Bongo Rock

This better have bongos in it lol. Ok it does, lot of fucking bongos. Too many fucking bongos, if I'm honest. 3/5.

Bongo's check. More Bongo's check. Some bad ass rifts with Bongo's, check! I got a feva; and the only prescription is more bongos!

Wow. I so enjoyed listening to this album from the time that I turned it on. Love the horns, bongos, guitar riffs and the feeling that I'm either hanging out with The Sugarhill Gang making music or reviewing the Rockford Files with Starsky, Hutch, TJ Hooker, Barney Miller, Thomas Magnum, The Six Million Dollar Man / Bionic woman and planning my next vacation on the Love Boat. ... Incredible. https://www.whosampled.com/Incredible-Bongo-Band

Album contains the sweetest cover of inna godda davida ever. I was in the right mood for this today.... Another reason O appreciate this 1001 album site... Would not have actively sought this out

“Bongo Rock” by Incredible Bongo Band (1973) This album is highly entertaining, and if you can’t dance to it, you’re comatose. But, except for percussion, the music here (there are no lyrics) is completely sappy, corny, schmaltzy, and twee. What it could really use is a vocal performance by Alvin and the Chipmunks. And the percussion is—well, ‘formulaic’ would be a generous compliment. The gimmick on this record is to take tested tunes and render them with lots of bongo playing and other colorful percussion (uncredited but performed by quite creditable session musicians). It requires steady (I.e., boring) tempos and soulless attention to meter. Thus we have knockoffs of “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida”, “Dueling Banjos”, “Wipeout”, “Apache”, etc. This is ‘music’ best enjoyed at old style parties for boomers, preferably after everyone is two sheets in. I believe the only country where any of these tracks charted was Canada. I’ll leave it to the reader to draw the appropriate inferences. There is humor here, but it’s at a small college marching band level. It’s the kind of thing serious musicians do on their time off, or when they’re bored, depressed, unemployed, or insufficiently talented (or all of the above and failing to connect the dots). This record might have improved productivity in a 1950s Soviet gulag or Chinese laogai, but I doubt it would have been allowed. Actually, it would make for a great YouTube video as a soundtrack to clips of chain gang workers from the Paul Newman movie Cool Hand Luke. Roofers and carpenters, however, should not play this as background music while working. It could cause seizures. 1/5

I like bongos, but not that much

WOW I am so glad I listened to that. Perfect 10/10 for me. That was just miraculous. Actual sonic perfection. It blows my mind that these groovy songs that slap so hard were made in the early 70’s before my parents were even born. I have heard one of the songs before, Bongolia from Baby Driver. It’s really funny when I’m listening to old stuff like David Brubeck or Focus and am like… “Where have I heard this song before?” And once I realize it’s Baby Driver, it makes me love the movie that much more just because of how based Edgar Wrights taste in music is. Anyway, I couldn’t possibly recommend this album more. Actually just incredible.

This is good record to play “who sampled this?” with….and boy are there are a lot. Musically, it’s decent r&b/funk record, but…a little bit of bongo goes a long way, you know what I mean? You’re going to be hearing bongos in your sleep after listening to this and, soon, the “clop-clop” of bongos will permeate your psyche until you slowly disassociate, unsure where you end and the bongos begin…Somebody help me….Every day is a waking nightma— CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP

I never realised this album existed, and suddenly the origin of every hip-hop and dnb bongo sample I've ever heard has been revealed to me. Not only that, it's an absolutely banging album, I don't think there is a single track I didn't enjoy - whenever I got bored of the bouncy bongo beats a guitar riff appeared from nowhere to drag me back from the brink of not having fun.

APACHE!!! Origin of so many samples. This whole album is just super cool.

Neat little time capsule of 70s vibe, but a bit much to listen to all at once... This kind of soul sound but with the bongos turned down to a reasonable level was done well on The Olympians' self-titled (2016).

