The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Talk About The Blues [Promo] [#1] (VIDEO, US)

*catalogue number unknown but the video cassette label does carry the numbers ‘520321’ and ‘D193706’

This single, taken from the album Acme, was issued on CD and 12″ in the US and on CD, 12″ and 7″ in the UK.

The song Talk About The Blues was written as a direct response to a Rolling Stone review of Now I Got Worry and Q&A with Jon Spencer.

The review asked “what right young, white boys have to play the blues, the scribe opined that “Spencer’s faux backwoods drawl verges on minstrel-show insult.”

What actually sent Spencer off, however, was a tamer Rolling Stone Q&A, in which he answered earnest queries about how a New Hampshire boy fresh from sneeing punk deconstructionists Pussy Galore fell for the authentic blues music of Hound Dog Taylor and Mississippi Fred McDowell.

After the interview – perhaps feeling his authenticity in question, perhaps frustrated that the soul, funk and hip-hop sides of his band get overlooked because of the name Blues Explosion – Spencer sat down and wrote “Talk About The Blues.”

[This text is from a CMJ New Music Monthly article titled ‘Acme Blues Explosives, INC’.]

The song lyric features a the line “I do not play no blues, I play rock and roll” which is a reference to the album I Do Not Play No Rock ‘n’ Roll by Mississippi Fred McDowell.

In a later Rolling Stone interview Jon Spencer said “I’d rather be known as a rock & roller. I mean we don’t really play blues. How would you describe it? It’s the exact opposite of Mississippi Fred McDowell. He’d always say, “I do not play no rock & roll.” He had a record called that, too. ”

Director: Evan Bernard
Executive Producer: JoAmm Thrailkill
Producer: Tim Biggins/Frank Dituri
Editor: Colby Parker Jr
Production Company: X-Ray Productions

BARCODE: n/a

RUN-OUT GROOVE ENGRAVING/MATRIX: n/a