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From the Vault...
08/26/2012
#1322 |
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info
Cheech Marin
"My Name Is Cheech, The School Bus Driver"
© Ode 2 Kids Records
Year of Release: 1992
Rating:
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track listing
My Name Is Cheech
The School
Bus Driver
Red And Blue And
Yellow Too
Mathematical Polka
Trading Lunches
Courage
Tell Me How To Say
The Tunnel Song
My Name Is Cheech
The School
Bus Driver
(Reprise)
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Cheech Marin related sites:
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Cheech Marin
"My Name Is Cheech, The School Bus Driver"
This is NOT a Cheech & Chong album... Although it is Cheech in his "Pedro de Pacas voice," this album is truly a treat.
My Name Is Cheech, The School Bus Driver is really a CHILDREN'S album. Definitely G-rated, and definitely
entertaining -- not only for the youngsters, but for adults and Cheech & Chong fans.
By 1992, Cheech Marin & Tommy Chong had parted their ways. Cheech would have a more memorable "solo" career. Off
the top of my head, I can mention his television character on Nash Bridges, starring Don Johnson. His dual
performance in Quentin Tarentino's movie From Dusk To Dawn was truly "Cheech & Chong-ish." Looking up his info,
he has had a remarkable film career for almost every year since 1985, when Cheech & Chong no longer worked together.
As for this remarkable children's album, it will definitely bring a smile to everyone, young and old. The title
track starts out the album, as the children get ready to go to school, as Cheech picks them up in his school bus.
The next very entertaining tune is "Red And Blue And Yellow Too" where Cheech and the kids explain how you take
these three colors, mix them together to create many many other colors. "Mathematical Polka" is for the "smart kids,"
where Cheech tests the smartest kid in school on what I believe is THE hardest educational subject: Math.
"Trading Lunches" is where one student is tired of having the same ol' lunch everyday, and how Cheech advises
to trade lunches with other students. The funny thing at the end of the song, the student was the one who made his own
lunches, and not who everyone expected: Mom.
Another great track is "Courage": In today's world, bullying has been an ongoing and troublesome problem with
today's kids. Cheech encourages us on how to handley things when approached by "a bully." The lyrics are quite entertaining
as well. "Tell Me How To Say ...?" is a very educational track, where a young pretty girl can only speak Spanish.
Cheech and the kids teach us common English words and phrases and translates them in Spanish.
"The Tunnel Song" takes us on a journey through "tunnels," and don't be afraid of them. Such tunnels are the
explorations in an aquarium, and in the human body, as you travel down the windpipes to your stomach. The reprise of
the title track of this album, has the kids coming home, and saying goodbye to Cheech, the bus driver, as the kids get off
the bus. Cheech looks forward to driving the kids to school again.
A very entertaining and informative album, My Name Is Cheech, The School Bus Driver. Cheech Marin would record
another School Bus Driver album in the year 1997, entitled "My Name Is Cheech, The school Bus Driver Coast To
Coast. Cheech would write/co-write 7 of the 8 songs for the first School Bus Driver album. (Courage
was the one that was not written by Cheech.) As incredible, entertaining and informative as this album was/is, it would
have been great to see more albums by Cheech. (Maybe even a new journey for Cheech & Chong, as in the years after their
breakup, the drug scene tended to be less covered in commonday music.)
Cheech Marin & Tommy Chong did "reconcile" recently, as we yet to wait for new material. This is obviously a question
mark, as to what could these two well-known comedians who were famous from drug-type skits, develop next. An anti-drug
album? A children's album? A rock and roll band? Or would they just go back to how they were most famous back in the 1970s?
We'll have yet to see what does develop.
Now to find the second School Bus Driver album, and even wonder if there was a DVD involved in any of the two
albums. No DVDs are listed for any on Amazon, and nothing mentioned of the Coast To Coast album. ebay? At the
time of this review being written, the first album is available there on CD, just as it is on Amazon (or in mp3 format).
Cheech Marin was onto something (big) here: A children's album by someone who you would least expect to record such
a children's album. Overall, it's enteratining, funny, informative, and educational. Something I'm sure Cheech Marin
is proud of, and establishing a better influence to today's anti-drug environment. Get My Name Is Cheech, The School
Bus Driver. Although his voice is similar to Pedro de Pacas, the character he made famous in movies and recordings,
using his real name turned out to be the best name to use for this album, and for the kids.
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Ode 2 Kids Records
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