{"id":340,"date":"2007-03-05T23:17:44","date_gmt":"2007-03-06T04:17:44","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-10T22:47:21","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T22:47:21","slug":"thrifty-music-vol-2-a-buck-twenty-five-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/thrifty-music-vol-2-a-buck-twenty-five-b\/","title":{"rendered":"Thrifty Music, Vol. 2: A Buck Twenty-Five Buys You All This"},"content":{"rendered":"

What ho, fellow RTHers! I fear I spent far too many paragraphs in my introductory Thrifty Music post<\/a> jawboning about the whys and wherefores of this music I love so much, so, with your kind permission, I shall simply dive in to the first collection I offer up with trembling hand, sweaty brow and palpitating heart. I trust that you, too, will find much to enjoy here. And remember: it only cost me a buck-twenny-five, so if you don’t like it, I don’t care!<\/p>\n

Anyhow, here goes:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Elephant’s Memory, “Mongoose”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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First up, a surprisingly funky groove by the band that backed up John Lennon<\/strong> during his frankly awful Sometime in New York City<\/em> period, Elephant’s Memory<\/strong>. The tune is called “Mongoose”<\/strong>, and some know-it-all on the InterWeb informs me that it actually climbed to #50 on the pop charts — when, I couldn’t say, and don’t care. There is so much to love in this song: that silly lyric, the serious foot-stomp funk, and — come on, how can a song about a freaking mongoose fighting a cobra not<\/em> kick ass?! I’d also like to ask the following two questions: am I the only person who hears how blatantly Naughty By Nature<\/strong> ripped off this song’s groove for their “OPP” smash in the ’90s? Question two: How badly must John Lennon have sucked to make this<\/em> band sound like shit in the early 70s? I ask you!
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The Young Ones of Guyana, “Expressway (to Your Heart)”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Next, a really cool instrumental take on the the Philly Soul classic “Expressway (to Your Heart)”<\/strong>, this time performed by The Young Ones Of Guyana<\/strong>, an integrated Carib\/soul combo from, I assume, Guyana (home of the much underappreciated Eddy Grant<\/strong>). I have no idea when this came out, but based on the groovy threads they’re wearing on their LP cover, I’d say — what, maybe ’68 or ’69? Anyhow, I just love the joyful, multicultural groove on this tune. Pass that rum punch, RTH! It’s limbo party time!<\/p>\n

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Chairman of the Board, “Morning Glory”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Is there anybody on this list who doesn’t<\/em> think “Give Me Just Little More Time” is one of The Great late-60s soul platters? Well, the next bin score is “Morning Glory”<\/strong>, the B-side to the Chairmen Of the Board<\/strong>‘s “Everybody Party All Night” single on the incredibly cool Invictus label. This song has so much going for it: a fuzz bass (I love<\/em> fuzz bass! How can you not<\/em> love the fuzz bass?!), free-flowin’, mind-expandin’ mellotron flutestramentalism, and, in general, a great balance of mellow flow and solid, solar-plexus-hitting groove. I could listen to this tune all day. <\/p>\n

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Mohammad Rafi, “The She I Love”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Quick — without consulting the Guiness Book Of Records<\/em>, tell me: Who was the most frequently recorded human being in history? Elvis Presley? Barbara Streisand? Andre Kostelanetz? Robert Pollard? WRONG! It’s Mohammad Rafi<\/strong>, king of the Bollywood soundtracks! I found this oddball 1970 single, “The She I Love”<\/strong>, in a bin in Maryland, and picked it up for 40 cents. Let me tell you, it’s provided more than its share of merriment over the last few weeks. That manaiacal introduction alone is worth every penny. But stick with the song at least until the proto-“rock” break in the middle, where Mohammad really lets loose with his shoutin’ and clappin’. Brilliant!<\/p>\n

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Excerpt from “Canaries Are Cute, But They Can’t Talk”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Lastly, to give you something to think about as you plow through another soul-crushing day workin’ for The Man<\/strong>, I bring you 20 seconds of a 4-minute<\/em> A-side released under the Custom Records label, written for and about, um, birds<\/strong>. Yes, you heard it here first: a thrift store single recorded to help you brainwash your mynah bird! If you remember nothing else from this volume of Thrifty Music, remember this: “canaries are cute… but they can’t talk!”<\/em> <\/p>\n

Enjoy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What ho, fellow RTHers! I fear I spent far too many paragraphs in my introductory Thrifty Music post jawboning about the whys and wherefores of this music I love so much, so, with your kind permission, I shall simply dive in to the first collection I offer up with trembling hand, sweaty brow and palpitating […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[71],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}