The man who calls himself “the most successful failure in the United States” – SWAMP DOGG (Jerry Williams Jr.) – releases a brand new album on January 13th. Never shy of controversy, Swamp calls the long player ‘The White Man Made Me Do It’ and we’re told it’s as left field as all of his previous recordings. His people say that the 14 tracker “maintains the edgy mix of socio-political commentary, slice-of-life comedy and sly storytelling that are the hallmarks of the artist’s large and beloved body of work.” With song titles like ‘Prejudice Is Alive And Well’, who are we to doubt that?
The set also boasts a trio of cover tunes — Sam Cooke’s evergreen ‘You Send Me’, the Clovers’ wry ‘Your Cash Ain’t Nothing But Trash’ and the Robins’ Leiber-and-Stoller-penned ‘Smokey Joe’s Cafe’. They continue Swamp’s long history of putting his unmistakable stamp on classic R&B numbers.
As a special bonus, the album comes with a second 10 track retrospective CD that brings together some of the man’s best productions for others (notably Irma Thomas, ZZ Hill and Doris Duke) along with three of his own recordings – including ‘Fuck The Bomb Stop The Drugs’….see what we mean about left-field?
SWAMP DOGG’S ‘The White Man Made Me Do It’ is out on Alive/Natural Sound Records on January 13th and look out for our up-coming full review of the set.