2003 SEPTEMBER 1 #244
Joey - Last Time I Saw Richard
Back in 2001 our radio station did several man on the street interviews; we interviewed drunks, prostitutes, Goths, the homeless, and other assorted nighttime dwellers of downtown San Diego. While one of our assistants was trying to interview some tourists we noticed a very tall and skinny man yelling at the top of his lungs on the street corner of F Street and 5th Avenue.
As we finished interviewing the tourists from Minnesota we made our way towards the man. Then he spotted us and ran over. He introduced himself as Joey and he was selling "art' for five dollars. His art consisted of a manila folder with bubble gum, newspaper, and trash pasted onto it. He called the pieces "Joey"s Pauge' it was his "electric, esoteric, metaphysical, montage, collage, faux-age'. He stated that with all the strife in the world today that everyone needs his art to (this is where he starts singing) "make you smile, make you feel good, everything you do, you bring me up!' and then he rambles about how he needs cash. The man doing the interviews was named Richard and he started to introduce himself and the crew that was with him (which included Zeb, the sound engineer). The moment he heard Richard"s name he pushed everyone around him aside and started belting Joni Mitchell"s ""Last Time I Saw Richard'. While he was singing this several people gathered around to hear him serenade, he was so good I bought my own "Joey"s Pauge' and tipped him an extra five bucks.
After we did this interview we aired it on The Eddy Ash Show; response was overwhelming. I later went back to the corner of F and Fifth to see if Joey is still there, I couldn"t find him but several people told me that they do see him around downtown San Diego still selling his art and singing. A couple of weeks after this recording Richard, the interviewer, went crazy and began threatening people at the station. He began to trash the station and in the process he even erased several of the master tapes from the man on the street interviews, luckily I snagged this to play for some of my friends before he erased it. He was later arrested and remains in a mental hospital to this day. And to this day I still think Joey had more grasp on reality then Richard.
- Zeb and Jen, Oldies and Oddities, http://www.geocities.com/oldiesandoddities
Zeb updates us on September 7:
Hiya folks! I just got back from downtown San Diego. And guess who I met? The one and only JOEY!!!! He was at a different corner and yes he is still selling "Joey's Pauge", am I spelling that right? I'm too drunk to think. Well I approached Joey and introduced myself. I told him about the MP3 of him singing on the 365 Days Project and he is excited!!! He wanted me to pass on this message: "Love and peace to all you. I am smiling and singing and glad all over. Be good to one another." He says that if anyone is in downtown San Diego he would sing "The Last Time I Saw Richard" to you. The last time I saw Richard? Still in the mental hospital. Talk about crazy!!!
TT-1:53 / 2.2MB / 160kbps 44.1khz
