Harold’s Blues

This is for… this is for my girlfriend, Beverly…

I got the, I got the frozen food blues…
I would drive a truck for *Aslesen’s (get it)…
I got the hey dad! (get down, man)…
I’m down… Yeah!
I got the blues…

I just better make sure that I got something to sing here…
Make sure that you guys aren’t malingering…
Hey, what ya say that we hit Dakota and get out? Com’on…
It’s dead, it’s dead, let it, let it alone, it’s dead…

Leave it alone…

This timeless piece of musical arcanum was created in an upstairs duplex in North Minneapolis, home of Flippist Records. The band was The Explodo Boys and “Harold” was the alter-ego of Dan Rowles doing a vocal composite of various street people and barflies he had been exposed to, most notably “Hurricane Vern” who would regale the band with tales of his misadventures (spoken through ill-fitting dentures).

This ‘tune’ was completely ad-lib; Danny had been noodling on the piano when Jimmy joined in with some snaky slide guitar and the rest of the band joined in. It was done during the first (and only) recording session of this version of the band:

From left to right:

John V. Peterson, bass guitar
Austin Gillespie, congas
Mike Shannon, drums (and asides)
Jimmy Derbis, slide guitar
Dan Rowles, lead vocal and piano
Frankie Paradise (Paul Peterson), guitar

Recorded Live, August 19th, 1977

*Note: Aslesen’s was a restaurant supply company in Minnesota in the 1970s, it was later absorbed by Sysco Foods.