So bongo cover versions then. I could have done without hearing it but not too terrible

I knew within five seconds of the first song "Apache" that I would like this album. This album started as a supplement to the soundtrack of B-film "The Thing with Two Heads." It is mostly cover songs using bongos, conga drums, rock drums, brass horns and guitar. The songs are all instrumental, mostly upbeat and funky and highly influential among hip hop artists - a lot of songs are sampled. To me, the sound is like "The Peter Gunn Theme" enhanced with bongos and funk. It's interesting; it does have a soundtrack feel but there are a lots of guitar, organ and other instrument solos making it feel also like a rock song. No need to further explain the song "Dueling Bongos" either. Great production also on this record. "Apache" starts with a great bongo and drum beat, horns and organ come and the funk kicks in. Great bongo solo. The orginal song was popular in the UK by The Shadows and in the US by Jørgen Ingmann. It also became very popular in the late 70's among hip hop artists. "Last Bongo in Belgium" is musically all over the place with organ jams, an impressive guitar solo sounding like Steely Dan, a few brass horns solos and of course, the multiple percussions keeping the rhythym. It has also been sampled by the Beastie Boys, Massive Attack and the Leftfield. I was in a bar last week, heard "In a Gadda da Vida" from the juke box and mentioned to a friend that has been a few years since I've heard this song. Little did I know, a week later I'd hear a bongoed-up version of "In a Gadda da Vida," a song that has also been used as the main loop in two Nas' songs. And, as if the orginal song isn't strange enough. I knew I was in for a unique experience when I saw this album pop up on the 1001 randomizer; It was to some extent but the real highlight was finding out about its influence and enjoying listening to the music.

I am a sucker for some good percussion, and this album delivered on that and much more. I really enjoyed the upbeat/funky vibes that were present throughout "Bongo Rock". This record was just pure fun, and I had a great time listening to it throughout its super quick tracklist (I listened to the original eight song release rather than the extended 2006 version, but I am now tempted to listen to all of the bonus tracks in the future). The tight collection of songs here just feels timeless with all of the performers clearly giving it their all. After doing some research, it looks like a good chunk of these songs are covers of older hits (In a Gadda Da Vida was the only one I knew for sure was a cover), but I feel that they did a fantastic job making these tracks their own and giving them the twist they need to keep things exciting. This definitely feels like a record that had the potential to be sampled a lot in the future, and I recognized 'Apache' by its use in the Sugar Hill Gang's song 'Jump On It' immediately. Overall, this was a great album to go through, and I feel like I should own this one on vinyl in the future. 4/5.

I'm not sure that I should like this album as much as I do - but I do. It's like a collection of the greatest TV and game show themes from the 70s and 80s, and I mean that as a compliment. It's just fun. Their rendition of Satisfaction is almost (maybe) better than the original. Ironically, the only thing that wore on me was the bongos. Sometimes they were cool, but - at the end of the day - they end up making every song sound like Apache. Every ounce of my being wants to give this a 5, but I'm just not sure I can justify it.

A decent knock knock joke. I chuckled, I smiled, I forgot it straight away.

I love this album more than life itself. The perfect expression of the 1970's. A bit cheesy, incredibly fun (yes, incredibly), slightly tipsy. I can imagine Fatboy Slim hearing these grooves and thinking "I'm going to base my entire career on this." Incredible.

We were pleasantly surprised by how lively and fun this ridiculously named band was. It's fantastic.

