*
Uno!Dos!
One! two! tres! quatro!
This proto-lummox-rock speaks for itself. That said, I will briefly point to a few amusing features of this video, of which I do not know the provenance. First, the Pharaohs look more like Sheiks than what they purport to be. Second, Sam is costumed more like a Sikh than a Pharaoh, but maybe that was why he called himself a Sham. Third, the boys give us a fresh and clever application of go-go girl technology, namely being that the cuties are as motionless as mummies throughout the performance. And fourth, Sam didn't need no stinking lip syncing, as is especially evident during the last chorus as his voice tatters and he even cracks up at being busted with it on live TV. Probably either one run-through or tequila shot too many before rolling videotape. Everything about it looks fun.
RubberCrutch Bonus Trivia! In summer 2007, inspired by my memory of these antic lyric stylings of Domingo “Sam” Samudio whilst being browbeaten by my Chinese date and a small roomful of her equally Chinese students upstairs of a campus bar at a private karaoke party, I plucked this song from the tune menu they kept shoving up my grille. "I'll fix their wagon," I thought to myself. The crowd went wild, so I ended up doing two more by request. And significantly, there was no alcohol whatsoever involved! That's what Sam means by "let's not be L7"!
Wooly Bully, Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs (1966, unknown live TV performance), via YouTube.
Sam always makes me flash to around 1967, when my older 18 year old cousin had this quasi stage set up in my Aunt and Uncle's living room, complete with Stratocaster and Fender Amp and his Mom's Grand Piano.
ReplyDeleteHe'd crank it up and sing and play through the mic---What's that walking out in these spooky old woods / Why that's Lil Red Riding Hood.
Classic stuff Dude!
Only in America can a Mexican American pass himself off as an Egyptian.
ReplyDeleteThe next thing you know they'll be selling pizza.
59er: I wonder where that Strat is now. They're probably all made in Indonesia or Vietnam these days.
ReplyDeleteAnon: Hell, these days a Mexican-American can't even pass himself off as a Mexican-American in America --- wet until proven innocent. But since you mentioned Only In America, put this in your pipe and smoke it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uarIOILFARs
Notice the Latin-tinged beat. Sister Oscar played the crap out of this album in the mid-'60s --- a bargain purchase from the Columbia Record Club. When I was a kid we somehow got it in our heads that this band was actually Mexican. That's right: Jay And The Mexicans. True delusion; can't find corroboration in Wikipedia that they had even Mexican one in that ensemble....