Eggs Over Easy represent a distinctly American branch of the pub rock tree, a group of singer/songwriters who banded together to create a raw, punchy style of rock & roll and ended up playing a year-long residency in London at the infamous Tally Ho, which helped inspired Nick Lowe, the Stiff Records gang, and the punk rock movement which followed pub rock's flare up.
The whole story is traced remarkably on Yep Roc's Good 'N' Cheap: The Eggs Over Easy Story, which collects the band's entire recorded output, including remastered versions of the 1972 debut Good 'N' Cheap, produced by Link Wray in dusty Tucson, Arizona, the band’s second album Fear of Frying and previously unheard London sessions recorded by Animals bassist and Jimi Hendrix manager Chas Chandler.
Rolling from rustic country funk to revved up rock & roll, the Eggs are well represented by the set as roots rock forebears. AD caught up with founding members Austin "Audie" De Lone and Jack O'Hara (the set is dedicated to late Egg Brien Hopkins) to discuss the band's formation and playing no-frills jams in front of prog and glam rock fans.
Good 'N' Cheap :: Don't Let Nobody
Aquarium Drunkard: Eggs Over Easy are considered pub rock pioneers. When did you first hear that term and what did you think of it?
Jack O'Hara: I never heard it until years after we left London. To me, it didn't mean much. But in the many years that have passed, I can see the significance of it...We came back to the States and went about our business and had no real idea about the impact that particular moment had.
Austin De Lone: We probably first heard of it somewhere mid-'70s...at that point we knew our buddies Nick Lowe and Brinsley Schwarz and Bees Make Honey had this groovy scene going [in London] and that there were a lot of places to play. When we started, we played at one club, the Tally Ho, and that was ground zero for pub rock pretty much. From then, a bunch of others bands and pubs jumped on and that's when it became a real scene.
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