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Sweetbottom - Shrapnel In My Ankle

Sweetbottom - Angels of the Deep. I can provide a totally valid explanation for the existence of this record in my collection.

You see, I'd been eyeing this peculiar 12" at my favorite little hole-in-the-wall record shop for about a month. It was in the $5 box. After a few weeks it finally landed in the $1 bin. For the album artwork alone, I thought, this is worth a buck. Four late-70s dudes clad in white, cotton shirts and pants, hairy chests and... white shag carpet. Sweetbottom indeed. Adding to the allure, the notes revealed that the album had been recorded at the Shade Tree Resort Studio in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin between 1977-78. Could this be like the Great Lakes version of Yacht Rock? Could I be holding some long-forgotten, Midwest soft rock obscurity? I was tempted to cheat and pull out my cellphone to Google them, but then I paused. This is $1 we're talking about. Let's take the risk and live dangerously.

As I approached the register, I noted that the final track on the album was titled Shrapnel In My Ankle. What the hell did I just buy?



Answer: A radical jazz-fusion record.

Now, who is Sweetbottom? It turns out they are loosely connected with some pretty big prog/fusion acts. Sweetbottom was formed by high school friends attending Milwaukee's St. Francis High School in the late 60s. The band featured brothers Duane and Daryl Stuermer. In 1975, Frank Zappa and George Duke were blown away by the band's live show. This landed Daryl an audition with Zappa's violinist wünderkind, Jean-Luc Ponty. Daryl recorded four albums with Ponty. In 1978, Genesis were scrambling for a touring guitarist (in the wake of Steve Hackett's departure) for the ...And Then There Were Three... tour. Daryl took on the role and continued with them until 1992. He joined Phil Collins on his first solo outing, Face Value (1981), and has been a fixture of the Collins studio/touring band since. Daryl even earned songwriting credits for Collins hits like I Don't Wanna Know, Doesn't Anybody Stay Together Anymore and Only You Know and I Know.

 Daryl Stuermer wasn't featured on 78's Angels of the Deep. He was playing with Genesis at the time. Sweetbottom is one of those great "what if?" bands. What if Daryl Stuermer had stuck around and contributed his guitar and songwriting talent to his high school band? We'll never know. Sweetbottom officially broke up in '79. Not such a sweet ending.

The untapped potential of Sweetbottom



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