Song Of The Day 7/7/2012: The Coolies - "Bridge Over Troubled Water"

The Coolies were a band of deceptively adept musicians from Atlanta. They released precisely two great studio albums: dig...? and Doug. The former (1986) was a collection of tongue-practically-embedded-in-cheek cover versions of nine songs written or made famous by Paul Simon*, and one by Paul Anka. Doug (1989) was a rock opera about, according to an unexpectedly flattering article on IGN, "a skinhead who kills a transvestite short-order cook, steals his recipe book, and becomes an overnight celebrity when the cookbook becomes a nationwide best-seller." That's side one. On side two he gets infatuated with his own celebrity, and is exposed as a fraud when it becomes clear the only thing he can cook is crack cocaine. Doug features dead-on impersonations of The Who, Beastie Boys, The Replacements**, '80s ZZ Top and John Lennon's solo work. Both productions are examples of highly nuanced, snickering juvenalia, made especially funny by the fact that one of the Coolies became a regional pizza magnate (though persistent artist), and another one engineered the Sugarland Christmas album.

"Bridge Over Troubled Water" is from dig...?, because I couldn't find "40 Foot Stretch" from Doug.

Bonus video:

* Except for the cover of "The Only Living Boy in New York," which was, to these ears, a very genuine and respectful cover.
** Well, I thought "Ice Cold Soul" sounded like the 'Mats, anyway.