This moody bastard remembers…
He remembers that in the depths of the pandemic/lockdown/toilet paper shortage of 2020, we did nothing to mark the 25th anniversary of Walter’s lone solo show at Slim’s in San Francisco on April 7, 1995.
Unfortunately, Slim’s closed its doors on March 18 of 2020, another victim of the aforementioned plague and the plethora of problems it produced. We cowered and quaked in our respective hidey-holes, and while it's not quite in the long ago and far away, it does appear that with the help of some hand sanitizer, billions of masks, and the height of medical efficacy by the Brothers Johnson, Pfizer, Moderna, etcetera etcetera, we’re able to at least glimpse the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. We might have missed the 25th anniversary of THE event, but we can get together (virtually) and belatedly celebrate the 26th. We’ve already given you Three Sisters Shakin’ and Cinder Annie, two tracks from that night that weren’t on 11 Tracks of Whack in its final form. So we thought we’d give you a more familiar track, specifically requested on the walterbeckermedia.com forum, in This Moody Bastard. If you’re thinking to yourself, “man, I wish it had been Down in the Bottom, or Girl Next Door to the Methadone Clinic, or Tennessee Jazz Odyssey, or, or…” well all I can say is get on the forum and join in the conversation. Someone who did is getting to hear the track they most wanted. That could be you.
This Moody Bastard has been oft interpreted, with answers posed for questions like “Who is the moody bastard? Who is the little friend? When were the salad days? Where were the ivy walls?” I’ve believed at least three completely different internal explanations for this song, which might be why I’ve always found it so damn compelling. Most of the times I’ve listened to it, I was the moody bastard who once in a blue moon really needs a friend. But sometimes, I was reaching out to one of the many moody bastards in my own life, reminding them that I was some kinda friend now and again, and that I was still there if they needed me once in a great while. Honestly, there’s a lot of mileage in this one, and I’m glad we all get to hear Walter sing it live. I’m struck again by how close this version is vocally to the recording on 11ToW...for whatever technical limitations Walter may have had as a vocalist, his phrasing, timing, and tone are consistent and consistently great.
So give this a listen. Somewhere a couple of minutes in, I hope you’ll be smiling. In fact…