2007 JANUARY 3 #003
Bent Bolt & The Nuts - The Mechanical Man
MP3:
Bent Bolt & The Nuts - The Mechanical Man (2:12)
Some of you reading this will already be familiar with this beauty as it makes an appearance on playlists of the weird and wonky variety quite regularly. It was most famously included in Kenny Everett's 'World's Worst Records Show(s)' where it eventually recieved the 'distinction' of a number 17 placing. It was also featured on Dr Demento shows but I'd like to redress the balance a bit because this is a slice of automated audio genius to my ear.
Bent Bolt was actually a pseudonym for Teddy Randazzo who died in 2003 but was a 50's rock icon who co-wrote over 800 songs that were covered by such luminaries as Frank Sinatra and Dionne Warwick.
Jonathan More, one half of Coldcut, introduced this to me in the mid nineties when he used to cheekily drop it into his club sets and watch the amazement of the crowd as the tune unfolded. People try to dance to this but it has more clunk than funk and I love the way he's trying to immitate some sort of vocoder without actually using one, must have hurt his throat. My favourite bit is near the end when the whole thing shifts up an octave as he sings "I can pour you a cup of teeeeeaaaa!" — so wrong it's right. I managed to find one with a picture sleeve which is quite rare so I've included that too.
- Contributed by: Strictly Kev
Image: Cover
Media: 7" single
Label: MGM
Catalog: K-13635
Credits: C. Astone, C. Mastren, L. Burgio, M. Cartman
Date: 1966
