Mynah Bird - Hippy Gumbo/ Get Yourself Off

Marc Bolan goes to the disco 

Label: President

Year of Release: 1979

President is an utterly fascinating label, and the further you get out of its sixties boom period, the more oddness you tend to dig up. From heavy glam to novelty reggae to flop synth pop, the company tried their hand at literally every genre known to man in order to score more hits, but mostly had to content themselves with a marginal status. 

This is one of the more obscure releases of the lot, and also one of the most startling. Marc Bolan's "Hippy Gumbo" was, in its original incarnation, a typical piece of bleating acoustic folk without much of a groove to it at all. Even when Marsha Hunt took it on in 1969 she did little but add more rounded, soothing vocals to the affair.

Which makes the approach taken by the mysterious Mynah Bird here seem utterly unexpected. Not for them further orchestrated pontificating on the fate of Gumbo - why should you when it seems you could just as easily take the track to the disco? "Hippy Gumbo" here is a full-blown party sound, bouncing enthusiastically while imploring us to chop up and set fire to the man in question. It shouldn't work in the slightest, but strangely it does, to the point that by the time the needle hits the run-out grooves you can't understand why it wasn't a more sprightly tune to begin with. 

The B-side "Get Yourself Off" is further fun, sounding like the kind of 70s cocktail disco Mark Moore of S'Express was fascinated with. The spoken word segments certainly ploughed the same areas in a similar fashion, mentioning classy clubs, exotic holidays and hang-gliding for some reason, never for a moment giving the listener the impression that this might be a serious exercise.

Oh, if only singles like this one fell into my hands every week. Meanwhile, if anyone has the faintest clue who Mynah Bird were, let me know. Everyone involved with this record seems strangely untraceable and there's no need to be so modest.

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