Jon Lamb one of the warmest, funniest, most talented people I know. His cinematic efforts are without compare, and he proved to me ages ago that’s he’s the guy who should be stitching together montages for the Academy Awards. He’s unwitting contributed to the One for Friday undertaking once before so he was a natural choice for guest star week. The ingenuity on his entry exceeded my lofty expectations. In gratitude, I’d like to take this opportunity to ask anyone with a MP3 copy of “Bandit Ball,” the song Jerry Reed wrote and recorded for the USFL team the Tampa Bay Bandits to please email it to me so that I can get it to him. Believe me, he’ll appreciate it.

When Dan asked me to contribute to this blog, I felt miscast, largely because I saw the list of other contributors. We’re all old friends who met back at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and worked together at 90FM. But unlike them, I was more of a casual music fan. And a lousy DJ.

I know Dan typically does just one song in this space, but I’m going to break the rules. I’m presenting two songs, though technically it’s more like one jam cut in half. Or a classic A and B side maybe? And this song is not in print because it was never made into a record, or a CD. The song(s) is the soundtrack of two short films called CB Savages, Part 1 and 2.

CB Savages debuted as part of a little cable access show in Atlanta, Georgia, called The Mullet. At the turn of the millennium, Dickie Rigdon and Chris Moore created The Mullet, a comedy show that was an odd mix of short narratives and experimental films that they, and occasionally their friends, produced. Although the concept may sound a bit random, that was the beauty of the show. Each episode was sequenced like a great mix tape, or a fucked up jazz album. The show itself had a strange vibe to it. You might not really know what you were watching, but it always had a good flow, and sometimes it even rocked.

“CB Savages” is the tale of 2 truckers, out on the lonesome highway jawing back and forth at each other. Their chatter is driven along by a great drum beat and ridiculously catchy bass riff. Then there’s this flight attendant and she’s got a Schlitz and a boiled egg and there’s all this great time lapse highway footage…. jeez… you can’t explain it, you just watch the damn thing.

The music was recorded live with a camcorder. Dickie’s playing the Fender Bullet, and his friend Ben Rainey is on the drums. To me the music sounds like it belongs on the soundtrack to an old hot rod movie, with echoes of Jerry Reed and Johnny Cash thrown in for good measure. The weird ass haiku of the two truckers is hilarious. It’s not quite as dirty as you might expect from a trucker or from a “savage.” It’s just a little off. Kind of like the rest of the show.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Film Credits:
Directed by Dickie Rigdon
Savage #1 Eric Robertson
Savage #2 Dickie Rigdon
Flight Attendant Ana Leyva
Super 8 Stop Motion: Chris Moore

For more info on the Mullet, check out its YouTube Channel.

“CB Savages, Part 1”

“CB Savages, Part 2”

(Disclaimer: That seems to be covered fairly nicely above, actually.)