Let's Go in '87

A young Robert Warren in action

In recognition of the Fleshtones' 40th anniversary this month, I've been combing through the Sweat: The Story of The Fleshtones, America's Garage Band and online archives for some little-seen nuggets. A couple years ago, Super Rock archeologist Bartolo Delfin posted (in four parts) the full Fleshtones show recorded for television in 1987 and broadcast in the Basque Country in Spain. It's another nice nugget from the Robert Warren Era, complete with Warren's American flag jeans. Warren would leave the band within a year, replaced for touring and session work first by Fred Smith and then by Andy Shernoff, paving the way for Ken Fox joining the band—for good—in July of 1990.

The set list: "When The Night Falls," "Lets Go In '69," "Treat Her Like A Lady," "Return To The Haunted House," "Watch This," "Screamin' Skull," "Cara Lin," "Way Down South," "Ride Your Pony," "Next Time," "Shadowline," "This House Is Empty," "Mirror Mirror," "I Was A Teenege Zombie," "Nothing's Gonna Bring Me Down," "The Dreg," and "Hexbreaker."

~~

On May 2, 1988, Olivier Païssé recorded a handful of songs at a Fleshtones gig at ENTPE, in Vaulx en Velin, France. Here's a stirring "Lonely Bull" and groovy "The Turn-On Song," featuring Mark McGowan on trumpet, and Jerry Lee Lewis's "It'll Be Me." The following month, after a show in Martinique in the Caribbean, Warren left the band.