More "Bad Dude" Information

[schlomo]

A kindly fellow and old acquaintance of E's sent me a couple of photos of his copy of Bad Dude In Love, &c. Neat!





It's so fun to have a little more background for E.

[DoubleD]

I was thinking next time I get to Virginia, I may search some old record stores and see if I can find this. Surely it exists somewhere. Maybe it would be a waste of time, but I'd enjoy it anyway.

-DD

[Embryo]

It is most definetly on my wants list .... but any "official" word from the Man himself?

[Mr. G]

cool

[schlomo]

He said he and Mark were acquaintances back in 1985 or so, mostly as musicians in the local music scene. He said that copies of Bad Dude In Love were passed out to friends, but that none are likely to give up their copies (or even digitize copies to pass along) since they're momentos of the old days.

Which is cool. Overall, I'm mostly pleased to learn about E's early recording history. I'd LOVE to hear the album (my new friend said it predates E's use of "E" as a stage name, and that he had no idea that E and the Eels were the old Mark), but that's alright. I've had my fair share of Eels material that I'm not supposed to have.

[Embryo]

I suppose it would be nice to hear from a "then and now" basis but I also like the mystery and I guess somethings we are not suppose to have or hear.

[eelsdotnl]

I also received an e-mail from the 'old friend' of E with pictures attached. VERY nice to see all of them in better quality than the ones on eBay.
Still I really think it's a bit odd that this album has gone unnoticed for almost 20 years and now on the eve of the 10th anniversary of Beautiful Freak they sudddenly start pupping up!

[KingFatass]

Maybe ninja thought it would be time for a new joke.

[k7mto]

Hi folks. I'm new here and just thought I'd try and clear up what I can about Bad Dude in Love.

My name is Matt and I'm the one who sent the recent pictures and info to behindthechurch.com and the eels.nl sites. Without going into lots of detail, I was looking up old musician friends/acquaintences and when I Googled Mark Everett up pops all this Eeels stuff.

I'd never heard of Eels or had any idea Mark was doing so well for himself. I noticed the BDiL references on both sites and since I had a copy I thought I'd let both know that the ebay copy wasn't a hoax and that there is at least one more in existence (likely more tucked away in folks album collections). I sent them pictures of my copy (Mark signed my copy when he gave it to me 20+ years ago)

It seems I may have jumped the gun and possibly Mark and/or Vagrant Records would prefer the album remain in obscurity for their own reasons. To that end, I requested both sites not post the information/pictures beyond what's already been posted. I don't know Mark anymore and I certainly don't want him upset with me over this.

Please don't ask me for anymore details on Mark, his life before Eels, etc. I wasn't a close friend of his so much as another musician in the circle of musicians we associated with.

Also, please don't ask me to sell the album. It's going to remain on the shelf where it's been since 1985. If anyone *really* wants to hear it and you happen to be in Phoenix, AZ, let me know and we'll find a turntable (no recording devices please)

As for other artists on the BDiL album...

Jimbo Manion (guitar) has a band in called Group Therapy and also just joined up with Molly Hatchet. He and Hatchets current lead singer Phil McCormick used to have a band called Jazzbo McMann (back in the day). Phil also was lead singer for the Road Ducks for many years. I've played with each of them on various occasions way back when.

Mark Pohlen (bass) and I played in a few different bands with guitarist Bruce Krombholz (brother of Cyndi Krombholz who appears on BDiL) for many years. I'm not sure what either of them are doing now but would love to get in touch with them.

Granger Helvey (bass) has played recorded with lots of artists. Google him and you'll find lots of hits.

I'm not sure what happened to anyone else on the album.

[Embryo]

Thanks k7mto.

[Screamdevil]

Thank you VERY much for your information!

[Mr. G]

thanks for these info.
bad thing we'll never listen

but thank you very much, now everything is more clear

[redlocks]

Yes, everything is more clear but I get more aggravated each time something like this happens. Mark Everett had that record pressed and presumably sold and/or gave copies to his friends/acquaintances/fans at the time and now presumes to claim control over them?

