Jean Shepherd is Depressing
December 15th, 2007Huh. I was familiar with Jean Shepherd from the context of his writing and narration in The Christmas Story, so I assumed he was a sometimes funny, sometimes poignant radio personality in the vein of Garrison Keillor. However, I recently stumbled upon a site linking to a podcast with an absolutely enormous (650 or so hour) archive of Jean Shepherd’s old radio shows. I’m still listening to the really early 1950’s stuff, but MAN is the guy a bleak, gloomy, sad, apathetic, depressed guy. Came as quite a surprise.
December 26th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Hey– just wanted to shoot you a Merry Christmas, man. Hope the new year’s lookin’ fun!
December 26th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Also, just as an interesting tidbit of random trivia, my dad used to play guitar for a bluegrass/dixieland/whatever group called the Bo Conrad Spit Band (on account of the many kazoos that were played), and in the late 70’s they performed on Prarie Home Companion. Vague connection to blog post established; end of line.
December 27th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Thanks for both the vague connection and the Christmas greeting. Merry Christmas (belated) and Happy New Years (prescient) to you too.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:28 am
I bought an album at a second-hand store a while back for 50 cents. It looked kind of cool and 70’s ish and all the guys on the cover had signed there pictures. The songs are cute with all the kazoos and jugs and a suit-case etc… So I thought I’d do a spitband search and here you are, a decendent. Which one was your dad? Maybe I could scan it and send it to you. It appears the band is still active?
September 30th, 2008 at 6:31 am
I bought an album at a second-hand store a while back for 50 cents. It looked kind of cool and 70’s ish and all the guys on the cover had signed their pictures. The songs are cute with all the kazoos and jugs and a suit-case etc… So I thought I’d do a spitband search and here you are, a decendent. Which one was your dad? Maybe I could scan it and send it to you. It appears the band is still active? Gillespie sounds familiar. Those guys didn’t even put the date of the recording anywhere on the record or cover.
October 12th, 2008 at 2:44 am
Recently, I watched a KSTP-TV segment from On The Road and a small part of it was about a jug band competition in Duluth over the Memorial Day weekend. It was fun to see Bo Conrad and his group playing, as I knew him back in the 70’s. He actually married on of my good friends, Patti. Does anybody know (Jesse) if they play on a regular basis and how I could find out how to see them? I think your dad and I graduated together from Cambridge HS.
Small world!
November 23rd, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Hello, looking to get in contact with surviving members of Bo Conrad SpitBand from the 1970’s. Please forward me a note, much thanks.
December 12th, 2008 at 6:20 am
Mark Johnson,
I am going to forward your comment to Jesse (the commenter whose dad was in the band), but the contact information you left for yourself isn’t working…
October 16th, 2012 at 12:16 am
His stories are funny, but his radio show was more a reflection of his more serious side.
Check out all his stories not just the Christmas story. A fistful of Fig Newtons and others are quite good. I personally find Garrison too sappy and sugary. As a person Jean, Shepherd was not a model person as he was a rotten Father,who couldn’t live up to his image.
His own Father deserted the Family when Jean was in High-school.
November 10th, 2012 at 8:25 am
I don’t know who you are but ran into an old post…the BCSB has recently issued a double CD release…if you’re interested…E-mail me street address and I’ll send you a copy for free…..we did this for anyone on the fan club…it’s not a scamm…just trying to get the music out. Bo Conrad