Agile, Mobile, Hostile

Last night Andre Williams played the Magic Stick. Not familiar? Andre Williams is a dirty old man. Seriously. He's probably in his '70s. While he is from the South, he recorded quite a few singles for Fortune Records (Detroit) in the '50s. For those of you who don't know, the Detroit Cobras' first record probably would not have been what it was if it wasn't for the early singles from Detroit's own Fortune Records. Fortune was releasing r'n'b singles back when r'n'b was really just dirty soulful rock n' roll. Where did r'n'b go wrong? I don't know, that's for another post (actually, I do know, but I'm not telling you). Back to the story. Andre had some success in the '50s and '60s, but his music was not radio-friendly for the most part, so he faded into the proverbial obscurity. For most of the '70s and '80s, he spent his time as a pimp, hustler, and a dealer. At some point he was homeless, too. Due to the popularity of the Detroit Cobras' first album and Gories-style garage, he found new success. He released an album with Danny Dollrod (Gories, Demolition Doll Rods) and Mick Collins (Gories, Dirtbombs) a few years ago. Of course, many of Detroit's garage rock elite were on this record. It was released by In the Red records (Detroit-lovin' Californians). The record was called "Silky," and appropriately had a woman's naked backside (Margaret Dollrod, I think) with a wrinkly-African-American man's hand reaching out to hold the cheeks. Yes, that's Andre. Some of the highlights from this album include "Agile, Mobile, Hostile," "I Wanna Be Your Favorite Pair of Pajamas," which is my favorite, and "Pussy Stank." Yes, he is a dirty old man. So, last night, he had a full five-piece band who were all dressed up in suits. The Man himself was wearing some sort of military officer's jacket. He looked slick. He was also very agile in a rock n' roll kinda way, considering his age. At some point he asked all the men in the audience to raise their hand if they like pussy. It was funny to see the guys who were with their girlfriends sheepishly raise their hands, or not raise their hands at all. All of the hits were taken care of, and the crowd was good and enthusiastic. I missed the opening band, the Peelers, but I bought the CD, and it's good in a dirty rock'n' roll kinda way. The second band was Detroit's very own Cyril Lords, who played a rockin' set as usual. It's too bad the crowd was a bit small, but that's to be expected when you have the Sights and the Waxwings playing a show elsewhere...

I wanna be your favorite pair of pajamas