Saturday, May 10, 2025

Perfect Tens Dept. - R. Crumb And His Cheap Suit Serenaders Number Two

 



Perhaps you don't need reminding, but the prestigious IoF© Perfect Ten Award is awarded to those albums which, in the opinion of the judges [Enis and Agina Judges, Perineum, WIS - Ed.] have zero defaults from the cover all the way down the grooves to the hole in the middle. This unfortunately eliminates Pet Sounds, f'rinstance. Harsh? I don't make the rules.

The latest long-playing elpee LP to garner a Foamie™ (as they're known in th' music business) is the second wupes sophomore album wupes effort from counterculture darlings R. Crumb And His Cheap Suit Serenaders. Of course as we all know Crumb hated hippies with a passion, and the irony can't have been lost on him that he made his fortune pandering to their basest desires.

Leave us gaze at this swell package for a spell! Not only does the sweaty, beady-eyed fine artiste give us a cover that rates alongside the Sistine Chapel, the Book of Hours, and the retouched Ecce Homo by Elias Garcia Martinez, but also adorns the back cover, the inner sleeve, and the label with his wayward genius! And it's all done by hand, of course. As is the music, attacked with a gusto seldom heard from a bunch of guys what don't have the energy to stand up. It's just that subtle nuance more accomplished than amateur, a faltering step into semi-professionalism, and it's got humor and swing and old timey good feeling OUT TH' ASS! Also, and most importantly, they don't camp it up. This isn't pastiche [some kinda nut - Ed.] or novelty music. This is played with love and affection, and you can't help but tap your gouty old foot as you croak along wit' th' band!

One of the songs - Fine Artiste Blues - is an original, the rest are gems from Crumb's personal Smithsonian of 78 shellac. Learn them all! Marvel at the sensitivity of the musical saw!

 

This post honed to lapidary perfection by The Girl Scouts Of America as a fund-raising initiative.

18 comments:

  1. It's well-known that th' Four Or Five Guys© are replete with a surfeit of fine qualities, but if you had to highlight just one of your own, what would it be?

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  2. good hair [for a geezer!] mucho sunbleached
    Mere seconds before seeing your RC post here I inquired of my same domicile dwelling bro-in-law how he was enjoying the RC hardback biography he had bought & was reading, and he grunted "Great..."


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  3. My humility, of course...

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  4. that's an easy one it's camaraderie. i'm a real sweetheart

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  5. I never take my smart phone out with me if I'm meeting friends.

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    1. Just before checking the comments here, like about thirty seconds ago, I was watching Seinfeld doing a recent standup bit about phones. The audience was laughing (what they'd paid to do, to be fair) but he was bitter and angry and very clear about the damage done to living relationships by our phone addiction. And no, it's not funny, and yes, you're right to leave your phone at home when you're meeting friends.

      (Comment away - I'm off up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire soon, so will let them through the security scan tomorrow, my time.)

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  6. Always pick up my dog's poop and place it in a receptacle.

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    Replies
    1. This can be a good or a bad thing, depending on the receptacle.

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  7. I listen well and ask questions...increasingly often, what'd you say?

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  8. i have an aversion to phones smart or otherwise. when we move to this mountain community my wife got phones for the entire family fancy doodahs i opted for a flip phone which sits neglected in a drawer used for many years with one number on it my wife's ,,,, i got enough shit talking to folks family friends included face to face.
    folks family friends included are slaves to their phones i thought the problem was the internet at first and it was but not any more

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  9. Due to the fragility of the deliverable, StealthLinking© has been enabled within the body of the post. As an incentive, three additional Crumby albums are included!

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  10. I've been a bit slow in coming forward with my own "best feature", but after careful deliberation (it's like choosing your favorite Rockette!) I've decided that courtly demeanor is perhaps my most admired charm. Be it swank debutante gala, home invasion weekend, priestly conclave, whorehouse lapdance tourney, or soup kitchen bum fight, my elegant manners and gentlemanly deportment set me apart from th' common herd!

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  11. I quiver well, and shrill doggerel comparable syllable by syllable to the unkillable mill of Sir Rogère Quiverwelle de l'Université McGill.

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