Well this is a lot of fun. No grand artistic statement here just a bunch of talented musicians showing off their substantial chops on some old favourites. Nothing wrong with that. 3.5 stars

Upon getting this album pop up for today's listen - I was really skeptical. But the first song on the album is Apache which at first didn't recognise by name, but recognised the sound from countless covers, samples and features in films. The entire album has a soundtrack like quality to it, which makes sense when you realise that Michael Viner was a record artist manager and executive at MGM Records. Overall a good listen for a Friday afternoon Best: Apache; In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida Worst: No real weakness just a nice flow through the album as a whole Disclaimer - I only listened to the first 8 songs on Spotify as they were part of the original album. The remainder was part of the 2006 CD Release

Kitsch. Novelty. Not even done very well. But it's fun to listen to for a while. Some songs are alright, but there's also some very bland versions of more spicy originals, like Pipeline and Satisfaction. A full album of this is too much. If you need samples for your hip hop or dance music, this record is for you. Otherwise ignore it. In my opinion this doesn't belong on the list. Favorite song: Kiburi.

Now That’s What I Call Bongos Vol 1. Having the word “incredible” in your band name is like North Korea having the word “democratic” in its name. It doesn’t necessarily make it true.

Is this the album that launched a thousand hip-hop careers? Quite possibly. I had no idea what to expect from what appeared to be 80 minutes centred around bongo drumming, but mercifully, it was much more than that and funky as hell. It might actually be my favourite discovery yet from this challenge.

Despite my initial fears of this having too much bongo to handle, I actually found myself wanting/needing more bongo from the Incredible Bongo Band. This is a 5/5 instrumental covers record on its own but the bongos really bring this into a whole new world. Most of this could easily be used as the soundtrack to a paradoy Tarantino film. I would also like to hear it substituted for the original Dirty Harry soundtrack - I reckon that would fit very well.

Flame

Trumpet drums guitar. You can hear so much of what influenced future artists in this album

bongolicious bongo songs hitting bongbastically hard? Ja bitte!

A loud audible groan when I saw this pop up, but this is WAY better than I was expecting. This is some FUNKY shit. I am way digging these bongos (just as well really) and some of these covers (like Apache) are BAD ASS. I thought I would finally answer the question of "how many bongos is too many bongos?", but you know what? I haven't. We need more bongos if anything. More. Bongos.

This is the only example on this 1001 list (as far as I can tell) of a particular genre of record that you constantly come across int he wild, but is very seldom given any critical appraisal; the studio cash-in record. Studio professionals corralled together to crank a bunch of usually instrumental covers of some popular hits, and maybe some hastily written original charts that sound vaguely similar (but allow the publishing royalties to be collected by someone close to the project). Some name musicians had quite a lot of success using this formula (James Last is a good example), but often it is an arbitrary band name (as here) or even completely anonymous. A day or two in the studio can knock out a quick album that might sell a few thousand copies. As here (or in Australian EMS recordings of this type), studio down time was used to reduce costs. Well, this is an example from within that genre that exceeded all expectations. The fact that it has really great band (big ups to Jim Gordon on drums) and was superbly recorded int e MGM Studios means that it sounds like a million dollars. It has a great beat and lots of percussion breaks, which led to it being one of the ur-texts of hip hop. This has given this album a second life and a cultural influence that far exceeds the original ambitions for this record. The sound of this record has cast a massive shadow of music in the decades since its release. It's a pretty funky listen, assuming you like bongos. Standout tracks; Apache, Dueling Bongos, In A Gadda Da Vida.

One of the more quintessential blueprints for what would be known as hip-hop/b-boy culture and it is perfect condensed and understood in the four minutes and fifty-four seconds of the first track (which I've just learned was a cover of a two decade old song). This is a pretty good collection of innovative songs and intriguing covers (the aforementioned Apache, In a Gadda da Vida, Satisfaction) and it's worth the time. Bongos have never sounded so funky.

Can't help but bop around when listening to this. Duelling Bongos was a bit of a let-down due to it not being a cover of Duelling Banjos. I feel like I should be driving around Santa Monica in a bright pink low-rider, with my uzi on the back seat, smoking like a chimney, picking up some roller babes and just being an all-round badass. 10/10 would listen to again. Would give 4.5/5 but withholding my 5/5 for something which I can just listen to on repeat

TIukkaa bongotykitystä ja rytmikästä menoa. Mukavan pirtsakkaa musaa, tätä kuunteli mielellään!

