Green Jello: The history of the band behind Three Little Pigs
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Founded in the early 80’s by frontman Bill Manspeaker it seemed unlikely that Green Jello would ever achieve any sort of success. Even though they were dubbed the “world’s worst band”, by the early 90’s Green Jello would get airplay on MTV, sign a production deal with the network, have a gold record, and be in the guinness book of world records for most band members with around 770. Today let’s explore the history of green jelly and whatever happened to the band.
A combination of punk and metal, The Washington Post perfectly summed up Green Jello’s music saying They play nondescript hard rock music unencumbered by weighty lyrics, dress up in costumes that look like mutant Saturday morning cartoon characters created with the budget of a third-grade pageant, and saturate the whole package with a sense of humor straight out of a junior high school bathroom.
Green Jello was the brain child of one man, Buffalo native Bill Manspeaker who grew up under difficult circumstances. Six weeks after he was born, his father died in an auto accident.
His mother Louise would tell the buffalo news "It was tough; it was just me and Bill," "I always worried about him. You raise a child alone, and you wonder if he will stay out of trouble. Billy was always a good kid with a great imagination.
But by Manspeaker’s own admission he was a bully in school, He would reveal in the same article “I was always the bully in school. I took karate lessons so I could learn how to beat up little kids better. I learned how to do this karate move called the Dance of Death. I earned my next belt for knowing this, then I thought, 'Wait a minute. I'm being rewarded because I can snap somebody's back in two and ruin their life? This is stupid.' After that I put all my energy into the band."
Manspeaker would name his band after what he thought was the worst menu at his high school cafeteria and it also served as a characterization of the band’s musical abilities. Manspeaker would reveal the moment he founded the band as you can see here on RU-vid Channel On With the Show.
Manspeaker was and still is pretty self deprecating about the band’s musical abilities. Green Jello’s motto was "we suck” & it was pretty common for him to get audiences who attended their shows to yell “green jello sucks”. A big musical influence in Manspeaker’s life was his uncle who was Elvis impersonator in his hometown of Buffalo using the stage name Big Wheelie. Manspeaker wold tell the washington post "I thought he was Elvis for my whole childhood, and one day I saw Elvis Presley on TV and I said, 'Look, Mom, some guy's imitating Uncle Chuck!' It was like, 'Uh, no, Billy.' I was devastated. It was worse than finding out my mom was Santa Claus."
Unlike a lot of bands who cut their teeth first playing covers, Manspeaker was honest about his band’s musical talent admitting they couldn’t do other people’s songs justice telling the Post “we had instruments, but we didn't know how to play them" --, "we decided to make up our own songs so no one would know if we screwed 'em up,". "Then we thought we'd dress up in costumes so people would just look at them and not pay attention to the songs, but that still didn't work. Finally we thought, let's just say we're the world's worst band, then everyone will just come and laugh at us. That worked” he’d say. That’s not to say all the musicians who played in the group were bad Tool members Danny Carney and Maynard James Keenan spent time in the group and Keenan can even be heard on the track three little pigs.
Green Jello’s shows would became synonymous with just having a good time as the band donned costumes, spraying the audience with liquids while they in turn would throw jello at the band. Of course their onstage antics got the group from quite a few clubs, but one of the band’s first big backers would be Bud Burke who owned the buffalo establishment the Continental Club. He booked Green Jello when other clubs said no and supported them financially during their lean years.
Manspeaker would tell the Washington Post why the group stood out telling the Post “"It's like when you're driving down the freeway and the traffic's all
13 сен 2024
