eurotrash, part 27

[JussiK]

Maybe the following should be posted at the Trivia section but here goes. If you're bored with the usual stuff, or more to the point if you love trash, ”LaLa Jump” by Pat Hall will be right up your alley. Seek it out. Those familiar with Saragossa Band will know the sound, as will anyone who ever went to cheap package holidays to Palma de Mallorca or Torremolinos during the 70’s: a top-heavy vocalist living her 15 minutes of fame, a chorus made of thin, barechested and mustachioed guys in flared jeans and leather vests, the ”ayayay!”s, the strings and the marimbas and the thumping 128 bpm Arabella/Anthony Monn beat. I bet it was always like that there, from ”El Bimbo” to Haddaway to this year’s Eurovision song contest winner.

The Pat Hall story in a nutshell, from the German text on the back sleeve of her record: a chorus girl and backup singer in the acclaimed Jane Palmer Show, Pat was originally set to become a surgeon ( hostess Jane had a few dance tracks of her own, such as ”Crystal Ball” ). Discovered in the tv studio by Kurt Edelhagen, Pat threw away her books and joined the ranks of artists of the Ariola label for which she realesed ”LaLa Jump”, a disco version of a Spanish holiday hit from the late 60’s. The text also predicts international success for the singer as well as for the record. - Pat was the perfect vocalist for the ”Chiquita Banana”-style job that saws away at your brain, sounding part Andrea True, half Charo and full of enthusiasm. Of course it also takes that special non-talent to sound that fabulously off-key.

You could aso benefit greatly from ”Silence” by Roxy Robinson. This grabs you first with the sleeve: a Black woman in an afro and a yellow evening gown reclines sideways on a wicker chair and stares coldly at the camera, long legs exposed and fingers almost touching the cheek in a classic Diva pose. The record is another undiscovered masterpiece, hearing stuff like it makes one convinced there should be a sonic gallery in the net dedicated to forgotten sound greations of fascinating nature, underrated contributions to strangeness. The music starts softly and presents an El Coco-style tropical scene, with bird calls, sounds of the ocean and pan flutes fluttering in the background. Roxy comes on and makes a gentle plea for her man not to leave her alone in this exotic paradise. Sexual repression and the silence around her is driving her mad and the tone of her performance begins to hot up with heavy breathing, desperate-sounding sighs, shudders and sudden screams, a whole gamut of overwrought emotions. Beneath that cool Dionne Warwick-like surface there is danger, and she’s soon sounding homicidal, coming in for the kill. The b-side is peculiar as well, beginning as a ballad that switches into big production high speed disco half way thru for something like 45 seconds, and then slows down again for the rest of the duration. Not as partyable as Pat but worth ordering.

I found these treasures on my way to buying tickets to the Funky Elephant festival with Joe Bataan & his band as the main draw. Joe Bataan was very good, we got ”Sadie”, ”Subway Joe” etc. The big club was packed to the max, two djs from Madrid, people passing joints, can you still use the term wicked? However, half way thru the gig Joe chose to cut the groove to start to ask the heavenly father to bless his wonderful audience – this praying bullshit and tv-evangelist-style drama went on and on and on, with Joe’s wife Yvonne on stage as well rolling her eyes up in rapture. Must have been a surreal trip to the stoned masses waving the requisiste lighters, while the members of the band looked embarrassed. Luckily we got the beat back for a kicking finale and everybody went home happy at four. I checked out the only disco track I know with directly blasphemous lyrics, ”Ils Y Croient Tous” by Pierre Bachelet which goes like ”some believe in Santa Claus, others believe in Jesus Christ, ha-ha-haaa!”. – Turned out a very long post, sorry…

[Marcio**]

The refrain of Pat Hall ''La La Jump'' is something likela...la...le...la...la....la...la
Another German trash is Delano & Joyce ''Papa Soul'': Papa Soul...you eat me like a cannibal :o