Articles Written By: guuzbourg

Cheese time! Serge Gainsbourg once said (in an interview with Les Inrocks) that he took inspiration from ‘dirty songs for blackies’ for the immortal ‘Je t’aime… moi non plus’. A derogatory remark? No, if you know anything about Serge (he defended his all black band famously against raving mad war veterans when he was on tour promoting his reggae-fied version of the French national anthem) and the history of black music. Blues, for instance, has a long tradition of raunchy, sexual explicit songs. This compilation can enlighten you. If Baba and Roody were following that tradition, or Gainsbourgs guiding sexual light, I dunno. In fact, I don’t know anything about this French duo. They had a top 20 hit in the Netherlands in 1979 with the pant-and-growl-fest Hacka Tacka Music. They became legendary when the top of the girl singer (Roody, I guess) came down during a performance on TopPop, Holland’s own Top of the Pops. Here’s a clip of that, the money shot is right before the end. One can only guess if Italian singer Sabrina took inspiration from that moment.
The b-side of Hacka Tacka Music is a French version, called La Musique Exotique. Google couldn’t tell me if that was a hit in France. But is was co-written by Charles Level, who also wrote songs for Dalida, Chantal Kelly and Sacha Distel. Maybe follow-up Doctor, Doctor was a hit in France? You guessed it, it’s playing doctor set to reggae music. I’d love to hear that one. Once.

Baba & Roody – La musique exotique

Dutch funny man/pop-exploitationist Dingetje made this parody of Baba & Roody:
Dingetje & Co – Reggae met een rumboon
Weird-but-good Dutch rockband It Dockumer Lokaeltsje also covered Hacka Tacka Music:
It Dockumer Lokaeltsje – Hacka Tacka Music