The Pink Fairies

Do It! (Total Energy)
by Jon Sarre

The big sellout question circa 1969: Ditch the platitudes of hippiedom (which were growing more hollow by the day) and accept the baldface trappings of rockin’ superstardom, burn out in myopic, self(ish) destruction (ala Hendrix, Morrison, et al), or strike out alone to find an unapologetic, idealistic middle ground where ya retain the principles ya got left and still make it. The Pink Fairies chose the third option.

Well, that’s maybe half right. The Fairies languish in obscurity these days, existing mostly as a footnote to the Motörhead story (you may also recall Rollins jacking head and ex-Pretty Thing Twink’s anthemic “Do It” for use as one of his more listenable work-out cum self-esteem lectures). Perhaps it was the Fairies’ refusal to take money for gigs that ensured their one way ticket to oblivion, just to make sure no one else would pick up on such an absurd example of purism (imagine!).

Unlike their closest American equivalent, the MC5 (who attempted and failed to sell out by hiring future Springsteen svengali Jon Landau to produce Back in the USA), the Pink Fairies struggled to legitimately subvert the capitalistic interests that consolidated hold over the “rock business” in the wake of the post-Woodstock come down. That, of course, is a tall order for any quixotic dumbass to attempt to fill, especially when a disposable income-spending consumerist society made rock’n’roll popular in the first place and has moved it along since Elvis (and will generate income, in theory, for somebody via this CD). Take that, pinko!

Wrongheaded, but righthearted politics aside, with their Hawkwind-anticipating space excursions and their gritty sense of proto-punk aesthetics, not to mention loud guitars, the Pink Fairies flat out rocked. That renders the sell-out/economic questions irrelevant, so don’t worry about ’em.
(PO Box 7112 Burbank, CA 91510)