Unreleased material I can understand although it was a piss poor excuse as to how it got out there. But released material? I don't care how old. I don't care maybe a private label. I just don't see how he presumes to keep this stuff off the market when he was the one who put it out there in the first place.

[k7mto]

I agree with you, redlocks, and I don't know for sure if Mark or Vagrant or anyone else *doesn't* want this music made public, but some odd things have happened since I informed behindthechurch.com and eels.nl about it.

I created a myspace account and sent an invite request to the Eels myspace group. They added me, I posted a note to effect of "hello Mark, nice to see you doing so well", etc. I metioned the BDiL album and some other old musician friends. The next day I noticed I had been removed from their friends list (no explaination) and my comment had been removed. Very odd.

Legally, I'm certain there's no way he or Vagrant can prevent anyone, including myself, from selling this album. I'm familiar enough with U.S. copyright law to know that no court U.S. court would prevent me from selling it if I so choose. No different than folks selling Eels cd's on ebay today.

But I really have no desire to sell it. It has different meaning to me than it does to Eels fans. To me, it's a momento of my past and old friends/acquaintences. I suppose I could post it on ebay and see what kind of rukus it generates Who knows, maybe Mark will try and buy it from me (I still wouldn't sell it). But that would just PO other EEls fans when it got pulled like the last one did, so I'll just keep it and offer to play it for anyone who happens to be in my area.

Or maybe I'll do a 2006 BDiL tour and travel the world playing the album...

[Great Mistake]

I agree too.
I understood their problem with "license to eel" completely (promo-cd with music maybe for future releases), I understood their problem with "trashing the cathredal" a little (promo-casette, but probably not for future release unless a rarity box or something) but this I don't really understand. What's the harm? Maybe he is so embarassed about the music? I know he always says he doesn't like his old albums because he wants to change them. This would be a little bit overreacting though. Maybe they want to sell it later in the rarity box too? I dunno.. But why this mean jake-like behaviour again towards km7mto? He seems very loyal...

I know you guys are lurking this: YOU ARE MEAN.

km7mto, can you just tell us if the first song is the same als the eels song flower? these are the lyrics:

Turn the ugly light off god
Wanna feel the night
Everyday it shines down on me
Don’t you think that I see
Don’t you think that I see what it’s all about

Hard to look the other way
While the world passes me by
And everyone is trying to bum me out

It’s a pretty big world god
And I am awful small
Everyday they rain down on me
Flower in a hailstorm
Flower in a hailstorm
I’m living for the drought
I could throw it back at them
But then I play their game
Everyone is trying to bum me out

When I came into this world they slapped me
And everyday since then I’m slapped again
Tomorrow’s king: an unsightly coward
You see, I know I’m gonna win

Turn the ugly light off god
Don’t wanna see my face
Everyday it will betray me
Don’t you think that I know
Don’t you think that I know what they’re talking about
If they step on me tonight
They’re gonna pay someday
Everyone is trying to bum me out



Thanks, dude!

[renie]

k7mto said:

Or maybe I'll do a 2006 BDiL tour and travel the world playing the album...

Heehee, you're more than welcome! Come on over, we'll have a "listening party"! Free food and accomodation provided!

BTW: Could you give us a list of the artists involved in this per song? I see two basses on your list but I don't presume they were playing the same songs. Or were they? And what instrument do you play? What did E play? Drums? Or "everything"? ;D

[k7mto]

I'm a drummer (haven't played professionally for years but still play), but Mark is the only drummer listed on the album and did all the drum tracks. The "Players" section only lists contributing musicians by instrument, but doesn't specify who played on which songs.

Having played with Mark Pohlen for many years, I'm certain I could pick out which songs he played bass on, but I doubt I could differentiate between the other two, nor could I tell which guitar, keyboard, etc. players were on each track.

I'm sure you're already aware that the eels.nl site has a list of all the musicians involved...

www.eels.nl/1996/eels19850000baddude.html

[renie]

Ooops, I should learn read texts till the end . . .

