Great Googa Mooga CD - Import

The Keats versus Dylan argument is finally put to rest, as 26 intellectual giants battle it out in a titanic struggle to be the first to solve the fundamental problem of Art, Life, the Universe and Everything. We are all familiar with the concept of "Pap

Here's a fresh idea for a various-artists compilation, at a time (2003) when novel notions for such things were getting kind of thin: old rock & roll and R&B songs built around absurd, occasionally even idiotic nonsense syllables. A song actually called "Great Googa Mooga," an obscure 1965 single by Tom & Jerrio, is here to give this 27-song anthology its name, and the material spans the mid-'40s to the mid-'60s (though just one track, Marion Abernathy aka the Blues Woman's 1945 R&B hit "Voo-It! Voo-It!," predates 1953). The breadth of cross-licensing to ensure a wide variety of labels and artists is impressive, more so since relatively few of the songs and singers are well known. Indeed, only a couple of these tunes (Little Anthony & the Imperials' "Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Kop" and Jessie Hill's "Ooh Pooh Pah Doo, Pt. 1") were reasonably big hits, though you do get some little-exposed tracks by artists who did have major chart singles, like Little Richard, Larry Williams, the Penguins, the Bobbettes, J.J. Jackson, and LaVern Baker. Some of the song titles are entertainment in themselves: "Yama Yama Pretty Mama" (Richard Berry), "Ting Ting Boom Scat" (Jonesy's Combo Featuring Fletcher Smiths' Squares), "Ookey Ook" (the Penguins), and "(You Got) The Gamma Goochee," credited to an artist billed as Gamma Goochee Himself. It goes without saying that all of these tracks have some to much silly infectious fun. The wet-blanket critic, though, has to note that not too many of the songs are brilliant, and many of them stick to generic R&B/early rock & 'roll chord progressions. There are some real good items here, though, including the Rivingtons' superbly odd "Mama Oom Mow Mow (The Bird)" (not to be confused with their similar singles "Papa Oom Mow Mow" and "The Bird's the Word"!); the Chips' blubber-mouthed "Rubber Biscuit," covered in the late '70s by the Blues Brothers; and Claude McLin's description-defying growly scatting on "Jambo." Also, the fella dubbed Pretty Boy offers a good Little Richard imitation with "Bip Bop Bip"; as Don Covay, the singer went on to some success in soul music. The rarity of most of this material would be enough to satiate the instincts of the average collector, but for those who care, it offers previously unissued takes of Little Richard's "Bama Lama Bama Loo" and Richard Berry's "Yama Yama Pretty Mama," as well as a previously unissued instrumental version of McLin's "Jambo." ~ Richie Unterberger

Mojo (Publisher) (5/03, p.115) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Mixing doo wop, blues, R&B and flat-out rock'n'roll, this is a hugely entertaining collection which gibbers and stutters and tells it like it is..."