Swamp Dogg

Whereas most soul singers of the 1970s were intent on bellowing out their heartfelt sorrows with overwrought intensity, Swamp Dogg delivered funky, raunchy, psychedelic tales of sex, drugs and alcohol that made him a cult hero in the eyes of the era's counter-culture. Described as a cross between Sly Stone and Frank Zappa, Jerry Williams Jr grew up in Portsmouth, Virginia and started performing in clubs as a 10-year-old with his mother Vera Lee (a cabaret singer). Releasing his first single aged 12 under the name Little Jerry, he grew up listening to country music radio and developed an unflinchingly honest and darkly comic songwriting style unlike any other black R&B star of the time. He wrote tracks for Gene Pitney and co-penned the country hit She's All I Got for Johnny Paycheck, before creating his alter ego Swamp Dog and his classic album Total Destruction To Your Mind (1970). Recorded at the legendary Muscle Shoals Studio, it deserved to be regarded as one of soul's great psychedelic moments, alongside the work of George Clinton and Curtis Mayfield, but had only cult appeal until Kid Rock sampled the lead track in 1999. Major label Island released third album Have You Heard This Story? (1973), but his anti-Vietnam songs landed him on President Nixon's "enemies list" and the music industry shunned him. Still performing and writing into his 70s, he has described himself as "the most successful failure in the United States - and that's really not bad at all."

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