Day 345: Incredible Bongo Band – Bongo Rock
Earlier today, I was having a little peruse through 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die and saw a band that does bongo music described stylistically as surf and disco – you had me at bongo, let’s go. Today’s album is by the Incredible Bongo Band, and it turns out that they’re even more interesting than they seem.
Album cover courtesy of Pride/MGM
The Incredible Bongo Band was formed in 1972 by MGM Records executive Michael Viner. The group was formed out of session musicians who got together to record background music for chase scenes in a film called The Thing with Two Heads, but they decided to keep it going after scoring the film. The band had a rotating crew of members, but notable ones include drummer Jim Gordon from Derek and the Dominos, guitarist and four-time Grammy winner Glen Campbell, and Album a Day favourite Harry Nilsson. Reportedly Ringo Starr also played on their debut album, Bongo Rock.
Bongo Rock was released in 1973, and it features the band playing funky instrumental tracks from the fifties and sixties, most notably the song “Apache”. The lore about this album and that song runs so deep that there’s a whole documentary about it called Sample This: the album wasn’t that big of a hit when it came out, until it was discovered by DJ Kool Herc. He isolated the percussion breaks, mixed them together and started playing it at parties, which built the foundation of hip-hop and turned Bongo Rock into one of the most sampled albums of all time.
“Apache” was then sampled by a variety of bands and artists. One of the bigger ones was the Sugarhill Gang culturally insensitive banger “Apache (Jump On It)”, but it was also sampled by Grandmaster Flash, LL Cool J, Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, Busta Rhymes, MC Hammer, Kanye and Jay Z, among many others.
Bongo Rock is a romp of an album that slows down a little from the dizzying heights of “Apache”, but never gets boring or repetitive. Knowing that it was chase music for some sort of a cheap blaxploitation film makes a lot of sense hearing it, it’s a little bit cheesy but there’s also an energy to it that keeps you on your toes. And it’s just a fun listening experience that’ll probably make any day better. I know there’s whole documentaries about this one, but it still feels like it should be better known. Or maybe I’ve just lived under a rock and don’t know my hip hop history, which is highly likely, but this is among one of the most enjoyable albums I think I’ve discovered in the course of this project.
“Apache” is obviously a 10/10 of a song, but many others are also fantastic. I love the covers of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and “Wipeout” by the Surfaris. “In A Gadda Da Vida” is also one of my favourite, it has organs and a generally slightly unsettling but fun vibe, which is obviously up my street. But the whole album has such a charming old film score feel that I just want to have it on while I pretend I’m a sexy lady from a creepy Russ Meyer film, going about my business in 1960s Los Angeles — frankly, what more could you want?
I loved this one. And Harry Nilsson! Who knew? I’d almost be ready to count this into my project to trawl through his discography. But it’s also now deep in the repertoire and I can’t wait to hear it again. Bongo Rock is a 9.5/10.