The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw... Can you say it with me...The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw. This was a defining album for me in younger days and I still enjoy listening to it today. Paul Butterfield Blues Band. This was my second "real" blues album. Great tunes like Drifftin' and Drifftin', Tollin' Bells, and Driving Wheel. The blues can cheer you up!!

The reason I bought the album though, was for the title. You see, I was raised Catholic and at the time I was experimenting with all kinds of ideas and thoughts, but the idea of resurrection of someone other than Jesus intrigued me. It was sac religious but at the same time salacious. The title of this album was broadening my horizons and I didn't even know who Paul Butterfield was. It is as if the title gave me permission to think about a resurrection in a different light. As a Catholic, the resurrection was sacred, it was solemn, it was a humbling bit of knowledge, it was part of the Catholic handshake. How in the world could Pigboy Crabshaw have the same fate? Was he the second coming?

Album cover art work was also important during this time-about 1967/68 so that also played into my interest. I should get a picture and add it to this vignette, but basically it was a life-like caricature of a guy with long hair and a handlebar mustache done in various shades of Orange, Brown, Black and Gray. The title of the album was interwoven into his Handlebar mustache. I remember standing over the bin full of albums and just admiring the artwork. The art work was cool the title of the album was irreverent and tickled my intelligence and I happened to have a couple of extra bucks just burning a hole in my pocket. I took Pigboy home and listened to it over and over again. My mother must have thought I was nuts. I used to do this with most of the music I bought because I was not just enjoying it, which I did, but I was studying it as well. The first couple of times through I thought I had made a bad mistake and I had, once again, bought something that was shinny and sparkley (sic) and intrigued me, but really didn't go below the surface beyond the cover. I put it away for a day or two but it seemed to stay with me. I found myself hearing little snippets that I could remember from my first listening sessions. The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw. It had happened. A few days later I went through both sides again two or three times. It started to make me happy. It's actually a weird phenomenon but when I would feel a little depressed I would put on Pigboy if I could get to it. Pigboy would make me happy.

I still have the original album I bought some 40 years ago and I do play it every once in a while but my primary Pigboy is my CD. Yeah, you can still buy it on Amazon so I guess a lot of people feel the same as I do to some extent. I am sure that they can relate to the blues tunes on the album but I am guessing that the resurrection part probably hooked their interest as well. Sometimes the words you learn in your youth can narrow your life path and you mental wanderings if you are not careful.