Slim Jim Phantom | The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan
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What is discussed at the start of this section?
There was no way that I could do that. You might as well imagine me being a helicopter pilot. I couldn't imagine doing that. But the drums, I could relate. Drummers are a special breed. It wasn't punk. It wasn't new wave. It wasn't metal. It wasn't southern fried rock. It wasn't anything. It was too weird, really.
You guys kind of created this foundation for other lovers of rockabilly to kind of find a welcome within the alternative space. It was wacky. I would bring my friends home.
I had a pool table and a pool and a sauna the next day for a hangover, you know. And I was just, my house was a nice, you know, kind of a respectable party house.
Slim Jim Phantom, thank you for being on my show. It's a real honor. Let's start with Mousy Alexander. I found this an intriguing way to jump into your musical journey.
Mousy Alexander was a jazz drummer. And his fame came, he had played with Benny Goodman Orchestra. He had also played with Dinah Washington. And where we grew up, Massapequa, Long Island, he was a drum teacher. And he lived like four or five train stops away. Massapequa, Massapequa Park, Seaford, Belmore, Wanta, everybody knows it. He was in, I think, Valley Stream. So just like a... few blocks away and i heard he was a drum teacher from the back of a newspaper drum lessons and he sounded cool so i used to take the train into his uh over to his place and uh he was this you have to remember this is long island 1976 77 and he was this big hence his nickname and and he had a goatee and a jazz patch, and he wore a beret and a scarf, and he said, Hepcat, and he said, Daddy-O, and he really spoke that way.
And he was a drum teacher. And I had taken lessons and learned a little bit before that, but when I met him, he was like, get straight into rudiments. Yeah, but I can play this. Yeah. Started from square one. How to sit. How to hold the sticks.
Did you learn to play...
traditional? Yeah, he didn't really care about that. But, like, I can. I like to go back and forth. There's one spin move I know how to get from here to there.
What role did Mousy Alexander play in Slim Jim Phantom's musical journey?
So it's the one move I know. So unlike slow song, they can do it. But he was a very proper guy. And then he would tell stories about that he had traveled to the Far East with Dinah Washington. And like me, it was almost like it was proof. There was a guy that I know, that's cool, that got out of here.
Yeah. I had the same thing with my pop. I knew somebody who had been successful. Yeah. In the Buckingham's.
Okay. Yeah.
They were from Chicago area. You're from Chicago. Yeah. It's my bad. My dad's friend. So it was like, I knew somebody who'd been there. Yeah. And I understand what you're talking about. It's like that feeling like, well, if I know this guy, like it's not as far away as it seems through television or whatever. Yeah.
So that was one of my, and then I, I, I just loved the guy. Um, you know, I studied with him a couple, three years. And, um, that was when we were, um, You know, like it could have gone either way if you found some teacher who was uninterested or like... Yeah. But where I live, my father's a fireman and my mother was a homemaker, 100% Irish. If you were going to do something like play the drums, and by the time I had Mousy, I had proven that I wasn't just in this for two seconds and I... I, I had taken lessons. I had, uh, had a really cheap drum kit and then I paid half my father chipped in to get a nice slinger line drum kit like a year before taking lessons that I like proved that I was serious about.
Yeah. So because I was taking lessons from him back then, the thing was always like, this isn't a, there's no future in this. That was, that was nowadays kids start at 12 and they're going to school of rock. But back then it was like, get a real job. Exactly. But what was it about, because I think you jabbled in other musical instruments, but what was it about the drums that was initially attractive to you? Because, you know, drummers are a special breed.
Yes, positively. I think that for me, I can't say it was Ringo, although I'd like to say that, but I'm a little bit too young for that.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is discussed at the start of this section?
0:00–2:20
2
What role did Mousy Alexander play in Slim Jim Phantom's musical journey?
2:20–13:27
3
How did Slim Jim Phantom's early influences shape his musical style?
13:27–51:20
4
What was the initial reaction to the Stray Cats' success in their hometown?
51:20–52:26
5
How did MTV influence the music scene and public perception?
52:26–55:21
6
What were the dynamics within the Stray Cats after their breakup?
55:21–57:23
7
How did Slim Jim Phantom's experiences shape his views on music technology?
57:23–1:41:19
Speakers
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