In addition to his status as a longtime member of the multi-Grammy Award-winning band Los Lobos, Steve Berlin is a respected (and Grammy-winning) producer who has lent his skills to a wide range of artists, whether the late Raul Malo, Buckwheat Zydeco, Rickie Lee Jones, John Lee Hooker, and The Tragically Hip. One of his earliest product credits is the 1987 release from Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs, Pigus, Drunkus, Maximus, which has just been reissued by the Blind Owl label.
Top Jimmy, who died in 2001from liver failure, was a fixture of the Los Angeles music scene in the 1980s, who wowed audiences populated by fellow musicians such as Tom Waits, John Doe, and David Lee Roth with the latter eventually immortalizing the vocalist and his band in the 1984 Van Halen tune “Top Jimmy.” Though tracked earlier in the decade, the tapes for Pigus, Drunkus, Maximus, languished atop a television set for several years before The Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn issued the record on his Down There imprint. (The reissue features a wide range of photos from photographer Gary Leonard and liner notes from Chris Morris, each adding important context/dimension to the release.)
In this conversation, Berlin, who also played on the album, recalls the early days of Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs, the connections he made in the Los Angeles club scene of the 1980s, his approach to record producing, and on whether there are any other Top Jimmy recordings that might see release in the future.
Host/Producer: Jedd Beaudoin
Theme music: Torin Andersen
