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November 14, 2007
Retrohump: Kid Creole Breaks it Gently
August Darnell, who was better known as Kid Creole (a name he swiped from an Elvis flick), was one of the prime bees in the cross pollenating music scene of early eighties New York. If the varied and blisteringly hip output of the famed ZE Records had a common thread, it was Darnell. His 1979 mix of James White & the Blacks' single "Contort Yourself" invented dance punk as we know it, basically serving as a rough draft for the Rapture's ubiquitous "House of Jealous Lovers" nearly thirty years later. His work as a producer for decadent starlet Cristina still stands up as some of the smartest, weirdest pop music of its time. But he outstripped the popularity of both with his own group, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, who gained cult status in the US while topping the British charts with a hard to pin down style that incorporated strains of pop, disco, and the Latin salsa music that dominated August's Bronx youth. Though all of these achievements deserve a more thorough examination under the MS microscope, we're going to focus on just one song. Off the top of my head, it's the cruelest song ever written.
Kid Creole & the Coconuts - "Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy"
(Top of the Pops, 1982)
With this Top of the Pops performance on mute, you wouldn't suspect such evil intent. In between the tracking lines on this fuzzy VHS transfer, it looks like a hell of a party. Even the band's announcement features a punk rocker and a circus clown. Despite matching outfits that I can't even begin to classify and transcendent dancing that makes them hard to pin down, the trio of female singers known as the Coconuts are obviously quite foxy. August was married to one, though rumored to have bedded all three. (It's not just the zoot suit that made him a pimp.) The infectious island percussion comes courtesy of Jamaican drummer Winston Grennan, who was a certifiable legend as a session player for an unbelievable list of artists that includes; Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Desmond Dekker, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, and Minnie Ripperton. He played on Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion," Rolling Stones' Goat's Head Soup, as well as nearly every track on the seminal soundtrack for The Harder They Come. He was no lightweight. In the clip above, the band seems to be a man down, so I'm guessing the dude working the cowbell and shaking about is Andy Hernandez, also known as a musical force in his own right under the name Coati Mundi. But even piped in over the BBC loudspeaker, it's Grennan's educated beats that make a salsa avoider like me take some serious notice.
The 1982 performance was primarily to promote an album awesomely named Tropical Gangster, which hit number 3 on the UK chart and spawned three top ten singles. "Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy," is my favorite by a large margin. In it, August plays the part of a man denying the title girl, who's come to him seeking her true paternity. At first he feigns a simple, honest correction, saying, "I'm telling this to you straight, so you don't have to hear it in another way." We soon get a hint that he's not one to let a kid down easy. "You're momma was in search of love, but all she got was you," he chuckles. "Break it to me gently now/ Don't forget I'm just a child," beg the Coconuts, playing the moppet's part. Ignoring those big brown eyes, August twists the knife, with the gleefully evil line, "See if I was in your blood, then you wouldn't be so ugly." At this point, delighting in the child's resulting tears, the party can really get started. The Coconuts chime in again, cleverly chanting "Ono...Ono...Onomatopea," knowing that anything they'd substitute would be just that.
There may be one or two songs from this fertile era as hot as this, but I guarantee that they aren't as goddamn cold.
Kid Creole & the Coconuts - "Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy"
Posted by Jeff Klingman at November 14, 2007 09:10 AM
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Comments
Darn, I was going to write about this one too at some stage. I remember being rather stunned by it at the age of 9, and being even more stunned at the lyrics when I was older. Amazingly cruel.
My favourite bit though comes when the Coconuts chant what sounds like "Ono, ono, onomatopoeia.." No wonder I went on to study English Lit.
Posted by: Enda P at November 15, 2007 07:28 PM
