The Action - Brain

As musicians, The Action were overlooked as seriously criminal badasses, but it took a strong hand and a sympathetic ear to see past their roughscrabble past and hear the song they were meant to sing. They met as teenagers at a juvenile detention center, where under the leadership of their counselor, they gained self-esteem and how to put aside their differences by playing football toget..shit. That’s the plot to 2006’s “Grid Iron Gang”. In truth their story isn’t so different though, by which I mean they were brought together by The Rock.

The Action are reportedly one of Phil Collins’ favorite bands (look it up, dick - it’s true), and how you feel about that obviously depends entirely on how you feel about Phil Collins (alternate porn name: Phil N. Colons). For interfunsies, I figured we could make this like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel! If you air drum in cableknit sweaters and/or own a VHS copy of the feature film ‘Buster’, press Alt-F4 now. If you’re still here, do nothing. To do nothing, do nothing.

‘Brain’, recorded somewhere between 1967 and 1968, was unreleased until 2002 - despite being plucked from (and deposited right back into, really) obscurity by none less than famed 5th Beatle Mixmaster Mike George Martin, demos for The Action’s only album were rejected by EMI (maybe because Phil Collins liked them?), and that basically was the end of The Action. What really grabs me about this album (“Rolled Gold”) and this song in particular is that it lacks the sneering moroseness a lot of the music of their peers had at the time - there’s an earnest, soulful quality to the music and it’s nice and dirty. But, listen without prejudice, dear reader. Choose Your Own Adventure. If you don’t want to hear The Action’s ‘Brain’, simply pour a glass of cold water into the little vents on your computer. They’re water holes and the internet is thirsty! Otherwise, do nothing.