Bart Bull: Jimmie Rodgers; Singing Brakeman, Father of Country Music, God of Sex

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Jimmie Rodgers; Singing Brakeman, Father of Country Music, God of Sex

published in SPIN

Jimmie Rodgers, "America's Blue Yodeler," a rambler and a rounder, has gradually been given the ill-fiting title "The Father of Country Music," primarily by those who've never heard him. Much more wisely, he is alleged to be worshipped by the Kipsigi tribe of East Africa, who have heard his 78's but lack the good fortune to have seen any of his portraits. Known to them as "Chemirocha" and considered to be a centaur-like spirit, half man and half antelope, young Kipsigi maidens are alleged to dance their most seductive dances and beg him to join them. I'd bet he does.

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It's Not All About Me

Vogue, Details, SPIN, Sounds staff writer, West Coast editor; loads of magazines, daily and weekly newspapers; columns, reporting, features, criticism. Couple of Deems Taylor Awards for music stuff, lots of other awards for reporting, writing, columns. Worked and traveled in more than twenty countries. Published in six languages; writes exclusively in American.

"The best new American rock writer of the '80s" — Creem

"[SPIN's] West Coast editor Bart Bull's piece on John Lee Hooker is as witty and perceptive a piece of writing as you're likely to find in any magazine anywhere." — Los Angeles Times

"Shakespearean." — Tom Wolfe

OG punk rocker, founded first American xeroxpunk fanzine, Browbeat, in 1977;
OG skateboarder, once clocked at 38 mph downhill.
Adequate accordionist; quarter-assed steel guitar player. Historian, cultural commentator, culinary adventurer, raconteur, wanderer, cook (pro/semi-pro/amateur), bon vivant (p/s-p/a), picaro y guero y gabacho.
Record producer, arranger, and mixer. Manager; Artistes et Property Intellectual. (Under his watch: Two Grammy nominations; more than one thousand tour dates internationally; precedent-setting application of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution to major label recording contracts; establishment of fiscally and aesthetically successful independently distributed record labels in territories on three continents; numerous other accomplishments.)
Urbanist

Designer
Documentarian
Expatriate American
High school dropout;

North Central Phoenix yo-yo champion, 1966.
Danced on Soul Train (one time, 1986; not invited back);
Hit loud foul off Juan Marichal, 1984;

Played accordion for 80,000 bikers and metalheads in Nuremburg, Germany, 1992;

Briefly (thanks to Title IX) a member of the Phoenix College Women's Volleyball Team ;

Charter member of the M. M. M. S.; Founding member/co-president of J.A.G.U.A.R. (Juveniles of Arizona Guard Against Undesirable Armed Rascals);

Co-founder of the notorious N.C. L. F. (Neon Cowboy Liberation Front); once shared a barber with the late, great Sam Cooke; accordion stylings favorably reviewed (as Jimmy Shands, Jr.) in the Manchester Guardian; numerous other awards, distinctions and visible scars

Once and former owner/operator/mechanic & close personal associate of: 1966 Pontiac GTO (389); a 1967 GTO (Tri-Power); a 1967 Chevrolet Malibu SS-327; a 1968 GTO (4ooCI, Hurst His'n'Hers shifter; Posi-Traction;); a 1969 GTO with Ram-Air III and four-on-the-floor; and a 1969 SS-396 El Camino with a 427 Corvette engine installed; numerous others, from three continents. Currently grumpy about Americans using too darn much gas. Rides the Metro standing up, goofy-foot; and a one-speed Dutch bicycle with coaster brake and friction-generated headlight (avec tres authentique Ed "Big Daddy" Roth Ratfink decals).

"Writer, musician, manager, gadabout, and cool-guy raconteur..." — New Times

"This obsessive, smart-ass, and at times uproarious collection... [has] nothing to do with commercial success. If (it) did, '...probably the eighth greatest band name ever would be Celine Dion, and we'd all know the Book of Revelations was kicking full effect.'"

Failure magazine "book" review of Battle of The Band Names

"His explication of why white America hasn't clasped Michael Jackson to its bosom as tightly as it has Bruce Springsteen [in another publication] was the most provocative, insightful, and prolix piece of writing I've read since Lester Bangs' famous piece on wanting to do James Taylor grievous bodily harm. . .

His condemnation of Woodstock a few issues back made me cackle aloud with delight."

Creem

"Ironically, for a book [Tom Waits On Tom Waits] that leans overwhelmingly towards smaller-press rock journalism, the most intriguing character in the book is Bart Bull, veteran journalist extraordinare, a large-publication writer and the former West Coast editor of SPIN. Two of Bull's Waits pieces are included — the first, the aforementioned "After A One-Night Stand" article from 1977, is the account of a fight between interviewer and interviewee that arose when a mid-tour Waits was particularly exhausted and cranky. The second, "Boho Blues, written for SPIN in 1987, is an ambitious, successful attempt to write a piece of Waits journalism in the style of Waits himself and the most insightful piece in the book.

"At it's best, as with the Bart Bull articles, "Tom Waits On Tom Waits illuminates its subject and allows a peek into the history of lesser-known late-20th century rock journalism, sometims from now-defunct publications."

"Not all the interviewers here fall into line and churn out cookie cutter questions, though. One of the best pieces is written by Bart Bull for Phoenix's New Times in 1977. Waits had just released Foreign Affairs and was in a particularly bad mood that evening. Rather than let Waits run roughshod over him, Bull fought back. Written in a narrative style, it stands out amongst the typical Q&A format that dominates this book. And what did Bull gain from giving the man such a negative profile? The chance to interview him again 10 years later for SPIN. In Tom Waits On Tom Waits, many music journos learn that flattery gets you nowhere."

"That was the craziest thing I ever read about us — I could never have written that." —Axl Rose to Bart Bull

Bart Bull

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Jimmie Rodgers; Singing Brakeman, Father of Country Music, God of Sex

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