of things like ‘She’s Out of Sight’ and I was thinking ‘No, you can’t use that. That’s fucking Stevie Wonder or something’.
“And suddenly it came into my head: ‘She does it right. Wow, got it!’ When you think: ‘She does it right, she does it right….hard every night just to make me feel alright.’ Right, ok. And the different verses are two lines. So there’s not a lot of words in there. But that’s not what it’s for. I think of that as the first proper one and thinking, ‘Yeah, I can imagine the band doing this!’ and it came out as a song.”
It did, indeed. She Does It Right bristles with punk energy, from Big Figure’s opening rim shot and Wilko’s choppy, descending riff through Lee’s passionate vocals. Check out the live version from The Geordie Scene for Tyne Tees television, on Feb. 20, 1975:
What’s weird about the above video is Dr Feelgood is performing here before an audience of what looks like 14- and 15-year-olds who had been driven to the studio by their parents, when the band normally played before a hard, heavily male pub crowd, where spilled beer and spilled blood were part of the nightly ambience. However, it was the British teen record-buying public that would propel Dr Feelgood’s live album, Stupidity, to the top of the U.K. charts in October 1976, some 20 months after their U.K. television debut.
While both Stupidity and Down By the Jetty (the band’s 1975 album that opens with She Does It Right) capture how Dr Feelgood sounded, make no mistake: This was an act that had to be seen to truly be appreciated. While the audio isn’t great, this video of Dr Feelgood performing She Does It Right at a show in Finland in July 1975 captures what made the band such a compelling live act, particularly in their natural habitat. Wilko looks crazed as he skitters back and forth on the stage, while Lee twitches, sweats, and growls out the vocals like Howlin’ Wolf on speed. He’s clearly taking it up a notch from his Geordie Scene TV performance in the video above.
Fun fact: The band’s first two albums (Down By the Jetty and Malpractice) reached No. 6 on the Finnish album charts, while Stupidity hit No. 7. When it came to Dr Feelgood, the Finns were in, baby!
Post-punk decline
The original incarnation of Dr Feelgood was like a comet streaking across the U.K. and European sky: Incandescent, and suddenly gone. The acrimonious departure of guitarist Wilko Johnson in April 1977 left Lee, Sparko, and Big Figure without their main songwriter. Johnson was replaced on guitar by John “Gypie” Mayo, a great player in his own right, though with less of a kinetic stage presence as Wilko. The new lineup cobbled together some original songs (jointly written by band members), more R&B covers, and tunes written by fellow pub rock veterans such as Nick Lowe, Larry Wallis, and Mickey Jupp to release a pair of albums (in 1977 and 1978) that stalled out in the lower reaches of the charts.
While the second Feelgood lineup did land four singles in the U.K. chart in ’78 and ’79, the band’s throwback R&B vibe had become a bit anachronistic in the post-punk era. Gypie left in 1981, followed a year later by Sparko and Figure. Lee carried on with hired guns for another decade before succumbing to lymphoma in 1994.
Interestingly, there is a touring entity today called Dr Feelgood, and they probably even do a decent version of She Does It Right. But no one could do it right better than Lee, Wilko, Sparko, and Big Figure – the original Dr Feelgood.
Coda
I wasn’t kidding above when I wrote, “Seeing Dr Feelgood in a packed London pub in the mid-seventies must have been an unforgettable experience.” I’m very envious of anyone who had that pleasure! If you’re reading this and were lucky enough to witness the phenomenon that was the original band, I would love to hear from you in the comments section or via email (carnage@arebelliousnoise.com). Maybe you’d even be willing to share your story with readers of this blog. — Chris Carnage