Corky's Debt to His Father is the only solo studio album by Mayo Thompson, the leader of the Red Krayola, released in 1970 by Texas Revolution.[1][2] At the time, the album was recorded at Walt Andrus' studio and set to release on his independent label Texas Revolution. However, due to the executives hating the record, it was given no official release, with only a few hundred copies pressed and sold via mail order.[3]
"Horses" would later be re-recorded by Thompson when he joined Pere Ubu on The Art of Walking (1980). The album would be reissued for the first time in 1985 on the English label Glass Records. It was later reissued again in 1994, on vinyl and CD, through Drag City.[4]
In 2013, Thompson formed the Corky Band and performed the entirety of Corky's Debt to His Father for the first time at the Cropped Out music festival in Louisville, Kentucky, and later at California's Hammer Museum in 2020.
Background
After the Red Krayola disbanded in 1968, Mayo Thompson returned to Walt Andrus' Studio with various Nashville session musicians to record a solo album. Corky's Debt to His Father was recorded and released in 1970 on independent record label Texas Revolution.[3] At the time, promotional posters were distributed for the album in Rolling Stone in 1971 and later the Texas zine Not Fade Away in 1977.[5][6]
The cover image is an illustration by John Charles Dollman for an article in the British newspaper The Graphic published September 10, 1892. The album's title was inspired by a cat named Corky which laid "cigar" shaped turds. The phrase "Corky's Cigar" would be displayed on the side of the record sleeve.[7][8] In an interview, Thompson remarked about the plans they had before the demise of the Texas Revolution label: "We were going to make records of the news. We were going to put the newspaper to music, and sell it on street corners. Like make it in one day, press it, and sell it the next week. Topical songs, sold out of the back of a truck. All the things that we've later come to see—indie music, the DIY scene, all that stuff."[9]
Corky's Debt to His Father was recorded in 1970 and released on Texas Revolution; however, due to the executives "hating" the record, it was given no official release, with only a few hundred copies pressed and sold via mail order, with the label folding shortly after.[3]
In 1994, The Chicago Reader wrote that "the music has an easy, folksy feel, the crack band laying down a down-home ambience that's unkempt in a precise way."[12]The New Yorker called Corky's Debt to His Father "an emblematic cult record, twisting the ears of a fervent few."[13]Trouser Press deemed it "a left-field version of a blues and neo-vaudeville album [that is] played mostly acoustic on slide guitar, piano, bass and elementary traps, with some horns and electricity."[14]
LA Weekly called it "an overlooked collection of cracked and arty folk songs that set the template for lo-fi, indie-pop styles decades later."[15] In a retrospective review, Richie Unterberger assessed the record as being "more palatable to pop ears than any of Thompson's numerous Red Krayola records" as well as appraising it as "an eclectic folk-rock base that bore some rough similarities to Syd Barrett's work".[16]
Legacy
In 2013, Thompson formed the Corky Band and performed the entirety of Corky's Debt to His Father for the first time at the Cropped Out music festival in Louisville, Kentucky, and later at California's Hammer Museum in 2020.[17][18]
All tracks are written by Mayo Thompson, except where noted. "Woof" is an instrumental outtake from the sessions, released in 2004 on the Red Krayola's Singles compilation and later the 2008 Drag City reissue of Corky's Debt to His Father.
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