Thanks everyone for visiting No Fightin’ in 2011 — and thanks for letting us recover a little into 2012!
We have lots of plans for the blog this year, the 20th anniversary of The Red Devils’ “King King.”
Keep watching this space for some new Red Devils and Lester Butler goodies. You can also follow us on Twitter or watch a bunch of cool videos on our YouTube channel.
Dutch blues magazine Block was an early supporter of The Red Devils, continuing through the 13 years as well.
This review of the the 1993 Moulin Blues Festival comes courtesy of Feelgood. We’ve done our best to do a translation of The Red Devils’ mention — if you have a better translation, put it in the comments.
Also included: A Block ad for the festival.
Finally — I think — the only other act with a magnetic force field of over 100 km: the Red Devils (because: Mick Jagger!) with their busy and fat-accentuated party hardy clichéd blues. No trace of white and yet not heavy. The band consisted of five top strengths, though star parts were played by drummer Bill Bateman
(Blasters) and never-stagnant singer/harper Lester Butler, one of the few to handle Muddy’s “Louisiana Blues.” Butler spontaneously fulfilled a request for one of the slow songs to a fan who was killed earlier that week, though hopefully no one outside of those involved had been in the painful mistake still in his ready-made text. No, of course there is a festival for people like us to get back to. And we were.
A notebook belonging to Lester Butler gives a rare little glimpse into The Red Devils’ lyrics, setlists and creative process.
Among the doodles, dates, phone numbers, notes and cigarette burns are lyrics for “Shake ‘Em on Down” and a nascent “Your Turn to Cry.”
The writings are in the hands of Paul Brown of the UK. Brown says he was in the crowd at the Devils’ May 4, 1993, gig at London’s Borderline. Afterward, he picked up the setlist left behind on the stage. The setlist turned out to be more than that.
“When I picked up the ‘setlist’ … it wasn’t until I returned home that I realised there were entries in over 20 pages, very much in the style of the notebook in the CD insert,” Brown wrote to us. “There are setlists, lyrics and doodles.”
Jonny Ray Bartel essentially confirmed the authenticity of the one-of-a-kind notebook in a Facebook post: “Nice collection Paul. Looks like you have an entire notebook of Lester’s. Awesome …”.
Let’s look into the pages Paul emailed to us:
Read more »
A couple of articles in the Los Angeles Times give a little detail of the “Ciao Def” party Aug. 27, 1993, which featured The Red Devils as entertainment at the “funeral.” And with the funeral, Rubin’s Def American became American Recordings . (“King King” was issued as Def American 9 26795-2 and American 65660.) [EDIT: Updated 12/4/11 with mention from Sept. 1, 1993 Long Beach Press-Telegram]
DEF’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE DIES
By Bill Higgins, Los Angeles Times
Aug. 30, 1993The Scene: “The Death of Def,” Friday’s publicity stunt/funeral service for the first word in Def American Recordings’ name. The company will now be known as American Recordings.
The “ceremony of honored entombment” was held at Hollywood Memorial Park’s Chapel of the Psalms. The after-party was at Shatto 39 Lanes bowling alley. In a rock ‘n’ roll way, it made complete sense: First you go to a funeral, then you go bowling.
The Cause of Death: Def began its brief life as rap-culture street slang. The deceased adjective once meant “excellent.” But, in an all-too-common story, the word started hanging around with the wrong element-suburban kids and record company executives. This led to inclusion in Webster’s dictionary. Nothing kills a hip word like mainstream respectability.
New York’s Rev. Al Sharpton, who gave the eulogy, said def meant, “more than excellent. Like, defiantly excellent with a bang. Now the bang is out of def. It lost its exclusivity to the in, defiant crowd. It died of terminal acceptance.”
An invite to the "Ciao Def" party, from nofightin.com reader Rackauskas
The Buzz: It’s not like Elvis. Def is dead. Surviving relatives include fresh, fly and dope.
The Last Rites: In an open casket were relics from friends of the deceased: hats, press releases, albums and harmonicas. Alongside were floral tributes. Beret-wearing Black Panthers stood guard with prop shotguns and AK-47s. After Sharpton’s eulogy, in a rare funeral appearance, the Amazing Kreskin did his mind-reading routine using Tom Petty and Rosanna Arquette. He also sent four mourners into spontaneous hypnotic trances.
Overheard: “Are you guys cremating or burying?” asked a male guest. That question was soon answered. Mourners followed a 19th Century-style horse-drawn hearse and a six-piece brass band playing “Amazing Grace” past the mausoleum that holds Rudolph Valentino’s remains to a freshly dug grave with a simple black granite slab inscribed DEF.
Who Was There: About 500 mourners at the cemetery, plus 2,000 more at the bowling alley. Guests at the chapel were older, the ones at Shatto Lanes more the Tattoo Generation. They included Petty, Arquette, Bushwick Bill, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Swell’s Monte Vallier, Warner Bros. Records chairman (and pallbearer) Mo Ostin, Mike Bone and Depeche Mode’s David Gahan.
The After-Party: Let’s just say the mourners bury better than they bowl.
Dress Mode: Was there ever a record-company party where black was more appropriate? For women, a typical outfit was an all-black combo of veil, miniskirt, lace stockings and cowboy boots. American Recordings’ bereaved founder, Rick Rubin, wore a floor-length black cassock, Ray-Ban sunglasses, a white Sikh turban, strands of red Hindu rudraksha beads and left a thick wake of incense aroma as he entered the chapel.
Most Persistent Afterthought: What kind of people are running this cemetery that they let rock ‘n’ rollers run loose in it?
