Yesterday’s discussion of John McCain’s biography tour ended up containing a rather large musical digression, which revealed that I am not the only PW regular with a fondness for the late, lamented Beat Farmers and its equally late, lamented co-founder — the fantastic Country Dick Montana.
To paraphrase Mae West, when this band was good it was very good — but when it was bad it was better. Unfortunately, there seems to be little online video of them at their most debauched (yesterday, I described such shows as C&W bar scene from the Blues Brothers, but without the chicken wire). However, they are still pretty darn good at the 1988 CMA Awards, introduced by no less than classic MTV VJ Martha Quinn.  Part 1 includes “Ridin'” and “Riverside.” Part 2 includes “There She Goes Again” (L. Reed) “Lucille” (K. Rogers, but with profanity) and “Happy Boy.” Part 3 features “Bigger Stones” and “Hollywood Hills.” You can delve even deeper with oquintan at YouTube.
I happened to catch The Farmers in SD last year, with Jerry Raney and Rolle Love from the original lineup. Jerry’s still a funny bastard, but Just. Not. The. Same.
Their cover of Johnny Cash’s Big River (also w/ profanity) is another moving work of art.
Yeah, it ain’t The Archies without the Jughead beat.
Raney was unintentionally funny when I met him. The band showed up to play my college with about five minutes to spare before the gig was to be forefeited. The M-Shop is a very intimate venue within the university’s much larger Memorial Union building. I found Raney wandering around another part of the building (sunglasses firmly in place) and as I walked up to him, he simply extended his hand and said, “I’m a Beat Farmer. Where do I go?”
Last time I saw them was ’84 in some little hole in the wall back home in San Diego…
This brings back some memories..
I ran into Jerry in the men’s room at Tio Leo’s just before the show and gave him the standard “How’s it going?”
“Great!” he says. “How are you?”
“Good.” I replied.
He says “Really? Because you look like hell.”
“Ah, you shoulda seen me yesterday.”
BTW, no BF retrospective could be complete without touching on California Kid.
Ah, happy boy (from memory):
“Little dog spot got hit by a car,
hubba hubba hubba hubba hubba.
Put his guts in a box and put ’em in a drawer,
hubba hubba hubba hubba hubba.
Cuz I’m a happy boy (happy boy),
I’m a happy boy (happy boy),
Well ain’t it good when things are going your way?
Forgot all about it for a month and a half,
hubba hubba hubba hubba hubba,
Looked in the drawer and I started to laugh,
hubba hubba hubba hubba hubba.”
You get the drift. I think the one time I saw them was when they opened for Bonnie Raitt, but it could have been some other musician. The memory, she fades.
Also, Country Dick Montana loved to just go nuts on stage. A real performer.
Oh, and his cover of “Karma Chameleon.” Hilarious. I guess I should’ve gathered my thoughts better before posting. I’m starting to look like a troll here.
“’cause I live in a lakeside trailer park and everything’s gonna be ok!”
Or something. Yes, Beat Farmers were/ are awesome. *sigh*
Happy Boy? Happy Boy?
One of my all time favorites. It’s one of those songs that I wish I had written.
Baby’s liquored up!
Yeah, talk about giving it everything you’ve got. That is Rock and Roll, baby!
This is a nice find, that I hadn’t seen before. An actual “music video” for Hollywood Hills, which is as close as they ever came to commercial success. It’s probably the cleanest footage of Dick kicking the skins you’ll ever see, and Jerry has a nice little subversive wiseass bit at about 1:17.
Ah, good times. Thanks for the reminder, Karl.
Followed ’em around SD for awhile. Dick got up and danced on my table, shoved his junk in my soon-to-be wifes face, wearing a trench coat, she liked it. BF was a damn fine band back then, remember the base player had bloody fingers. Dudes Got Down! See you on the far side CD.
I loved the Beat Farmers. They came through Atlanta a few times, and did a show once in Macon in which I was the one and only person who showed up and another in Athens in which I was smart, got a hotel room, then got so completely shit faced drinking Tequila with Dick that I blacked out, crashed my Cadillac and went through a couple of years of eck…sobriety.
Buddy Blue had a website which I believe you can still access for the archives (He died of a heart attack last year). He and most of the guys who posted there were serious commies, and boy did he and they love to pontificate. One of my favorite threads was trying to convince him that in America he could easily be a millionaire. He wanted to know how. I mentioned something about him being a musical genius and all he needed was that one song. He rejected me as a moron for that. I still believe he had that song in him and wish he could have gotten it out. Even if I am a moron.
Jason and the Scorchers should get togehter, do a video of Gram Parson’s “I can’t Dance”, and they’ll be millionaires. Nobody ever listens to me.
Oh, and that Buddy Blue website mutated into http://www.thefarmersmusic.com. Recent fun included me being branded a racist for using the term welfare broodmare. The music parts are all good though. Check it out.
I was one of those BF groupies spending weekened after weekend at Bodie’s, eating bean burritos next door late at night. CDM, Dan, was one of the strangest guys i have ever known. I’ll never forget that New Year’s Eve in Hollywood at some party they played and Mary Waronov was there. I have a photo from that nite of Dan wasted in my hotel room closet with some lingerie laying around him and a beer on his head. After moving to NY, the Caribbean and finally back to Cal (sadly NoCal) I was reminiscing about the BFs and someone told me Dan died on stage some years back. Imagine my shock. So tonight, as I was thinking about Rolle and what the F ever happened to him, I discovered Buddy died in 06. I did see Joey Harris is still kicking and it sounds like Jerry and Rolle are still playing.