Everybody's In Showbiz
Rebecca And The Sunnybrook Farmers don't have a Discogs page. Chunky, Novi & Ernie get the barest of mentions. Never mind climate change - this is an outrage issue. Why should you care? You'll have to get out your vinyl copy of Zappa's One Size Fits All, and your reading glasses. No, I don't know where you left your glasses. I'll still be here when you get back.
Okay, look for the constellation Agittarius, about the two o'clock mark. Three of the stars are named Chunky, Novi, and Ernie. These dudes formed a band back in '69 called Rebecca & The Sunnybrook Farmers, and recorded an album on the intriguingly low-rent Musicor label.
When that sold as much as everything on the label apart from Gene Pitney, they split and reformed in '73 as, well, Chunky, Novi, and Ernie. The guys could play. Chunky sang on The Grand Wazoo, and Zappa sang back-up on their Ted Templeman/John Cale-produced first album, Chunky, Novi, and Ernie, and Cal Schenkel did the (out-of-character) cover. For their second, titled, er, Chunky, Novi, and Ernie, they drew support from the ranks of the Mothers, Little Feat, and the Doobie Brothers. There's more - Google is your friend.
This is all good stuff. Varied, entertaining, adventurous, and thoroughly individual. Petition your Congressman/woman for their belated recognition. Stars are stars.
ReplyDeleteChunky farmers.
Had never heard of them, and had no idea what to expect, but what I heard was the last thing I expected (in my best Yogi Berra-ism). Nice albums!
ReplyDeleteThe music is uncategorizable, in a good way. I don't think they were well-served by their cover designs, though! Eggs painted with caricature "fetuses"? Vaguely camp and meaningless photography? If they were trying for a look, it wasn't a good one. It was a dumb group name, and calling both their albums by it was not a great idea. Weird how an act so very together musically can be so clueless when it comes to the visuals. Zappa was a master at this, too.
ReplyDeleteTheir management (assuming there was one) failed them. When I first glanced at the post and the photos, I thought that was Howard Stern in the bottom photo.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, we have several local bands in New Orleans that kinda sound like these albums.
Okay, so I'm one of the few people who bought the Chunky, Novi and Ernie albums and still have both. Lauren Wood (Chunky) did some other stuff, though. In particular, "Fallen" was on the Pretty Woman soundtrack and it was covered by Nicolette Larson.
ReplyDeleteRespect, JPB!
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