The Swinging Erudites

“Livin’ On My Hair.” “Walk With an Erection.” “Keep Your Glands to Yourself.” Ask most people to name who wrote and recorded those songs and they’d likely say “Weird Al” Yancovic, the singer-songwriter-accordionist whose parodic twists on popular tunes – “I Lost on Jeopardy,” “Like a Surgeon” and “Eat It,” among others – have cracked the Billboard Hot 100 on a regular basis and become classics of the novelty genre. As perfectly logical an answer as that would be, however, it’s also dead wrong.

The correct answer, as those familiar with the mid-’80s rock scene in Boston will attest, is The Swinging Erudites, a short-lived but fondly remembered outfit whose simultaneously raw and wry satirical approach instantly distinguished them from every other local act of the era. Though their recording output is limited to just one mini-album, two full albums and several singles, their punky irreverence and utter lack of what’s now called “political correctness” made them a go-to group among rockers of a certain ilk, despite the fact that FM powerhouse WBCN once labeled them “The Worst Band in the World.”

FORMATION, LINEUP, EARLY RECORDINGS

The band’s backstory begins in 1985, when vocalist-guitarist Johnny Angel (of The Blackjacks) and vocalist Sonny Columbus started performing together as a lounge act. The group eventually became a sextet that included a variety of personnel over the years, among them keyboardist-accordionist Robert “Brother Cleve” Toomey, keyboardist Sandy Beach, vocalists Suzanne Kerr and Meg Lyons, bassist Greg Urbatis and drummer Garry Cook (of Infliktors), with Angel being the constant presence. He was also the group’s main lyricist, providing most of the sassy wit embedded in its core.

The Erudites’ first recorded material, self-released in 1985 before they moved into the parody side of songwriting, came on a cassette tape that included covers of The Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” and The Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the UK.” Also that year, their version of The Beatles’ “Yesterday” was included on the Modern Method Records’ compilation Mr. Beautiful Presents All Hard, which also featured songs from The FUs, The Blackjacks, The Dogmatics, The Freeze, Scruffy the Cat and Gang Green, among others.

By the start of ‘86, Angel had begun dipping his toes into comedic waters, penning “Born in the 51st State,” a twist on Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 hit “Born in the USA,” and “Hit Me I’m a Dumb Twat,” his decidedly unwoke take on Pat Benatar’s 1980 track “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.” In addition to Angel’s new tunes, the Erudites continued performing their genre-bending brand of covers, including a grunged-up version of the country classic “God Didn’t Make Little Green Apples.” A deejay at Emerson College’s WERS aired several of Angel’s more off-color originals on the Metrowave show one Sunday night, which resulted in the show being canceled.

MINI-ALBUM, UNCHAINED PARODIES, NOTABLE APPEARANCES

The band self-released its first proper studio outing in 1986, a 12-inch, seven-track, eponymous mini-album. Among the tunes were two Bon Jovi’s spoofs, “Livin’s on My Hair” and “You Give Rock a Bad Name”; “Yuppie Man,” based on Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s “Lucky Man”; and “Keep Your Glands to Yourself,” Angel’s amusing spin on The Georgia Satellites’ “Keep Your Hands to Yourself.” In the 24 hours after WBCN deejay Kathryn Lauren played the entire disc on a night when the station was giving away tickets to an upcoming U2 show, some 1,000 listeners called requesting that the station air it again and asking where they could buy a copy.

Given the apparent demand for more Erudites-style swing, recording a full album made commercial sense. The result was the group’s first LP, Unchained Parodies, recorded at Fort Apache Studios and released by One Dimensional Records in ‘87. It includes their cover of “New York, New York,” but originals such as “Frankie and Annette Meet Jim and Tammy,” “Springtime for Hitler,” “Billy, Don’t Be a Homo,” “The Dealer of the Crack, “South Africa Thanks Its Friend Paul Simon” and, unsurprisingly, “Walk with an Erection” drew the most attention from critics. It also features a suite of Paul McCartney spoofs, “The Paul McCartney Massacre,” which includes “Silly Paul McCartney”; “Stupid People in the Past”; “Yesterday Pt. I & II”; “Robert Plant Serenade”; “Eighties New-Wave Anthem”; “Losers in the Studio and Dying (L.S.D.)”; and “Merciless Reprise.”

Having established an ardent cult through significant airplay on top college and commercial stations and a boatload of positive press, the band took the stage at popular haunts including The Rathskeller and The Channel. The gigs for which they’re even more remembered weren’t at such predictable spots, however; living up to their thoroughly iconoclastic image, they played at a ski resort in the summer, on Martha’s Vineyard in the winter, and even at a First Communion ceremony.

PRETENTIOUS CRAPOLA, DISBANDING, THE SWINGINGEST STORY EVER TOLD

Their second and final LP, the 13-track Pretentious Crapola (also released by One Dimensional) hit the shelves in 1988. Tracks include “The Hoodsie Rap,” which puts references to the regionally popular ice cream cup to the tune of Frank Zappa’s 1982 hit “Valley Girl”; “The Captain and Tennille Meet Joy Division (Love Will Keep Us Together)”; “I Got You, Babe (Feminists Beware)”; and a tongue-in-cheek tribute to The Village People called “Disco Lives!” The album turned out to be a commercial nonevent, but the group kept playing regular live gigs and cut one more single, the political campaign spoof “Bring Back Nixon” b/w “Into Leather,” a bondage version of a 10,000 Maniacs song.

By early ‘89, the Erudites had gone their separate ways. In 2006, however, nearly two decades after they stopped swinging together as a unit, My Girlfriend’s Records released a 20-track compilation of their material, The Swingingest Story Ever Told, demonstrating that the band’s small-but-rabid following hadn’t yet disappeared. Interestingly, the album’s final track, “Santa Only Comes Once a Year,” is the last song the Erudites ever recorded.

(by D.S. Monahan)