George Coleman, better known as Bongo Joe, was a San Antonio, Texas based street musician. He played oil drums by beating them with hammer handles while singing, talking, screaming, rapping and whistling. His magnificence was captured on the album Bongo Joe (still available from Arhoolie Records), recorded in the late 1960's. The album is a wild combination of raw primal drumming, stream of conscious narration, and bluesy surrealism.
The track closest to a standard song is opener I Wish I Could Sing. Coleman creates an infectiously melodic percussion backing to his howls, whines and growls. He sounds unhinged but with his tongue stuck firmly in cheek. Allow this song to be your gateway drug into Bongo Joe's weird world of comitragic puppies, threatening everyone over a radio, and the wild screams of dinosaurs and women.
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