![]() ![]() The Dog’s owner, Roger Bohn, looked the part, attired in biker leathers and a bowler hat, with his hair pulled back in a long ponytail. There was a motorcycle shop across the street where bikers hung out working on their motorcycles. As local saxophonist Ernie Krivda remembered, “If you were going to open up a club and bring in jazz, the last place you would think of was this particular area of West 25th Street. Perhaps this is because it was located in a rather seedy part of town off Interstate 71. Bowling was big in the Midwest, so it was unusual for an alley to fail to draw enough business to sustain itself, but this one did. Opened in October 1971, the Smiling Dog was housed in an old bowling alley. And yet this gig would have ramifications for Weather Report that lasted well beyond these three nights in Cleveland, as we shall see below. So the Dog, as it was affectionately known to the locals, was just another date in a string of dates. The band was in the midst of a four-month stretch in which Bob Devere kept them regularly booked, primarily at jazz clubs, with some college and university dates thrown into the mix. His honesty is our guide.On September 15, 1972, Weather Report made its way to Cleveland, Ohio, for the first of three nights at the Smiling Dog Saloon. The onus is on the listener to lift the life lessons Slug peppers by way of flaunting his mistakes. That is to say, while God Loves Ugly plays at the blueprint for emo-rap, it’s also a self-help book read in the inverse. In that way, the album subverts itself without so much as trying. To achieve this, we have to elevate Atmosphere’s negotiations to include the listener, who takes Slug’s constant self-hate and deprecation as a lesson in what not to do in the face of struggle. While much of God Loves Ugly has to do with trying to recoup a sense of self after love goes south, the album is just as much about finding your self-worth out from the rubble and doing so successfully. Yet, these opening bars serve as the accidental thesis of the album. He is somber and embittered, and Ant reflects his derelict mood via snappy drums and samples of child’s taunts.Ĭalls of being “so ugly” open the album, followed by a peeved Slug declaring: “ Atmosphere and maybe you don't like us / But of all the stars in the sky, believe we're one of the brightest.” From “Onemosphere” to the bonus cuts, Slug is on the defensive, and as a scorned man, we don’t expect much else from him. He has been left on the fringes of love with his drink of choice and a meal ticket. Slug has been dumped, not by one woman, but by all women. ![]() God Loves Ugly is a battered break-up record for the ages. ![]()
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