1997, Truckstop/Atavistic.
Tracklist:
01 - The Sportsman
02 - I Love You
03 - Whos the Paul?
04 - Crimson and Clover
05 - No Kids, No Money
get it here.
He's still making great albums to this day, but in 1997 Bobby was a lot more edgy, and the music was a lot more raw. Hes since gone on to make very polished yet amazing albums (why his only recognition seems to be in Europe i'll never be sure) and while this one is almost completely different in style, its just as good. Back when he first re-emerged from the ashes of Condeucent, he came with some new stories. Not represented here, but very prominent on the CD, was his "Axis '67" storyline. (of which parts one and three were on the self titled album, while part two ended up on his second album "Rise Up!" a years later) In this prediction, Bobby synced up the year he was born (1967) to the year the world was supposed to end (2000), and Jesus Christ's age when he supposedly died (33). Bobby would sing about how he was the antichrist, how come 2000 we were all fucked. The continuous cash flow system he "invented" also staged for some good hype, stories of taking money from the audience, in which those who didn't fork out a dollar or twenty or fifty were only passed on the person next to them who had the dollar, twenty or fifty to spare. All of this came with a publicist that no one ever saw "Marla Cummings (or is it Marsha, or maybe Martha?)", he did an amazing job getting himself out there and making sure nobody knew if he was for real or not. There are stories still disputed to this day...
During this time, pamphlets and promotional materials were widely distributed, fabrication of events in the press (he had told one interviewer as a joke that he cut off the ring finger on one of his hands, which became a popular myth at the time despite both of his hands having fully efficient sets of fingers) and many more stories came out of it that i've seemed to have forgotten at this point. The strength on these stories alone could probably win in the favor of why '90s Chicago was much more exciting than Chicago now, but who cares?
These days the storyline is pretty much gone, and he's more focused on just writing songs and being a father.
Released on vinyl and CD at the same time, with the same album cover, but that was almost all they had in common. This version is even more raw sounding than the CD, they both have three of the same songs, though each are different versions (the sportsman represented here I believe is also from his first 7", leans more towards funk than rock, while the CD is vice versa), Whos the Paul ended up as an experiement on the CD version, with the 7" 45 rpm version slowed down to 33, and No Kids, No Money has some different arrangments. A re-recorded version of I Love You Ended up on the japanese import of 1999s "llovessonggs" EP. Oh, also, a limited amount of the original pressing of the LP had googly eyes glued on.
This rip is missing track 06, as it is the same version of "Never Get Ahead" that also appears on the CD version of the album. You can find a video of the "clean" version on youtube, edited from footage from Chic-a-go-go, it ended up on MTV's Alternative Nation sometime in 96 or 97, or so the story goes. There is an annoying needle jump in "I Love You", though sometime soon I think I'm putting up another version of that song here anyways, along with a bunch of other non album tracks.
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