Run for your lives, part 14 is upon us!! This is the first of two days of ghastly encounters with the menacing Count Dracula. The character that emanated from Irish author Bram Stoker's pen in 1897 has become such a part of our collective psyche that it's nearly impossible to imagine classic literature and in some respects life itself without his creepy influence. Without recounting the seemingly endless retelling of the original story in 100's of motion pictures, books and comics, Dracula is in more places than you probably realize! Without his influence, would the lavender toned Count Von Count teach kiddies to count on Sesame Street? Absolutely not! Would breakfast be the same without Count Chocula and his hypnotic eyes entrancing us from the back of the cereal box, enticing us to sample of the taboo chocolaty goodness within? No! Would reggae fans be able to live without the Vulcans "Dracula" taken from their album "Star Trek"? Well... probably. But this Dracula goes well in the mix and remains just wacky enough to set itself apart from a lot of the other tracks.I discovered some interesting information about The Vulcans when researching this track. The Vulcans weren't an actual band but the name given to a group of studio musicians, headed by keyboarder Ken Elliott, by the Trojan Records production team. You see, Trojan wanted to capitalize on the easy listening craze which took hold in Britain during the early 70s, by creating music which featured Moog, Arp and other assorted analog synthesizers over strong reggae rhythms. An interesting concept and one that fits this season pretty well. Enjoy! More Dracula tomorrow!
Thank you so much for posting about this. I once bought a bizzare 45 where the Version was credited to the Vulcans..?
ReplyDeleteAlso it was horribly misspressed. The DJ was supposed to be Big Joe but ends up being an uptempo 'millitant' DJ track by ???
Who knows...
The misspressing of 45's due to human error is rediculous sometimes.