SOUND DIMENSION "Great Mu Ga Ru Ga" #HEAVYMUSICINALLSTYLESANDVOLUMES

I've been using the #heavymusicinallstylesandvolumes hashtag for a minute now, and I see that one of my favorite music writers Justin Farrar is bringing back his own "heavy music" concept as the title of his new blog (it's been his email handle for at least 15 years, inspired by the 1967 Bob Seger song by the same name). Then, just this morning I watched Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams (1981, d. Tommy Chong)* for the first time since I was like 12 or 13 years old, and Cheech says the word "heavy" at least 35 or 40 times, and then when the movie's over and I'm done chucklin' about it, I head upstairs to clean the kitchen and do the dishes. Turning the iPod on shuffle like I always do, what song should come on first but "The Great Mu Ga Ru Ga" by Sound Dimension** (or Sound Dimention as it says on the original 45), and what's the first thing the vocalist says, right at the beginning, a capella, even? Well, just listen for yourself, using the YouTube above. (Hint: it's #heavy.)

* So many WTF moments in this. I watched this when I was 12?! Paul Reubens, looking more like a member of Throbbing Gristle than Pee-Wee Herman, muttering "How about the future of rock'n'roll, huh? The future of rock'n'roll? Bruce Springsteen. He's fuckin' it all up." Timothy Leary himself also shows up and really doubles down on the creep factor as a mental asylum director who administers LSD to his patients. Cheech takes a dose and memorably hallucinates Michael Winslow doing his hilarious Jimi Hendrix impersonation (I can't help think it was somehow a nod to Apocalypse Now).

** Sound Dimension, alternately known as Sound Demension, or Sound Demention, or Sound Dimention (as above), or Soundemension, or Soul Dimension, or almost every other possible spelling or variation, were the house band of the Jamaica recording studio and record production facility known as Studio One. Their boss was the facility and label owner, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, and the bandleader was Leroy Sibbles, who played bass, while also having a career as a sublime sweet lead vocalist for The Heptones. As far as I can tell from carefully reading Solid Foundation, the Studio One house band morphed from the Soul Vendors into Sound Dimension around 1968, when Sibbles took over after bandleader/organist Jackie Mittoo moved to Canada.