Friday, April 07, 2006
Not so Hot, Perhaps a Tad Nasty
Some while back, one of the kids, in an it's-raining-outside-I'm-bored-you're-a-poopyhead mood was doing some investigating. After checking out some dresser drawers, which yielded minimal items of interest, he was off to the desk. By the time I'd caught up with him, the drawers had all been pulled out and were hanging. It's a sight I'd become familiar with; my pants would look like that desk, all the pockets pulled inside out, as I searched for money to pay for another unplanned pizza delivery. As he hadn't yet discoverd the pleasure of hot underbaked dough, queasy red sauce, and peculiarly speckled pepperoni, he was molified by what he dug out from the back of one desk drawer.
He was busily chewing a cassette box. I slipped it away before he got to the cassette itself. Perhaps I should have let him chew that as well, get that bubbly baby saliva into all of the workings so I'd never be tempted to play the album again. He had rooted out this, an artifact of shame and degradation, Song #2 of the "What Was I Thinking" Songs of Shame, Black Oak Arkansas' "Hot 'n Nasty"
For those historians out there,
Wikipedia's entry is an unbiased starting point. But, it's this bio that sums up the group quite well, as the writer, Steve Huey from the All Music Guide, wielded a sharpened nib when penning his opinion.
Some excerpts:
1) (Black Oak Arkansas (BOA))"have remained a cult band thanks to their raw, primitive energy and the testosterone-fueled antics of lead vocalist/showman James "Big Jim Dandy" Mangrum.".
2) "When album sales dried up, Mangrum re-formed the band with more musically skilled veteran players and continued to tour".
3) "Black Oak Arkansas dates back to the mid-'60s, when a group of young, long-haired misfits headed by Jim Mangrum, unable to find work, turned to rock & roll.".
4) "...the group was unable to purchase equipment and ended up being arrested for grand larceny after stealing items from the local school in order to get money. They were nearly run out of town and went to live in the nearby hills".
5) "(The) band toured extensively, building a reputation as a raw, incendiary live act that made up for occasional musical deficiencies with energy and the explicit sexuality of Mangrum, who flaunted his body at every opportunity and became known for such antics as miming sex with the washboard he used for musical accompaniment".
My first exposure to the overly exposed Jim "Dandy" was at one of those concerts in the late 1970's where you had 4 groups playing, with hopefully one showing up sober and fully amp-equipped. Black Oak Arkansas showed up and, if one was using an averaging of measurements, the group's alcohol blood content would have been, oh say, .12 or so. Some seemed sober dry. Others were completely dipped. Their musicianship could be best described as knee-jerky and sloppy. Though there were supposedly only 6 members in the band, I recall a small army on stage. Whether they were kin or friends or folks they met outside the venue, I wasn't sure. What I was sure of was the cacaphony emanting from all corners of the stage.
Then there was Jim "Dandy" who became shirtless within seconds of appearing before a mike. I wasn't aware that lizard skin could be liquified, poured into an aerosol can, and then sprayed onto a person's body, hardening to a pants-shaped covering. Jim "Dandy" made me and the grope of groupies aware of this miracle instant clothing. He stalked about the stage, suggesting the act of singing and flexing his non-singing muscles. One of the sound roadies must have turned off the inputs of half of the guitar-hacking folks on stage and, all of a sudden, a song did appear out of the din.
When I come a knockin' at your door
Let me in and I'll tell you some more
No two men are ever the same
And they tell me
Jim Dandy is my name
Yeah they call me yeah Hot n Nasty
Yeah they call me uh Mister Fancy
We're not talking poetry here, just a collection of monosyllables. Unfortunately, a collection of words that stuck in my head for a good month or so. I even bought the album. An embarassing waste of time and vinyl. Criminally bad, but good for an occasional joke
Not to worry about the ex-cons. They're not lost; Google has tracked and mapped them here. They're coming back and you can keep an eye out for them here. Notice the continued heavy use of leather, specifically clothing that seemed to be using roadkill for source material. The thigh-high deer leggings allowed for stealthiness from groupies and law officers, I assume. This site even offers a look at the Black Oak Arkansas kin (their tagline, not mine).
A current MySpace site is also up. Seems they're still touring, mainly in the Mid West. There's even a Black Oak Arkansas Day appearance on Oct. 6th. Check your calendars.
Comments:
<< Home Verging on Pertinence Just some more disposable thoughts clogging up the hinterlands
As usual, I am caught up in the introduction story to the main topic...I don't bemember this occasion, but it is amusing none the less.
Post a Comment
<< Home Verging on Pertinence Just some more disposable thoughts clogging up the hinterlands
