The Early Solo work of Col. Bruce Hampton

Somebody happened to mention huffing spray paint the other day, and this of course had me thinking to the notable opening to the Hampton Grease Band's "Hendon" - Hampton declaiming "Spraypaint!  Keep away from flame!"

Col. Bruce Hampton is a curious figure.  The Hampton Grease Band album, ignored at the time, has achieved a cult reputation subsequently.  Hampton himself had a career resurgence starting in the early '90s on the jam band circuit with the Aquarium Rescue Unit.

This however leaves a good twenty years unaccounted for, and this music is largely unheard, unappreciated.  Hampton was a beloved local weirdo, an eccentric Southern gentleman.

While doing my research I came across this early '80s documentary from Atlanta television.  It is an interesting watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxqfdSZCDLM

First things out of the way - a lot of this stuff is just not funny at all.  Falls completely flat.  I try not to be snide, but I can see how this sort of stuff could appeal to the jam band audiences, because there is a _lot_ of overlap between this and the "funny" stuff Phish does.

At the same time, I find it difficult to dismiss his whole work in these terms.  There is, of course, the obvious Zappa-Beefheart influence in the work - Hampton auditioned, unsuccessfully, for Zappa's band in '73, and Zappa played some of his early songs on the radio in '78 and '79 - however, there is a sense of place to it as well.  Atlanta isn't Memphis, but his attitude and approach seems not a million miles away from some of the work of Tav Falco's Panther Burns.

Mostly what I appreciate in Hampton's work is that it comes across to me as essentially benign in character (another point in its favor with the jam band crowd), in extremely marked contrast to Zappa's work.  Hampton's persona has a sort of quotidian absurdity to it.  He has the sort of bizarreness that is nonetheless extremely dull.  One of the Hampton Grease Band's best-known songs takes as its lyrics an encyclopedia article on Halifax, and this is how I can remember that some point in the 1960s Halifax has 6,638 miles of graded roads.  A completely useless fact.  And his music is the same way - the complete and total lack of concern for what might be relevant or interesting leads his music to go to some very interesting places.  One finds the same spirit, honestly, in early Saturday Night Live, which was not afraid to fail and fail badly.  Hampton's early solo work, much like his work with the Hampton Grease Band, is brilliant and excruciating in equal measure - much like the Grateful Dead at their best.

Of his two earliest albums, I do have to say I find that his 1980 record with a group called the Late Bronze Age - the outfit featured in this documentary - is of much higher overall quality than his 1978 solo debut, "One Ruined Life (Of A Bronze Tourist)".  The 1980 record also sums up his aesthetic pretty brilliantly, being titled "Outside Looking Out".  Having said that, the bonus tracks on the reissue of "One Ruined Life" are more enjoyable to me than the album itself, particularly "Ghost Alcohol Sandwich".  They're clearly ephemera, but Hampton thrives on ephemera.

The disappearance of Harold Kelling, on the other hand, is more understandable.  Kelling, after his departure from the Hampton Grease Band, released only one 45 RPM single, in 1981, a cover of "Harlem Nocturne" backed with a surf style rendition of "Jezebel".  I could only find the latter (and this was apparently just uploaded to Youtube last week, on top of everything else):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtP__VF4dPU

I can see why this record made zero splash whatsoever.  It's not bad, but there's not really any compelling reason to seek it out.

On the other hand, Kelling's legacy is decently well looked after by his son Tarmon, who has unearthed a number of fairly interesting non-commercial recordings made by his father.  For instance, here is a radio recording from 1972 that Kelling made with a group known as the "Starving Brain Eaters":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYcj9xqE9gw

There is definitely some high quality stuff here.