British group Kokomo Chart Disco In 1975

[remicks]

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Produced by mega -producer Chris Thomas ,
Britain's Kokomo made one of the Top 25 disco re-do songs of 1975 with a jammin' version of Bobby Womack's 1972 I CAN UNDERSTAND IT .


BW original:




Kokomo's new (and I'll vote improved) version:



:icon_cool:


( noteworthy .....that's a female ... Joan Linscott .... banging away on those congas )

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[remicks]

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mixmachine:
Quote:

Originally Posted by markydefad

In regards to Kokomo, all that's charted thus far is their remake of the Bobby Womack "I Can Understand It", which Billboard still lists as "I CAN'T Understand It" after several months of chart appearances. :oops: I've looked for this Kokomo LP--but haven't found it thus far. The Bobby Womack version is on the Nicky Siano's Gallery CD I've written about.

AS you probably know "I can understand it" was also covered by The Valentinos (remixed by Tom Moulton), to my ears this version is the most 'disco' of them all, New Birth also covered the song , their version IMO was the best over all with fantastic vocals (can't find my copy :( ), although not very dance floor friendly, Kokomo's has more of that 70's Rockish influence with long electric guitar solos combined with very soulful vocals, this version was a popular club tune at the time, the Lp version is 7:41 while the 7" is 3:38

Also charted disco when remixed by Tom Moulton:



mixmachine's preferred version :

1973

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[paul]

Oh remicks, remicks...you did it to me again buddy. I absolutely loved kokomo's version of "I can understand it". In fact I agree with you that their version was the best.
Kokomo in my opinion was one of the underated bands of that period. My other favorite from 'em was "Use Your Imagination." That entire album by the way is excellent. If anyone wants to hear some really nice 70s sound that practically never gets played, check these guys out.

Now with all that said, how the hell did "I can understand it" slip through my cracks, so to speak.
I'll have to see if I have it somewhere or off to Amazon I go :icon_smile:

[ashley_k]

The Kokomo version is my favorite of all the version, they seem to have given it a smoother boogie feel over the other versions, about 10 years ago I ended up buying 2 CDs worth of "Pub Rock" to get the short 7 inch Kokomo version on CD allmusic ((( Naughty Rhythms: The Best of Pub Rock > Overview )))
you can get the album easily on CD now Kokomo/Rise and Shine: Kokomo: Amazon.co.uk: Music

[paul]

The Kokomo version is my favorite of all the version, they seem to have given it a smoother boogie feel over the other versions, about 10 years ago I ended up buying 2 CDs worth of "Pub Rock" to get the short 7 inch Kokomo version on CD allmusic ((( Naughty Rhythms: The Best of Pub Rock > Overview )))
you can get the album easily on CD now Kokomo/Rise and Shine: Kokomo: Amazon.co.uk: Music

Yeah, I ended up ordering that double cd set even though I already have the rise and shine cd. I like 'em that much

[remicks]

.

Now with all that said, how the hell did "I can understand it" slip through my cracks, so to speak.
I'll have to see if I have it somewhere or off to Amazon I go

Hi Paul!, Isn't that a lot of the fun of still being into disco all these years later .....stumbling on tunes half forgotten that you're so glad to rediscover ....:icon_cool:


The thing about this "smoother" version by Kokomo ..I mentioned it's produced by mega-producer Chris Thomas .... (several major projects bear his name) ....

......... hard to believe that within a year of this Kokomo production ...
Chris'll make a slight bit of a right turn musically


and bring to the world these guys :




:icon_eek::icon_eek:



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[paul]

Looks more like a hard right turn remicks. From disco to punk rock...wow!

[remicks]

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More like doing a 180* :icon_razz:



He gets back to funky disco with Paul on this one :





file under "gloomy" disco ..and Linda seems down right pissed...."you singin' 'bout me!?"

answering yes or no Paul is a no win situation


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