ZE SHOP

01 • Going Places • 3:16
Written by August Darnell
Published by Island Music Ltd.
Produced by August Darnell & « Sugar Coated » Andy Hernandez for Puddle Production
© 1981 ZE Records

02 • In The Jungle • 3:09
Written by August Darnell
Published by Island Music Ltd.
Produced by August Darnell & « Sugar Coated » Andy Hernandez for Puddle Production
© 1981 ZE Records

03 • Animal Crakers • 3:33
Written by August Darnell / Giampietro Fanero
Published by Island Music Ltd.
Produced by August Darnell & « Sugar Coated » Andy Hernandez for Puddle Production
© 1981 ZE Records

04 • I Stand Accused • 3:07
Written by August Darnell
Published by Island Music Ltd.
Produced by August Darnell & « Sugar Coated » Andy Hernandez for Puddle Production
© 1981 ZE Records

05 • Latin Music • 2:58
Written by August Darnell
Published by Island Music Ltd.
Produced by August Darnell 
© 1981 ZE Records

06 • Musica Americana • 2:53
Written by Andy Hernandez
Published by Island Music Ltd.
Produced by August Darnell & « Sugar Coated » Andy Hernandez for Puddle Production
© 1981 ZE Records

07 • I Am • 3:47
Written by Andy Hernandez
Published by Island Music Ltd.
Produced by August Darnell & « Sugar Coated » Andy Hernandez for Puddle Production
© 1981 ZE Records

08 • Schweinerei • 4:20
Written by Adriana Kaegi & August Darnell
Published by Island Music Ltd.
Produced by August Darnell & « Sugar Coated » Andy Hernandez for Puddle Production
© 1981 ZE Records

09 • Gina Gina • 3:48
Written by August Darnell & Jay Rogers Randall
Published by Island Music Ltd.
Produced by August Darnell  for Puddle Production
© 1981 ZE Records

10 • With A Girl Like Mimi • 3:28
Written by August Darnell
Published by Island Music Ltd.
Produced by August Darnell & « Sugar Coated » Andy Hernandez for Puddle Production
© 1981 ZE Records

11 • Table Manners • 3:57
Written by August Darnell
Published by Cri Cri Music
Produced by August Darnell for Puddle Production
© 1981 ZE Records

12 • Dear Addy • 4:00
Written by August Darnell 
Published by Island Music Ltd.
Produced by August Darnell  for Puddle Production
© 1981 ZE Records

BONUS TRACKS

13 • Table Manners ( Remix Version) • 5:01
Written by August Darnell
Published by Cri Cri Music
Produced by August Darnell for Puddle Production
© 1981 ZE Records

14 • Que Pasa / Me No Pop I ( Coati Mundi 12’’ Mix) • 6:20
Written by Andy Hernandez
Published by Island Music Ltd.
Produced by August Darnell & « Sugar Coated » Andy Hernandez for Puddle Production
© 1981 ZE Records

SOUND
Produced by August Darnell
Associate Producer Andy Harnandez
Executive Producer Michael Zilkha
Recorded at Electric Lady, Hit Factory, N.Y.C.
Engineered by Michael Frondelli
Sound Mixers consultants: Eileen Roaman, David Salidor, Debbie Caponetta
Original Sound Recorded by ZE Records © 1981

DESIGN
Original Sleeve Design Art direction by Tony Wright

Fresh Fruits in Foreign Places

Kid Creole & The Coconuts burst into the 1980s with an incredible fusion of slick sophistication, bright colours, a wicked sense of humour and an infectious bringing together of many disparate strands of music from around the world; Latin rhythms, reggae, salsa, pop and even psychedelic soul.

Born in the Bronx on the 12th August 1951, Thomas August Darnell Browder created a larger-than-life character, Kid Creole, whose persona was a carefully cultivated mix of Darnell's influences and heroes; Cab Calloway, Slim Gaillard and Duke Ellington, white adding enough individuality to always be the Kid.

Working with his long-term foil, percussionist « Sugar-Coated » Andy Hernandez aka Coati Mundi, and with his then-wife Adriana Kaegi leading the Coconuts, Darnell added his theatrical training and love of 40s films to his exotic musical soup. It was an interesting counterpoint to the new romantic era that musically, so defined the grime - encrusted early Thatcher years. Brims were big, suits were Zoot, The Coconuts were glamorous and the Kid was always amorous.

