2003 AUGUST 4 #216
While driving one day, my wife and I noticed not one, but TWO studios that taught Clogging, which would not have been worth mentioning, save that they were on the same strip mall. This charged our imaginations, as we pictured "West Side Story"-style fights between them and the noise it would generate. Imagine the school dance sequence redone in Clogs! So, from that day forward, a random mention of Clogging makes us giggle.
During a recent record hunt, this one fairly leapt out at me. I was looking at what was supposed to be a bunch of Soul records and this was, quite obviously, misfiled. I saw a record that mentions both "Disco" and ""Clogging" and I had to investigate. This song is meant to be clogged to, so it does not contain actual clog dancing. It is instrumental on one side, which renders the song sort of useless, because it really doesn't sound much like Disco, but the vocal side is the one to hear.
(Image courtesy of Brian Phillips)
Rick Dees' HIT version of this song is of rather questionable musical value, but this manages to be far worse. The backing is nondescript, the "human" vocals sound as if the poor fellow has a cold, but oh, that "duck"! I picked up the record for the duck, I paid for the duck, but I can barely understand the duck! He sounds rather aged in places, he's way out of tune, and has a tough time keeping a beat.
What kind of routines do people do to this record? Perhaps they included the vocals so that beginners would clog loudly enough to drown out the duck.
Here is a nice short history of clogging:
http://www.geocities.com/angelqt94/clogging/history.html
- Brian Phillips
TT-2:57 / 3.4MB / 160kbps 44.1khz
(Images from http://www.fireonthemountaincloggers.com/Clogging.html)