| WHY "CRABMEAT"? Little
Jerry Thompson grew up near the ocean in Dewey Beach,
Delaware. Listening to the waves crash, the small
sickly crustacean dreamed of boarding a Viking vessel
and ravaging the coasts of New Jersey, carrying off
frightened tourists to be sold as slaves or tossed
overboard to pacify the deep sea spirits.
That day never came. In its place there was, finally,
a dark night of cards, drunken debauchery, and the
consumption of vast quantities of seafood. The morning
rose dank and fearful on young Jerry, by this time
a callow youth with the pale furze of manhood just
darkening his rosy cheeks.
Setting out with the garbage for the Dempster Dumpster
by the highway side; nothing loathe, scooping up three
paper bags of the sloggy goop and plopping down in
Don Wood's tiny sports car, only to realize, standing
to dump the load, that paper gets waterlogged and
gives way, in this case coating Jerry with the juice
of many pounds of seafood and beer.
With only one set of clothes for the long weekend,
he toughed it out, to the jeers of his peers, who
stuck him with the handle "Crabmeat," a
name whose pejorative edge rankled until...
“It became a way to set myself apart from
the pack, to put my stamp on the tiny scruffy bit
of turf that is MINE MINE HAHAHAHA. Gasp wheeze,
snorf?
AND NOW….
I have appeared at the World's Fair,and Veteran's
Memorial Auditorium in San Francisco, with the poet
Charles Bukowski. I've played Sloppy Joe's, Key
West; Philadelphia's Tin Angel, and the Ram's Head
in Annapolis, as well as watering spots from Toronto
to Missoula to Rome and Galway. I have shared the
stage with the Pointer Sisters, Richie Havens, Steve
Forbert,Roscoe the Wonder Horse, and Tiny Tim.
My tune "Hot Springs" aired on Doctor
Demento, and I was a guest on Kate Wolfe's radio
show in Santa Rosa, CA."
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