BP Fallon
Impossible task: Write about BP Fallon in 500 words.
Twenty-seven words wasted. Plus three more.
How does one go about writing one of music’s most fascinating personalities in such a brief article? This man, to his credit, deserves a complete published biography of full-novel length; and the reader would still be left in the dark on many parts of his musically rich past. He is ‘the walrus.’ He is ‘Major Tom.’
Stick with the content, Kory. Wang Dang Doodle. BreakThru Radio. BP in 2010 and nowhere else. Forget biography. Musical selection is what matters here.
114.
I don’t know how many of you have ever heard of, or even attempted to read, the notorious punk history Lipstick Traces (1989) by Greil Marcus. It is one of rock music’s most revered treatises. Linear, it is not. In a reflection of its subject matter–punk–the book is a smash down of historical references to the art movement from which it was inspired. In imitating this method, I feel the only way to write about BP’s program Wang Dang Doodle is to shoot from the hip. Allow words to find their own way onto the page rather than summon them with purpose. To borrow from BP himself, “lasso” phrases that “benignly rampage around my head,” because when I ask BP about where he draws inspiration for his show, and the music he wants to feature, this is what he gives me:
“I simply lasso some of the tunes that are benignly rampaging around my head and herd these enthusiastic notes into the sonic corral. I saddle ’em up and ride ’em awhile – while giving thanks for the magnificence of being alive. And then I bow to the angels for allowing me to share this music with the world and beyond, simultaneously climbing into the internet pulpit and unleashing these eager sounds into the Wang Dang Doodle ozone that emanates all around this magic church of aural sects.
This quote not to be edited/changed.”
Word count: 352. Wrap this man up in 148.
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture,” so the century-long famed saying goes. Listening to Wang Dang Doodle this morning and trying to translate it into words, I may as well moonwalk on the blueprints of the next Daniel Libeskind project. The music on the show is in BP’s head. It is as if BreakThru Radio has somehow mined the ore of Fallon’s consciousness and extracted the music mineral in its purest form. Free to “unleash” directly from the “pulpit” of his “sonic corral,” the “ozone” of sound he preaches reaches us unfiltered. Forty-seven words to go.
BP Fallon is 20th Century western pop and rock incarnate. He is what Alice sees when she looks into the looking glass while plugged into a Marshall Stack. Wang Dang Doodle is your spiral down the rabbit hole. Don’t be late.
Five hundred.
– Kory French
BreakThru Radio Blog 
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Dear Mrs. Roosevelt,
Here are the facts of the case:
BP Fallon is clearly on a wavelength that I’d like to surf, but I’ll have to wait on the next set.
And, Kory French is like a brother to me, yet he is the finest writer I’ve known. Just so you know, he tried surfing for the first time at Waimea Bay, Hawaii… but that’s another story entirely.
So, to the point, Kory has to work three jobs to stay afloat in NYC, writing and hustling words and spinning vinyl records to the blusey bebop beat of his irregular heart strings. He wouldn’t have it any other way, I’m sure ‘o that, “There’s honor in it,” he’d say, in his mixed up Canadian / Irish accent.
Ahhh, don’t fret, I’m done, but before I go, I’d like to add, as Dylan said of Woody Guthrie, (or was it of FDR?), the world was lucky to see him born…
Sal
Kory, I’m honoured. Thank you. And you write LAMF. Soul and heart and art and out there and in there. Let it rock! Well, you do.
With appreciation,
BP