Hudson County: Bim Sala Bim
Brother Soul: Cookies
From Disco-Funk (RCA, 1975)
Backstory: Most comps don’t merit much in terms of collectability but this mid-70s RCA LP is a notable exception. Sunbar Productions (Canadian outfit) put it together and a few of the pieces included were rare enough that there’s still confusion over whether the LP compiled these songs or were the original source. The most famous would be “Bim Sala Bim,” by Hudson County which was bootlegged – twice – within two years of the comp’s release, re-credited to the “Fantastic Soul Inventions.” Pretty gutsy actually – a wholesale jacking of a song off a comp and resold as its own 45 that now earns even more than the original LP. Ah, rekkid craziness.
What’s the hype? Well – check it out: “disco funk,” as blase as it may sound seems dead-on here as a descriptor: those guitars, those horns, the keyboard slide, and that chorus which basically is nonsense but it’s still goddamn catchy, ain’t it? It’s a slick workout of a track.
As for “Cookies” – this comes originally from a 45 by Brother Soul and it’s my favorite song off the song: hot and chewy, just like a good cookie should be.
chatter