Badgering the Witless
Badgering the Witless was a short-lived musical partnership between me, Chuckk Hubbard, and my friend Mark Skilton, from around 1994 to 1996. Mark passed away in November 2009, and I want to share these silly recordings with anyone who enjoys them, because, while they are all pretty silly, they're good at being silly. The only strange substances involved in these recordings were caffeine and the usual food additives that were building up in most young Americans' bodies. And sleep deprivation.
Mark went on to play at many local open-mic nights, then created the real group Marks Like a Dog, which recorded a self-titled CD in 2000.
I Love My Dog
Partially inspired by Fred, partially inspired by Sassafras, but mostly inspired by me playing C-F-G-C incessantly on the banjo. Mark played the cowbell part on my old Sony drumpad from Ollie's Bargain Outlet. He wrote all the lyrics and performed all the vocals, and I performed the belch in the background. Originally you could hear my voice at the beginning complaining that we needed another tape, that we had no way to mix the recording. I hadn't yet figured out how to work with a 4-track, it was late at night, and if I recall correctly there was no such thing as Walmart in our area yet. That makes me think this was one of our first successful recordings.
Badgering the Witless
Bosworth the Badger is a cartoon character I conceived, and Mark wrote this ballad about his exploits in the wild west. Mark Skilton on all guitars, drum machine claps, and the narrator's voice; Chuckk Hubbard on banjo, bass, and the badger's voice. Written entirely by Mark Skilton; Produced, if you can call it that, by Chuckk Hubbard. The ending part with nonsense lyrics, I believe, was made up on the spot. I sped up the instrumental parts while we were recording the vocals, to make our voices come out deeper. Mark didn't completely approve of my final mix, but I was obstinate about it, and no other version is known to exist. There was a similar-sounding piece, written and recorded I think in the same night, with a more serious love theme. I hope to find it one day, but it may be lost forever, and that may be a good thing.
Be My Girl
Mark wrote this on his own and arrived at my mom's house one night ready to record it. I only had one microphone, so he played the guitar part for a while and then recorded the vocals over it. He had ended up playing for almost 10 minutes, and I'm not sure whether he ran out of lyrics, messed something up, or if he didn't really have a clear idea what he was going to do for most of the track, but around 2:51 you can hear his voice quiver from trying not to laugh, and from that point it was all over. I can be heard laughing at him, playing around on my drumset (which I never learned to play), and telling him not to put his mouth on my microphone, an admonition he ignored.
Unlike the other songs on this page, I don't remember whether Mark ever heard this recording. I also can't say whether he would have wanted me to make it public...
"I like the way that you borrow my pants
When I'm in a Hanes commercial with Michael Jordan.
I never understood why, in the phrase "chicken cordon bleu,"
They couldn't just get rid of the word "cordon."
Pirates
This one was all mine. Written, performed, and produced by Chuckk Hubbard. Electric banjo, bass, drum programming and vocals all by Chuckk Hubbard. I don't know where Mark was at the time, but I surely drove out to wherever he was the moment I finished this to play it for him.
Hamster In My Pants
I can't take full credit for this. I got the lyrics from Bruce Hansen, who I believe was singing a song he had heard somewhere, with his own lyrics. I added some crap from me playing around with my recorder. The arrangement and all vocals are Chuckk Hubbard, produced by Chuckk Hubbard.