It's a rocking bongo album delivered as packaged. There is no false advertising here. It's a proper groove.

FUNkier than expected

Nice tunes and enjoyable all the way through, all covers though

Well... this exists.

OK, this is kind of fun. But I admit I couldn't listen to every song all the way through. But I did have to listen to in a Gadda Davida all the way through. I couldn't make it through satisfaction all the way though. They definitely had some pretty good musicians on this

I would happily never listen to this again. It wasn't a bad album, but it did nothing for me. I think it was too earnest, and I can imagine that people who understand music would really appreciate it.

Pre-listening feelings upon seeing the album art: Oh no. Post-listening feelings: So... these are covers of popular songs of the day, but with bongos? That's... that's what this is? Just to clarify - why 1,001 albums, exactly? Why not, ya know, 200 maybe. Weed out a couple. But also - reading up on it, I guess this album has been sampled a good bit, which makes it a little bit interesting. But I'm not otherwise loving it.

Yeah it sure does have that funky soundtrack sound for a movie in the early 70s. I keep anticipating Issac Hayes piping in with: You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother (Shut your mouth) But I'm talkin' about Shaft (Then we can dig it) After two songs I was wondering why it's called "Bongo Rock '' Yeah, I get it, there are bongos playing but nothing to justify naming the album Bongo Rock. The Bongos stepped up on Bongolia and again on Bongo Rock where they really do sizzle but in general I don't see anything special percussion wise. I guess if the only drummers you had heard play were Charlie Watts (RIP) and Ringo, the percussion might sound unusual enough to be impressive. I'm more impressed by the percussion on the Ravi Shankar album we listened to and the tabla playing on that LP was a footnote rather than the main billing. I'd prefer an a track of tabla soloing over the song Dueling Bongos any day of the week. Watching Dueling Bongos live might be fun but listening to it is as much fun as listening to some knucklehead mow his lawn. Ditto the solo in In-A-Gadda_Da_Vida although the jamming after the solo is quite good. Also, I'm far more impressed with the lead guitar playing than I am with the Bongo playing on Last Bongo in Belgium. I might consider a 3 if it weren't for the bongos. Given the name of the band, a 3 is off the table.

Background Muzak for a crappy tiki bar. What is this doing on the list? Not only that - but cover songs that are desecrations of the originals? I bet Mick and Keith did not love the cover of Satisfaction. I certainly didn't.

Why is this here

Honestly, wtf

Stopped listening after I got halfway through the second song. Can’t believe someone convinced a record company to let them fuck around on bongos for almost an hour and a half.

“Largely ignored “ said the review. Where it should have been left. Ignored forever. Cover art 3/5

1/5 it began well, in the end it became disturbing

The bongos absolute rock. I was afraid going into this album that it was going to be strictly bongos and no other instrument, but I was completely mistaken. That was some awesome funk/horn/bongo combo explosion for 30 straight minutes. The In a Gadda Da Vida cover was awesome. Not normally something I think I would give a 5 but this was such a unique and fun album that I absolutely want to hear again

Awesome funk!

Loved the vibes

go to whosampled, look up incredible bongo band, enjoy also - getting The Incredible Bongo Band and The Incredible String Band in the same week is pretty funny

Why, yes, I did do the hip thing in my driver’s seat. Why do you ask?

Those bongos were pretty incredible

Should be called incredible band with bongos

This album is fantastic. I had no idea this is where a lot of drum samples came from.

I enjoyed it I can’t lie

Not as groovy as I was hoping, but still pretty fun!

Didn’t know I needed this album to be so productive. I might take up bongos.

Very glad I came back to listen to this. It makes me regret giving out 5 stars all Willy nilly before because this albums 5 is watered down by the others.

Groovy beats. Very nice drums!

