Mr. Retail

Years ago I worked in a shop on Pittsburgh's South Side called Pittsburgh Guitars. They sold (and still do) all manner of musical stringed things. This was in the early 1990s when the South Side, fired by the Rusted Root tribe, was evolving into a never ending Grateful Dead environment.

We used to talk about, what else, the girls that came into the shop. The often lovely, always earthy, sirens wearing tattered clothes and smelling of patchouli wandered in to get strings for their acoustic guitars. And, being earth mamas, they really didn't shave their armpits or their legs (which never really bothered me all that much) which Mark found a little bit distressing.

So, as I was want to do in those days, I wrote a song about hanging out at Pittsburgh Guitars called Mr. Retail. I've never recorded it but Hipster Dufus used to perform it. It's a good song based on Bowie's Gene Genie (or is it Jean Jeanie?).

Now, of course, the irony is that I'm Mr. Retail. I'm sitting here at the shop writing on my blog,
but at least I'm writing.

But I am Mr. Retail...

You gotta watch what you put out into the universe!

Philip Harris

http://www.pittsburghguitars.com/