Track Listing

1. I'll Play the Fool
2. Hard Times
3. Cherchez la Femme/Se Si Bon
4. Sunshower
5. We Got It Made/Night and Day
6. You've Got Something/Betcha' the Love Bug Bitcha'
7. Sour & Sweet/Lemon in the Honey

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3437 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Disco rarely got more musically or lyrically sophisticated than on this self-titled debut album. Long before he took up the role of Kid Creole with the Coconuts, wordsmith August Darnell cushioned small, perfect truths--singer Cory Daye promises to get her "equivalency diploma" in love in "I'll Play the Fool"--in knowingly retro sounds. Stylish, honest, and completely one of a kind. --Rickey Wright

Customer Reviews

Swing Jazz, R&B, Latin, Disco, and Cole Porter all in one!,
This is simply one of the finest albums of the 70's! I first heard it as an 8th grader in 1976 and remarkably, the music doesn't just hold up...but it actually seems to have gotten better since then. The bold mixture of styles (Swing Jazz, Disco, Latin, R&B) makes it an anomaly in popular music history...namely, a great achievement that absolutely could not be duplicated by others. As if the crisp, sweet arrangements, (remember those?) and hellified singing by one Miss Cory Daye were not enough, the hidden gem on this album is the witty and super-literate lyrics. August Darnell's wordplay on this album summons images of an uptown-ed Cole Porter, solidly bopping his way to the 2 and 4 without EVER risking his top hat's falling off. Cut for cut, this is one of the 70's great records. You won't skip a single selection. Great for driving, for getting dressed for a party, the party itself, walking down the street or cleaning the house on a Saturday afternoon as the dust fills random shafts of sunlight. And in a special note to all the new-jacks out there who are checking out the nuevo-swing scene: dig on this platter of wax from our bicentennial year of 76' and learn how this music can be done while sounding fresh and original! P.S. You'll note in an earlier review, someone mentions the two other great discs by this bunch. There's also a greatest hits album and a great lost album by Darnell called "Gichy Dan's Beechwood #9". It has the same flavor, but is notable as a transitional step to his assumption of the "Kid Creole" persona. It features the wonderful club semi-hit "Laissez Faire". If you see this album in a bin on vinyl, you'd better get it then and there! That's the only way TO get it, unfortunately!

Lemon in the Honey
Big-band disco, this is, although not as campy (or as bad) as that implies. In fact, this is the most listenable disco album I've heard this side of Chic. Their Cole Porter-inspired seductive sophistication is hard-won, and let me tell you, I've been seduced, listening to the damn thing at least once a week since I found it at a used record bin in Nashville for $[...] a year ago. Sluts and saints are celebrated, but the real heroes are the urban working class characters who find the courage to keep on dancing despite the hard times. Cory Daye is the most underrated singer to come out of the disco milieu: her vocals skirt the perils of diva hyper expressiveness with teasing, irony, wit and intelligence. The beats and arrangements are playful and fun, flirting with `40s nostalgia without wallowing in it. Principal writers (and musicians) Stony Browder and August Darnell (not to mention producer Sandy Linzer) keep it moving throughout; they allow only one arch vocal moment about mid-way through side 2, but have the good sense to pair it with their most attractive melody. And they close the album with a vibe-accented mover that keeps you believing there's always room to dance and to love no matter how close to the precipice you venture. There's lemon in the honey, all right.

Thank You, August Darnell
Unlike many of those reviewing this wonderful work called "Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band" I'm old enough to have bought it myself and didn't hear this brilliance by way of my brother buying it or being in 7th grade and a neighbor playing it and so on. I was in college as a freshman and although I can't place how I became exposed to August Darnell's great work "Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band" I know I was captivated by it immeadiately and never forgot the record 26 years later.

I have never said this about any record but it is an honor to have listened to the genius that this release represents. It's simply a blend of several musical styles--Jazz, R&B, Disco, Melodic Rock and on--played by superb musicians and produced with all the respect an artist can bring for his/her audience.

Mr. Darnell has a love of music that is obvious from the dedication he has to his craft that so well appears on this CD. This was not tossed off to make a few bucks as so many artists had done in the 70's and today. The integrity of August Darnell toward his music is present in every single song on "Dr. Buzzard's." For this release alone the CD is worth the purchase.

Cory Daye did a beautiful job singing here and her voice is absolutely breathtaking. When you hear the CD you truly know that it is an honor to have been alive to have heard it and enjoyed it's music with Cory Daye's voice and August Darnell's talent, and a fine band of great musicians bringing it all together.

"Dr. Buzzard's Savannah Band" is without a doubt one of the best records of the 1970's and a true example of how beautiful music can be.