So much fun! Just a cool album end to end. Love the drum beats. 4.5/5

inc

Very good, did not know they made those iconic songs

Not what I wanted a Bongo band album to sound like but it’s a change from the norm, I will say that. I was expecting hippy bongo jamming but got funk bongo jamming. I was surprised to already know “Apache” with the song “Jump on it” clearly influenced by it. For the genre, this is a passing grade. This is a perfect background soundtrack for anything. Maybe not a funeral Maybe not during sex….well, I guess it could be. I must still have Bon Jovi ringing in my head. This is really a fun album. You forget that there’s no singing on it and that is usually important to me. Whatever, this is good, listen to it Choice cut: Dueling Bongos

This is an oddity. Super cool. Just shows how Post-Modernity has reshaped the world.

Great samples, percussion. Easy to listen to.

Excellent.

What the hell, this actually slaps

Loved it!

Great album - the best jingle ever (only old germans will remember)

muy wenon, que viva la percusión percutadora. 9/10

A treasure. Loved it.

Loved this!

Real interesting album. Did not realize the influence this album had on music as a whole.

Easily the best ever bongo rock album ever made. Nothing touches this masterpiece. Sampled in hundreds of songs, this album if filled with superb playing from all mystery studio musicians who played on this

The sort of groovy music that you'll hear at a retro club all nighter, mixed in with psych, freakbeat, ska and soul etc. Yeah maybe it's a bit kitsch, but I love it for just that reason. Fab stuff

Loved this absoutly crazy just for Apache alone!

This absolutely rules. Not a still booty in the house.

GREAT ALBUM! Apache is in my top 5 all-time songs. Trying to find this in LP and 8-track

I signed up for this project to expand my musical horizons and I gotta say that unfortunately giving an album with a seven minute long bongo-centric cover of In a Gadda da Vida is pretty par for the course for me.

Loved it so 70s retro

I never would have thought I'd love a bongo band so much. This is so filthy. Funky as hell.

This is one of those albums that I would never have decided to sit down and listen to in its entirety had it not been part of this project. Nonetheless, I was pleasantly surprised. Well— I wouldn’t say *surprised*. It was exactly what I expected when I saw the name and cover. Still, it was good and I’m happy to have listened to it. I listened to the first few songs around 3pm on my way home from a fairly decent day. I got my coffee, I arrived to work early enough to grab something for breakfast. I worked at Cornivores in Dino Land and after my 15 I worked at Feeding Ground in Discovery Island. Made some people happy, saw a few princesses, and went home on time. I enjoyed the addition of vocals in Kiburi, Pt. 1. I also enjoyed the mixture of familiar songs and ones that they made.

Love this!!! Ashamed I wasn’t aware and already a fan of this, by name, before now. As a band geek, I was definitely familiar with the music, just unaware of the band or album by name. Fantastic album - perfect for working to or jamming on a road-trip!

I am not Generation Z, but this album is a mood no cap

Love this. Bongos and Hammond organs playing classic track!

Zacne bębenki

Fun album to listen to on my way back into the office after the holidays. I've never heard of this group but I knew Apache immediately.

Hell yeah brother

This exceeded all my expectations! Didn't know how this could work but it does!

Awesome beats, nice discovery !

An utterly joyful album. Made me smile from start to finish.

I fucking love this!

fuck yeah loved it

Wow, just soooo incredibly funky! Haters gonna hate but the percussion on this is off the charts. Fantastic album, a reason to embark on the 1001 project is to find gems like this. So many samples!!

Never knew Bongo Rock was a thing or that I needed bongo covers of songs, glad I know now. I particularly enjoyed In a Gadda Da Vida.

Did NOT expect to like this one going into it. Ended up really enjoying it. Good instrumentals, and the covers I think were solid.

HOLY SHIT

This was really good. Didn't know what to expect, but good beats were definitely not on the card. Simply great.

Surprised to find this was excellent

baita sonzao instrumental, bongo mandando lenha