Esquerita and the Voola
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Artist:
Last year Baudolino had three posts about the wild rock and roll singer Esquerita, and commenters asked for more, so here is what I think was by far his wildest, most eccentric track, "Esquerita and the Voola" from 1958.
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MOG it up!
Locating MOG account...
Comments (12)
Ka-bongo!
oh my, that was fun! don't know what the Voola is, but sounds like it made him hoot 'n' howl with joy
MR Eskew Reedder is no joke..
Woooo ooooo!
missed that post, glad to hear this one. am impressed.
Right on, folks! It's contagious, isn't it? Is there a wilder track by anyone anywhere? Maybe there are some from the psychedelic era when proper behavior ceased to hold sway.
Here's an anecdote from liner notes: "The last time I saw Esquerita alive he was popping plums in his mouth like they were M&M's, calmly going on about his 'good friend Bobby Robin.' As the tale unravelled it dawned on me his 'good friend' was actually Bobby Day, the guy who cut 'Rockin' Robin,' and just as I was about to wing this by Esquerita, a young gal entered the room yapping a mile a minute. Suddenly everything went weird. He gave her a stony glare with his one good eye open big enough to light up the room, and excused himself from the table. Esquerita invited our gabby guest into the hallway where a lot of words were exchanged, words you don't normally find in liner notes. A moment later he returned to the room where he rifled through the closet for something. 'Make yourself at home, I'll only be a second,' he offered as he emerged with one of those metal vacuum cleaner extension rods and headed back to the hall. There was a couple of thuds, a whole lot of screams, and, as promised, Esquerita was back in the room a second later where he neatly assembled the vacuum cleaner and apologised for the interruption. 'She's a sweet girl but sometimes she gets out of line. Now where were we?' he said as he wolfed down another plum. I looked at the closet and told him, You were telling me about Bobby Robin." (Vintage Voola reissue compilation, Norton, 1987)
I thought for a moment he was going to shoot the seeds at her! I really did think I could recall something wilder as I clicked the button. But ... no. Not just this moment. Even for me, one who feels that the weirder the better, I am stunned. I love the implied classical riffs in the piano. I read at least one of the prior posts, and I do believe this guy was a riot unto himself. Back when a reissue of his work came out, I read a Mag review and wished I could hear it. No internet then, and you don't get too much of that kind of thing here in this neck of the woods.
Love it! Thanks, Spike.
Thanks, #1! Shooting the seeds? If only he had thought of that. Classical riffs, now that you mention them, are stereotypically unwild, which makes their inclusion here wilder. I thought of this track when the word "oddities" was being bandied about among some Moggers a while back.
Ah yes, the bastard love child of Yma Sumac and Little Richard.
:-)
Lady Miss Ian, yes, they are definitely his ilk.
ooh, i did not see that coming. i think i just discovered dance moves i didn't know i had in me. (;
poebegone, I can now rest easy knowing that this post, with the help of satellites, moved you.