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Lou and the Q by James Sigman "Lou and The Q" NRBQ and Captain Lou Albano Rounder Records I'll just say it. I like wrestling. It's not the sort of devotion that would lead me to punctuate work requests with, "And that's the bottom line 'cause Stone Cold said so," but the quasi-sport does pique my interest as a lover of cultural trash. Actually, I'm more of an old-school wrestling fan, which is why I'm proud to have "Lou and the Q" in my possession. How could an album pairing one of the most phenomenal bands--NRBQ--with one of wrestling's greatest personalities--Captain Lou Albano--not be amazing? Of course, many may choose to answer that question by saying, "Quite easily, my feeble-minded friend." I prefer to ignore these people. "Lou and The Q," released a few years after the two sides split, chronicles the pre-Cyndi Lauper, early 1980s collaboration between NRBQ (the New Rhythm and Blues Quartet) and their manager Albano, whom Ithaca College graduate Gorilla Monsoon frequently called "a walking advertisement for birth control." The album combines the musical mastery of NRBQ with the verbal bombast of tag-team guru Albano, who rambles semi-coherently, and hilariously, on commercials, an interview, and several "spoken word pieces." Because of his rapid-fire interviews, the Captain always sounded as if he a) might collapse or die during an interview and b) had no clue what he was saying. The album contains several fine examples of Albano's mastery of nonsense, including "Terry and the Raccoon" (a narration of keyboardist Terry Adams' encounter with the creature) and "One Time," in which the Captain says something like, "I don't need to be criticized, ricudilized, or riculed." He was probably looking for the word "ridiculed," but who can say for sure? Luckily, the Captain doesn't have a lot of lead vocal duties, though he insists he has a "very well-groomed voice." He does take lead on the Booker T and the MGs-influenced "Boardin' House Pie," but his main contribution to the track is singing, "My, my, boardin' house pie" and breaking into a litany of pie names at song's end. Albano's other musical contributions are a few "Captain Lou"s in the song of the same title and an abbreviated piano take on "La Vie En Rose." The musical stars are clearly NRBQ, which at the time consisted of Tom Ardolino on drums, Joey Spampinato on bass, Al Anderson on guitar, and Terry Adams on keyboards. Augmented for most of the album by the Whole Wheat Horns (Donn Adams and Keith Spring), NRBQ dares you to sit passively, as they show on the album's highlights, "Want You To Feel Good Too," sung by Adams, and "Don't She Look Good," sung by Spampinato. Whether it's Ardolino laying down a ferocious beat, Anderson ripping through a snarling guitar solo, or Adams beating the piss out of the piano, the Q leaves very little energy in the dressing room. But they're not only instrumental monsters. Anderson is also an excellent songwriter, shown here by the pregnancy tale, "It Was A Accident." NRBQ is pretty close to the total musical package, and "Lou and The Q" shows them near top form. Today, Albano lives in semi-retirement and NRBQ carries on with Spampinato's brother Johnny filling in for Anderson, who left to concentrate on a career as a Nashville songwriter. Interestingly enough, some people in the television industry seem to like the band, as "The Drew Carey Show"'s Oswald occasionally dons an NRBQ T-shirt and their music has appeared on a few episodes of "The Simpsons" this year. So maybe it's cool to own this album. And maybe it's actually cool to like wrestling, too.Probably not. But who wants to be cool anyway? |
