I have been collecting Pebbles albums for around 30 years and have also purchased many, many other albums that have come out on Greg Shaw’s record labels: Bomp, Voxx, AIP, Total Energy, and Alive. There have also been several compilation albums that have collected highlights from Bomp! Records releases over the previous several years, and I have most of those as well. One of the most comprehensive is Destination: Bomp!, a two-CD set that is subtitled “The Best of Bomp! Records’ First 20 Years”. Bomp celebrates its 40th anniversary next year.
Among the many admirable traits of Bomp! Records releases is that you get your money’s worth. The Pebbles LP’s typically have 16 songs on them; to this day, it is common even for “greatest hits” CD’s to have just 9 or 10 songs. The Bomp CD’s are virtually filled to capacity as well: Destination: Bomp! has a remarkable 48 songs on its two CD’s.
The first CD in particular walks the listener through the chronological history of Bomp! Records, beginning with the “A” side of their very first release: “You Tore Me Down” by the Flamin’ Groovies. Greg Shaw’s liner notes about this song describe how Bomp! Records got started: “When Cyril Jordan first played me this, and the other stuff that they’d done in England (including ‘Shake Some Action’) that nobody would release, I was stunned. Then he said, ‘why don’t you put it out?’ I couldn’t think of a good reason, except of course that there was no way to distribute, promote or sell it. . . all I knew was that music this good had to come out. So we did. And that’s as good a foot to start on as any, I reckon.”
The second song on Destination: Bomp! is by a past UARB, the Poppees; and there are also tracks from two other past UARB’s: the Breakaways (credited as Paul Collins) and the Unknowns. Who knows how many future UARB’s are represented as well.
The music on Destination: Bomp! is amazingly good from end to end, but the next to last song really caught my attention: “Fantasy of Folk” by Blair 1523.
(September 2013)
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Items: Destination: Bomp!
