THE LIFE OF ERMIE SCUB! (Dog sitting)

By John Paul Young



 

Here we have on YouTube my 1980 LP THE LIFE OF ERMIE SCUB in its entirety. I had intended to post BABIES RUN MY WORLD (1978) released 1979 on BOMB RECORDS: THE LAST POGO (Live at The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto), but I couldn’t find it on YouTube. It’s somewhere in that cyber abyss of the likes of Harry Styles and Adelle. Or Adel or whatever.

I’ll find the LAST POGO Babies Run My World, or perhaps someone will find it for me, eventually, and I’ll post it. It’s a lo-fi recording but I feel confident in saying its one of the best tracks on this release, at least Paul McGrath of The Toronto GLOBE AND MAIL thought so. To paraphrase Paul McGrath’s article in said newspaper: “CARDBOARD BRAINS should sign for respectable money on prominent dotted lines and stand heads held high in global new wave predominance”.

A bold statement but I’m actually not making it up. The comment was great for our egos but always left me kind of embarrassed and uncomfortable, but all these years I might as well own it. I surmise other bands hated us for this kind of press we got but so is the game.

Which makes me think about Liz Worth and her apparently fine book about the Toronto punk scene “TREAT ME LIKE DIRT”. I haven’t read it yet but someday I surely will. According to Michael Panontin  of Canuckistan Music said something to the effect that myself and CARDBOARD BRAINS were curiously excised from her book, with the minor exception of a mention in a discography.

Another point about The Last Pogo version of “BABIES RUN MY WORLD” is that it was number one on campus radio stations in Canada. Someone from BOMB RECORDS phoned to tell me that.

I entitled this post “The Life of Ermie Scub” because of many of you dear readers know not what an Ermie Scub is. Ermie Scub is simply a name I invented for no particular reason to entitle my solo departure from my Cardboard Brains. As Cardboard Brains guitarmeister Vince Carlucci aptly said in 1980 when I left: “Paul is the only person I know who quit his own band.”

So that is why this domain is https://www.ermiescub.com.

I’m currently dog sitting Emmy-Lou at The Veltmeyer estate until her master Erica returns. Scuba for not posting regularly but self-discipline is a commodity I find hard to muster. Think I’ll buy some new clothes today for a fresh incarnation of JPY. I’ll post again when I return.

Oh and if you listen to The Life of Ermie Scub I strongly suggest good headphones. Someone on the internet insisted : “MUST BE PLAYED LOUD”. And please put in context this was written and recorded in 1980 so aspects are dated. Laurie Mercer of ALLMUSIC did a nice review a while back in which I’ll share.
This blog provides me with a forum to share my music, films, writing, photographs and musings. Currently in absence of any product or project to promote it’s a great platform to connect with fans and friends after a too long twenty year hiatus. Flow of consciousness postings, seemingly disconnected sometimes, eventually make sense when viewed as a whole.

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Anonymous said…

You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion. ~ L. Ron Hubbard.
Monday, 30 January 2023 at 09:27:00 GMT-4
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