Say Something Interesting about SwampDogg

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Early soul prankster with "a voice like a black air raid siren".
Call Me Nigger just blew my mind. His band is crack-Muscle Shoals possibly...

― thomas de'aguirre (biteylove), Tuesday, 30 September 2003 14:25 (twenty-two years ago)

good name ... from where?

― Jay Kid (Jay K), Tuesday, 30 September 2003 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

He wrote and produced a cracking series of LPs on other singers in the 70s which I've heard claimed were each cut in a single, day-long session. Search: Freddie North "Friend", Doris Duke "I'm A Loser" (also but less so "A Legend In Her Own Time") Ruth Brown "Brown Sugar" Solomon Burke "Sidewalks Fences and Walls" and especially search Irma Thomas's "In Between Tears" (I understand that there's a remixed CD verison of this on - I think - Shanachie which I haven't heard so I can't vouch for its quality). Yes Muscle Shoals but also Memphis and Nashville and sometimes strings dubbed on somewhere else entirely, as I recall. This is all from the top of my head so please forgive any inaccuracies.

Also his solo stuff is fantastic if like me you enjoy his rather individual voice. The two comp LPs on Charly ("Total Destruction To Your Mind" and "Unmuzzled" are tremendous overviews and should be nice and cheap if you find them). But all of his 70s work that I've heard was of a high quality and if the bits of his later work I've heard aren't as consistent, they tend to have tremendous moments.

Oh! You wanted me to say something interesting?

He was responsible for perhaps the last great record made by the marvellous Esther Phillips: "The Love We Got (Ain't Worth Two Dead Flies)". The combination of their voices on that one has to be heard.

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 30 September 2003 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)

That sounds great.

― adaml (adaml), Tuesday, 30 September 2003 15:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I think Barney Hoskyns called him a Southern Soul Auteur which may be something like right. His version of the southern fusion of country and soul was unusual in that it took on board the funny, punning, slightly corny side of country songs, as well as the tear-jerking and story-telling bits.

Jesse 'Pete' Carr did his best work with The Swamp Dogg.

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 30 September 2003 15:35 (twenty-two years ago)

One more thing: I'd be prepared to bet that Lee Perry had a copy of Doris Duke's classic "I'm A Loser" LP. I think four of the songs on Susan Cadogan's eponymous Perry-produced LP (later reissued as "Hurt So Good") are drawn from The Dogg's work with the Doris.

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 30 September 2003 15:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Swamp Dogg is a genius. the only other person i can think of with a similar sort of humor would be, like, Kool Keith. Total Destruction is a classic, imho.
tim, do you have these above-mentioned records? can't find 'em, or even a good comp of his excellent producer work. the tracks that make their way to Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures comps (Raw Spitt, Doris Duke, Irma Thomas) are fantastic.
maybe none of this is interesting...

― andyb., Tuesday, 30 September 2003 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Its all interesting..Download Redneck, if nothing else.

― thomas de'aguirre (biteylove), Tuesday, 30 September 2003 16:25 (twenty-two years ago)

He did a non-representative self-titled disco album complete with lots of "toot-toot, beep-beeps." I have never seen the credits or recording dates. I think the cover is a crude cave-man drawing with his resemblance. It's hard to believe it's the same guy who wrote "Buzzard Luck" and "Wife Sitter"("I don't need a wife, I got yours"). They say he composed a lot of his songs while driving a taxi. "Voice like an air raid siren" certainly does nail it. I believe that's Christgau's description.
Certainly buy the mid-nineties compilation if you see it.

― avery_schreiber, Tuesday, 30 September 2003 18:18 (twenty-two years ago)

His album "Rat On!" has a pic of him on the front riding a giant white rat while dressed like Johnny "Guitar" Watson.

― udu wudu (udu wudu), Tuesday, 30 September 2003 21:32 (twenty-two years ago)

All things Dogg:

http://swampdogg.com

― Dock Miles (Dock Miles), Tuesday, 30 September 2003 21:41 (twenty-two years ago)

"Pass the Sugar" on his new album is really good; the rest of his new album really isn't. *Total Destruction of the Mind*, besides being an excellent album, has the best liner notes in recording science history. Someone should transcribe them here, in entirity.

― chuck, Tuesday, 30 September 2003 22:24 (twenty-two years ago)

>*Total Destruction of the Mind*

Tsk, tsk.

― Dock Miles (Dock Miles), Wednesday, 1 October 2003 01:35 (twenty-two years ago)

His cover of "Sam Stone" is the best John Prine cover I've ever heard.

Andy: I do, all on vinyl and all locked away in storage at the moment, tragically.

Sleevenotes: the sleevenotes to "Gag A Maggot" are brilliant as well.

― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 1 October 2003 08:04 (twenty-two years ago)

His album "Rat On!" has a pic of him on the front riding a giant white rat while dressed like Johnny "Guitar" Watson.

he is ganesh here, no?

― gaz (gaz), Wednesday, 1 October 2003 08:17 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

this stuff is really lovely, actually.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 21 September 2006 04:50 (nineteen years ago)

"The Baby Is Mine" is one of my favorite songs.

and the best of i have with him in a hotdog bun cracks me up every time.

