i confess, all the jimmys is me.
a college DJ recently found the single i put out in 1982 in the station library and played it. the internet being what it is, it wound up on a blog and someone tracked me down.

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/03/the_enigmatic_j.html
an online discussion about the artist known as "jimmy."

over the years, i recorded a lot more stuff. as "jimmy," "big jimmy," and "all the jimmys." the all the jimmys site is a place to put up everything. i debated whether to prolong the jimmy mystery or to reveal everything. spoiler alert.

jimmy

it all started in 1982 with me trying to see if i could sing at half-speed, so that when i doubled the speed, the voice would sound normal. that didn't work. but "jimmy" was born. i recorded lots of songs. (playing at half-speed almost gave me enough time to figure out songs.) i wrote "spin the bottle" & recorded that. i put out a single, spin the bottle/white xmas, on Fatima (the Plugz's label). i gave away a lot of copies and got a couple of small stores to carry a few copies. the only person I know of who bought the 45 was Bud Cort (Harold & Maude). Dr Demento played "White Xmas" on air one night. there were a couple of kind reviews. one person thought it was a cross between the chipmunks and devo's boojie boy. another guy, Michael Adler, was less impressed. See his rock note to me on the right... Ouch.

the hand-made sleeve for the 45 declared "demand the album." there were lots of tracks, but never an album.

a jimmy story

several years ago, a guy i know (we'll call him Sean) gave me a soundboard tape of the LA band X performing at McCabe's in Santa Monica on Easter Sunday. he said it was crystal clear. but there was a break in the tape. There was a point in the show where the sound guy had stopped the cassette recording of the show to play a tape over the PA. John Doe told the crowd he had ta couple of songs a fan had given him years ago. My friend Sean said the songs weren't on the soundboard tape, but they were really strange covers. I knew immediately what they were. Two jimmy tracks I had sent to John Doe: In This House That I Call Home and We're Desperate. Years later, he was playing the tape at his live shows. What an honor. And for you, here they are:

In This House That I Call Home
We're Desperate

big jimmy

as a young father trying to get my daughter to sleep, i came up with the most boring bedtime story i could think of, "The Huge Gray Blob." perfect for another recording. in another attempt to avoid singing, i tried slowing down the vocal track. a lower, older voice. this was "big jimmy." this was more freeform, experimental stuff. improvised, original bits. i made cassette tapes and tortured my friends. a friend of mine, Richard Meyer, had become editor of Fast Folk Musical Magazine. And The Huge Gray Blob wound up on a Fast Folk collection (along with real folk music from across the country). Another recording, "Spank the Baby" (a call to parents to be more strict with their kids) also wound up on Fast Folk. Some people didn't get the satire. I met Richard Shindel (one of the other artists on that record) and when he found out i was Big Jimmy, he backed away like i had the plague.

all the jimmys

all the jimmys as a so-called artist was an umbrella for everything else. my real name has already been used and abused. so. all the jimmys. lots and lots of tracks. more torture for my friends. and now... for you.

anyway. that's the history so far.


– james dean