DINE-IN DELIVERY DEEP FREEZE DON'T ASK STORE VIEW CART CONTACT ABOUT

Choagie Graham: Demented Ramblings of the Young "Choagie" Graham (CD)

$9 plus shipping

When David Graham was nine years old, he developed an alter-ego known as "Choagie" and recorded his mainly-incoherent ramblings on the family tape recorder. Decades later, the results are available to the masses. After Christian spirituals sung with his aunt and little sister "Nini," Choagie's radio personality, Bob Montgovern, hosts skits in which Superman breaks windows and damages trains, and then attempts to avoid compensating owners by telling them he has to go fight crime (later to battle the "Witch of God's Death"); a young boy advocates for cats' rights; presidential spokesmen can't handle stress; and out-of-breath war veterans segue into Polish jokes. On "Drug Song by Warren Extrada," young Choagie sings: "Oh, cocaine, dope and joints/Nothing's wrong with them when I smoke them, eat them, drink them/Nothing happens to me when I do anything with them/ It causes problems for other people but I feel better then."

Most of the recordings portray a more innocent side to Choagie, and some of the moments in which he encourages little Nini to sing are downright heartwarming. Between skits, Choagie makes that static channel-changing sound, the telltale sign that Demented Ramblings is a slice-of-life portrait of a child of the TV generation with free time on his hands. Pant-wettingly funny stuff.
--Mike Keefe-Feldman, The Missoula Independent