"Big Daddy" The Bainbridge Bad Ass

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. "Big Daddy"



"What keeps 'Big Daddy' happy?"
(R. Pollard)

If you are an attentive reader of this blog you will know that I gave Penny 26 baby chicks for her birthday back in March. We were assured by the hatchery that there would be at least three roosters in the collection of 26 balls o' fluff.



It would appear that Penny got lucky and is now the proud surrogate mother of at least five roosters.

As we had agreed earlier, Penny named what appeared to be the studliest of those five roosters, "Smitty," in my honor. As it turns out, Smitty may be the studliest of the roosters, but he is definitely not "ruling the roost."

That job has been claimed by the rooster Penny's 10-year-old grandson, Keegan, has aptly named "Big Daddy."

"Big Daddy" is one bad ass son of a bitch.

He has been kicking the other rooster's asses on a regular basis (including my namesake, poor "Smitty"). It has gotten so bad that Penny has had to remove "Big Daddy" from the pen. That alone was no easy task, as he has also come after Penny and other family members on several occasions. Penny was only about three feet away from "Big Daddy," and nervous as hell, when she snapped the great photo above.

So that is the story of "Big Daddy," the Bainbridge Bad Ass.

But wait . . . there's more!

They (i.e. the teeming masses) said that it couldn't be done, but I am about to segue (smoothly I might add) from a story about one of Penny's roosters to a Guided By Voices story!

[The teeming masses: "NO WAY!" Yours truly, snidely, yet calmly: "Way."]


It would appear that on Easter, a long, long time ago, in the small burg of Northridge, Ohio, one Robert Pollard bought a baby chick for his son.

This baby chick, much like "Big Daddy" above, grew into one ferocious bastard. Because of the rooster's very aggressive nature, Bob named him (you guessed it!) "Big Daddy."

Tired of being attacked everyday, Bob offered the rooster to his next door neighbor. That helped . . . to a degree.

Apparently, when Bob would get home from work (he was still teaching grade school at the time), "Big Daddy" would be in the neighbor's yard waiting for him. What ensued was a race between Bob and the rooster, with the finish line being the front door of Bob's house. Having been a three sport star at Northridge high school, Bob would almost always win the race, but not necessarily the battle. You see, there was occasionally a problem with the front door being locked.


Bob's "Big Daddy" ended up being immortalized on the cover of the first full-length album from Guided By Voices, released in 1987, titled "Devil Between My Toes."



However, that was not enough to fully honor Bob's "Big Daddy" and so his legacy was also captured in song. Specifically, in the anthemic "Don't Stop Now," a gorgeous paean to perseverance and fortitude, from the album "Under The Bushes, Under The Stars."

Please listen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u30i19DhXxc


Don't Stop Now
(R. Pollard)

Woke up one morning saw a rooster
struttin' by my house
6 pack ring round his neck
'Cock o' the Block'
Don't stop now
Don't stop now

What keeps 'Big Daddy' happy?
What makes the buzzard buzz?
A leaky quart of motor oil - 'head for the hills'
Don't stop now
Don't stop now

We pulled into economy island
'King Shit and the Golden Boys'
Plenty more where we come from - 'Top o' the line'
Don't stop now
Don't stop now

Don't stop now
Don't stop now



That concludes my story about the two roosters, "Big Daddy" and "Big Daddy."




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