Popa Chubby is a true native son of the Big Apple. He was born in the Bronx and grew up in a neighborhood made famous by Robert De Niro in the movie A Bronx Tale. His parents owned a candy store on the corner of 181st Street and Arthur Avenue. His early memories of hearing the juke box playing the hits of early sixties soul and R&B – and the neighborhood teens flocking around it – made a lasting impression on him. To this day the musical influence of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye are ever present in Popa's music.
At the tender age of 8 he picked up the drums and became consumed in playing "Wipeout" (much to the dismay of his mother and neighbors). His parents were huge fans of jazz and R&B and had a vast collection of 78's and LPs. Popa would spend hours scratching them up by playing the sections he liked over and over again. When he was seven, his father took him to see an oldies show at Madison Square Garden. Up close to the stage he watched the headliner duck walk across the stage playing his Gibson 335 like a ringin' a bell!! Chuck Berry became Popa's idol. The untimely death of his father when he was nine left Ted living with his old-school Italian grandparents. His love affair with the drums was put on indefinite hold.
The 70's came and Popa began to hear the blues rock that was everywhere. Johnny Winter, Foghat, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones were on the radio and in the record stores and Popa, being a loner, found solace in listening to these records over and over on a beat up record player bought at a yard sale for a dollar.
At age fourteen he picked up his first guitar and never put it down. His fingers bled from trying to pick out the blues licks he heard second hand from the rockers who played them. In the late 70's Punk Rock hit the scene, and Popa answered a classified ad in the Village Voice for a guitarist. He was hired by Japanese performance/special effects artist, Screaming Mad George, and played a fortuitous gig at CBGB in New York City's Bowery. There he met Punk Rock godfather, Richard Hell, who was putting together a new version of his band the Voidoids. Popa was hired for a world tour. All the while Popa was honing his licks via the records of Albert King, B.B. King and especially Freddie King.
"When I first heard Freddie King my world was turned upside down. I was 19 and this older cat in the neighborhood played me the Just Pickin' record and I was knocked out cold. I thought, ‘Man, that's what I wanna be when I grow up.'"
With the 1980's upon him, Popa played any and all styles of music he could, the education helping him to survive as a working musician. In 1984, while busking in New York's Central Park, he met singer-songwriter Pierce Turner who had just signed with RCA Records. Pierce and Chubby shared a love for Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix. Chubby was hired for a world tour and asked to contribute his blues-inflected guitar playing to Pierce's album The Sky and The Ground. Popa worked with Pierce throughout the late 80's, all the while itching to play the blues he loved.
In 1990 the Popa Chubby Band was born. The name was taken from an impromptu jam with Bernie Worell, one of the founding members of ‘70s psychedelic rock and R&B group Parliament Funkadelic. "He was singing a song called ‘Popa Chubby' and he pointed at me." The name captured the essence of what his music has come to represent. "Popa Chubby basically means to get excited. The core of my music is about excitement. I think music should make people feel alive."
Before long he was playing every club in New York. Popa landed the coveted spot as house band at the now defunct Manny's Car Wash. There he got to back up and open for many of the great musicians who came through town. The combined experiences of backing a variety of artists helped shape his vision of what he now calls "New York City Blues."
In 1991, he entered the National Blues Talent Search sponsored by Long Beach Radio station KLON. He beat out a score of bands to bring the title to New York City and was rewarded with an opening spot at the 1991 Long Beach Blues Festival. Popa soon started touring regionally and released two independent records on his own label.
In 1994 Popa signed a recording deal with the recently resurrected O-Keh label (Sony Music). At first reluctant to sign on with such a corporate outfit, it was the prospect of working with Tom Dowd, longtime Atlantic Records engineer/producer, whose recordings by Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett and others are legendary, that convinced him. Booty and The Beast was released in 1994, and the single, "Sweet Goddess Of Love and Beer," soon was sweeping the country and became a summer radio hit coast to coast in 1995.
Creative differences left Popa a free agent in 1996, so he began releasing albums on his own label. On the advice of Dowd he went to Europe, where his first two CDs were released as a collection by the French Dixiefrog label. The record was an instant success and left Popa touring nonstop. The energy and showmanship of his sets earned him critical and commercial acclaim overseas, and in fact, he's become a huge star in Europe, where he appears on the covers of guitar magazines and routinely sells out major venues.
The innovative performer and producer went on to do a number of other projects for Dixiefrog, his own albums and others by Big Apple artists recorded under the aegis of Popa Chubby Productions. In the process, he spearheaded a New York City sub-genre of blues. The New York sound is as complex as the city itself, melding a variety of street sounds from hip hop, punk, straight-up rock, R&B, into an unadulterated blues format. "New York is a melting pot of social and musical cultures, and New York City Blues is an amalgam of all those styles," explains Chubby.
Popa Chubby's music, forged in the toughness that is New York City, takes blues to the cutting edge, where it highfives its contemporary cousins rock, rap, and hip hop. With his razor sharp, biting guitar, vocals from the gut, and top-notch skill as a songwriter, Popa Chubby artfully combines the rootsiness of blues with the more modern urban elements of today's popular music.
In May 2000, Dixiefrog released How'd a White Boy Get the Blues? in Europe, where it has sold over 60,000 records and is still climbing. Looking for a domestic label that would understand his unique approach to the blues, Popa brought the album to Blind Pig Records, which released this seminal blues-rock concept record in August of 2001. It uses electric and acoustic guitar blends, drum loops and electronics to show how close the blues, hip-hop and R&B really are. The New York Post said, "The guitar ace is fantastic on this CD - the quintessence of what New York City blues is all about. There isn't a bad song on it."
