The Napping Wizard Sessions
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One Song: The Clash, Wrong 'Em Boyo
In this series on The Napping Wizard Sessions called ONE SONG I’m taking deep dives into single songs. In this episode, I take The Clash’s WRONG 'EM BOYO and chart the history behind it that connects late 1800s America through the true story and legend of Stagger Lee with the Jim Crow American south, reggae and the Jamaican Rude Boys, the Black Panthers, John Sinclair, the mods, skinheads and the birth of punk in the UK, and push it up against the anti-immigration and racist climate we're witnessing today in the dis-United States. For what appears to be a simple song, after peeling back the layers, it ends up becoming something like an anthem for solidarity, uniting racial and social struggles, and fraught with the glorious embellishment and vernacular drift of oral traditions. A lot of people are curious - What does 'Em Boyo mean?
REFERENCES AND FURTHER INFO:
Audio Ammunition. Documentary of The Clash. GooglePlay Original, 2013.
Brown, Cecil. I Stagolee. CA: North Atlantic Books, 2006.
Brown, Cecil. Stagolee Shot Billy. MA: Harvard University Press, 2003.
Chuck D. Stay Free: The Story of The Clash, Spotify original series, 2019.
Cox, Alex. Sid And Nancy + DVD extras. UK: Initial Pictures, 1986 and DVD extras.
Egan, Sean. The Clash On The Clash. IL: Chicago Review Press, 2018.
Gates Jr., Henry Louis. The Signifyin(g) Monkey. NY: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Gray, Marcus. Route 19 Revisited: The Clash and London Calling. UK: Random House, 2010.
Henzell, Perry. The Harder They Come. Kingston, Jamaica: International Films, 1972.
Lomax, Alan and John. American Ballads And Folk Songs. NY: Dover, 1994.
Marcus, Greil. Mystery Train. NY: Plume, Revised Edition, 2015.
Temple, Julien. The Future is Unwritten. Parallel Films Production, 2007.
…and various other sundries on YouTube
SONG CLIPS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
00:00:00 The Clash, Wrong ‘Em Boyo, 1979
00:05:43 Lloyd Price, Stagger Lee, 1958
00:08:12 Herb Weidoeft and His Band, Stack ‘O Lee Blues, c1924
00:08:42 Gertrude Ma Rainey, Stack O’Lee Blues, 1926
00:08:57 Amy Winehouse, live at Arena Anhembi, São Paulo, Brazil January 15, 2011
00:09:11 Cliff Edwards, Stack O Lee Blues, 1928.
00:09:28 Furry Lewis, Billy Lyons and Stackolee, 1927
00:09:40 Mississippi John Hurt, Stack O’ Lee, 1928
00:10:10 The Clash, Career Opportunities, 1977
00:10:29 Frank Hutchinson, Stackalee, 1927
00:10:39 Archibald, Stack-A-Lee, Parts 1 and 2, 1946
00:11:08 Fats Domino, Stagger Lee, Live at Montreux, 1973
00:11:32 Dion, Stagger Lee, 1962
00:11:51 Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Stagger Lee, 1996
00:12:20 Taj Mahal, Stack O’Lee, 1969
00:12:49 Keb Mo, from the movie Honey Drippers, 2007
00:13:02 R.L. Burnside, Stack O Lee and Billy Lyons, (year ?)
00:13:32 Sydney Bichet, Old Stack O’Lee Blues, 1946
00:13:42 Wilson Pickett, Stagger Lee, 1967
00:14:05 Elvis, rehearsal recording, 1970
00:14:17 Bob Dylan, Stack A Lee, 1993
00:14:35 Woody Guthrie, Stackolee Muleskinner Blues, 1944
00:15:00 James Brown, Stagger Lee, 1967
00:15:18 The Black Keys, Stag Shot Billy, 2004
00:15:51 Sol Hop’opi’i, Stack O’ Lee Blues, 1938
00:16:17 The Rulers, Wrong Emboyo, 1967
00:19:44 The Clash, Wrong ‘Em Boyo, instrumental, 1979
00:21:09 Junior Murvin, Police and Thieves, 1976
00:22:00 The Clash, White Riot, 1977
00:23:04 MC5, Kick Out The Jams, 1969
00:24:05 John Lennon, John Sinclair, 1971
00:24:57 John Lennon, David Frost Show, 1971
00:25:50 The Clash, I Fought The Law, 1977
00:27:05 The Who, Won’t Get Fooled Again, 1971
00:27:53 The Rulers, Copasetic, 1966
00:29:01 Jimmy Cliff, They Harder They Come, 1972
00:30:03 The Clash, Paul’s Tune, 1979
00:31:10 The Clash, (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais, 1977
00:32:50 The Rulers, Don’t Be a Rude Boy, 1966
00:33:22 Bob Marley and the Wailers, One Love, 1977
00:33:48 The Clash, Wrong ‘Em Boyo, 1979
00:35:17 The Rulers, Wrong Emboyo, 1967
00:36:00 The Slicker, Johnny Too Bad, 1971
00:37:12 The Rulers, Be Good, 1966
00:39:07 Joe Strummer, hostility clip from The Future Is Unwritten, 2007
