Forgotten Treasure: Gino Vannelli “Mama Coco” (1975)

Gino Vannelli is a Montreal born who is known for his hair and shaggy, ironicaly enough he got his big break by standing outside herp albert’s (famous for his whipped cream LP cover) locked gate begging for an audition. Usually, you learn to dismiss these two artists when digging and avoid their ubiquitous releases but sometimes this snobby approach makes cheap gems pass right under your nose.

While listening to Scott C’s last 24 Hours of Vinyl set I heard a funky song with an almost G-Funk vibe to it. There seemed to have blue- eyed soul vocals and I was scratchin my head trying to figure out who it was.

Well Apparently Gino Vannelli gets down like that because his song Mama Coco was truly funky. Now the album cover features him without a shirt (again!) in all his fuzzy glory and with lyrics like

Mama Coco, mam you’re blowin’ my mind
Mama Coco, I’m just a male Caucasian
Mama Coco, I’m virgin to your kind

its a hard song to wrap your mind around but it’s thumping electric bassline is pulsating and just to tough. For another mind blower look at this Sudbury Ontario Band’s cover of the song the video (especially at 2:20) is just facemelting.

DJ Asma

A Montreal native with West-African roots, Antoine started developing a love for records when his father passed his collection of French, African, Caribbean and Brazilian classics onto him. Ever since, the collector turned selector has spent countless hours in musky basements both here and abroad (Dakar, Lima, Paris, Quito, Rio) in the never-ending search for the perfect beat!