Stickball, by P-vert

An exchange between Richard Metzger & Robert Sterling

Robalini: Hey, Richard, isn’t Dan the Record Man the dude you tried to stump with an obscure record? One of my favorite stories from you…

Metzger: That story has to do with Bleecker Bob and the dirty novelty record “Stickball,” done by an artist named “P-vert.”

For anyone who cares, Bleecker Bob who is (or was, he could be dead for all I know) an ill-tempered asshole who owned an eponymous record store in New York. One day I was in his store where my good friend Nate Cimmino was working at the time and BB said “Metzger, you’re so smug, you think you know everything, but you don’t know SHIT. I am the mogul of moguls. Name me any record title and I will tell you the artist, name me any artist and I will tell you at least one of their song titles.

Nate and I had each found a copy of this curious dirty novelty 45 called “Stickball” a few weeks before at Downstairs Records. We looked at each other, each knowing what the other was thinking, but I spoke: “Stickball” It was the most obscure thing I could think of, sure to stop him in his tracks.

Bleecker Bob laughed his loudmouthed Brooklyn wiseguy laugh. “YOU ASSHOLE!! I *AM* FUCKIN’ P-VERT! YOU TRIED TO STUMP ME BY NAMING MY OWN FUCKIN’ RECORD! HAHAHAHAHAHA….”

And indeed I had. He pulled a copy right off the shelf and proved it.

True story...