Part of Michael Zilkha's perma-hip ZE set up, Kid Creole & The Coconuts released four groundbreaking albums; Off The Coast Of Me, Fresh Fruit In Foreign Places, Tropical Gangsters and Doppelganger. This remaster series provides an excellent opportunity to reappraise Creole's new take on 'race music'. « I'm glad these CDs are coming out », says Darnell. « cos these are my life. »

Whereas Off The Coast Of Me represented Kid Creole &The Coconuts finding their feet, Fresh Fruit In Foreign Places represents their first album proper, and  for many, it remains their greatest work. 

« With Fresh Fruit…, everything moved forward, » Darnell recalls. « It is more polished, the money was better, we'd proven that we could do it, and we decided to go into the  studio and cut it for real. it was cut liket a Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band record, with real musicians who were doing the live gigs. We had started to build a repertory company of players - such as Mark Mazur, Carol Colman and Tommy Schott - that were going to help us see the mission through. »

Instrumental to the band's flowering was ZE head, Michael Zilkha: « He gave me a free hand. We may have had our creative différences », Darnell remembers. « But he aIways believed in what I was doing. He was always there to support it and was a good friend and mentor. » Darnell became in house producer at ZE ; tipped by the Virgin Rock Yearbook of 1981 as "new wave disco at its best on the Paris-New York axis". He championed the label’s Mutant Disco Policy, producing artists such as Gichy Dan, Machine, Don Armando’s 2nd Avenue Rhumba Band and Zilkha’s wife Cristina.

It became a very exciting stage for Darnell. By this time, his brother Stony's outfit Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band - of which Darnell was still a contributing member - had moved on to its third album, which was a flop. Darnell was now going out alone. With Creole, all the decisions were to be his. « I thought 'I hope I've done the right thing; you might not have a way back to paradise. I was very Lucky ».

Kid Creole & The Coconuts played showcase gigs at the premier clubs in New York, such as The Ritz and toured with The B-52s and Talking Heads, two other pioneers of this period. « We got a following. People began saying 'we know this band and they kick ass », Darnell laughs. « Major record companies were interested in us, we started wooing the likes of Warners Brothers (they were signed in America to Sire, by the charismatic Seymour Stein). Then along came Chris Blackwell - I looked to him as the guy who brought Bob Marley to the world, so I thought 'I'm in good company here'. Chris was an enthusiastic believer in the power of the music. He felt we could do something with this Kid Creole thing, and we signed to ZE/Island abroad. » 

Fresh Fruit In Foreign Places launched a trio of highly detailed concept albums for The Coconuts. On it, the band sets sail from New York in search of the elusive Mimi. The music changes wherever they stop on the journey, allowing their eclecticism to be fully displayed. « We were very much interested in cutting a great album, » Darnell remembers. « We wanted to give Kid Creole a life of his own, away from August Darnell (Creole became Haitian by birth, unlike DarneIl who was a native of the Bronx). So I came upon this idea of an odyssey of Kid Creole searching for Mimi. »

The Creole concept was taking shape. But where did the inspiration come from? Darnell is unequivocal. « 40s films. We got the language, we got the clothes, we got the handkerchiefs, we got the hats, and we got the shoes. Our entire lives would be different had it not been for those films. They grabbed some inner core of me and altered me forever - Casablanca is my favourite movie of all time. The way I carry myself, the whole romantic angle, my love of females - everything can be traced back to those movies. That's why those albums are so detailed - they are suggested soundtracks for movies. That's how Fresh Fruit In Foreign Places was created »

« King Kong was another of my favourites. The juxtaposition of the jungle and the blonde excited me. I thought it was interesting - the innocent Caucasian beauty caught up in the hands of the beast. I liked that dark-light shading. The suggestion of good and evil. The blonde always being the good, the jungle being associated with the unknown and the mysterious. »

With talk of being in the jungle, miscegenation and 'race music', Darnell and the Coconuts appeared to be claiming archaic racist terms back for themselves. Was he teasing white American fears? « I was not, » he emphatically states. « I came up during a period of black – militancy - I heard it all, but I always maintained that a man is a man. When it came to listening to music, the brothers - always laughed at me. Why are you listening to The Beatles? Why don't you listen to WWRL (the black station)?' I would, but at the same time, I'd listen to WABC, the pop station - I heard The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Herman's Hermits and all that British invasion stuff. On W/RL I heard Motown, Smokey Robinson, James Brown. I always wondered at that early age why do I have to change that dial, why can't it all be together? And that became my politics. I wanted to destroy all barriers with music and move forward, but it wasn't an intentional mission ». Fresh Fruit In Foreign Places did just that.

