I've been threatening to post these for some time. ;-) Superb & silly East End London Latin pop, all dressed up in big suits, sharp shoes and hideous moustaches. Thirty years on and we still don't know what Klactoveesedstein means.
Klactoveesedstein : ripped from a 7" vinyl single released on Virgin Records (VS 476) in 1982 to lossless FLAC Audio.
A. Klactoveesedstein
B. Klacto (Part Two)
I still think this is the better single though Klacto was a "nearly hit" and this did little. A great party song which should be played loud at every opportunity. Quite unlike anything else of their time and very likely since, apart from Kid Creole, Blue Rondo A La Turk (well some of them) were eventually to fine pop fame under the Matt Bianco moniker.
Me And Mr. Sanchez : ripped from a 7" vinyl single released on Virgin Records (VS 463) in 1982 to lossless FLAC audio.
A. Me And Mr. Sanchez
B. Sarava
I found out what Klactoveesedstein means! For years I thought it was a Chris Martin moment of madness but it is actually a posh type of European shampoo! Kinda disappointing!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it was the sharp suits, the crazy rhythms or the wonderful frantic fancy Northern Soul footwork (just check out any of their videos on YT!) but I loved Blue Rondo much to my friends derision! Huge thanks for sharing this!
You don't happen to have the 'Heavens Are Crying' 7 or 12 inch in FLAC do you? (I think the 7 had part two of the track on the flip)..the 12 inch 8-9 minute version is the best thing they ever did in my opinion (I have the 12 inch in 320 in case you don't have it and are interested in hearing it plus a couple more 12 inches by them).
The other British band of this ilk is of course Modern Romance! And while those of certain age are reaching for the sick bags with the words "woah woah woe best years of our lives" ringing in their ears they actually did one amazing 12 inch single called Salsa Rhapsody with two really long versions of the track...have rips of both tracks if anyone is interested!
Maybe I can share a little insight on this. "Klactoveedsedstene" is the name of a 1947 Charlie Parker song. Since Blue Rondo A La Turk named themselves after another jazz song, I think their reference was likely to the Parker song. Of course, their title for the song was a little play on words --- the Parker song title ends with "stene", like "keen" and the Blue Rondo song ends with "stein", like Frankenstein. Note the likeness of the figure on the cover of the single to a sort of Picasso-esque hep Frankenstein. It was all just a little jazz in-joke.
ReplyDeleteWhat do I win for solving this 30 year mystery?