Don't Tell The Landlord: Waxing Poetics’ “SUGARDADDY”
by Randy Holmes
What’s that, you say? More new material from Waxing Poetics? Well, yes and no. The song, “Sugardaddy,” is a fast and furious toe-tapper from the final album “Bed Time Story” released in 1990, but the video that was shot for the song over a few insane days early in 1991 is seeing the public light of day for the first time! “Bed Time Story” was the last album that the Poetics did for Emergo, and without any further industry interest (after a sadly failed Warner Brothers overture… I guess we’ll have to tell that story one day), it would be the last of the three studio albums that Waxing Poetics would record.
As road manager for the band at the time, I remember getting us to Richmond for the ‘studio’ part of the shooting, getting us into our hotel, on to the soundstage, and then a colorful blur of painting, dancing, store dummies, ladders, lights, duct tape, whips, masks, wrasslin’, Jeff and Billy on turntables, ceiling fans and repurposed washing
machines.
I also remember the kindness, sense of humor and hard work of the ‘real’ film production workers on the job for the shoot, to whom I’d frequently say “I will do absolutely anything you say,” bowing to their literal years on projects, and I didn’t presume what was the best length or orientation of duct tape for this job or that job. Luckily, they never took any nefarious advantage of my willingness to help. Shots were set, lights were moved, music was cued, and folks danced, wrassled, stood still (or not), and we had a big dinner that night with Carol Taylor at the head of the table, feeling like we’d accomplished what we set out to do in Virginia’s capital city, with plenty of film ‘in the can,’ as they say (do they still say that?).
Then, it was back to the familiar environs of Norfolk, to do even more shooting to weave in among the studio work we had done. We drove around and gathered up our cast of characters and set out to various locations around our ‘hungry sailor town’ (Emmylou Harris, “Norfolk”); the Hermitage Museum, the ‘manakin moon’ tugboat wheelhouse at Northside Park, the corner at 38th and Hampton Blvd. where The Corner/Formerly Dominic’s/Dominic’s/Little Saddle(RIP) was, and underneath the Elizabeth River bridge heading into/out of Norfolk. More dancing ensued, and a probably illegal secret agent guerilla action of setting a suburban neighborhood’s sidewalk on fire occurred. Pretty sure the statute of limitations has run out on that. We also enjoyed a chilly dawn on the Chesapeake Bay, as the band walked backwards into the water with lit road flares for a reversed-film gag.
And then, we were done. Waxing Poetics went back to gigging (soon without me in the van; I decamped to the wilds of North Carolina for a year or so before returning to ORF for the rest of the century), and we waited to see the finished product. Our waiting was in vain, it turns out. With “Bed Time Story” being the last record of a three-record contract, and Emergo being a small label anyway, money for things like videos and tour support was miserly, and when the shooting budget dried up, final production money just wasn’t there. Happily, this spring, director Todd Ranson found the film in his archives and made the effort to transfer it into the world of bits and bytes, and provide it to us. The following is a handful of remembrances from many of the folks appearing in the video.
Gary Ziroli:
It was so great to see that again… we were so young! I just remember it being a lot of fun. While filming I remember Carol asking why we started dancing more wildly during the guitar solo. We said, “because it’s so good!” It was fun doing the goth drag in the studio scenes. Wrestling with Sam in our underwear was weird, but it looks great! I wish we could go back and do it all again! It’s kind of wild to think about now. There were things I totally forgot about. The head in the washing machine!
Sam Sebren:
That was when I had a dance style of basically just flailing and thrashing around, which I’m proud to say got me thrown out of Dominic’s and Friar Tucks. I also had a guy break a bottle on me at Cogan’s, and I even got thrown out of The Late Show after hours dance club. So, I guess it was only natural for my good friends the Poetics to ask me to dance in this video! We had so much fun dressing up and going to the different locations for filming. I loved when we were on the cement block under the bridge. I remember a lot of cigarette breaks. Is that me and Gary wrestling?? Whoa, I had forgotten about that - we thought that was sort of stupid. David had the best dance moves! Good times!
Deb Persons:
It's funny… I drove through Richmond in early May and passed the hotel on Broad Street where we all spent the night prior to making the video; I always look for it when I pass by that area and remembering that experience almost feels like recalling a long-ago dream. I had been a fan of the Poetics for several years, and I hope it won't embarrass anyone for me to say I had a brief affair with a certain guitarist. We had parted friends, and by the time this video was being planned, I had met my Grey and Paul and Deb were a happy couple. The overwhelming emotion of this memory was one of joy: inclusion with a group of talented, inspired artists. I truly didn't feel worthy, not being any kind of artist myself, but I was extremely flattered that I had been asked to be an extra "dancer" in the video and Grey and I were more than happy to make a trip to the big city of Richmond to join this project. I remember the fun of arriving at the hotel, connecting with the crew from Norfolk and enjoying a few beverages with each other! We had to wake early the following morning to take advantage of the space where we were filming for the day. I have fuzzy memories of laughter, costume changes, and hilarious dancing when we really couldn't hear any music. I remember feeling like the whole world was open to me, as long as I continued to fill my life with artists and musicians. I felt like I belonged. I felt like I could contribute. Thank you, Waxing Poetics, from the young woman I was then. You helped me gain some much needed confidence in myself that day. It's a wonderful memory that I'll always cherish.
