A tribute to a totaly crazy and long sold
out compilation series.
There are, broadly speaking, two types of people in the world. Those who realise
that the Wavy Gravy compilations are the greatest albums in the history of
mankind; and those who suffer from unsightly genital warts. Which are you? The
album itself contains a mixture of genres. There are weird country songs about
serial killers, failed novelty songs, dance crazes that didn't catch on (and
possibly weren't meant to), dire comedy records, and other assorted novelties.
All the songs come from the 60s. Thrown into the mix are some of the finest
exploitation-movie radio trailers ever recorded. This is a *lot* of fun to
listen to, and is guaranteed to be a big hit at parties, assuming your friends
are as cool as me. There are various incomprehensible dance songs (presumably
trying to create new crazes along the lines of The Twist). Dance highlights
include the toe-tapping 'Go Go Gorilla' (a title which exemplifies what's going
on on this album) and The Lone Twister ("Getting dizzy, honey? That's what I
like!"). Most of the instrumentals probably served similar purposes - trying to
get kids onto dancefloors (but probably not encouraging them to touch one
another). The best is 'Bumble Bee 65' (imagine the Batman theme re-worked by Joe
Meek). There are a variety of bad comedy songs with a horror theme ('The Big
Green', about a monster with a taste for rock n roll; 'Ghost guitar', a
Shadows-style guitar track with a bit of echo slapped on and some buffoon doing
an appalling Bela Lugosi impersonation over bits of it) or about death ('Slide
her under the door' - "Your girl has just been run over/By a great big
steamroller"). Other songs, if not intentionally comic, are surely there to be
laughed at, such as 'His Name is Jesus' a potent combination of devotion and
yodelling. And then there's a cover of 'Wild Thing' by someone purporting to be
an American senator trying to connect with the youth vote. It's one of the
funniest things ever recorded. There are also a nice bunch of macabre country
songs. The melancholic 'Rubber Room', about solitary confinement, is by Porter
Waggoner, probably the only recognisable artist name on here. 'Psycho' is a
bleak but jaunty song from the perspective of a serial killer. And 'LSD' is a
downright cheery song about a man messing his life up through drug use ("I
started taking LSD, it gave me quite a kick/Better than booze and easy to use,
but it made me mentally sick"). The songs are punctuated by radio ads for the
likes of 'Humanoids from the Deep' ("They hunt human women. Not for killing. For
mating!"); 'The Virgin Witch' ("She's the girl with the power to turn you on. To
turn you *off*") and 'Psychedelic Circus' ("Ladies and gentlemen, you've heard
about it, read about it. But have you ever seen a psychedelic circus?"). There
are so many, and if you get this album you'll come to love them all like your
own siblings. There are also snippets of looped dialogue from a Russ Meyer film
and some shouting from an excitable preacher ("Somebody give the Lord a handclap!").
These are the greatest albums ever and anyone who doesn't love it is a fool. A
fool!