00:39:32 The Clash, Rudie Can’t Fail, 1979
00:39:57 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Stagger Lee, 1996
00:40:15 The Clash, Guns of Brixton, 1979
00:40: 34 Mississippi John Hurt, Stack O’ Lee, 1928
00:40:43 The Clash, Guns of Brixton, 1979
00:40:53 The Clash, Death or Glory, 1979
00:41:54 Furry Lewis, Billy Lyons and Stackolee, 1927
00:44:35 The Clash, Wrong ‘Em Boyo, 1979
00:47:45 (007) Shanty Town, Desmond Dekker and the Aces, c1972
00:48:46 Bob Marley and the Wailers, Buffalo Soldier, 1983
00:49:06 The Rulers, Wrong Emboyo, 1967
00:51:07 The Clash, Wrong ‘Em Boyo, 1979
00:52:04 Bob Marley, Jammin’, 1977
00:52:19 Scotty, Draw Your Breaks, 1971
00:53:02 The Clash, Wrong ‘Em Boyo, instrumental, 1979
00:55:56 Joe Strummer, on punk, The Future Is Unwritten, 2007
00:56:17 Joe Strummer, on drugs, The Future Is Unwritten, 2007
00:56:23 Joe Strummer, on pitfalls, The Future Is Unwritten, 2007
00:56:54 The Clash, Police and Thieves, 1977
00:57:47 Joe Strummer, on people, The Clash On Broadway Interview, 1981
00:59.16 Bob Marley, Punky Reggae Party, 1977
01:00:31 The Clash, Wrong ‘Em Boyo, live, Capital Theater, Passaic, NJ, 1980
01:00:38 The Clash, Wrong ‘Em Boyo, 1979
Tracking recorded at BRIC podcast studio, Brooklyn, August 17, 2019
Interview: Jimmy Raskin
In this episode, Jimmy Raskin puts the cliché under the microscope through a process he calls Slapstick Enlightenment. Always obsessed with profound moments of failure, Jimmy discusses his love of two quotes by seminal figures of his work for the past several decades, Arthur Rimbaud: “If brass wakes as a bugle, it’s not its fault,” and Frederick Nietzsche, the subtitle to Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “A Book for All and None.” Putting these up against a profound moment of failure of his own in a mispronunciation of "polyphony," and finally against a recently found inspirational quote by an unlikely source, “All that is is there, all that is is here, all that is is,” he goes deep into his love of clichés and how the artist can resuscitate them.
Find Jimmy’s work at: Miguel Abreu Gallery: http://miguelabreugallery.com/artists/raskin; http://jimmyraskin.com/; http://thelasteccentric.com/
Supplemental tracks:
Jimmy Raskin, The Last Eccentric; George Jones, Wrong is What I Do Best; Jerry Lewis, The Nutty Professor; X-Files Theme Song; The Bob Dylan Foundation, feature on Joe Andoe; Blinded By The Light, Manfred Mann and more excerpts from Jimmy Raskin’s audio works.
Record date: January 27, 2019, BRIC Arts Media
Air date: April 01, 2019
Interview: Adrienne Whiteley
From 1977-2018 Adrienne Whiteley worked at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, NY. As a voice major in college, she found part-time work as a seasonal employee at the zoo. She didn't know then that she had fallen into her career path. Over the next 41 years she worked her way up to the position of Senior Zoo Keeper, Collection Manager and Registrar, overseeing most aspects of the Zoo’s operation, and, most importantly, animal care and well-being. Since 2007 she has been teaching a highly popular course at Syracuse University on zoo animal management. In June 2018 we sat down to talk about elephants that paint, why penguins are vicious little monsters, unpredictable lions, the heart problems of gorillas and Bambi. “There’s a saying in the zoo community that there are more tigers in Texas than there are in the wild. Nobody needs a tiger.” Learn more about this wisdom and of Adrienne’s perspective on the zoo experience and the state of zoos and animal welfare in the American context. This interview is a bonus edition to my first episode of Premise: A Bold Move With The Cowardly Lion. In this isolated interview I cut the bits about the lion in the elementary school and focus on Adrienne’s experience and insights. To listen to her parts in Premise, find episode S02 E01 Premise: A Bold Move With The Cowardly Lion in my past shows.
*Photo of M'Wasi and Kierha (©Rosamund Gifford Zoo), the last two lions at the Rosamund Gifford Zoo. Kierha died in Dec. 2017 and M'Wasi in August 2018, shortly after this interview. Adrienne was fortunate to work with them.
