The Escaped Fetal Pigs - "Ed McMahon"

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it seemed as if one could not turn on a television screen without seeing Ed McMahon on it. In addition, to being Johnny Carson's second banana on The Tonight Show, he hosted Star Search and other shows and appeared in numerous commercials. I have nothing against someone trying to make a buck, but his ubiquity seemed to be verging on pure greed. He seemed to me like university or company presidents who moonlight on corporate boards for obscene amounts of money, considering the amount of work they do for it.  I certainly don't believe these people put that much effort into their boardwork. Why not hire someone who would actually oversee the company? But, of course, that is probably not what the company's managers want. In any case, back to Ed, who probably wasn't a bad sort but seemed to me to be a poster child for the ills of American capitalism. Supposedly, he later had financial problems, which is mindboggling, but that's right in keeping with his symbolism of why greed stinks. How much was he spending of the money he was bringing in? Better to have brought in less, Ed, and spent less. Also, maybe I wouldn't have found your yesman shtick so annoying.

Moving on to other aspects of the video, The Pigs are playing The Good Tymes Pub, which was for a time our favorite venue in town. All the cool bands played there. It was run by an eccentric older party dude named Dick. Eventually, something happened to Dick--jail? death? I don't remember-- and the new management was not as cool, so we stopped playing there.

In the video, you can see me wearing a Pogues t-shirt which I bought in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA in 1989. I later sold it on eBay, so someone out there may still be wearing it. It was a cool shirt even if the concert wasn't. Shane MacGowan had apparently been drinking all day, so when the band came on, he made it through the first song, which was great. The second was pretty good. The third he didn't make sense at all. Then he held up a Batman 7-11 slurpee, filled with who knows what, shouted "Fuck you Americans and your fucking Batman!" and passed out. They dragged him offstage, and the band played instrumentals and songs that the others sang on. After that, Spider Stacy filled in, a preview of The post-Shane Pogues, on a few songs with help from the audience. After that, no one knew the words to any more of the songs, and the show ended. Pretty disappointing at the time, but in retrospect a quinnessential Pogues performance and one of the few concerts, out of many much better ones I saw/heard in that time period, that is memorable.

Is Mark wearing a New Kids On The Block shirt?  He must have lost a bet . . .

At the end, I throw in a backwards phrase.  You will have to play it backwards to get the special message.

Also, at the end, Mark speaks with our buddy Scott of XHOA, who was doing sound that night.  He often added cool effects to the sound, whether we wanted them or not.  Annoying at the time often, but in retrospect, a pretty cool touch.