I've always enjoyed going to record conventions if for no other reason than to check out the freak scene. Record collectors (present company included) tend to be nerds possessed of few social skills, so putting a bunch of them together in a single room is bound to be entertaining in the same way that watching an independent film in which not much happens can be entertaining. Those most lacking in social skills are the vendors themselves, who also tend to be insufferable know-it-alls. (For better or worse, eBay has made it possible for these people to never interact with anyone other than postal clerks in person).
I remember going to a record convention at the Annapolis Armory with a buddy of mine back in 1992. We approached a booth with vendor who, in both appearance and demeanor, was a dead ringer for the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, except for the fact that he was flesh and blood and no one had to draw him. He took a break from reading another potential customer the riot act about his lack of knowledge about what would be printed in the run-out-groove of an original pressing of some album or other to ask us what we were looking for. My friend casually asked, "Do you have any Professor Morrison's Lollipop?" The pain of being asked for something he had never heard of was visible on his face as he said "no."
So who was Professor Morrison's Lollipop? Mostly they were another one of the great Super-K band names (along with The St. Louis Invisible Marching Band and Lt. Garcia's Magic Music Box). Kasenetz and Katz signed a Nebraska band with the pedestrian name of "The Coachmen" to The White Wale label to be Professor Morrison's Lollipop. They released a few singles under that name and not much else. The name also showed up as one of the featured "bands" performing on the Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus LPs. The Coachmen were a real band, but I would guess Professor Morrison's Lollipop, on record at least, where mostly likely studio musicians.
The song featured here, "Itchy Itchy," wasn't released until it showed up on a bubblegum rarities CD on the Collectables label titled,
The Super K Kollection Vol. 2. This is a pretty good song, and in my head I can hear Mudhoney doing a mean cover of it. Anyone with any connection to that band ought to pass along the recommendation to them, because I'd love to hear Mark Arm sing "I got an itchy, itchy lady bee buzzing all over me now."
In my last post, I didn't include "You Make Me Die," the third song on Mudhoney's "You're Gone" single, because I mistakenly thought it was included on the March To The Fuzz compilation. It's not, so here it is. The backing track was provided by Mudhoney, while the vocals were recorded separately "somewhere in England" by garage rock primitivist Billy Childish. For no reason in particular I've also included the original recording of the song by one of Billy's many bands, Thee Mighty Caesars, as well as another version of it by Mudhoney recorded for the BBC, this time with vocals by Mark Arm.
