Adriano Celentano has said that the nonsense lyrics of his Prisencólinensináinciúsol were an attempt to emulate what spoken American English sounded like to people who don’t comprehend it. I discovered that he updated the song a few years back, and I have it on order. I liked how well the ’72 version worked with Larry Levan’s breakdown from Got My Mind Made Up that I decided I’ll save the Celentano redo for an upcoming episode. I Zimbra, another made-up tongue classic, has hit the podcast in its lp and very rare remixed version. I couldn’t not include it here, however, so this is from The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads live album. One of the great live albums, IMHO.
Two tracks here floored me when I heard them for the first time recently. Aside from a truly club-footed cover of Bowie’s All the Young Dudes, there’s nothing to recommend UK’s the Chanter Sisters until you get to their music-hall-meets-Studio-54 makeover of the Freda Payne classic, which begs the question “Why did it take someone so long to play this for all the inherent camp that it’s worth?” Someone needs to lipsync this for their life. And I was gobsmacked by Modern Romance’s Queen of the Rapping Scene (a/k/a Nothing Ever Goes the Way You Plan), not only for the stiff proto-UK rapping or fish ’n’ chips shop bird Bev Sage’s ludicrous put-on French accent, but also (and mostly) for John Du Prez’s hypnotic accordion riff and that stunning bass line. (I may be stretching things a bit here, but I don’t think Don’t You Want Me Baby or West End Girls could exist without it.) Du Prez also blows a mean trumpet on Modern Romance’s pointless disco cover of Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White. Check out the live video of that where the band manages to come off like the Village People as imagined by Jean Genet.
Another stunning find was RCA’s 1975 disco compilation Disco Funk that hasn’t a bad track on it and nothing you can find anywhere else. I raided it for Hudson County and Lillian Hale. Essential.
Prisencólinensináinciúsol—Adriano Celentano ’72 Ȝ I Zimbra (live)—Talking Heads ’82 Ȝ Aow Tou Dou Zat—Jean Paul Gaultier ’89 Ȝ All My Dreams—Prince ’86 Ȝ Sofia Sound Machine— Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares ’92 Ȝ Gloria—Missa Disco ’79 Ȝ Sleepy Maggie—Ashley MacIsaac ’96 Ȝ Theme from The Godfather—Gene Ferrari & the Disco Roma Band ’78 Ȝ I Got My Mind Made Up—Instant Funk ’78 Ȝ Wan Tu Wah Zuree—George Tindley ’75 Ȝ Bim Sala Bim—Hudson County ’75 Ȝ Band of Gold—Chanter Sisters ’76 Ȝ Queen of the Rapping Scene—Modern Romance ’81 Ȝ Ding Dang Dong—Les Rita Mitsouko ’07 Ȝ Dschinghis Khan—Dschinghis Khan ’79 Ȝ Don’t Boom Boom—Lillian Hale ’74