Can you tell us anything about the song Flower that Niels (GreatMistake) posted? Is it the same?

Here's a link to the Eels song Flower, it's No. 12.

Edit: Actually, this recording is better:
Flower

[k7mto]

Seems I don't have permission on that site.

If you're referring to the "Everybody's Tryin' to Bum Me Out" line in "Flowers", I have no clue if the BDiL song by that name is in any way related to "Flowers". Aside from hearing it live when he released the album, I've only ever played the album once (ages ago) so I couldn't compare. I haven't owned a turntable in years so I can't play the album unless/until I were to get one.

btw, PLEASE don't call Mark or his camp mean. For all I know the myspace issue was a computer glitch I considered Mark a friend back then (albeit we were more acquaintences than friends) and as far as I'm concerned he's just a long lost acquaintance now. I don't want any animosity between us over this piece of vinyl.

If he has any reason to not want this music heard, he's more than welcome to contact me and let me know. I don't ever plan to sell it and if he asks me not to play it for people, I'll consider it If he *really* wants it in his own posession to be able to control it I *might* oblige if he lets me jam on a song or two when he comes to town

Bottom line is I value friendships (even old fleeting ones) more than possessions and if it came down to it, I'd smash the record and toss it in the garbage if it meant that much to him to keep it out of circulation.

[thatsplunkintalk]

The EELS camp always baffles me. Do they want us to be happy fans? I mean we would have banded together and baught BDiL and shared it amongst ourselves and the world. Heck because of us I am sure E could re-release it and make some extra money. Instead they would rather let it sit in a vault and collect dust in obscurity forever. Really who other then a select few devout fans like us would even want to waste their time with it? So they really don't have to be worried about losing money on copies. In fact like I said if they released a official copy they would make a good amount of money. This is almost as ridiculous as the whole Sixteen Tons album.

[Great Mistake]

well, I don't think E is a mean person, but the way your message was removed AND you were removed as a friend, is the kind of behaviour we all know from Jake, the webmaster. It's what would happen to you on the official forum, if it still existed and you would come there.

[renie]

k7mto said:

Seems I don't have permission on that site.

Access is not limited to a certain group of people. The only problem is that only 4 people are allowed at a time. So, if you're still interested in hearing the song, just try again.

k7mto said:

I haven't owned a turntable in years so I can't play the album unless/until I were to get one.

That's too bad, really. You definitely have to come to Europe for the "listening parties"!!!!!! We'll dig up some turntables somewhere . . .

I don't think you can expect to be contacted by E or/and his management. But who knows, maybe they'll contact you and threaten you with a lawyer, too, or something?!

Well, I'm not going to join the "dissing" choir but I think you shouldn't hold your breath waiting for a jamming session with E . . .

[k7mto]

renie said:

Access is not limited to a certain group of people. The only problem is that only 4 people are allowed at a time. So, if you're still interested in hearing the song, just try again.

Thanks, I'll try again later.

renie said:

That's too bad, really. You definitely have to come to Europe for the "listening parties"!!!!!! We'll dig up some turntables somewhere . . .

I don't think you can expect to be contacted by E or/and his management. But who knows, maybe they'll contact you and threaten you with a lawyer, too, or something?!

Well, I'm not going to join the "dissing" choir but I think you shouldn't hold your breath waiting for a jamming session with E . . .

I'm sure the wife and kids would love a trip to Europe, but only if they don't mind taking the money from the college funds

I can't see any reason they'd threaten me with legal action since I haven't broken any laws (copyright or otherwise), but if they do, I'll scan the affidavit and post it for everyone to enjoy!

I think I'll be OK if I never get to jam with Mark although it'd be fun if the opportunity arose. I've played with plenty of amazing musicians in my life (some famous, some not) and while fulfilling, I can take it or leave it. I still enjoy drumming but I've got other aspects of my life which are much more important than music. I never would have thought that could be true 20 years ago