David Kramer
Delicious Monster

Delicious Monster

Tracks:

  1. I'm a Rooker (2:09)
  2. Budgie and the Jets (3:58)
  3. Country and Western Town (3:40)
  4. Ballad of and MCP (2:20)
  5. Father's Son (3:01)
  6. White Cortina (3:28)
  7. Bakgat Boogie (2:24)
  8. Cowboy (2:10)
  9. Suburban Dream (3:20)
  10. Barman (Turn up the News) (5:58)
  11. Oh Carol (2:25)
  12. Hekke van Paradise (5:10)

All lyrics and music by David Kramer, except 'Oh Carol' by Neil Sedaka

Produced by Paddy Lee Thorp and David Kramer
Engineered by Jerry Barnard at B&S Studios, Cape Town

Musicians:

  • The Main Breker: David Kramer
  • The Jollers:Phil Smiedt, Brian Sepel, Malcolm Cassisa, Rob Bevan
  • The Jivers:Paul Greef, Murray Stewart, Jerry Barnard, Marc Maingardt, Jonathan Hopper, Marc Wallis, Dezi Ray, Eileen Butler

Release information:

1982, Mountain Records (MOULP (L)15)

Review:

After the runaway success of "Hak Hom Blokkies" where was the Boland Bopper to go? Why back to the dorps of 50's South Africa where jollers and jivers cruised the streets in their Ford Cortinas. Where Ruk 'n Pluk (Rock 'n Roll) was king. For those of you who were put off by the Boere-musiek style of "Blokkies" you'll be pleased to know that there's not an accordian in sight on this record.

It is a record steeped in nostalgia, at times bordering on melancholic depression. However there are enough uplifting songs to offset the more sombre ones. There is pure Rock 'n Roll ("Budgie & the Jets" and "Bakgat Boogie"), some Country and Western ("Country & Western Town" & "Barman") and some pure pop ditties ("Ballad of an MCP" and "Suburban Dream"). There's even a take on the high octane rock of Meatloaf with "Father's Son".

As always with Kramer, the lyrics are astute. He probably had to have his tongue surgically removed from his cheek after lines like "a woman if she's married should never wear the pants/ her duty's to her husband and picking up his skants" from "Ballad of an MCP". However my favourite rhyming couplet comes from "Suburban Dream" is which he describes part of his house in Marais Road, Panorama with the line "The guttering is painted blue/ And round the back there's a braaivleis plek/ for the girl there's a separate loo".

There's even space for a bit of kwela on "Cowboy" which pre-dates Mango Groove for the use of a penny whistle on a non-Irish "white" album.

The only throwaway song is a cover of Neil Sedaka's "Oh Carol" (Oh Kêrel?) sung in the veldskoened one's best Seth Efrikun eksent, and doesn't add anything to the album.

He may never regain the dizzy commercial heights he reached with "Hak Hom Blokkies" but he has certainly supassed it, musically with this blast from the past serving of pure Boere Bop. So put aside any Blokkies tainted view of Kramer and listen to him at his best.

(John Samson - SA Rockdigest #85, November 2000)

Webpage: David Kramer

All info supplied by John Samson, April 2002.

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