“’Ere lads, share me tools out between you. I’m off to that there London.”
(Or words to that effect)
And with that, the Andover bricklayer and his TROGGlodyte band of miscreant primal rockers, upped sticks for the bright city lights and a career in the music industry. Their tribal, ape-like beats and ‘cut-to-the-chase’ primitive urges, elicited by the old England burr of Reg Presley, rightly laid the foundations for the garage band boom and naturally self-prophesying punk scene.
Revered, almost to a fault, by the late great Lester Bangs – who wrote a St.Paul’s Epistles like eulogy to the band – and covered by every sulking teenage, Chelsea boot adorned and bowl-cut group on both sides of the pond, the Troggs were arguably one of the pioneering greats, their legacy indisputable.
Sadly, one of rock’s most imitable front men passed away this week. Reg Presley finally succumbed to the dreaded lung cancer, though he’d also – as a result of or exasperated by – suffered from a succession of strokes.
In fine turbine to dear Reg, here is a personal selection of memorable tracks from the Troggs’ archives, including Van Morrison’s Irish rabble Them’s version of ‘I Can Only Give You Everything’, and the legendary studio bootleg Troggs Tapes – one of rock’s most amusing ‘fly-on-the-wall’ exchanges.
‘Wild Thing’ (Chip Taylor) 1966
‘I Can’t Control Myself’ 1966
‘With A Girl Like You’ 1966
‘I Can only Give You Everything’ Covered by Them 1966
‘You’re Lying’ 1967
‘I Want You (Right Now)’ Renamed and covered by the MC5 1969
‘The Troggs Tapes’
