I'm fast coming to the conclusion that I own an awful lot of weird singles!
Cheech and Chong's shtick was very much of the time. The early seventies so...what else but two drug addled bumbling idiots. It was funny as heck fire though back in the day, apparently. Seems pretty tame to me now.
1974 and I'm into my second year of fifth form at Mt Albert Grammar and hanging out with music lovers who have great senses of humour. We didn't love Cheech and Chong but they were of the time so I bought their Wedding Album record (which contained Earache...). I tired of the record so it's long gone but somehow I hung onto the single.
Actually, I have no idea why Cheech and Chong appealed to me. Like Ian Paice (Deep Purple's drummer) I've never felt the need/urge to take a mind altering substance (nor did any of my friends), so comical drug fuelled routines shouldn't really be something that I would enjoy.
And sure enough this single does not feature the duo in blissed out ooohhhh wow maaaaaan form.
Instead it's a pretty cunning satire on Alice Cooper/ David Bowie style glam rock before it preaches to the converted by having the crusty old man ripping the needle off the record and telling his 'son' to get ready for school.
Like pretty much all comedy records it's only funny for a few spins - then it seeps into the consciousness so that you can recite the four Yorkshiremen skit by Monty Python forty years later!
Hidden gem: The B side is just part two of the A side but it is the stronger side thanks to its focus on some guitar shredding by famed Canadian guitarist Gaye James Delorme who died in 2011.
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