Today, Friday, December 2nd, John Waters is releasing “It’s In The Book” b/w ”Proud New Father,” his new audio-only release, available on a 7” single pressed on gold vinyl and at all DSPs worldwide through Sub Pop. This single features Waters covering a stand-up routine recorded and made famous by midwestern-US comedian/actor/musician Johnny Standley in 1952.

“It’s In The Book” is Waters’ attempt to portray, in Waters’ words, Standley’s “persnickety, droll, intellectually superior comic monologue,” a part song, part exhortation on the subject of Little Bo-Peep in the manner of a revivalist preacher. The original version of “It’s In the Book” was a huge, surprise hit upon its release in 1952, rising to #1 on the Billboard chart and selling over 1 million copies.

Its follow-up, the nursery rhyme gone-wrong, comedy routine, “Proud New Father” (released the following year in 1953), would not fare as well– perhaps due to its gory details. Waters recounts, “It may be the first sick joke I heard as a child.”

As in the original versions, the two Standley homages include gratuitous laugh tracks. Produced by Grammy-winner, Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, The Good Ones [Rwanda], poet Raymond Antrobus, Zomba Prison Project), Brennan states, “That recordings of dead people prompt living people to laugh is one of the more surreal aspects of recorded medium. That often identical canned laughter tracks have been used redundantly on countless albums and sitcoms for decades is all the eerier.”

This single follows the release of Waters’ “Prayer to Pasolini,” his tribute to the legendarily controversial Italian film director Pier Paolo Pasolini, that was recorded by Waters and Brennan at Pasolini’s murder site on the outskirts of Rome. That single was released as part of the Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 6 series on Waters’ 75th birthday, April 22nd, 2021.
 
Waters jokes that he chose to press the new single on gold vinyl so that he can at last be able to claim, “I’ve made a ‘Gold Record’.”
The Pope of Trash is currently traveling the US performing his annual A John Waters Christmas comedy tour, which resumes tonight, Friday, December 2nd in Eugene, OR at McDonald Theatre, and ends Thursday, December 22nd in Baltimore, MD at Baltimore SoundStage (a hometown show which sold out months in advance). Tickets for the remaining tour dates are on sale now.

“A John Waters Christmas” Tour Dates
Fri. Dec. 02 - Eugene, OR - McDonald Theatre
Sat. Dec. 03 - Los Angeles, CA - The Vermont Hollywood 
Sun. Dec. 04 - Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern  [SOLD OUT]
Mon. Dec. 05 - Austin, TX - Paramount Theatre
Tue. Dec. 06 - Dallas, TX - Kessler Theater
Wed. Dec. 07 - Denver, CO - The Soiled Dove Underground
Sat. Dec. 10 - Providence, RI - Columbus Theatre
Sun. Dec. 11 - New Orleans, LA - Civic Theatre NOLA
Mon. Dec. 12 - Santa Fe, NM - Lensic Performing Arts Center
Tue. Dec. 13 - Chicago, IL - Avondale Music Hall
Tue. Dec. 14 - St. Louis, MO - Sheldon Arts Center
Sat. Dec. 17 - Buffalo, NY - Asbury Hall at Babeville
Sun. Dec. 18 - New York, NY - City Winery  [SOLD OUT]
Mon. Dec. 19 -  Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
Tue. Dec. 20 - Asheville, NC - Diana Wortham Theatre
Wed. Dec. 21 - Alexandria, VA - The Birchmere [SOLD OUT]
Thu. Dec. 22 - Baltimore, MD - Baltimore SoundStage  [SOLD OUT]

Sub Pop is thrilled to announce that Washed Out, Hand Habits, Porridge Radio, and TV Priest will soon release singles as part of the Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 6. These talented artists join John Waters, Jeff Tweedy, LIDS, Duma, BNH Deluxe, Sheltered Workshop Singers, and more TBA in the 2021-2022 incarnation of Sub Pop’s legendary subscription-only series of limited-edition 7” singles (now with accompanying digital releases, because it’s the 21st century). Fans can – and should! – secure their copies of all twelve Singles Club Vol. 6 singles by subscribing now at the Sub Pop Mega Mart. Act fast – subscriptions are limited to 1,000 and going fast!
 

The Pope of Trash, John Waters, celebrates his 75th birthday today, April 22nd, 2021, by releasing “Prayer to Pasolini,” his tribute to the legendarily controversial Italian film director Pier Paolo Pasolini. The digital release, available now at all digital music services, includes John’s “Prayer to Pasolini,” John speaking in tongues, and 12 additional audio clips of John sharing his thoughts on Pasolini’s work. A 7” vinyl version of “Prayer to Pasolini” will be released later this year as part of the Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 6; the 7” version is only available to current Singles Club subscribers, and will be limited to 1,000 copies (subscribe here!).

The single was recorded at a small park in the wetlands near Rome’s airport, where a monument stands in Pasolini’s honor. It was here that Pasolini was run over multiple times with his own car by a hustler, after having his testicles deliberately crushed by his murderer.

The recordings were made with Waters’ long-time colleague and friend, Grammy-winning producer and author, Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Zomba Prison Project, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott). That it happened in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis only made it more surreal.

Waters and company arrived to find the site fenced and seemingly padlocked. Fortuitously, Brennan had bought wire-cutting tools just for the occasion, but they were ultimately not needed.

As Brennan recorded industrial, wind, and bird sounds, John concentrated on the healing, nearly ironic religious experience of being there.

The area is industrialized, but remains potentially more primitive than during the Roman Empire era, when it acted as the main port. Some of its ruins still stand. During Pasolini’s neorealist heyday, prostitutes were drawn by the area’s remoteness. The prostitutes were nicknamed “fireflies,” for the image created as they puffed cigarettes in the dark.

Waters’ and Pasolini’s careers overlapped, with their most notorious films — Pink Flamingos and Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom, respectively — being released and banned in the first half of the 1970s, in large part for featuring scenes of actors eating shit. Waters says that the only difference was that in Pink Flamingos (which pre-dates Pasolini’s Salo by more than three-and-a-half years), Divine ate actual shit, while the Italian actors used chocolate.

“But I don’t hold it against them,” Waters quips.

John Waters
Prayer To Pasolini

7” Single Tracklisting
1. Prayer to Pasolini
2. Onsite at Pasolini’s Memorial in Italy
3. Speaking in Tongues (featuring sounds from Pasolini’s murder site)
 
Digital Tracklisting:
1. Prayer to Pasolini
2. Onsite at Pasolini’s Memorial in Italy
3. Speaking in Tongues (featuring sounds from Pasolini’s murder site)
4. Conspiracy Theories
5. Openly Gay
6. Eating Shit
7. Drive-in Theaters
8. Political Correctness
9. Anna Magnani
10. Casting Methods
11. Pasolini’s Artistry
12. Influence of Pasolini
13. News of Pasolini’s Death
14. The Neorealists