Pigmeat Markham, Backstage (1968)
Here’s one of five albums recorded by Dewey “Pigmeat” Markham in the same year – 1968, I guess the height of his fame. He was a singer, dancer, comedian, storyteller, entertainer – though it’s hard to understand, in today’s world, what was ever funny about this. That was part of the lure for me – wanting to know what this was all about. I got to him via a compilation or two, and hearing stories, reading stories, he’s billed – often – as one of the progenitors of rap, an early rapper. And when you hear something like Here Comes The Judge you can certainly see why. Unfortunately there’s nothing like that on this spoken-word set of routines from 45 years ago. Feels more like something you’d find out was a hundred years old in some ways…

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