The Coolies | |
---|---|
Genres | Alternative rock, post-punk, laffabilly |
Years active | 1986–1989 |
Labels | DB, Casino |
Past members | Jeb Baldwin Billy Burton Rob Gal Clay Harper Frogg Jaguar Mellonball Teddy Murray |
The Coolies were an American alternative rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, active from 1986 to 1989. They derived their name from a dictionary definition of coolie, which defines the word as a derogatory term for "one who does heavy work for little pay".
The Coolies' first album, dig..? was released in 1986 by DB Records, and consisted of nine tongue-in-cheek covers of Simon & Garfunkel classics plus a version of Paul Anka's 1974 No. 1 hit "(You're) Having My Baby". While Anka's version received criticism for perceived sexist undertones, Coolies lead singer Clay Harper takes it to a whole new level with a brief spoken interlude at the end of the song in which he reveals that she is not the only woman in town having his baby. Thus, he must leave town. "Scarborough Fair" was released as a 7″ single.
dig..? was followed up in 1988 by the rock opera Doug. Doug contains 13 original tracks, mostly written by guitarist Rob Gal, in the style of various previously existing bands. For example, "Cook Book" is reminiscent of the Who's Tommy , and "Pussy Cook" is more-or-less a reworking of the Beastie Boys' "Cooky Puss". Other bands paid homage to or spoofed include Led Zeppelin, John Lennon and The Replacements. [1]
Doug is the story of a skinhead, named Doug, who kills a drag queen short-order cook, steals his recipe book and becomes a "culinary giant" when the cookbook becomes a nationwide bestseller. Doug embraces the celebrity lifestyle of stretch limousines and partying. Soon, his guilt drives him to become paranoid, and he's certain that the entire food service industry knows of his crime and is out for revenge—so he decides he will stop eating, and subsist solely on crack cocaine and alcohol. Having squandered his fortune on luxuries and drugs, Doug ends up back on the streets in poverty. IGN rated Doug the thirteenth greatest rock opera of all time in 2006. [2] A comic book version of this tale, drawn by singer/songwriter Jack Logan was included with the LP record and could be acquired by sending a dollar to DB Recs.
Original drummer Billy Burton, who essentially was moon-lighting from his full-time gig with The Swimming Pool Q's when dig..? was recorded, [3] is replaced by Frogg Jaguar Mellonball on Doug. The album also features John Cerreta on keyboards, but he is not credited with being a member of the band. Cerreta also played keyboards for "I Am a Rock" on dig..?
The Coolies disbanded in 1989 while working on a third album. Three tracks recorded during sessions for this album were released in 1995 on Take That You Bastards! on Harper's Casino Records label. [4] Take That You Bastards! is a two disc set containing both Coolies albums in their entirety (with the exception of "Mrs. Robinson" from dig..?), the three previously unreleased tracks and the Simon & Garfunkel cover of "The Sounds of Silence", which was the B-side of "Scarborough Fair". [5]
Following the break up of the Coolies, Gal and Harper formed the short lived bands Lester Square, and later Ottoman Empire. After two albums also released on DB Recs, Ottoman Empire also disbanded. Gal joined 6X, while Harper embarked on a solo career with the ten track East of Easter. After this, he recorded a children's record, Not Dogs...Too Simple (A Tale of Two Kitties) with his brother, Mark (who was also a member of Ottoman Empire) in 1998. [6] The album featured guest appearances by Ian Dury (of "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" fame), Drivin N Cryin's Kevn Kinney, former Georgia Satellites guitarist Rick Richards, former Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker, Murray Attaway of Guadalcanal Diary, and the B-52's Cindy Wilson. [7]
The Harper Brothers recorded The Slippery Ballerina, a second children's album, in 1999. A year later, Clay Harper wrote and produced the concept album Main Street: the Original Soundtrack to the Motion Picture (there is no such movie in spite of this name), but does not appear on it. [8] In 2013, Harper released Old Airport Road , his second solo album,. He's also released several singles on Casino over the years.
Harper has gone on to become something of a culinary giant himself. [9] He is the owner of the Fellini's Pizza chain and La Fonda Latina Restaurants in Georgia. [10]
Gal has moved into audio engineering, with Sugarland's Gold and Green among his credits. [11] Teddy Murray joined Donkey shortly after the Coolies broke up. The band released a live album called Slick Night Out in 1993 on Atlanta independent label Steam Records, [12] followed by the studio album Ten Cent Freaks in 1994 on Amphion Records. Jeb Baldwin and Frogg Jaguar Mellonball went on to start The Mighty Fine Slabs as the house band at Fat Matt's Rib Shack from 1991 until 1999.
Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s, and songs including "The Sound of Silence" (1965), "Mrs. Robinson" (1968), "The Boxer" (1969) and "Bridge over Troubled Water" (1970) reached number one on singles charts worldwide.
Bookends is the fourth studio album by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Produced by Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel and Roy Halee, the album was released on April 3, 1968, in the United States by Columbia Records. The duo had risen to fame two years prior with the albums Sounds of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme and the soundtrack album for the 1967 film The Graduate.
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter known both for his solo work and his collaboration with Art Garfunkel. He and his school friend Garfunkel, whom he met in 1953, came to prominence in the 1960s as Simon & Garfunkel. Their blend of folk and rock, including hits such as "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", "America" and "The Boxer", served as a soundtrack to the counterculture movement. Their final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970), is among the bestselling of all time.
Arthur Ira Garfunkel is an American singer, actor and poet who is best known for his partnership with Paul Simon in the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, Garfunkel became acquainted with Simon through an elementary school play, a production of Alice in Wonderland, and sought a partnership. Their combined presence in music began in the 1950s, and throughout the 1960s the duo of Simon & Garfunkel achieved great chart success with tracks such as "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", "Scarborough Fair", "The Boxer" and "Bridge over Troubled Water". The latter song's title also served as the name of Simon & Garfunkel's final album in 1970. Simon & Garfunkel split for personal reasons, but the pair have occasionally reunited in the years since. Both men experienced success in solo careers in the years following the duo's breakup.
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"Scarborough Fair" is a traditional English ballad. The song lists a number of impossible tasks given to a former lover who lives in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. The "Scarborough/Whittingham Fair" variant was most common in Yorkshire and Northumbria, where it was sung to various melodies, often using Dorian mode, with refrains resembling "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" and "Then she'll be a true love of mine." It appears in Traditional Tunes by Frank Kidson published in 1891, who claims to have collected it from Whitby.
"Bridge over Troubled Water" is a song by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, released in January 1970 as the second single from their fifth studio album, Bridge over Troubled Water (1970). It was written by Paul Simon and produced by Simon, Art Garfunkel and Roy Halee.
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"The Only Living Boy in New York" is a song written by Paul Simon and performed by Simon & Garfunkel. It is the eighth track from the duo's fifth and final studio album, Bridge over Troubled Water. The song was also issued as the B-side to the duo's "Cecilia" single.
"Mrs. Robinson" is a song by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel from their fourth studio album, Bookends (1968). The writing of the song was begun before the 1967 film The Graduate, which contained only fragments of it. The full song was released as a single on April 5, 1968, by Columbia Records. Produced by Simon & Garfunkel and Roy Halee, the song was written by Paul Simon, who offered parts of it to movie director Mike Nichols alongside Art Garfunkel after Nichols rejected two other songs intended for the film. The Graduate's soundtrack album uses two short versions of "Mrs. Robinson". The song was additionally released on the Mrs. Robinson EP in 1968, which also includes three other songs from the film: "April Come She Will", "Scarborough Fair/Canticle", and "The Sound of Silence".
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Randy Sharp is an American, three time Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer. He has major success in many genre of music with his greatest successes in Pop, Country, and Alternative. He has composed for film and television as well. Over the past 40 years Sharp has been signed as an artist to major record labels as well as producing in the Pop, Alternative and Country genres. His songs have been recorded by artists including Linda Ronstadt, Art Garfunkel, Blood Sweat and Tears, Delaney Bramlett, Glen Campbell, Exile, Anne Murray, Restless Heart, Reba McEntire, Alabama, The Oak Ridge Boys, Holly Dunn, Tanya Tucker, Edgar Winter, Clay Walker, Kathy Mattea, Dixie Chicks, Kenny Rogers, and Emmylou Harris, as well as his daughter, singer-songwriter-artist Maia Sharp.
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Clay Harper is a musician and restaurateur from Atlanta, Georgia. He is known for his work as a songwriter and frontman in the band the Coolies, and for co-founding the Atlanta-area restaurant chains Fellini's Pizza and La Fonda Latina. He also founded and owns the barbecue chain the Greater Good.