Jim Shelley: The Haunted Life, 1992
PERSONNEL: Jim Shelley, everything
TRACK LISTING:
1. Heaven
2. In My Room
3. The Girl Whose Name
4. Blue Man
5. Haunted Road Blues
6. Notes from the Underground
7. New James Shelley Blues
8. Fool for Love
9. The Haunted Life
10. Talk to Me
11. She’s the Kind of Girl
“I can do what I want to do/In my little room”
Jim was, and is, an essential artist in the cassette underground; beyond question one of the finest songwriters I encountered in my travels through the Demo Universe. Recording under his own name and, more often, as Book Of Kills, his music stirs Dylan, Lennon & Young into a rough and tumble gumbo of poetic, impassioned American Rock like you want it. Much more from this guy to come.
Mixed September 27-30, 1992, The Haunted Life cassette, Jim’s seventh release in three years, was accompanied by extensive, evocative liner notes. The track listing above is from his official discography, but the order does not match the liner notes. Does it matter? You can figure it out if it matters to you.
3 thoughts on “Jim Shelley: The Haunted Life, 1992”
Wow! I saw this posted on my Facebook newsfeed, and made a quick comment. But I suspected my memory was faulty, so I went into my garage and started digging. When Jim was making his decalogy for CD he commented that some of his taped music was lost and I told him I thought I might have some he thought were missing. So, I gave him my collection. I did have a few that he used, but I think more importantly, I had the covers and liner notes that had gone missing from his collection. Anyway, he not only gifted me his decalogy, but he also returned my tapes. So I was able to unearth my tape collection, and sure enough… The Haunted Life was in the collection. Thanks for uploading the album. I listened through it once again, and your description of his poetic gumbo is dead on. He is, as I said in my Facebook post, hands down, my favorite indie musician. And to my knowledge, is still creating music today… just as fresh, edgy, and insightful as ever.
My Jim Shelley/Book of Kills tape collection includes:
Bloom or Die?
For the Good of the Cause
Don’t Stop the Scream
The Haunted Life
Wee Jim’s Blackeye
Big Business Monkey Vol. One
Saint Judas
Splendid Trigger
You’re welcome, Richard! I’m fairly sure I have all those tapes, so stay tuned for more BOK!
Jeez…I just came across this. Thanks, Richard! And, as always, my undying thanks and affection to you, Jim Santo.