‘Lectric Diaspora

Money Is

Corduroy were the first band that I’m aware of to do the “retro soundtrack to a fake kitschy blaxsploitation/spy movie” thing (though it’s a conceit that many other subsequent groups have employed) with their 1993 album High Havoc. I had the pleasure of seeing Corduroy play live the year this came out, at a small club in Paris. This was at the height of the Acid Jazz era, and I was excited to be wearing my new/vintage Black Panther-style leather jacket and digging the throwback 70s vibe that was just then coming into fashion. It was a great show, though they stuck pretty closely to their album arrangements.

Their 1st album Dad Man Cat is full of funky retro grooviness as well.

One of my favorite tunes from Dad Man Cat is a rockin’ clavinet-driven instrumental called “Money Is.”

Corduroy – Money Is

It turns out, as I discovered some years later, this is actually a Quincy Jones song from his soundtrack to the movie “Dollars” from 1971 (with Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn).

Quincy’s version had Little Richard singing on it!

Quincy Jones – Money Is  

Still later, I obtained Corduroy’s live-in-Japan album Quattro, which was recorded in 1994 but doesn’t seem to have been issued until 2001.

Corduroy – Money Is (live)

Interestingly, on this version they add the vocals back in. Though it works well here, on their later albums they seem to have tried to transform themselves into a more conventional vocal-centered pop band, and the results are considerably less interesting.