Rewind: Luke Howard on “Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band”

In discussion with Luke Howard on “Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band” by Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band (1976).

I first fell in love with Kid Creole & The Coconuts in the 80s and then discovered “Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band” a few years later because August Darnell was involved with it. How was your first time with the band and album?

I came quite late to the album. It was 1991. I was talking with two older friends about our favourite disco artists and they mentioned Dr. Buzzard’s and I hadn’t heard of them, so I quickly found myself a copy. I had known of Kid Creole and Coati Mundi (August Darnell and Andy Hernandez) much earlier, as my sister had been to New York in 1981 and brought back copies of the ZE Records compilation Seize The Beat and the second Kid Creole & The Coconuts album. Also, Kid Creole and the Coconuts went on to be really commercially successful in the UK and they did loads of touring here in the 1980’s. But I’d never heard of Doctor Buzzard until much later.

“Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band” had a few songs that became notable single successes, but somehow I always thought they worked best being listened to in the context of the whole album. Can you separate the songs from one another? Are there ups and downs?

I think you can separate the songs from each other, yes. They’re all standout songs in my opinion – there’s no fillers on the album. “Sunshower” was big on the Balearic scene in the 90’s, “I’ll Play The Fool” and “We Got It Made” were big on the two-step soul scene in the mid 80’s and “Lemon In The Honey” and “Cherchez La Femme” are disco classics. However, I think it works wonderfully well as a whole album. It’s only seven songs and I think it’s perfect as an album. It’s in my top three favourite albums of all time (I’m not quite sure what the other two are). Read the rest of this entry »