Words from Jon (Archive June 2004)

where was i?


in august 2002, my wife and i and a couple friends took a short trip to memphis ... i had been reading a book by robert gordon called "it came from memphis" ... he looks at the old, cool memphis: stax, dewey philips, sputnik monroe, alex chilton, sid selvidge, etc. ... not the the disney version you'll find on beale street nowadays ... an aside: has everyone noticed the disney takeover of america? (see graham parker's "disney's america" on his 12 haunted episodes cd) ... i lived in NYC in the 1980s ... back when times square still resembled the place that travis bickle takes cybil shepard on a date ... gritty ... interesting ... now times square is the corporate headquarters of the world ... i took my stepson and his friend up there ... spent two hours in the ESPN zone ... like joe strummer said: IT'S NOT CHRISTMAS TIME, IT'S ARMAGIDEON TIME! ...


anyway, inspired by gordon's book, i convinced jodi to go down to memphis ... we ate the best BBQ in the world, stayed a night in the peabody hotel (check out peter case's song "walkin' home late" on the flying saucer blues cd for more details), and drove a rented '55 caddy down into the delta


pulled into a little town called "tunica" on our way to the stovall plantation where muddy waters was discovered by alan lomax (see Robert Gordon's bio of muddy, "i can't be satisfied" ... another great book) ... a guy came walking up the street with a painting in his hand ... asked him what it was ... "the sugar ditch", he says, pointing to a septic run-off area that we just happened to be standing beside ... he hops in the caddy and we drive him to his parents' funeral home to buy a print of said painting: "the sugar ditch" ...


when we return to philly, i start writing these songs ... same characters appear: randy, raney, gene washington, keepers ... i put them in the sugar ditch locale ... a murder mystery ensues ... i stare at the painting while composing the tunes ...


slo-mo gets off the road with songs: ohia in december of '02 ... invites me over to his apt. to work up some demos ...


the demos sound so good that we decide to build off of them ... the train boys (tucker, bill, steve, schreiber) and a few special guests join us at edan cohen's soundgun studio located in the wilds of north philly ... we do overdubs ... look at porno on the internet ... eat bad chinese food ... paradise, etc (again, flying saucer blues!) ...


record complete by august 2003 ... that bastard neil young puts out greendale a couple months later ... same idea ... but poorly executed ... better leave the heavy mental lifting to the train, mister young (no disrespect intended here: i am huge neil young fan ... i will actually defend "trans"!) ...


may 27, 2004: "sugar ditch" released on record cellar label ... tin angel release party follows ...


from here to eternity: i run into jack mcdavid on the street ... he calls to me from his pickup: "john, i miss you guys ... call dean and come on back" ... so, we're back at jack's firehouse for the foreseeable future ... "back at jack's//no marshall stax" says johnny taint ...


hope to see you at show 'fore too long ...


hugs and kisses, you bastards ...

jon

june '04

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The pictures below are Slo-mo's sketches for aborted "Sugar Ditch" theatrical production...

Click on them to open in a new window for a larger view.