Because of a hectic Thursday last week, and then a four day trip to Miami, I had to keep this next CD in the car a lot longer than I had planned. Ironically, with Christmas approaching, this is one of the few discs we have that features actual Christmas music - selections from this band's infamous "Christmas album". This is not a good thing, however.
Disc 220 is...20 Super Hits
Artist: Boney M
Year of Release: 1992, but with music from 1975 through 1979
What’s Up With The Cover?: A picture of the band, dressed perfectly normally - if you're from Betelgeuse, that is. This picture also confirms that if you work hard enough at it, you can in fact, put a part in an afro. It also confirms you shouldn't.
How I Came To Know It: I was born in 1970. In my early years, Boney M was seriously popular on AM radio.
How It Stacks Up: Although not-so-cleverly disguised as "20 Super Hits" this is, in fact, a 'best of' album, and therefore can't stack up.
Rating: It is a best of, so no rating.
Our first foray into disco is one of the all-time favourites of that genre, Boney M. As I noted above, these guys were a big deal in the 70s, and made a lot of money for Svengali producer and all-round music thief, Frank Farian (who would later reward us by spending some of this dough unleashing Milli Vanilli on the world).
I despise everything Frank Farian stands for in the music industry, but I can't deny the guy has the ability to figure out just what combination of styles is guaranteed to make a 'super hit' in a given time in music.
In Boney M's case, that mix is the 70s biggest thing, disco, freshened up with some caribbean reggae. As ever, a liberal coating of pop helps everything go down easily with the masses.
While I'm as guilty as anyone at having danced with gay abandon to Boney M, I didn't find this album enjoyable this time around. I know I should just accept it for what it is; syrupy dance music, designed for turning the brain off, and the body on. It is just that its vacuousness is so vast, no amount of sweet filling can counter the artistic void it creates.
One of their most famous songs, "Rivers of Babylon", isn't even an original. It is competent enough cover, until you hear the original by the Melodians. As for "Rivers of Babylon" remakes, I'll take Steve Earle's sorrowful stripped down version from "Sidetracks" any day. Boney M's might have a good dance beat, but the production strips all of the original religious gravitas from the song.
The remake of Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry" goes several steps further to the bad; it is an abomination so offensive it had me silently calling for new laws to punish the perpetrators for recording it.
I was even more horrified by one of the obscure 'super hits' on the record - "Still I'm Sad". This song is a complete rip off of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," for which no credit is given. I'm not sure if Boney M thought they could get away with it, or just didn't care. The part they take is not the 'oweemaway oweemaway' part, but rather the 'In the jungle/the mighty jungle/the lion sleeps tonight" part.
Those lyrics are replaced in "Still I'm Sad" with this little gem:
"See the stars come joining down from the sky."
What the hell? Anyway, if these seem overly obtuse, be thankful. When given a specific topic, like in the biographical "El Lute", the results are worse. Here's how that little gem begins:
"He was only 19 and was sentenced to die
For something that somebody else did
And blamed on El Lute.
Then they changed it to life and so he could escape
From then on they chased him
and searched for him all over Spain"
It reads like a book report written by an eight year old.
Lest you think this review will be all bad, I must now give credit where credit is due - that being to one of the greatest five star dance songs ever written. A song so awesome that I once sprained my thumb after it inspired me to do a Russian folk dance after one too many rum and cokes: "Rasputin".
Here, I could care less how historically accurate this song is (let's say 50%), the song rules, and decades after it was first released, it is still played at night clubs. That is impressive.
"Rasputin" and few other songs like "Daddy Cool" that have a solid disco beat that don't get too pretentious are what saves this little compilation from the scrap heap.
Just don't play "Nightflight to Venus" too soon after "Rasputin." If you do you'll realize that Frank Farian's kleptomania is so complete, he will even rip himself off when he gets desperate enough for a hit.
Best tracks: Rasputin, Daddy Cool
Disc 220 is...20 Super Hits
Artist: Boney MYear of Release: 1992, but with music from 1975 through 1979
What’s Up With The Cover?: A picture of the band, dressed perfectly normally - if you're from Betelgeuse, that is. This picture also confirms that if you work hard enough at it, you can in fact, put a part in an afro. It also confirms you shouldn't.
How I Came To Know It: I was born in 1970. In my early years, Boney M was seriously popular on AM radio.
How It Stacks Up: Although not-so-cleverly disguised as "20 Super Hits" this is, in fact, a 'best of' album, and therefore can't stack up.
Rating: It is a best of, so no rating.
Our first foray into disco is one of the all-time favourites of that genre, Boney M. As I noted above, these guys were a big deal in the 70s, and made a lot of money for Svengali producer and all-round music thief, Frank Farian (who would later reward us by spending some of this dough unleashing Milli Vanilli on the world).
I despise everything Frank Farian stands for in the music industry, but I can't deny the guy has the ability to figure out just what combination of styles is guaranteed to make a 'super hit' in a given time in music.
In Boney M's case, that mix is the 70s biggest thing, disco, freshened up with some caribbean reggae. As ever, a liberal coating of pop helps everything go down easily with the masses.
While I'm as guilty as anyone at having danced with gay abandon to Boney M, I didn't find this album enjoyable this time around. I know I should just accept it for what it is; syrupy dance music, designed for turning the brain off, and the body on. It is just that its vacuousness is so vast, no amount of sweet filling can counter the artistic void it creates.
One of their most famous songs, "Rivers of Babylon", isn't even an original. It is competent enough cover, until you hear the original by the Melodians. As for "Rivers of Babylon" remakes, I'll take Steve Earle's sorrowful stripped down version from "Sidetracks" any day. Boney M's might have a good dance beat, but the production strips all of the original religious gravitas from the song.
The remake of Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry" goes several steps further to the bad; it is an abomination so offensive it had me silently calling for new laws to punish the perpetrators for recording it.
I was even more horrified by one of the obscure 'super hits' on the record - "Still I'm Sad". This song is a complete rip off of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," for which no credit is given. I'm not sure if Boney M thought they could get away with it, or just didn't care. The part they take is not the 'oweemaway oweemaway' part, but rather the 'In the jungle/the mighty jungle/the lion sleeps tonight" part.
Those lyrics are replaced in "Still I'm Sad" with this little gem:
"See the stars come joining down from the sky."
What the hell? Anyway, if these seem overly obtuse, be thankful. When given a specific topic, like in the biographical "El Lute", the results are worse. Here's how that little gem begins:
"He was only 19 and was sentenced to die
For something that somebody else did
And blamed on El Lute.
Then they changed it to life and so he could escape
From then on they chased him
and searched for him all over Spain"
It reads like a book report written by an eight year old.
Lest you think this review will be all bad, I must now give credit where credit is due - that being to one of the greatest five star dance songs ever written. A song so awesome that I once sprained my thumb after it inspired me to do a Russian folk dance after one too many rum and cokes: "Rasputin".
Here, I could care less how historically accurate this song is (let's say 50%), the song rules, and decades after it was first released, it is still played at night clubs. That is impressive.
"Rasputin" and few other songs like "Daddy Cool" that have a solid disco beat that don't get too pretentious are what saves this little compilation from the scrap heap.
Just don't play "Nightflight to Venus" too soon after "Rasputin." If you do you'll realize that Frank Farian's kleptomania is so complete, he will even rip himself off when he gets desperate enough for a hit.
Best tracks: Rasputin, Daddy Cool
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