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Rating: "Top Jimmy cooks!
Top Jimmy swings!
He's got the look! Woo!
Top Jimmy, he's the king!"
(Van Halen "Top Jimmy" on 1984)
The other night I dreamed of Top Jimmy sitting on the sidewalk of La Brea on the Miracle Mile in Los Angeles, right next to his Mexican burrito stand, Top Taco. Alongside him were the bandmates: Dig the Pig, Joey Morales, Gil T. who always smiles, and Carlos Guitarlos with his beloved six-string under his arm and a lost look in his eyes. Worn-out sneakers, clothes worth a few pennies, typical bags under the eyes from nights spent getting drunk... "Top Jimmy knows how to cook, Top Jimmy knows how to make you dance," sang David Lee Roth.
During the eighties, at his stall right in front of the A&M offices, top-notch musicians would stop by: Billy Zoom and the X, Los Lobos, Chris D., Dave Alvin, Steve Wynn, Sid Griffin, even Tom Waits and punkers with not a dime to their name, but whom Jimmy fed without question.
Top Jimmy during those years was considered a living legend in Los Angeles, he himself claimed that anyone who manages to survive long enough in that city without collapsing from drugs, alcohol, or Aids ends up gaining a certain form of popularity. Jimmy Koncek would spend his evenings in bars, downing liters of bourbon and one night in 1980, he jokingly jumped on stage with the X to sing "Roadhouse Blues" and was bewitched from that point on.
Thus, in addition to feeding people, Top Jimmy started to make them dance! He surrounded himself with the Rhythm Pigs, the best bar band in the L.A. area, led by the talented Carlos Guitarlos (whom it's said didn't join the X only because of his deep attachment to the bottle), and for three consecutive years, every blue Monday, they performed at Cathay de Grande in Hollywood. And musician friends who bit into his tacos during the day would flood his concerts at night, often joining him on stage for fiery gigs. There was often Billy Zoom but also another young drunkard like Bob Forrest, the singer of Thelonious Monster, who was a frequent visitor.
Despite loving blues and country, Top Jimmy blessed the explosion of punk. Before that, Los Angeles was musically dead, and clubs like the Rox or the Whisky had been reduced to cabarets while the Troubadour only allowed those who already had a contract to perform. With punk, a lot of venues reopened, and Jimmy and the boys were a rockblues band without a contract but with a high alcohol content and energy capable of dragging even the punk audience.
The first record released in 1987 almost after eight years of concerts (solely around Los Angeles, because if these guys had gone on tour, they would have killed each other) gives a good idea of what they were like live: "Pigus Drunkus Maximus" is a tremendous rockblues blow at full power.
With the help of Steve Berlin (also as a producer) of Los Lobos on saxophones, DJ Bonebrake of X on drums, and Gene Taylor of the Blasters on piano, they manage to grind anything that falls under their instruments. The country-blues of "11 Months and 29 Days" by Johnny Paycheck is amped up with adrenaline rhythm scales, "Homework" by Otis Rush will make you sweat every last drop, "Do the Do" by beloved Howlin' Wolf has a hoarse and dragging sound with that obsessive rhythm and Taylor's beautiful piano work, "Framed " by the Coasters is cradled by Steve Berlin's saxophones trying in vain to calm the frontal assault of the rest of the instruments, as does the harmonica trying to break the sharp siege of the fierce version of "Workingman's Blues" by Merle Haggard, greatly admired by Top Jimmy for his no-nonsense attitude.
He himself sang with hands clasped holding the microphone close to his mouth as if it were one with his body, with a cigarette always lit in the knuckles of one hand and the other with the oversized Jim Beam bottle dangling which he consistently drained during the concert. Clad in the Top Taco stand t-shirt, he was a moody big guy but with an oddly sweet look, a sort of Mickey Rourke in the role of Johnny Handsome with the altered face. Indeed, moody is his marvelous version of "The Ballad of a Thin Man" by Bob Dylan, which I believe (God forgive me) is even better than the original. As well, "Spanish Castle Magic" by Hendrix blurs from the fury of Seattle's left-hander to blend homogeneously with the six covers and the three original tracks (the overwhelming opener "Dance with your baby" by Carlos Guitarlos, who later became a sort of hobo without a home) which manage to make the album seem like the work of one pen.
A pen that draws powerful and exciting lines able not only to involve those who love rock, blues, soul but also to thrill those lost in the ferocity of punk. "Pigus" was the only recording offspring of a band that for ten years ruled the roost in the boiling bars of the city of angels.
Indeed, because a legend like Top Jimmy cannot practically live too long and at 46 years old his body said enough to too much abuse leaving the stand and the stage empty. It has been over ten years since he stopped feeding and even making people dance.
The Top Taco has closed for good.
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