The album is extemely accomplished in its genre-hopping.Its 12 tracks also sound at least a hundred times more unified than its predecessor. Gina, Gina continues the humour found in Off The Coast Of Me's Darrio; Table Manners is robust funk, and Dear Addy is a touching love song to head Coconut Adriana Kaegi. I Stand Accused is possibly one of the Kid's most affecting ballads. Musica Americana builds on the themes introduced on Calypso Pan American, acting as a showcase for 'Sugar Coated' Andy Hernandez aka Coati 'variety is the spice of society Mundi.

In fact, it was Coati Mundi who stole a march - on the Kid initially in Britain. Que Passa - Me No Pop I, an incredible fusion of Kool & The Gang, Tom Jobim and James Cagney recorded during the Fresh Fruit sessions was picked up by UK press, - it was NME's 'single of the week' - radio and clubs. With its repetitive guitar line, long Latin introduction and Hernandez's deeply crazed ranting it eventually became a No. 32 hit in June 1981. Darnell is proud of Me No Pop I. « I produced it and played drums on it. When it started going up the charts, Michael Zilkha said « wait a minute, this can be our introduction, let's label this 'Kid Creole & The Coconuts', so it's all under one heading. Andy was all behind it. It was me who said 'keep it Coati Mundi' ». With this success in mind, Fresh Fruit's Hernandez showcase, I Am, was released as single and became a turntable hit in Britain.

Whereas Off The Coast of Me was really underground, Fresh Fruit In Foreign Places - marked Creole going overground in Britain. The Face, who worshipped the mix of styles that Creole presented, stated that the music arrived "wearing a Panama Hat, smoking an Havana Cigar and carrying a battered old suitcase plastered with the names of exotic places." Fresh Fruit which was made one of their albums of the year - was reviewed, saying "For once, hip fashion has synchronized with real quality and August has every right to become extremely rich". Darnell cut a curious figure, one that journalists needed to talk about. It was certain!y refreshing to hear someone talking about the 'real romantic' movement – Frank Sinatra, Nat 'King' Cole and Patti Page - at the Time of Spandau Ballet. Darnell's cult status in Britain was confirmed by his production of press darlings and would-be white funk pecialists Funkapolitan's debut album.

In America , where the reaction was slightly less ecstatic, Trouser Press called the album "a musical odyssey. . a major achievement". Another aspect of the Kid that made him so noteworthy was his incredible look, intentionally appropriated from veteran swing star Cab Calloway. Darnell saw Calloway in Stormy Weather and knew immediately that the Fedora, the exaggerated two-tone shoes and box-back suits, was the look for him. 80s pop-pickers weie not familiar with it end it quickly became identified as humorous « There was nothing funny about the zoot suit when it first appeared in the 1940s, » Darnell is quick to clarify. « It was done during the time when there was rationing and these guys would say' 'fuck the rations', we're going to go overboard, and use more material than was needed to make a jacket and suit pants. I also liked the Hollywood glamour of it all. The clothing and the music went hand-in-hand. »

With the onslaught of new romanticism, Britain was ready for the Kid. Although clothes, for the majority of new dandies were fads, for Darnell it was a way of life. « The press didn't know that at the time - they thought I was another caricature jumping on the David Bowie dressing-up bandwagon. What they didn't realise was for me, it was a lifestyle. »

With its wonderful over-arching concept and sense of humour, Fresh Fruit In Foreign Places was ripe to, be turned into a Broadway musical. Fleetingly, it was. « It was the first rap musical. We did a run for the theatrical entrepreneur Joseph Papp, » Darnell remembers. it told the story of Kid Creole searching for Mimi. Papp loved it but it was going to take up a year of my life. He wanted to put me into rehearsal and that was just the period whert we were touring like crazy and making so much money touring, I just didn't want to take a year off to do this musical ». Were there any regrets? I made the right choice, 'cos we really did reap the benefit from touring. We became a great tight band, we made a living from it and we had great adventures ». The musical was later adapted for Granada TV in 1984, as There's Something Wrong In Paradise. 

« Fresh Fruit In Foreign Places was met with great reviews, we were shocked », August recalls. « We had no idea that there was a market out there for us. It still didn't sell but we were happy - we were a band, we were gigging. We were dreamers like everybody else. We were ready to conquer the world ».

Within 12 months, and the release of the Tropical Gangsters album, they very nearly had.

Daryl Easlea spoke to August Darnell on May 22nd, 2002. They joked about the good old days and recorded it on a reel of tape.

Liner Notes from the 2002 Islands Remastered reissues.