Bob Log III
This Guy Is A Blues Machine. Live He Is ~censored~ Unbelievable
‘Bob Log III’ is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and the sole member of his own eponymous one-man, lo-fi blues band, based in Tucson, Arizona. During performances, Log wears a blue full body jumpsuit and a bubble-mask motorcycle helmet wired with a telephone microphone which allows him to devote his hands and feet to guitar and drums, respectively. He has made frequent tours of North America, Europe, Japan and Australia.
Bob Log got his first guitar at the age of 11, and by the age of 16 he had become smitten with the Delta Blues, modeling his slide guitar style on that of Mississippi Fred McDowell.
Log describes his on-stage setup in the song “One Man Boom,” introducing himself to the audience as, “Bob Log the third, one-man band, Tucson, Arizona. Heyeeeh! Lemme introduce the band to ya. On cymbals, left foot. Over here on the bass drum we got right foot. Shut up! This is my left hand that does all the slide work, right hand does the pickin’. My mouth hole does most o’ the talkin’. And you’re looking at my finger.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Log_III
Tom Waits: “And then thereÂ’s this guy named Bob Log, you ever heard of him? HeÂ’s this little kid — nobody ever knows how old he is — wears a motorcycle helmet and he has a microphone inside of it and he puts the glass over the front so you canÂ’t see his face, and plays slide guitar. ItÂ’s just the loudest strangest stuff youÂ’ve ever heard. You donÂ’t understand one word heÂ’s saying.
I like people who glue macaroni on to a piece of cardboard and paint it gold. That’s what I aspire to basically.”
The monkey’s paw
Strangely enough, Bob Log IIIÂ’s fingers have received a great deal of attention in the press, as an early record label press release from Fat Possum outed him as having had a monkeyÂ’s paw grafted on to his wrist after a boating accident as a child. According to Bob LogÂ’s artist page at Fat Possum Records: “When Bob Log III was a child, he lost his left hand in a boating accident. It was soon replaced with a monkey paw, and a new guitar style was born. “It’s my own personal style, see,” Log says, “the paw moves much quicker than a normal hand, so my real hand has to flop around a lot to compensate.” When asked to explain Fat PossumÂ’s insistence that LogÂ’s right hand is a monkeyÂ’s paw, Log replied to an interviewer that, “My hand is just hairy. Very, very hairy. It is NOT a PAW. Fat Possum was drunk. ”Log further clarified the monkey paw myth in an interview with Bizarre Magazine: “I’ve got all my limbs. It’s just that when I’m playing my guitar my hand moves so fast it looks like a monkey paw, a hairy paw. My hand moves really fast. Faster than a normal human hand.”
The motorcycle helmet
One of Bob Log III’s most distinguishing features is the motorcycle helmet he wears on stage. When prompted as to why he wears the helmet, Log contends that, “My face has nothing to do with the music, I’d much rather people pay attention to my guitar playing”. When asked if he had ever thrown up inside the helmet, Log said, “Not so that it landed in the helmet. I’ve got a hole for it to come out of. It doesn’t happen that often. It only happens when I get a really fat girl on my knee and I try to play that song twice as fast as I normally do. It’s like running with a backpack full of rocks.” The helmet has caused him some problems over the years; “I kept the original lining in it, but after awhile it started disintegrating,” Log said in an interview with The Kansas City Star. “What happens is, the foam turns into a powder, and when you mix that with three years’ worth of sweat – I grew something really funky in there. It dripped in my eye at a show in Sweden, and I got pinkeye. Ever had pinkeye? It’s disgusting, Girls stopped talking to me. It was terrible.”
Audience participation
During performances Bob Log will often call audience members (both male and female) on stage to sit on his knee while he plays. Log credits years of drumming with his feet for his ability to simultaneously drum and support the weight of multiple people: “My legs are huge now. Sometimes I can get a girl on each knee and bounce ‘em along.”Log has distinctively used breasts as a theme in his performance and hired two “” to use their breasts as percussion instruments on his song “Clap Your Tits.” Log is quick to point out that all of these acts are carried out between consenting adults and individuals familiar with his brand of humor, stating, “First of all, if you come to my show knowing I’ve got a song called “Boob Scotch” and you get offended, I’m sorry but I’ve got to say just get out.”
Boob Scotch
One of Bob Log III’s more controversial antics is ‘Boob Scotch’, that is, scotch which has been stirred by a female (or male) breast. This practice was integrated into the aptly titled song “Boob Scotch” from the album Log Bomb, in which Bob Log sings “I think we need to sit down and talk, put your boob in my scotch. Come on get your tit in my drink, stir my scotch with something that’s pink.” Bob Log III often invites audience members to ‘make’ a Boob Scotch, asking them onstage to dip their breast in his scotch (usually pre-ordered from the venue’s bar) after which he lifts his helmet slightly and downs the drink. Log has been known to dip his own breast in his scotch, especially in Japan, a modest nation and usually not willing to expose their ‘Boob’.
Log Bomb
Log Bomb is Bob Log III’s fourth album.
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