According to both Al Green and Willie Mitchell, they earned by far the most royalties for this song not from their own version, nor from those of Syl Johnson or even the Talking Heads, but from Billy Big Mouth Bass. Even Queen Elizabeth had one.
I’ll Marry Your Stupid Ass
I was reminded of this Mr. Show season four classic the other night while reading Odenkirk’s new memoir.
Parking Lot Movie
I really enjoyed this. Available for $0 on Amazon Prime. A great antidote to overhyped action hero fare, and probably the sort of thing someone who appreciates abandoned malls would like.
There’s probably nothing worse than poets working in parking lots.
Uelsmann
Do yourself a favor and spend some time today looking at Jerry Uelsmann photos. Unbelievably prolific. Ridiculously technical. As the MOCP said:
Made entirely in the darkroom, Jerry Uelsmann creates his surreal photographs in a series of steps, masking and exposing different areas of photosensitive paper as he changes negatives. He maintains some loyalty to the aesthetic of traditional landscape and still life photography, insofar as the seams and edges of each successive element are concealed, and the resulting composite suggests the unity of a singular view or scene. The metaphoric and symbolic force of Uelsmann’s photographs is derived from these juxtapositions, consistencies, and forms. Uelsmann’s photo-montages extend the tradition of surrealist photography pioneered by the avant-garde photographers and painters of the 1930s and 40s: positive and negative spaces are inverted and false reflections appear in earth and water, architectural elements like windows and doorways bound tapestries of sky and sand.
What they don’t say is that he’s also a funny motherfucker who loves music, and how impossible it is to imagine how much work he’s created in that complex style. Oh yeah. And JBJ’s a fan. See also
Is This The Same Guy?
The narrator from the Gibson mini-doc sounds like the voice we all must have heard on half a billion educational videos. Who is that guy? Is it the same person narrating the above (always timely) video on maintaining classroom discipline? It’s twenty years before the Gibson video.
An Instrument Of The People
All I could think about while watching this was how much these guitars must be worth now.
In the fall of 2020, Gibson unearthed an unmarked reel while digging through vault archives. Intrigued by the discovery, Gibson TV producers took that reel and had it digitally remastered. The footage you are about to see was shot at Gibson’s Factory in 1967. It has never been seen until now.
Secret Bar of the Stars
Last weekend I visited Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. Above is a hidden bar accessed via a panelling cut-out. The county was dry back in the day, so it had to be hidden. Twenty-mile drive to the Tennessee state line for restocking. That’s an old video player on the counter for, um, “films.” Original furnshings. The picture on the wall is of Jerry Wexler and Willie Nelson. Some huge talent relaxed in that little room, along with the Swampers, of course. I still find it very funny that musicians came from all over the planet to work with those “black musicians” who played on Staples Singers and Wilson Pickett (and 100 others) records, just to find four white guys who looked like they worked at the local Tractor Supply.
An interesing fact (of many) about that dumpy little building: it’s slightly twisted. No parallel surfaces, so no standing waves. You can place a mike pretty much anywhere without issues.
The tour guide was knowledgeable. Unlike a few years ago when I toured nearby Fame Studios (where the Swampers worked for Rick Hall before striking out on their own). The guide was a young ignoramus whom I tormented with corrections and questions. Sorry, but if I’m paying for a tour, the guide should know more about the place than I do.
For You, Makerbot
This One’s For You, Monkeystador
Mulaney hosted SNL this past weekend, which can only mean one thing: legitimately funny skits.