Destination Desert: 33 Oriental Rock 'N' Roll Treasures

by Various Artists

If you were astride a mighty camel while fearlessly navigating the wind-swept sands of the Sahara, good old-fashioned rock and roll would be just about the last commodity you would expect to encounter. Yet such fantastic scenarios inspired a slew of songs set to exotically rocking rhythms, their unusual narratives constructed around sheiks, harems, oases, King Tut and Ali Baba, and far-off locales like Bagdad and Istanbul. Those happen to be the very subjects dominating Bear Family's 'Destination Desert - 32 Oriental Rock 'n' Roll Treasures.' Some very unexpected names turn up on this anthology that you'd never expect to see searing their feet in such scorching, sun-strewn climes: rockabilly guitar ace Jerry Reed, for example, or sax wailer Preston Love, or New Orleans piano pounder Art Neville. Glamorous R&B chanteuses Dinah Washington and Big Maybelle seem highly unlikely candidates to hop aboard a dromedary, but they're here as well. The Fendermen, The Polk Brothers, and Bobby Christian offer contrasting treatments of Duke Ellington's immortal Caravan.