Clint West and the Fabulous Boogie Kings

Every time I post I repeat to myself "this will not be a surf blog, this will not be a surf blog". Here I thought I had a solution but, well, I'd skip most of the vocal tracks on here.

The Boogie Kings are one of the more prominent swamp pop bands and this is one of their earliest appearances. I've got a lot of headway to make before I could explain swamp pop to you; my current understanding is just a simple "rock & roll made in cajun country" but at least that's a very attractive definition to me. And this is very much a Louisiana album. If you check the back cover, "LA" is included in about every paragraph and only one of the reviews of the group aren't from Louisiana (it's from Texas). My only previous exposure to them was a tape I picked up on a whim that was pretty weak and underwhelming, but this is a totally different beast.

As I've previously stated, the vocal tracks (aside from the last few) on here are pretty worthless to me. I've never been one for ballads and all of them are slow, including the opener "I'm Sorry Pillow" which is really obnoxious. Thankfully, you can pick out the good tracks by name alone and they're all pretty good.

I'd like to clear the air here: I have a huge surf bias having had a surf and instrumental radio show, so it's going to show up here because I've bought a ton of it. But I love vocals. Just yesterday I was screaming my head off to the Fabulous Wailers. I love many types of rock & roll. I love music that isn't rock & roll. HUR HUR Even RAP.

So yeah, the instrumental tracks here are the highlights. They're not surf, no reverb or normal surf staples, just instrumental rock & roll that might even that almost sit just as well next to James Brown as they do the Ventures (I believe this album is from 1963, so think about that for a while). This isn't raw Sonics or '66 garage stuff really and you can kind of pick up on some classical or jazz training on their instruments but they're clearly loving it and getting into it. Makes me wonder what they're thinking for the vocal tracks.

This is a pretty nasty copy and there won't be a single song where there isn't some (or plenty) of noise, but I don't think it ever ruins it. As always, feel free to point towards a better rip or provide your own, but I'd be surprised if there are many copies of this floating around, much less on the internet.

Side A:

1. I'm Sorry Pillow
2. Choo Choo Locomotion
3. Twelfth of Never
4. Trey Me
5. A Tear Fell
6. Boogie Chillun

Side B:

1. Honky Tonk pt. 3
2. It's No Use To Try
3. Okey Dokey Stomp
4. Our Love
5. Night Train
6. Twist and Shout