The Dinks

about

The Dinks were a mid-1960s garage rock band active in western Kansas, known for their songs with jibberish phrase like “Nina-Kocka-Nina” (1965) and "Kocka-Mow-Mow" (1966). The band was started by Steve Kadel, from Beloit, Kansas. Its members were Pat Waddell (lead vocals) who was replaced by Dean Dietz, Steve Kadel (lead guitar) replaced by Bill Hollingsworth, Bob Bergmann (rhythm guitar and vocals), Gail Scanlon (organ), Bruce Brown (bass) and Mike Morrand (drums). The Dinks’ “Nina-Kocka-Nina” takes the repetitive nonsense of “Surfin’ Bird” and adds a bizarre parody of an Asian accent. The soft-spoken opening has the Japanese inflection down well, even if most of the words are gibberish. Once the song gets going the tone shifts to something that sounds like no real language except variations on “papa ooh mow mow”. The few lyrics in English, “get out your pencils, get out your books, try to catch all the teacher’s grubby looks” and “I’m taking English, History, Biology and Chemistry” imply that school is turning him into a raving idiot! Ironically, the writer of the song would become a teacher himself after leaving the Dinks. “Penny a Tear Drop” is very different, and the contrast between the twelve-string guitar and organ sounds great. It’s something of a shame that the success of “Nina-Kocka-Nina” put the Dinks into the novelty category and ended their chances of making it as a sincere pop act. Song writing credits for “Penny a Tear Drop” go to Ray Ruffin (a variation on