Terry Williams -Wig Wam Bam

Terry Williams -Wig Wam Bam/Where Did All The Good Times Go? – MGM K14611( US 1973)

I don’t know what’s more absurd – the fact that this solo effort by the lead guitarist from KENNY ROGERS & THE FIRST EDITION exists OR the fact that it’s so good. …cos it’s both: extant, absurd and beyond a shadow-of-a-doubt essential. Ex-NEW CHRISTY MINSTRELS Terry Williams, by 1973, after more than five years of touring and mind-boggling strings of consecutive hits, had begun to show ‘signs of middle age with weight gain and patches of gray in his beard…Although he made up for it by wilder dress and hair.’ Not my words, people, but the words of Wikipedia dot com. So, in whatever burrito-truck-funk Williams found himself in, he – after releasing a few other solo singles – found himself in the sunken-living-room clutches of perpetual KIM FOWLEY companion, MICHAEL LLOYD. One can only guess that it was Lloyd who initially hipped Terry to THE SWEET’s year-old hit; perhaps suggesting that it might go down a storm with the hot-panted and panting jailbait crowds crowding the miniscule mirrored dance floor at Rodney’s English Disco. In any event, he was wrong and it didn’t and Terry went back to Kenny Roger’s Roasters where he continues to check in on what conditions audiences’ conditions are in to this day. That said, this song more than belongs in the pantheon of great U.S. Glam Rock-n-Roll with great Skydog FLAMIN’ GROOVIES’ guitar and exquisite production by Lloyd. If you thought THRILL’s take on LOU REED’s ‘Hangin’ Round’ was a reductive improvement, then ladies and gentlemen welcome to Heaven.Oh. I didn’t include the 45’s b-sde as it’s a soppy ballad later covered by DONNY OSMOND (real talk). You’re welcome!

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Thanks to infrequent collaborator Collin the enlightened and inspirational scribe for digging this one up and writing about it so eloquently. Visit his blog http://www.braveoldwaves.blogspot.co.uk/