The Coolies: dig..? & Doug

What's So Cool About That!?!

Q: Who are The Coolies?
A: Five fine young men from Atlanta, GA not too different from you or me except for being blessed with seemingly superhuman talent, overwhelming artistic integrity and devastating good looks.

Q: Why do they call themselves The Coolies?
A: Well, the dictionary defines a coolie as "one who does heavy work for little pay." (I'm surprised there aren't more more bands around called The Coolies!)

Q: Why don't The Coolies play original songs?
A: They do! Just ask Paul Simon! He wrote most of 'em!

Q: Do The Coolies like to Party?
A: Only in groups of one or more and on certain special occasions, like the drop of a hat.

I copied those questions and those answers off of the back of the record jacket. They oughta go a long way toward explaining this record.

The Coolies: dig..?

1. Scarborough Fair
2. Bridge Over Troubled Water
3. The 59th St. Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
4. I Am a Rock
5. El Condor Pasa
6. Having My Baby
7. Cecilia
8. Homeward Bound
9. Mrs. Robinson
10. The Only Living Boy in New York

Allow me, please, to quote a review from Trouser Press to explain the next one. Here goes:
"Amazingly, the Coolies followed the one-joke dig..? with the brilliant Doug, a trenchant "rock opera" about a skinhead who murders a transvestite short-order cook, gets rich by publishing his victim's recipes, falls into paranoia and substance abuse and ends up in the gutter. The sad tale is related through ingenious knockoffs of the Who ("Cook Book"), John Lennon ("Poverty"), the Replacements ("Coke Light Ice"), rap ("Pussy Cook") and metal ("The Last Supper"), and in a comic book — not included with the cassette or CD, alas — designed by Jack Logan, of Pete Buck Comics fame. A quantum leap from its predecessor's one-dimensional silliness, Doug is a work of demented genius."

Here it is.

The Coolies: Doug

1. Talkin' 'Bout Doug
2. Ice Cold Soul
3. Pussy Cook
4. Cook Book
5. Shirts and Skins
6. Coke Light Ice
7. Doug!
8. 40 Foot Stretch
9. The Last Supper
10. Ain't Gonna Eat No More
11. Crack Pipe (Burnin' My Hand)
12. Poverty
13. Talkin' 'Bout Doug (reprise)

In case you don't recognize the inspiration for the name of the Transvestite Short-Order Cook, here's a picture (lifted directly from the Carvel Ice Cream website) of Cookie Puss.