Family are one of those underrated British bands, like The Groundhogs, who seem to have been largely forgotten.
When it comes to unique voices, Roger Chapman of Family is in a class of his own. His unique rasping vibrato was so powerful it could strip paint. Or, as the critic Robert Christgau once memorably observed, “it could kill small game at a hundred yards.”
Fusing the primal blues of Chappo’s sandpaper roar with the proggy instrumental tendencies of guitarist John ‘Charlie’ Whitney, they frequently changed members and musical styles.
Emerging as an RnB band during the short-lived Blues Boom of the mid-Sixties, they then found a niche in the psychedelic underground scene that also spawned Pink Floyd and The Nice, venturing into the regrettable realms of art rock with strings, horns and flutes.
But this single came from their sixth album in 1972, which found them reverting towards their hard-rocking RnB roots, built around an unusual guitar riff, and namechecking an old Muddy Waters tune (Rollin’ And Tumblin’) in its opening line.
It was the last of their four hit singles (I also remember In My Own Time, No Mule’s Fool and The Weaver’s Answer), and was released shortly before they broke up, though they would reform in 2012 after a gap of almost 40 years.
I now learn that they were given their name by the American producer Kim Fowley, who felt their early ‘look’ of double-breasted suits made them look like a Mafia “family”. They soon abandoned the look – but kept the name.