Rock and Roll, from it's earliest years, has always had it's nasty balladeers and dirty song writers.
Hank Ballard, who penned the teen-clean hit "The Twist," and Gene Autry's Back In the Saddle Again," sold hundreds of thousands of records with songs like "Get it" and "Annie had a baby" -- all of which have naughty lyrics.
Fast forward through the 80s and 90s and we had 2 Live Crew, the band that became world renown for their battle with PMRC and The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida for their album, "As Nasty as They Want To Be." Now, just 13 years past the turn of the last century we have Lord Nasty aka James Lemmons, a resident of Ukiah, whose Bay Area band gigs in local clubs from time to time.
Lemmons, who originally hails from Sweetwater, Texas, developed an appreciation for music after seeing the Jackson 5 and listening to R&B and The Beatles. He even loved the music in church.
"My grandmother's church was a 'holy roller' church," Lemmons said. "It was really a jumpin' boogie-down church."
The church had a piano and that was what led to James' musical career.
"One day I decided to use swear words," he said. "And I knew I had a song I wanted to record. So I went in through the back door with a tape recorder and began to sing and play and curse so loud I couldn't hear the pastor when he came in."
The results from the session were an infuriated pastor, several blows to James' head with a hairbrush from his grandmother and an exorcism of sorts in the family living room.
"All I could do was laugh at my grandmother," Lemmons said. "And they thought I was so bad that my grandmother and a few of her friends came over, sat me in a chair, and tried to get the evil spirits out of me because they thought I was possessed by some kind of evil spirit.
"I don't really have anything against the church other than that they bug me about what I'm doing."
And now, around fourty years after dicovering music he's still doing it.
Lord Nasty or "LORD, NASTY!" as one may exclaim after hearing songs like "Nasty Hoochie Booty," and "Psalm Dirty Psalm" performs April 20 at El Rio with the Boars and Brian Kenney Fresno. Expect full church regailia, R&B, Funk,and Gospel style music, and a whole lot of people dancing.