Deb Williamson Skahill:
Carol, the band’s manager, had been up most of the night painting the set for the video and tying up a million loose ends. Paul and I had been up half the night drinking with the rest of the band and friends. When we showed up at the set, I was hungover. My visage was wan. And not a good wan. Carol looked at me. Looked at Paul. Dropped her head into her hands and said, “Why are you bringing her here looking like this?” Paul shrugged.
And so began my part of the day of shooting a video for Waxing Poetics’ Sugardaddy. Carol’s wry sense of humor led her to pair Paul’s ex-Deb with his new Deb and see what alchemy it created on film. The cast was a jumble of past lovers, crushes and at least one love triangle. In truth, Deb #1 had long since stopped giving me side-eye at rock shows and had gifted me the bell-sleeved blue velvet dress worn in the video.
Carol had dreamed up a lot of the props and incorporated ideas from the band members. But when Sam, an amazing painter friend from Norfolk showed up on set, he was unhappy with the backdrops. They were deemed too safe so Sam grabbed the paint cans and a brush and splashed around some anarchy as he is wont to do. Creating a more fitting backdrop for his and Gary, another incredibly talented songwriter from Norfolk, wrestling portion of the video. Wait, the wrestling?
The wrestling is thematic. David’s lyrics, per usual, are smart commentary on society (Look what happened to America) as well as interpersonal relationships (If I’m going to burn, you’re going to burn too). Sugardaddy is a ballad of codependency. And the video has themes of American crassness. My absolute favorite part of the video is Bil and Jeff as the rotating mannequins from late night television shows. Shows trying to sell stuff that was a want not a need. But as band members, Bil and Jeff provided wish fulfillment for a rock-solid rhythm section.
Sugardaddy was easy to dance to. Squishing together to stay in the shots, while dancing, was the trick. You see Paul, with white face makeup, successfully negotiating the crowded set while dancing a terrific Kabuki Jagger. At the heart of the song is Paul’s dirty guitar solo, his trademark melding of Berry, Richards and Thunders. Listen and die.
And at the very end of the video, you find Randy. His face changing into a mask. Randy’s largely anonymous contributions to the band over all these years have been mammoth. The best friend any band ever had.
Watching this video for the first time now, after thirty years, gives me all the feels.
Paul Johnson:
I remember we had fun doing this vid in Richmond & the crew was upset because we did not use Chinet with the catering!
Jeff Bailey:
A couple of the things I don't remember filming even though I was in them, but I do remember having enough hair to braid. It was a long time ago...
I also remember the walking out of the water part (how could I forget) it was a really cold early morning at Ocean View, and we only had one chance to do it, so that was our first and only take! And I remember being ecstatic that there was only going to be one take… That's it. I remember nothing more except the gigs. I remember all of them!
Dave Middleton:
It looks every bit as weird and disturbing as we had intended. I remember "Sugardaddy" started out as a hastily-scribbled poem, which I later expanded into a fuzz-garage diatribe ala "Sister Ray." Then, with a little help from Jeff Bailey (he wrote that oddball key-change near the end), it evolved into a complete song that the Poetics could sink their teeth into. By the time we played it live, it no longer sounded like "Sister Ray," but it maintained a sneering, bratty garage-punk urgency that brought Paul & I back to our early days of playing Sex Pistols & Buzzcocks covers in bars. It became a staple of our live set, and we still enjoy playing it to this day.
Paul's original guitar solo on the song was more in the Television/Tom Verlaine style, but that changed during the recording sessions for Bed Time Story. While I was out of the studio on a dinner break, Paul and our producer (Offenders frontman Bruce Olsen) threw out the old solo and concocted something completely different. And it was amazing! We loved the track so much, we took a rough mix cassette back to our rental townhouse and blasted it on 10 while dancing on the furniture. Don't tell the landlord.
Sick of arty, high-concept videos produced for the sole purpose of selling records, we wanted to do the complete opposite when it came to a video for "Sugardaddy." Since the song is somewhat of a "middle finger" anyway, we decided to loosely assemble a hodgepodge of unrelated ideas, and string them together to form a low-budget musical Exquisite Corpse of sorts. Now, mind you, having never seen the finished product myself, I have no idea if this concept worked or not. I don't even know how much of what we filmed actually made it into the video, when it comes right down to it. But we had a great time making it, nonetheless. [These interview segments are pieced together from a wide range of sources, timewise. -RH]
Interior shots were filmed on a soundstage in Richmond, and exteriors in various locations around Norfolk, including the half-buried tugboat featured on the Manakin Moon LP jacket. Probably the most challenging of all these shots was the "rising from the water" sequence we filmed at Ocean View Beach, for which the film is run backward. Not only did we have to film at dawn to get the right lighting, but backing fully clothed into the freezing cold Chesapeake Bay while carrying lit road flares proved massively difficult. Especially since we only had one take to get it right.
Hey, y’all. It’s Randy again. I’ve sync’d a rockin’ new remaster of the original track and added a few titles front and back to give credit where due, and now we can all finally get to enjoy the ‘weird and disturbing’ glory of Waxing Poetics’ “Sugardaddy.”