N.L. Belardes has written a “history” of sorts of Slim. There are a lot of grating inaccuracies, particularly the reshaping of Slim in the image of Darby Crash. That’s wishful thinking on somebody’s part—at least Rex tried to call him on it. Too bad he didn’t listen.
Caroline Kinikin
made such an awful fuss
about getting this
card back (it is hers)
that we decided a long
time ago she never
would . . . Yes, you win
the “prize”. Thank you
for everything; you’re a
rare individual.
. . .And Happy Birthday
—may you never be
president! Much love, Slim and Lulu
Lulu (Mary Smith) was Scott’s second wife; his first wife (not mentioned in the history) was named Jane as I recall. Caroline was the owner of a punk club called Mannequins. Slim played there, and I photographed there hundreds of nights. The “may you never be president” comes from a Henry Miller novel (either Tropic of Capricorn or Tropic of Cancer, I can’t remember which) that identifies the problem with Americans as the delusional belief, drummed in from childhood, that we can all grow up to be president. French people, in contrast—according to Miller—don’t suffer from such delusions and are happier as a result. Slim was his own train wreck—he wasn’t trying to grow up to be president, or Darby Crash.
Slim was a complicated guy. No one really saw it all; there’s a huge hole in the biography—the mid-nineties were a lot more twisted than this “history” implies. I was there for some of it. Slim said it best: “I’m Slim the Drifter and that’s a full time job.” His career was longer and more productive than Darby Crash; the comparison is insulting— he was the real deal, not a cheap imitation following in anyone’s footsteps. I wonder if the about to be released biopic on Darby is the reason for all the creative historiography? No matter. I’ve got so much of Slim around the house that I don’t need a movie to remember him.
For a sample, you might enjoy “Come to Me” (at least I think that’s the name of this tune). It’s from an unreleased (as far as I know) tape he called “Karaoke Cowboy” (at least that’s what he wrote on mine, he also called it “The Bass Album”). I also uncovered a recording that a friend and I made during his short visit to Arkansas. I’ll post it when I get the chance.