― jaxon (jaxon), Thursday, 21 September 2006 05:36 (nineteen years ago)

I'm a big fan. His first four albums are dynamite.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Thursday, 21 September 2006 05:57 (nineteen years ago)

"Mama's Baby, Daddy's Maybe" is one of the, like, five greatest singles ever. Absolutely killer scream at the end. I once heard an aircheck on ReelRadio.com of Wolfman Jack playing it, which makes a lot of sense.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Thursday, 21 September 2006 06:07 (nineteen years ago)

I used to have "Rat On!" - I can't remember too much about it, except that it was much better than I was expecting. "God Ain't Blessing America" is a classic!

― Rombald (rombald), Thursday, 21 September 2006 10:29 (nineteen years ago)

That should have been "Have you heard this story", not "Rat On!"...

― Rombald (rombald), Thursday, 21 September 2006 10:31 (nineteen years ago)

i somehow thought this stuff would be something like a novelty record, but it's actually quite catchy and sometimes really powerful stuff. i really like the song "synthetic world."

it seems like swamp dogg likes very repetitive song structures which allow him a flexibility in how to deploy lyrics viz the opening of "synthetic world":

hey you
i'm up from the bayou
where wildlife runs free
you could say that i'm country
but let me tell you what i see:

your world is plastic!
can see through to the other side...

etc.

also the great line, "friendship is like acid, it burns as it slides away." and that verse about all his friends having at least two faces.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 22 September 2006 07:11 (nineteen years ago)

Well, he's very smart about catching your ear and then pouring in every thought he can. I was always a little surprised that he and the Was Brothers never hooked up.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 22 September 2006 07:30 (nineteen years ago)

He supposedly financed Kru-Cut Records for World Class Wrecking Cru (for the uninitiated, that was Dr. Dre's first group).

I got an interview with Lonzo Williams coming up soon so I'll get that verified.

― and PappaWheelie, author of Have You Ever Been Poxy Fuled? (PappaWheelie 2), Friday, 22 September 2006 15:06 (nineteen years ago)

Did he also record as Raw Spitt?

― Am I Re-elected Yet? (Dada), Friday, 22 September 2006 15:10 (nineteen years ago)

his real name is Jerry Williams and his biggest flop released under that name is "If You Ask Me (Because I Love You)", one of the all-time greatest northern soul classics.

― Paul (scifisoul), Friday, 22 September 2006 15:26 (nineteen years ago)

i just grabbed Doris Duke's "I'm a Loser" and am pretty excited to listen to it.

― jaxon (jaxon), Friday, 22 September 2006 15:43 (nineteen years ago)

oh yeah, that record is outstanding. sort of soul outlier, i think,in that many of the arrangements have unusual structures and arrangements, with a lot of picked acoustic guitar.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 22 September 2006 20:28 (nineteen years ago)

I'm gonna find this in a minute, but I've got this single on some label comp, by Little Jerry Williams. It's Swamp Dogg, in the '60s.

Saw him once. Quite good. And, his "Understanding California Women" is the greatest song ever, I sometimes think. "She had some shorts so tight/Wouldn't let her cheeks breathe."

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Friday, 22 September 2006 21:01 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

Also his solo stuff is fantastic if like me you enjoy his rather individual voice.

Only heard the first two albums, which are brilliant. As for his voice, he really sounds like Levon Helm on the 2nd album.

― Whirlwind Bromance (Tom D.), Monday, 17 May 2010 11:51 (fifteen years ago)

Still regret selling that old "Total Destruction"/"Rat On" twofer years ago

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 17 May 2010 13:23 (fifteen years ago)

Bad move there

― Whirlwind Bromance (Tom D.), Monday, 17 May 2010 13:40 (fifteen years ago)

Definitely. Plus I've got a buncha lousy CDs that I should've sold instead, before filesharing rendered them practically worthless.

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 17 May 2010 14:21 (fifteen years ago)

He played in Manhattan last night, but I didn't go because I went to see a tribute band play all of Tusk in its entirety.

― ian, Monday, 17 May 2010 14:28 (fifteen years ago)

I woulda picked Swamp if I lived in the NY area. Oh well, to each his own.

― curmudgeon, Monday, 17 May 2010 19:19 (fifteen years ago)

four months pass...

Just got a 5cd boxset including Rat On and Total Destruction plus albums from Doris Duke, ZZ Hill and Ruth Brown. Awesome is the word.

ps his version of Sam Stone is indeed special.

― Marco Damiani, Monday, 4 October 2010 16:01 (fifteen years ago)

Wow 5 cds of swamp dogg!

― bloody Health and Safety (admrl), Monday, 4 October 2010 16:02 (fifteen years ago)

Apparently it is a German pressing - not sure it is legit though.

― Marco Damiani, Monday, 4 October 2010 16:10 (fifteen years ago)

ZZ Hill helped get the whole Southern soul/blues thing going

― curmudgeon, Monday, 4 October 2010 20:03 (fifteen years ago)

i have his first six records (and eight of his first eleven), and they are all great. great great great.

― 69, Monday, 4 October 2010 20:09 (fifteen years ago)

havent heard the duke/hill/brown stuff yet!

― 69, Monday, 4 October 2010 20:10 (fifteen years ago)

Listened to Total Destruction again last night and it is simply fantastic.
The ZZ Hill is quite good too.

― Marco Damiani, Tuesday, 5 October 2010 14:00 (fifteen years ago)

five months pass...

OMG I heard "The World Beyond" on WFMU last night, so awesome.

― 'what are you, the Hymen Protection League of America?' (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 4 April 2011 03:27 (fourteen years ago)

yeah, that song is beautiful. and -- weird kismet -- i was listening to it over and over yesterday.

― by another name (amateurist), Monday, 4 April 2011 15:05 (fourteen years ago)

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