Swamp Dogg

Yesterday, I discussed the father of the auto-tune Roger Troutman. Today, I bring you another pioneer of sorts, the father of spelling Dog with two Gs (come to think of it, not all that different from Zapp and Big Robb) – Swamp Dogg. Snoop Doggy Dogg, Nate Dogg, the Dogg Pound, they all stole this misspelling from him, but that's about it as much as they took as far as I can tell.

I first came across Swamp Dogg's work in the bargain bin at my local Hyde Park Records. I picked up I'm Not Selling Out/ I'm Buying In for its ridiculous cover. I didn't much care for the music then, but if memory serves, I found much more of his music to like on Napster in those halcyon days of 2000. Swamp Dogg, whose real name is Jerry Williams, Jr., was an itinerant producer and song-writer for, among other labels, Atlantic Records, before striking out on his own in 1969. Beginning with 1970's Total Destruction to Your Mind – the high-point of his career as far as I'm concerned – Swamp Dogg melded soul, blues, and strangely, country, with political messages and sex jokes. To prove this point, I present the two best cuts from that record. First off, Synthetic World, a track about the artificiality of urban consumer culture. Then, Mama's Baby, Daddy's Maybe, whose title says it all - hilariously I might add - over a killer blues backing.

Swamp Dogg was probably too weird for the radio programmers of his era and from the interviews I've read and the liner notes to his albums, far too outspoken for mainstream success. As an example, witness the cover to his next album (on Elektra Records!), Rat On. Still, Swamp Dogg can claim success. He recorded all his albums on his own dime, kept the masters for himself, and then shopped them around to different labels. In that regard he was an early independent musician. However, since most of these labels have since collapsed, his records are really hard to find (I bought Total Destruction to Your Mind and Rat On as part of a double-album re-issue put out by a UK import label). Apart from these accomplishments, on the career highlights section of his website, Swamp Dogg boasts that he was the first to convince Lionel Ritchie to sing (so indirectly he's responsible for Nicole Ritchie's "fame") and to have "assembled" Kru-Cut Records, which put out the World Class Wreckin' Cru featuring a fetal Dr. Dre.

Swamp Dogg - Synthetic World

Swamp Dogg - Mama's Baby, Daddy's Maybe