THE BONGOS "Beat Hotel"
I spent the weekend in New Jersey. New Jersey is one of those underrated places. Riding in the car, my friends were astonished, saying they didn't know such beautiful scenery existed in New Jersey. New Yorkers (or anyone not from the garden state) just know Newark or Jersey City or smokestacks or the Meadowlands. They don't know the pine barrens, the barrier beaches, and the Delaware Water Gap. They probably don't know the Bongos either.
I've credited many people, times, and places for my discovery of new music and education. This post is dedicated to Kenny Stump and his older brother. When I was a sophomore in high school, I jumped the fence, and never looked back. Up till then, I was on a steady diet of anything that was left of center, sure, but just barely. U2's Boy, Squeeze, Elvis Costello, were still fairly underground for 1985 and far from platinum, but not unknown. That was, until, we made mixtapes from Kenny's brother's record collection, sitting there, ripe for the pickin'. I stockpiled empty Maxell XL-90s and went over there after school to make random mixtapes. I quickly discovered bands like Ultravox, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, Orange Juice, Aztec Camera, and well, the Bongos. I felt like I hit the jackpot.
I've been trying to recreate that first mixtape forever but my memory fails me. I do know for a fact that "Come Back To Me" was on it though. It holds up really well, too. It took me a while as an adult to find Beat Hotel, but of course, I found it around 1990, at the old Pier Platters in Hoboken. Of course, I say, because the Bongos were a Hoboken band. It has long been deleted and it amazes me it hasn't been re-issued, never on cd as far as I know. And the death of Pier Platters was a very sad thing for me, too. As a teenager, I would park my car in Hoboken, to take the PATH into Manhattan, but not until I'd spent a good portion of my gas money on records at PP.
I followed Richard Barone through college, nabbing the rare Cool Blue Halo cd, when it came out. "Numbers With Wings" is a definite classic, too. I think he made some more solo elpees, but nothing I remember as keepers in my collection. Enjoy the Bongos, as underrated as New Jersey, methinks.
COME BACK TO ME
SPACE JUNGLE
4 comments:
Honestly? The Bongos don't hold up for me as well as I thought they would. Drums Along The Hudson was one of my favorite albums at age 15 (got it at the Record Setter in East Brunswick). I heard it for the first time in awhile recently. Much of it still rules ("In The Congo! In The Congo!"), but sometimes the lyrics are pretty dire, often trying too heard to be dramatic (or worse, sexy a la "Zebra Club"). I'd like to hear Beat Hotel again. Surprised a label like Collectors' Choice or Yep Roc hasn't picked up the Bongos catalog.
I'm with you on the lyrics. It was hard for me to listen to "Apache Dancing" for instance. "Come Back To Me" is very dB's though, not bad stuff. Beat Hotel was on RCA, so my guess is that stuff is locked down unless someone is assertive enough to grab the rights from them.
Oh god yes, "Apache Dancing." The Bongos just didn't work when they tried to write "sexy" lyrics.
Skippy, surely you've heard the Barone/Mastro _Nuts & Bolts_ album? That had some of their best songs: "Flew A Falcon," "My Sin," "Five Years Old," etc. It came out on Passport/Jem; wonder what the licensing status is of Passport's stuff.
I love their version of "Mambo Sun"
T-Rex covers can be hit or miss affairs. Hmmmm, bet we can start a discussion here.....
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