Limited Edition Vinyl Recordings & Handmade Musical Artifacts from Tucson, AZ
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Sloppy Joe and the Cruise - Keep on Cruisin' LP! PIAPTK - 280



Sold Out! Check the Pressed Records Archives Section for stragglers....

I REALLY love this record. And the response to the soft-rollout of it has been incredible. If the first pressing sells out, we will probably do another run asap. This record needs to get out there and be heard!...

It's Jimmy Buffet meets Brian Wilson Meets Jerry Garcia. It's clever, self aware, self-deprecating, beautiful, funny, sad, and infectious. It was recorded in 1975 by a Key West slacker named “Sloppy” Joe Flappens, and sat on a shelf until a year and a half ago, when he passed away and it was sent to Doug O'Donnell (former Dr. Dog guitarist) as a condition of Joe's will. Joe and Doug met in 2004 at a bar after Doug played in Key West, and they became penpals. Below is the teaser. The full story is in the zine that is included with the record. bookshelf at Joe's house for 40 years. See the teaser story below....

About the Record:
-First Pressing Limited to 250 copies in die-cut covers.
-On Yellow with red fleck sunset vinyl.
- Includes a zine with images and what little information is known about “Sloppy Joe” Flappens and the recording session
- Includes a pack of custom Keep on Cruisin' rolling papers

After a show in Key West, FL, in 2004, Dr. Dog guitarist Doug O'Donnell wandered into a run down dive bar called Chart Room, and ordered a drink. There we only a handful of lonely regulars in the bar, but one of them came over and sat down next to Doug after hearing that he was a touring musician. For the next two hours, this skinny, scraggly bearded man, although in his mid-50s had the world weariness of someone far older, unrolled his own incredible history (while Doug unrolled the $5 bills of his tour per diem to keep them both in rum and cokes). This man was “Sloppy” Joe Flappen. In the late 70's, (as he told it), Sloppy Joe was one of the kings of the Southern Florida Beach Bar scene. He had a band, “The Cruise”, that would pack houses all the area, long before Jimmy Buffet's “Margaritaville” would bring Tropical Rock to the masses. Buffett and Flappen were working the same circuit, and, while not exactly friends (there was, unshockingly, a “woman to blame” for this), they occasionally played together. Joe gave him a copy of the record that night (dubbed over a Dan Fogelberg cassette), which became a favorite in the Dr Dog tour van. Joe and Doug continued to be penpals for the next decade, but eventually lost touch. When Joe passed away in 2018, he left the master tapes to Keep on Cruisin' to Doug, along with a note asking him to get it out to anyone who might care. So that is what we are trying to do.

Pressing Information

First Pressing Limited to 250 copies