Nonsense: Wang Dang Doodle

Hindu Love Gods: Wang Dang Doodle

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In 1984, vocalist Bryan Cook along with Bill Berry, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills of R.E.M. played three shows in Athens, Georgia under the name Hindu Love Gods.  At one of those shows, the original quartet was joined on stage by R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and singer songwriter Warren Zevon. The group recorded two songs with Cook and Zevon in 1984 and played one more gig in 1986 with Cook and Stipe. That was pretty much it.

Then, in 1987, Berry, Buck, and Mills joined Zevon in the studio to serve as the backing band on his 1987 release Sentimental Hygiene.  One night during the Hygiene sessions, the band stayed late in the studio and recorded a collection of blues standards and one Prince smash ("Raspberry Beret").  Ten tracks from that late night recording finally surfaced in 1990 as a self-titled release from The Hindu Love Gods.

This track is a rollicking reading of Willie Dixon's "Wang Dang Doodle." It's a fitting song to have come from an all night recording binge.

Fruits and Vegetables: Raspberry Beret

Hindu Love Gods: Raspberry Beret

[purchase]

In the mid-80s, while three-quarters of R.E.M. were helping Warren Zevon record his Sentimental Hygiene album, they banged out an album's worth of covers one night. In Several years later, the results of that night were released as the Hindu Love Gods one-and-only album. Most of the songs on the album were covers of blues standards, but the standout was this rockin' take on Prince's ode to scarlet headwear.

It's a fun track, but the real reason I picked this song is because I love raspberries. They are my favorite fruit. Every time I eat one, I am reminded of summer mornings in my youth, picking raspberries from the bushes in my parents' backyard to add to my breakfast cereal. It's a memory I cherish.