Legendary record producer Jerry Wexler died on Friday. His contributions to rhythm and blues were immense–starting with the fact that he coined the term–but he ranks high in my pantheon of interview subjects for a totally different reason. Out of the hundreds of people I’ve spoken with in the line of work, he’s the only one to conclude the interview by telling me a dirty joke.

Oh, you want to hear the joke? It went like this:

After forty years on the job, a mailman’s retiring–he’s working his route for the last time ever. At one house, he’s greeted at the door by a beautiful woman who takes him upstairs and screws his brains out. Then she takes him downstairs and makes him a dynamite breakfast. Then she hands him a five-dollar bill. “Thank you for everything, but what’s the money for?” he asks her. “Well, last night, I told my husband you were retiring and we should do something special for you,” she says. “He said, ‘Fuck him. Give him five bucks.’ The breakfast was my idea.”

posted 18 August 2008 in News, Tasty Bits and tagged Jerry Wexler, Obits. no comments yet