Lou Christie / Tammys EGYPTIAN SHUMBA CD

RPM did a fantastic job on the Lou Christie / Tammys EGYPTIAN SHUMBA CD. Lots of first-time stereo from the pristine first-generation master tapes.

See:
Tammys EGYPTIAN SHUMBA Home Page

“Egyptian Shumba” was a local Top 15 hit in Pittsburgh and a Top 30 in Cleveland, at a time when the world was too busy with the British Invasion to think Egyptian. Too bad, coz, when you get a song with head splitting drums, a snake charmin’ clarinet and three girls barking on all fours like wolverines, singing “I wanna dance—AAAHH!” with the same urgency supermodels purge desserts, well, rock can’t get much better without a kegger.
~ Serene Dominic, Detroit Metro Times

Singing like poodles, pixies and punk rockers, The Tammys’ entire output (8 songs plus alternate takes and unreleased stuff) reveals some amazing music that captures the youthful, angsty, alive spirit of Pop Rock & Roll while invoking Sun Ra, Phil Spector, The Shangri-Las, Zappa, Mark Wirtz, Pac Man Fever and The Bobbettes. A crucial comp you must hear.
~ Jake Austen, Roctober

Quite simply the Tammys' "Egyptian Shumba" sounds like a hyped-up B-52's - two decades before there was a B-52's. The song is a glorious, over-the-top dance song that could inspire a John Waters movie. With female hormones in overdrive, the Tammys scream, wheeze and shout at the song's nearly orgasmic finale in one of the wildest songs of the girl-group era.
Grade: A-
~ Wayne Bledsoe, News-Sentinel

If you thought The Bangles were the first to walk like an Egyptian, you'd be wrong by a couple of decades.
~ David Sallinger, Daily News

[“Egyptian Shumba”] starts “Last night I dreamed I was on the Nile” and descends into apocalyptic shrieking over a beach blanket beat. It’s hard to tell if it’s tongue-in-cheek or just a little unhinged. The clever money’s on both.
~ Bob Stanley, MOJO

Never quite hidden in the otherwise upbeat surroundings of songs like "Outside the Gates of Heaven," "Lost in the Crowd" and "Make Summer Last Forever" is a bizarre internal world racked with guilt, sadness and other turbulent emotions; it's like a Gidget film directed by Ingmar Bergman.
~ Stewart Mason, ALIBI

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Tammys EGYPTIAN SHUMBA Home Page

 

Egyptian Shumba: The Singles and Rare Recordings 1962-1964
Lou Christie & the Tammys
RPM Records



by Serene Dominic
Detroit Metro Times
9/4/2002



What I’d like to know is why Lou Christie shan’t go down in history as a rock genius? Because he didn’t go nutter like Brian Wilson or Phil Spector? His productions were battier than both of ’em put together, simply because they were the invention of a completely sane mind.

Did Brian Wilson ever equate misery with a song about “Summer Snow”? Did Spector ever make Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans whoop like Freddie Cannon or snarl like the Knights who say Nit, as Christie orders the Tammys to do on his “Outside the Gates of Heaven”? Not a chance!

If schizorock at its most frenetic means anything to you, you’ll want this import collection of Christie’s early Roulette sides, plus selected works by the greatest discovery since Velcro bra straps, the Tammys. Hear young Lou and his gypsy lyricist Twyla Herbert seizing all the divine inspiration the other greats passed on, writing the ultimate song about “Guitars and Bongos” and turning the recording booth into a confessional with “Have I Sinned.” It’s on these tracks that the Tammys’ incorrigible background vocals could be ignored no longer and Lou immediately secured them a recording contract on United Artists.

Besides rat-tat-tatting like Gabriel at Jericho, they put together syllables no human has ever joined in any language like “shoom a la la ooh” or “shimmy shimmy shimmy shy yi missin’ ish!” Lou furnished them with two first-rate examples of brat rock — “Take Back Your Ring” (where Linda chastises her beau for giving her bogus love) and “Part of Growing Up” (where the Tammys shout “grow up” like they’re heckling the visiting team). Linda, Gretchen and Cathy are so tough they made the Shangri-Las look like something Louisa May Alcott dreamed up — Linda, the youngest Tammy, actually told a TV interviewer her boyfriend had perpetually shredded lips on account of her braces.

Given to such bouts with candor, there was no other choice but that the brazen lip-shreddin’ Tammys teach the world to dance the “Egyptain Shumba,” 14 years before Steve Martin went Tut-Tut and 22 years before the Bangles merely walked like Egyptians.

