Time to time we come across our most prized findings in the oddest of places, sometimes buried under our noses. Today’s post is a shining example of how rare and otherwise expensive records are sometimes found within the dusty confines of our local record shops dollar bins. Case in point, I came across Soul Apollo’s Chombo Pa’ La Tienda 45 in the dollar bin at one of my favorite local record shops here in town. Out of a stack of seemingly unusual titles and oddball releases, I saw Soul Apollo’s beat-up sleeveless record waiting for me to take him home and sleeve him. A few things struck me when I came across this one buried under some standard golden oldies and children’s records, one being the word Soul in the group title, coupled with spanish wording in the song name, and the genre listing on the record as “Calipso”. Yup, sold. One dollar? Done.
This particular dig awarded me with a fine grip of soulful tunes and garage rock oddities, along with today’s record, but it’s interesting to note that all of them had the name Spice written across the labeling in large lettering, and it’s not the first of his (her?) records that I now own. All told, Spice and Woods are two people in town who really cared to tag their prized vinyl possessions in large lettering, I could likely dedicate an entire crate to their former possessions, but I digress. I listened to this single a few times over, quite content with my finding and amused with the novelty dialogue interlaced throughout the course of the song. I could only decipher some of the spanish, but was at a lost with the thick Antillean accent. What I could gather, however, is that Chombo is sent on a mission by his nagging (and eerily masculine) Mother to fetch some items at at the local store. And his crew, the Soul Apollo, sing the chorus of Chombo’s painful experience with his badgering Mother. Some months later, I was back at that same record shop and picked up a copy of Soundway’s newly released Panama! 3 LP, I came home and hurriedly placed it on the turntable, only then to find that “Chombo Pa’ La Tienda” was a featured cut on the newly issued compilation.
I can’t say I know much about Fredrick Clarke and his Soul Apollo, but I can phrase some of the sentiments from the Soundway clan from their liner notes:
“The historical calypso tradition of tall tales, wit and oral storytelling has been a useful aid in both commenting on and understanding Panama’s complicated social structure. It’s evident, listening to this song in 2009, that theatrical embellishment in music is slowly becoming a lost art. It’s also easy to see why Chombo became so popular, it’s just a pity he never made television!”
That just about says it all for me, nevertheless, hope you enjoy Soul Apollo w/ Fredrick Clarke with their “Chombo Pa’ La Tienda”. And if i might add, I highly recommend Soundway’s in-depth compiled coverage of Panamanian soul, calypso, cumbia and guajira jazz over here, all 3 of the series are a must!
