Wavy Gravy for Adult Enthusiasts
We thought we could have a little look at something different this week, and they do not come any more different than this – Wavy Gravy for Adult Enthusiasts.
First of all, a quick run through the tracks:
- The Juveniles – Bo Diddley – A chaotic garage gallop through the Bo Diddley calling card.
- The Cliff Dwellers – Ho Ho Laughing Monster – Super sleazy Las Vagas Grind Style with extra monster laughing.
- The Triads – Bacon Fat – Even sloppier than the Andre Williams slop classic original.
- The Motions – Bumble Bee ’65 – Insane surf instro with a Rimsky-Korsakov classical tune buried in it.
- Igor & The Maniacs – The Big Green – A monster crawls from the swamp and want to rock.
- Johnny Lance – The Big Tragedy – Sounding a lot like Fire of Love this reverb-heavy death ballad has a twist in its tail.
- Senator Everett McKinley – Wild Thing – The Senator goes for the kid vote in 1966.
- Selwyn Cox – Yodelling Heart – AKA His Name Is Jesus. Religion and yodelling, what more could you want?
- The Shandells – Gorilla – A Go Go Garage Gorilla.
- Porter Waggoner – Rubber Room – A King of Country tells some truth about crazy living.
- The Saxons – Draggin’ Around – Super rough and ready garage stomp.
- Eddie Noack – Psycho – More crazy country cool
- The Lone Twister – Lone Twister – Whoo hoo mood changing fun dance number.
- Wendell Austin – L.S.D. – Simply brilliant anti-drug country madness.
Have a listen
One of the things that got me thinking about this album was a younger person in the shop declaring the album was “full of classics”. Well, when this collection of strange, wiggy and way out 45s from the 1960s came out back in 1988 it was a revelation. These sort of weird tracks did not fit in anywhere even on the most out there album and the idea of ever finding the originals was crazy.
I had an interesting chat with the man behind this album last week, so now we can get some info behind it and the follow ups it spawned. Mr Skinupski, as he is known, was a South London Teddy Boy record collector. He amassed a large collection of rock n roll and related in the early to mid 70s whilst the style was largely ignored by “serious” collectors. Even within the unexplored 1960s styles, he leant towards the more unusual.
Oh you like that weird shit!
He says the unsung hero of the Wavy universe is a record dealer called Mike Smythe. Whilst listening to records for sale, Mr Skinupski had formed a little pile that led Mike to say “Oh you like that weird shit! Listen to these” and dug out singles that did not fit into the usual categories. As time passed Mr Skinupski found more of these overlooked gems and eventually he was responsible for reissuing Ronnie Cook’s Goo Goo Muck coupled with Kip Tyer’s Jungle Hop on a 45.
In time, he had amongst his records Psycho, Rubber Room and LSD. (I mean, bloody hell what a triumvirate of tracks). He thought an album of this stuff would be more satisfying than solitary 45s and I think he is absolutely right. The effect of listening to this album of unappreciated issues is to create a new genre – Wavy. Eventually, working with the man behind the Desperate series, the album Wavy Gravy was born. An album that is often imitated but has not been matched, in my opinion. Some of the tracks have become sub culture hits in their own RnB, Country and Garage worlds while others remain purely Wavy, too indefinable to be adopted elsewhere but every track works on this album. Of course there is also the linking between the tracks, adverts for B Movies, some “poetry” and some advertising which gives it an added dimension.
So in the end we have essentially an album of music recorded in the heyday of the 45, collected together in the late 80s to become something new. I seriously doubt any of the people who created these 45s thought they would still be listened to over 50 years later.
I mentioned that Wavy spawned sequels and imitators so just to clear this up, the sequels to Wavy are:
- Wavy Gravy Four Hairy Policemen
- Psycho Serenade
- Cough Syrup for Elvis Impersonators
- Mello Jello for Groovy Ghouls
- Mello Jello for Mello Muffins
All of these are long out of print but the first is available here… you are in for a treat.