When the Tammys aren’t bragging about holding hands with mummys on the Nile, they insistently rapid-repeat the word “dance” a mind-numbing 18 times, each time accompanied by a head-pounding drum. Their finest moment, “Egyptain Shumba” was a local top-15 hit in Pittsburgh and a top-30 hit in Cleveland, at a time when the world was too busy with the British Invasion to think Egyptian. Too bad, coz, when you get a song with head-splitting drums, a snake-charmin’ clarinet and three girls barking on all fours like wolverines singing “I wanna dance — aaahh!” with the same urgency supermodels purge desserts, well, rock can’t get much better without a kegger. Also, compiler Harry Young’s besotted liner notes are worth whatever Amazon’s charging for this CD. If it’s possible to love Lou Christie and the Tammys more than life itself, it’s Young’s sarcophagus to bear.

 

All Tracks Written by
LOU CHRISTIE and TWYLA HERBERT
except #s 17 and 19 - 21.

All Tracks feature THE TAMMYS
except #s 01 - 03.

LOU CHRISTIE:
01. THE GYPSY CRIED
(Mono) 2:09
~ C and C single 102 B and Roulette single R-4457 B, recorded September 1962, released October 1962

02. TWO FACES HAVE I
(Wide Stereo) 2:47
~ Roulette single R-4481, recorded and released February 1963

03. SUMMER SNOW
(Mono) 2:43
~ intended third Roulette single, recorded May 1963, released March 1988

04. OUTSIDE THE GATES OF HEAVEN
(Mono) 2:27
~ Co & Ce single 235, recorded for Roulette January 1964, released February 1966

05. GUITARS AND BONGOS
(Mono Single Version, First Time On CD) 2:45
~ Colpix single CP-735, recorded June 1964, released July 1964

06. MERRY-GO-ROUND
(Mono) 2:31
~ Colpix single CP-735 B, recorded June 1964, released July 1964

07. MAKE SUMMER LAST FOREVER
(Stereo) 2:47
~ Colpix single CP-770 B, recorded June 1964, released March 1965

08. BACK TRACK
(Stereo) 2:10
~ Colpix single CP-778 B, recorded June 1964, released May 1965

09. HAVE I SINNED
(Stereo) 2:33
~ Colpix single CP-753, recorded and released October 1964

10. POT OF GOLD
(Stereo) 2:39
~ Colpix single CP-753 B, recorded and released October 1964

11. TOO MANY MILES
(Stereo) 2:28
~ Colpix album cut, recorded October 1964, released February 1966

THE TAMMYS:
12. PART OF GROWING UP
(First-Time Stereo) 2:01
~ United Artists single UA 632 B, recorded July 1963, released August 1963

13. TAKE BACK YOUR RING
(First-Time Stereo) 2:08
~ United Artists single UA 632, recorded July 1963, released August 1963

RITCHIE & THE RUNAROUNDS
(Kripp Johnson of The Del Vikings,
Lou Christie and
The Tammys):
14. DON’TCHA BACKTRACK
(Mono) 2:10
~ Ascot single AS 2136 B, recorded July 1963, released August 1963

15. LOST IN THE CROWD
(First-Time Stereo) 2:36
~ Ascot single AS 2136, recorded July 1963, released August 1963

THE TAMMYS:
16. EGYPTIAN SHUMBA
(Single Version in First-Time Stereo) 2:31
~ United Artists single UA 678, recorded and released November 1963

17. WHAT’S SO SWEET
ABOUT SWEET SIXTEEN
(First-Time Stereo) 2:38
~ United Artists single UA 678 B, recorded and released November 1963

18. GYPSY
(First-Time Stereo) 2:21
~ Veep single V 1210 B, recorded December 1964, released March 1965

19. HOLD BACK THE LIGHT OF DAWN
(First-Time Stereo) 2:34
~ Veep single V 1210, recorded December 1964, released March 1965

20. BLUE SIXTEEN
(First-Time Stereo) 2:17
~ recorded December 1964 (Previously Unreleased Veep single V 1220)

21. HIS ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS
(First-Time Stereo) 2:42
~ recorded December 1964 (Previously Unreleased Veep single V 1220)

22. EGYPTIAN SHUMBA
(Stereo, Previously Unreleased Alternate Take) 2:45
~ recorded November 1963