Bad spelling or a shout-out to an Eagles cover band: you decide. (Photo by Christian Alexandersen from the Carroll County Times and Baltimore Sun Media Group)
July 17, 2014 – Misspelled graffiti on a a former Army Reserve Center building proposed as housing for immigrant children in Westminster, Md., made national news last night when Anderson Cooper featured the story in his “Ridiculist” segment. The spray-painted graffiti – “NO ILLEAGLES HERE NO UNDOCUMENTED DEMOCRATS” – is being investigated as a hate crime (a misdemeanor punishable by up to three years in prison and a $5,000 fine) by Maryland State Police. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services initially considered using the center for children who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, but have now dropped the idea.
Eagles cover band “The Ill-Eagles.”
The host of Anderson Cooper 360 facetiously suggested that the graffiti could be a reference to a real Eagles tribute band called The Ill-Eagles. Like most of his “Ridiculist” segments, Cooper’s attempt at humor fell flatter than Kansas.
Anderson Cooper’s “Ridiculist”
The segment did, however, bring attention to two unfortunate realities: 1) some people in Westminster are prejudiced illiterates, and 2) there is an Eagles cover band (isn’t one Eagles group bad enough?)
It was a hot July day when Butch Patrick, better known as Eddie Munster, traveled from his home in Florida to help celebrate Chuck’s Comics 25th anniversary in Essex, Maryland.
Camera phones were a-flashing as Patrick hawked his 8×10 glossies, which he would sign for an additional $10 as well as pose for a photo.
Krudz bass player Tim Finnerty (right) poses for a fan photo with his son and Eddie Munster.
As Eddie Munster, Patrick tried to increase his street cred by parading his flowing beard in the hipster haven of Hampden.
The rare, 1980′s novelty tune “Whatever Happened to Eddie?”
Answer: He wound up in Essex, Maryland 30+ years later.
On Record Store Day, April 19, 2014, Eilon Paz released “Dust & Grooves: Adventures in Record Collecting,” a 416-page coffee table book profiling over 130 vinyl record collectors and their record collections. One of the collectors profiled was Frederick, MD native Joe Bussard, the 76-year-old founder of Fonotone Records and the undisputed “King of 78s.” Besides owning the most complete and noteworthy collection of country, ragtime, blues and jazz 78s in the world, Bussard was also the first man to ever record John Fahey. Following is Mark Minsker’s interview with Bussard, taken from the book, in which The King reveals his love of blues, bluegrass, and long-lost jazz (“Jazz music ended in 1923,” according to Bussard, “with the last recordings of of worth being Clarence Williams in 1932.”) and his aversion to rock ‘n’ roll (“Worse thing that happened to music”) and mp3s (“I can’t stand to listen”).- Tom Warner (Baltimore Or Less)
Text by Mark Minsker & Eilon Paz, Photos by Eilon Paz
Joe Bussard with some of his 15,000 78 rpm records.
Few people have devoted as much of their life to records as Joe Bussard has. Born in 1936 in Frederick, Maryland, he started playing records on his parents’ phonograph and by the end of World War II, he had the collecting bug. During the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, he led thousands of record expeditions through the mid-Atlantic region and the South, looking for 78s of jazz, blues, ethnic and down-home/bluegrass music. These expeditions went well beyond the typical digger routes of mining thrift stores or finding out-of-the way record stores. For Joe, record collecting has always meant driving into the backwoods, parking your car, and walking door-to-door asking the locals if they had any records in the house and, if so, would they be willing to sell them. It is not an exaggeration to say that over 50,000 records have passed through Joe’s hands or circulated through his collection. In addition to his status as a collector, Joe is single-handedly responsible for the creation and operation of Fonotone Records, an independent record label responsible for documenting and preserving bluegrass, folk and blues music of the 1950s,1960s and 1970s (including the first recordings of guitarist John Fahey). A musician himself, Joe performed on guitar, banjo and vocals with his group Jolly Joe and His Jug Band, as well as performing and recording with many others. He has also been hosting radio programs since 1956, when he set up his own pirate radio station out of his home.
Joe Bussard is the subject of the excellent documentary film by Edward Gillian, “Desperate Man Blues” (2003).
Q: Your Full name, age, where you live? A: Joseph Bussard, 76. Frederick, MD.
Q: What was your first album? How did you get it? At what age? Can you describe that feeling? Do you still have it? A: The first 78 that I went out and found was….God, you’re going back 50 years or so! That’s almost impossible to remember. I know that I found Gene Autrey records early on but it would probably be Jimmie Rodgers. When I heard him, that about did it. I was hooked.
Q: What prompted you to start collecting? What age did you start? A: I had a phonograph at my house (still have it) and was playing records when I was six years old. Neighbors would bring records by the house that I grew up in, on Fairview Avenue in Frederick.
Q: Is there a music genre that you avoid? A: Rock-n- roll. Period. Any of it. Hate it. Worse thing that happened to music. Hurt all types of music. They took blues and ruined it. It’s the cancer of music….ate into everything. Killed Country music, that’s for sure.
Q: A lot of people would claim the complete opposite. that Rock-n-Roll re invented and recharged music. What is it about rock-n-roll that annoys you so much? A: Don’t like. Just my personal taste. Don’t like the sound of it, the meaning of it…doesn’t promote anything beautiful or meaningful. Idiotic noise, in my opinion.
Q: So artist like Miles Davis, John Coltrane don’t deserve your time? A: Oh my god, you gotta be kidding me. None of that music moves me.
Q: Do you know what’s an MP3? Do you know that people can share songs today over the internet, download music for free, listen to it from their phones. what do you think of that? A: A computer isn’t? I don’t have anything like that. Most of the music they’re getting for free ain’t worth a penny anyhow.
Q: A lot of young people are going back to vinyl records these days. they give up on digital music format and go back to this old beloved medium. what do you think is the reason to that? A: It’s all about tone…It has a mild tone and is much more mellow than this new digital music, which I can’t stand to listen.
Continue reading “King of the 78s – “Joe Bussard” at dustandgrooves.com.
On Record Store Day, April 19, 2014, Eilon Paz released “D
