Corky's Debt to His Father

Corky's Debt to His Father
Studio album by Mayo Thompson
Released	1970
Recorded	1970
Studio	Walt Andrus Studio Houston, Texas
Label	Texas Revolution
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Tracklist

Side A

No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Lesson"	2:39
2.	"Oyster Thins"	6:00
3.	"Horses"	3:09
4.	"Dear Betty Baby"	3:47
5.	"Venus in the Morning"	2:30

Side B

No.	Title	Length
1.	"To You"	2:50
2.	"Fortune"	2:11
3.	"Black Legs"	3:50
4.	"Good Brisk Blues"	3:07
5.	"Around the Home"	2:50
6.	"Worried Worried"	5:03
Total length:		37:56

Background

Advertisement in Rolling Stone magazine January 7, 1971

• Recording began in February 1970
• Released mail-order only in 1970 by Texas Revolution
• Instrumental B-side outtake: Woof
• Released a single as in January 1971 as Saddlesore: Old Tom Clark
• Reissued in the 80s by Glass Records
• Reissued in 1994 by Drag City
• Mayo Thompson played the full album in concert in 2013 and 2019

Further reading: Jasper Leach and Joel Minor's article "Fortune, Fates, And Random Chances: The story of Mayo Thompson’s Corky’s Debt to His Father"

Personnel

Mayo Thompson - vocals, guitar, bass

Additional musicians

Mike Sumler, Joe Dugan (piano), Chuck Conway (drums), Jimi Newhouse (drums), Carson Graham (drums), Frank Davis, Le Anne Romano (baritone horn), Roger Romano, The La La's (backing vocals), The Whoaback Singers (backing vocals)

Technical

• Mayo Thompson - producer
• Frank Davis - producer, engineer
• Roger Romano - producer, engineer

Cover art

Cover illustration originally published in The Graphic illustrated newspaper September 10, 1892 pg. 22

The cover image is an 1892 illustration by John Charles Dollman for an article in the British newspaper The Graphic.

Reviews

CMJ New Music Report

June 13, 1994

Drag City has reissued Corky's Debt To His Father, the hard-to-find 1970 solo album by Mayo Thompson, leader of the Red Crayola for almost three decades and a member of Pere Ubu in the early '80s. Corky, his only solo outing, is unlike anything he's done before or since, with a focus on melody and twisted lyrics in song structures that are relatively conventional compared to the psychedelic freakouts, experimentation and jagged pop of the Red Crayola. The beautiful ballad "Dear Betty Baby" is an unqualified masterpiece. Look for the first two Red Crayola albums to be reissued on the Collectibles label and a new Red Crayola album in the fall, with Thompson joined by members of Gastr Del Sol.

The Trouser Press guide to '90s rock

1997

In 1970, Thompson actually did record a solo album, Corky's Debt to His Father, which got an obscure local-label issue at the time in Texas, was revived in England years later and was finally introduced to American CD racks through the good offices of Drag City. A left-field version of a blues and neo-vaudeville album — played mostly acoustic on slide guitar, piano, bass and elementary traps, with some horns and electricity — Corky's Debt doesn't sound much closer to any mainstream in 1995 than it would have done a quarter-century earlier. The fairly titled "Good Brisk Blues" might have come from a Dylan bootleg, and "Venus in the Morning" does suggest a functional knowledge of barrelhouse music, but the lyrics ("they cover her politely from all indelicate eyes") are from a completely different realm. A self-conscious embrace of abnormality in all its glorious dislocation.