And then, from Sept. 5, 1993:
ROCK ‘N’ BOWL WILL NEVER DIE: The L.A. rock community is collectively nursing bowlers’ elbows after two major bowling parties last weekend. First, there was Rick Rubin’s combination wake for the term Def and birth of the new name for his company, American Recordings. With the mob scene at the Shatto 39 lanes-including Rosanna Arquette, the band Raging Slab and even Heidi Fleiss (at least those were the rampant rumors)-the actual sport quickly degenerated into inebriated stunt bowling, with people sending two or three balls down lanes at a time as the label’s Red Devils played rockin’ blues numbers.
Finally, from the Sept. 1, 1993, Long Beach Press-Telegram:
Besides (Heidi) Fleiss, the party, which was held in L.A.’s Shatto 39 Lanes bowling alley, featured appearances by American Recordings founder Rick Rubin, Tom Petty, Rosanna Arquette, Warner Bros. Records chairman Mo Ostin and R.E.M. and Nirvana producer Scott Litt, and about 2,000 other people, which, as it turns out, is a lot of people for a bowling alley. Entertainment was provided by the blues demons, the Red Devils and the ’70s-style rockers Raging Slab, who instantly entered the What’s Hot! Hall of Fame with a version of Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen.”
“Boogie Disease” (Dr. Isaiah Ross), from “13 featuring Lester Butler”
Got to boogie for the doctor
Got to boogie for the nurse
Got to keep on boogie’n ’til they throw me in a hearse
Got to boogie
Got to boogie
‘Til the break of dawn
Got to boogie in the alley
Gonna boogie in the street
Got to keep on boogie’n ’til it knock me off my feet
Got to boogie
I got the boogie
Got the boogie disease
Transcribed by nofightin.com. More Red Devils lyrics here.
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Not long after Lester Butler died in May 1998, I received a package from Enrico Crivellaro, who was Butler’s touring guitarist in 13 in 1997. We had kept in touch after meeting in Kentucky and Indiana, and now he had sent along a memorial flier for Butler, along with a prayer card and short biography (the text of which became the introduction text of Jasper Heikens’ Lester Butler tribute site).
Last year, in a trove of archives sent by 13 drummer Eddie Clark, we received the backside of the memorial flier, with directions to the May 24, 1998, event, as well as a mailing for a “Bad Ass Birthday Blues Bash” for Butler on Nov. 12 and 13, 1998.
We are catching up with several Blue Shadows dates for the timeline section. We start with several great clippings from the Eddie Clark collection, snapshots of the late-’80s/early-’90s California blues scene. Included are an ad for the first blues hall of fame festival and a postcard for blues night at Spice, both organized by Randy Chortkoff; along with two ads from Southland Blues Magazine.
It’s quite interesting to see, during 1989 and 1990, when the Blue Shadows were promoted as featuring Dave Alvin versus as featuring Lester Butler.
Photographer Rens Horn sheds light on how he captured an iconic image of Lester Butler.
Based in The Netherlands, Horn shot Butler during his 1997 tour through Europe. The photographer has posted some outtakes, and explained to us how the elements came together, from concept to session:
The pictures were taken in Rotterdam on Sept. 10, 1997, just across the artist entrance of Nighttown where 13 would perform that night.
The first time I saw Lester play I had this picture in my mind: While playing you couldn’t see his face, and while singing you couldn’t see his tattooed arms the way you would when playing, and I wanted to see both at the same time. … (D)ays before this portrait was made I took some pictures at a concert in Tegelen, on stage with Lori’s backstage pass. After the concert I asked Lester if I could take his portrait when he was playing in Rotterdam and he agreed.
I brought my own harp (the one in the picture is mine) and prints of the pictures I took before, just average concert pictures but “messed up” in the darkroom (I call it “rensomatic”). He loved the way they looked as did Alex Schultz who happens to love photography as well and was actually related with some of my photographer heroes through his dad. So he was willing to pose and we shared a couple of minutes in front of the garage door.
After a few frames it occurred to me that the holes in the door resembled that of the holes in the harp so we shot two or three more and that was it. He liked the picture a lot and on one occasion, years later, he gave me his T-shirt and said “thanks for the pictures and your friendship.”
While the closer “Better Cut That Out” is a favorite on the “King King” record, one question remains: Just what is Lester Butler singing?
This song is a little rough — Butler sings the second verse twice — and even the album credits are confusing. On the first Def American pressings, the song is called “Cut That Out” and attributed to Junior Wells, whose version obviously inspired the Devils. Subsequent American Recordings versions call it “Better Cut That Out,” with credit going to Sonny Boy Williamson (likely No. 1, John Lee Williamson), which is a much more accurate designation.
The lyric that causes the most trouble is the second line in the first verse. Butler sings the cuplet,
Yeah when you get drunk you wanna fuss and cut
Sure to get drunk you know a rock and roll hearse
A glowing “King King” review from USA Today’s Oct. 28, 1992, edition. Is this one of the earlier, mainstream notices of that album?
RED DEVILS LIVE ALBUM BLASTS RAW, ROOTSY BLUES
by Edna Gundersen
USA Today
Hellbent for blues, the red-hot Red Devils have cranked out the year’s most electrifying live album, a stunning debut. Even a band this sharp and spirited will be hard-pressed to top it. The raw and rootsy “King King” (***1/2), produced by sonic sharpshooter Rick Rubin, was recorded at L.A.’s King King club, where the Devils served as house band for six years. Whether blasting their own “Goin’ to the Church” or breathing new fire into Sonny Boy Williamson’s loping “Cross Your Heart,” the band outshines any contemporaries with its lean, high-powered and nasty approach to Chicago blues. Catch their opening act on Los Lobos’ current tour (tonight, at the Varsity in Baton Rouge, La.)