Tribute: Peter Gabriel, The Stories, Part 3
In this multi-part series, I explore Peter Gabriel as a storyteller from the early Genesis years, 1967-1975. As introductions to the songs and as entertaining banter while the band tuned their complex Prog Rock instruments, Peter Gabriel told stories to the audience about the upcoming song. I compile these stories, grouped according to their corresponding songs and chart their growth. Along with the elaborate costumes Peter created during this period, he also concocted whacky stories: The Green Trouser Suit, Thomas S. Eiselberg and his onions, Henry and Cynthia on the croquet pitch, five rivers with one dirty mouth, Romeo and Juliet go to the cinema, Michael and his worms, Rael, the Slippermen and more. This series is for the true early Genesis fan and for those who don’t know the full scope of what Peter Gabriel added to the band during the years he was with them. Part 3 covers the stories from the Selling England By The Pound group - Britannia eating Buddha biscuits, the cosmic lawmower, the dirty mouth of the fifth river, Romeo and Juiliet at the cinema - and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway - Rael's adventures in NYC, a crashing cinematic wall, a prickly porcupine, a chamber with 32 doors, Lilly White Lilith, humpy, bumpy Slippermen and Rael's brother John.
Tribute: Peter Gabriel, The Stories, Part 2
In this multi-part series, I explore Peter Gabriel as a storyteller from the early Genesis years, 1967-1975. As introductions to the songs and as entertaining banter while the band tuned their complex Prog Rock instruments, Peter Gabriel told stories to the audience about the upcoming song. I compile these stories, grouped according to their corresponding songs and chart their growth. Along with the elaborate costumes Peter created during this period, he also concocted whacky stories: The Green Trouser Suit, Thomas S. Eiselberg and his onions, Henry and Cynthia on the croquet pitch, five rivers with one dirty mouth, Romeo and Juliet go to the cinema, Michael and his worms, Rael, the Slippermen and more. This series is for the true early Genesis fan and for those who don’t know the full scope of what Peter Gabriel added to the band during the years he was with them. Part 2 covers the rest of the stories from the Nursery Cryme group - horrifying hogweeds and the first hermaphrodite - and then Foxtrot - a martian or Coca-Cola, two women being evicted and expected to shrink to 4 feet for their next apartment, King Canute commading the waves (or not) and Michael and the worms announcing Supper's Ready.
Tribute: Peter Gabriel, The Stories, Part 1
In this multi-part series, I explore Peter Gabriel as a storyteller from the early Genesis years, 1967-1975. As introductions to the songs and as entertaining banter while the band tuned their complex Prog Rock instruments, Peter Gabriel told stories to the audience about the upcoming song. I compile these stories, grouped according to their corresponding songs, and chart their growth. Along with the elaborate costumes Peter created during this period, he also concocted whacky stories: The Green Trouser Suit, Thomas S. Eiselberg and his onions, Henry and Cynthia on the croquet pitch, five rivers with one dirty mouth, Romeo and Juliet go to the cinema, Michael and his worms, Rael, the Slippermen and more. This series is for the true early Genesis fan and for those who don’t know the full scope of what Peter Gabriel added to the band during the years he was with them. Part 1 covers The Green Trouser Suit, early Genesis singles, Trespass and The Musical Box from Nursery Cryme.
Tribute: Whisper Not Mumbling Elks
This is a show about mumbling and other vocalizations. It’s a collection of jazz songs where instrumentalists engage in a verbal exchange with their instruments. Some mumble or hum along with the melody, some transcribe poems to melodies and leave out the words, some start with found recordings and mimic the melody of the spoken word. Some start with the melody and add words to mimic it. And others speak directly into the mouthpiece as a substitute for a microphone. While you’re listening, feel free to talk to yourself, mumble or harmonize along. Songs included by Oscar Peterson, Errol Garner, Keith Jarrett, Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, Branford Marsalis, John Coltrane, Jason Moran, David Dockery, Felipe Continentino, Pharoah Sanders, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Anthony Braxton, and I finish with some of my own Poems To Be Read Through A Saxophone.
Interview: Rachel Bacon
GRAPHITE AND DIAMONDS: THE ALLOTROPIC DRAWINGS OF RACHEL BACON
Have you ever crumpled paper just right, or covered a sheet from edge to edge with graphite, or, otherwise, protected a clean page from damage at all costs? Rachel Bacon has, and from the sound of it, she’ll continue doing so. She’s been experimenting with materials for decades, and she’s gotten it down to a science – the science of paper and pencil, trees and graphite, wood and carbon, pulp and powder. Just like diamonds and coal both come from carbon, and folklore spins yarns of devils shitting gold or turning gold into shit, Rachel’s drawings act out allotropic roles. They’re unique works that play with our perceptions of reality and confront us with lightness and dark, weight and scale, and encourage us to take responsibility for the materials we exploit. Her drawings operate on subliminal and individual levels and position us as guests on a planet that allows us to inhabit it for now.
She was born in NYC and moved to the Netherlands after earning a BFA at Pratt Institute in 1990. She currently lives and makes art in The Hague where she teaches drawing at the Royal Academy of Art. In 2016 she earned an MA in London at the Wimbleton College of Art. She reappears in New York City often as well as travels the world taking advantage of artist-in-residency programs. Most recently she participated in the Banff Centre for the Arts, Mass MoCA and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Art Center on Governors Island (where we met in 2010). In addition to The Netherlands and the United States, she has had exhibitions in France, the United Kingdom, The Czech Republic, Turkey, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden, among others, and she has been nominated for and received several public art commissions.
I encourage you to explore her website while we’re chatting: http://www.rachelbacon.com
Record Date: 15 April 2018
Air Date: 02 December 2018