Standing on the corner, Wearing my shades…..
It was quite a few years ago when I first heard of the mad daddy, aka Pete Myers. it was a wee boxout in Uncut magazine, probably between articles about Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd. Or the Who and the Stones. or, well you get the idea. A diamond in the rough is essentially what I mean.
Pete Myers was a DJ in the late 1950s, and broadcast on WHK in Cleveland. He created a persona for himself, The Mad Daddy, a good natured ghoul with his own far out rhyming patter.
The Mad Daddy show was one wild ride, with Daddy riffing his way through sound effects, distortion and the craziest music of the day. Daddy played the kind of Rock n Roll seldom heard by white ears and this helped him tap into the Ohioan teenage psyche. His off the cuff riffs and rhymes and advertising ad libs are what I think of when I think of American Rock n Roll Radio. Crazy shit done at 100mph, and with a real enthusiasm that few in the UK seem to have done (As far as I know anyway) And Pete was pretty mad away from the studio too, whilst on a contractually enforced 2 week sabbatical he was worried that Cleveland’s throttle jammers and mellow muffins may lose interest, so he arranged a publicity stunt; parachuting into a harbour full of Jello whilst dressed as Zorro, flinging records out on his descent. Lets forget the costume, records and dessertification of a working harbour were kyboshed by the authorities, Pete actually did the jump. His first ever! Mad? you better believe it…
Like all the best stories, this one has a tragic ending. Pete got the chance of going out on a New York station, and jumped at it. However those east coast morons just didn’t get Daddy, and the gig was cancelled after one show. The Mad Daddy flitted about a few other stations after that, and even transmogrified back into plain old Pete, but it seems he became depressed and disillusioned by his New York experience. Pete Myers committed suicide on October 4th 1968.
So long, Daddy. Let me pay a small salute by airing his 2nd last show on WHK ( I think), and lastly how about The Cramps own tribute. Lux Interior was one of Oobladi’s most fervent Mad Minions
Indulge me…
Sleepy Eyes Nelson – A Bottle of wine at the Bellgrove Hotel
The production retains a scratchy retro feel, but is more punchy this time round. He has an eye for detail and on a few tracks, notably ‘I’m gonna get my Knife’ it really adds to the brooding atmosphere. His playing is top notch too, the aforementioned track giving a nice example of picking a heavy bass and filling in the detail at the same time. I love it when one guy sounds like two! ‘Cheap Wine Blues’ plays this out to great effect, with Sleepy pining ‘I gave the devil all my money, devil all my blues, and my good girl she took my heart’ over the strutting bass notes. It really is quite something to hear this quality of picking and sliding from a hometown boy. There ain’t many guys doing authentic acoustic blues about these parts and it may seem a strange choice but i read an interview in which he commented ‘… most of my numbers are about gambling, death and drinking so i reckon Scotland is the perfect country for the blues. There’s so much sadness here….how many happy people do you see walking round? Scotland knows all about it…’ And to that end he’s right, I suppose what is surprising is the amount of mousy, lightweight twee garbage Scotland has shat out over the years. Certainly, Sleepy’s credo is evident on the final closing tracks, Pinebox Blues and Bellgrove Hotel. The latter in particular is an excellent tune, and does the job of hammering the blues firmly to Glasgow’s creaking door.
I loved that teenage witch….and so did some cool bands
My teenage years were filled with bitterness toward Scotland. Bitter on account of the motherland not providing the kind of opportunities I was certain American teens were enjoying on a daily basis. specifically, the points I felt my life was missing were:
- driving a really cool convertible car
- actually, just driving
- sex
- making my own dream woman from scud books, a sindy doll and a car battery
- being pressured into organising a party when i’m sure no one will turn up.
- reiterating that fear to my friends as i open the front, and being astonished as about 1500 people all say ‘HI!’ at the same time.
- the fact they are all much older than me is neither here nor there
- sex
- having a locker at school
- for hiding stuff in i mean
- staying in a huge detached house in which my bedroom is the converted loft
- or basement
- having some incredibly hot girl, 2-3 years older than me, living across the street
- finding out that girl is in fact a shallow and completely bogus bitch, and that i’d be better off with my geeky female friend
- realising this only when the geek makes herself look like the shallow bitch
- sex
None of this was forthcoming in a country renowned for bad weather, entrenched alcoholism and deep fried foods. And in the days before yer bebo or yer facebook i had to rely on good ole television to brighten my corner. ITV was as shit then as it is now, but they did endear themselves to me by picking up on Sabrina the Teenage Witch featuring Melissa Joan Hart.
Melissa had several qualities which made a puberty struck Ah Fong take notice
- blonde
- supernatural
- liked wearing leather trousers
- and leather skirts
I’ll not go into details on a family site like this, let’s just say the fevered conjouring of MJH’s image kept this scottish boy warm on the freezing summer nights. As did the image of one of her aunts (you know the one) The programme itself was the breezy, preppy feel good kinda show the yanks excel at. But what marked it out for me was that rather than just namedrop a lame reference to popular culture (like Blossom and Pearl Jam. Eeeeew) STTW, as us fans call it, actually had personal appearances. Alright, some of them were shit. But some were amazing. I thought REM had made an appearance but cant find a reference to it, but Violent Femmes were on and even po faced, soap boxing, alt.popsters 10,000 maniacs got in on the act.
So take your pointy judgemental hat off, Mabel and enjoy Sabrina’s arse the bands
p.s what’s MJH up to these days? running a sweet shop. Melissa, we could have done that together. In glasgow. With fried food instead of sweets….