Take a Trip Pussycat

The inaugural album for the short-lived but memorable Latin soul label, Speed, Take A Trip Pussycat is really two albums in one. One half featured bandleader Luis Aviles in charge of Spanish language Afro-Cuban guaguancos and boleros. Arguably more significant was the under-recognized songwriting and arranger pair of Bobby Marin and Louis Ramirez who handled all of the English language boogaloo songs such as “Take A Trip,” “Pussycat” and the unexpectedly funky “(I’ll Be A) Happy Man.” For their half, Marin and Ramirez laid out all manner of sexual and drug innuendo and the cover even featured a naked woman hidden within its seemingly abstract image; not your average boogaloo LP in the least.