Popa Chubby's newest CD, Stealing the Devil's Guitar, was released on Dixie Frog Records in February 2006. The 13 songs on this record represent a journey through the real life blues of Popa Chubby. Popa writes from life and from the first track hits a home run with the talking slide blues of "Slide Devil Man Slide". The tone is set and the journey unfolds. Sonically, this record is the most textural to date with lots of slide and acoustic guitar, mandolin, Sitar, and a heavy dose of hard blues rock lead guitar. The urbane rap tome of "Smugglers Game" has Middle Eastern flavors and ejects the listener to exotic border crossings. The heart-rending dirge of "Preacher Man" bemoans the trials of the entrusted. The Western saga "Young Guns" sets the stage for a shootout between new and old- because if you want to take the devil's guitar, you got to steal it!
Discography:
Studioalbums:
1995 - Booty and the Beast
1995 - Hit the High Hard One (Live)
1996 - Gas Money
1996 - It's Chubby Time
1997 - One Million Broken Guitars
1998 - Brooklyn Basement Blues
1999 - Popa Chubby Presents New York City Blues
2000 - One Night Live In New York City (Live)
2000 - How'd a White Boy Get the Blues?
2001 - New York City Blues (Again
2001 - Flashed Back (Songs From The '60s Blues And Beyond) (feat. Galea)
2002 - The Good the Bad and the Chubby
2003 - Black Coffee Blues Band
2003 - Popa Chubby Live at FIP
2003 - Old School - Popa Chubby and Friends Play
2004 - Peace, Love and Respect
2005 - Wild Live
2005 - Big Man Big Guitar: Popa Chubby Live
2006 - Electric Chubbyland Volume One
2006 - Stealing the Devil's Guitar
2006 - Electric Chubbyland (3CD box set)
2007 - Deliveries After Dark
2008 - Vicious Country
2010 - The Fight Is On
2011 - Back to New York City
2013 - Universal Breakdown Blues
2014 - I'm Feelin’ Lucky (The Blues according to Popa Chubby)
2015 - Big, Bad and Beautiful (Live) (DoA, Live)
Compilations:
1996 - The First Cuts
2003 - The Hungry Years
2005 - Ten Years With Popa Chubby Best Of
Angel On My Shoulder
Popa Chubby Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Lying in my bed
Telling me to listen
To the words inside my head
Poundin'out the rhythm
Beatin' out of time
Angel on my shoulder
Come and ease my troubled mind
Angel on my shoulder
Crying tears of shame
Said she came down to my soul
To take away my pain
Standing on the mountain
I don't know what to say
Angel on my shoulder
Gonna help me find my way
Through the darkness
Gonna ease my troubled mind
Through the valley
Gonna spread her wings and fly
Angel on my shoulder
Tell me who you love
Who do you desire
Am I the one you're thinking of
Can I be your angel
Do I have to die
How do I release my soul
Spread my wings and fly
Through the darkness
Gonna ease my troubled mind
Through the valley
Gonna spread my wings and fly
The song "Angel on My Shoulder" by Popa Chubby appears to be a reflection on a conversation with an angel who has come to comfort and guide the singer through his struggles. The first verse sees the singer lying in bed, being told by the angel to listen to the words inside his head, which could imply that the guidance he seeks is within himself. The angel is described as pounding out a rhythm and beating out of time, which might speak to the ways in which the angel is able to both comfort the singer and help him find his way despite the difficulties he is facing. This verse ends with the singer asking the angel to ease his troubled mind, indicating that he is struggling with anxiety or worry.
In the second verse, the angel is described as crying tears of shame and having come down to the singer's soul to take away his pain. The singer is standing on a mountain, unsure of what to say, and seeking the angel's guidance. The angel is described as helpfully smoothing the singer's path, and indicating that together they will move through the darkness and the valley. The final verse sees the singer asking the angel who she loves and desires, wondering if he is on her mind. He also asks to be the angel himself, and how he can release his soul and spread his wings and fly. This could be interpreted as the singer feeling trapped or limited, but seeking to be free to move and grow.
Line by Line Meaning
Angel on my shoulder
I have a guiding presence always with me, perhaps a spiritual one.
Lying in my bed
I am deep in thought and contemplation, likely seeking guidance.
Telling me to listen
The presence is urging me to be attentive to something important.
To the words inside my head
These important things are internal thoughts or feelings I should recognize and address.
Poundin' out the rhythm
My thoughts are fervent and urgent, like a beat played emphatically on a drum.
Beatin' out of time
The rhythm is not synchronized with external cues like time or pacing.
Angel on my shoulder
The guidance and support are always present and available to me.
Come and ease my troubled mind
The purpose of the guidance is to bring relief and calm to my restless thoughts or emotions.
Crying tears of shame
The presence is conveying a sense of sadness or disappointment regarding something I have done or experienced.
Said she came down to my soul
The presence suggests that it has profound insight into my innermost being or essence.
To take away my pain
The purpose of the guidance is to alleviate my emotional or psychological distress.
Standing on the mountain
I am in a place of prominence or contemplation, facing a significant decision or challenge.
I don't know what to say
I feel uncertain about how to proceed, and need guidance in order to take action or speak.
Gonna help me find my way
The presence will assist me in navigating through my uncertainty and finding a clear path forward.
Through the darkness
The presence will provide support and guidance during difficult or uncertain times.
Gonna ease my troubled mind
The ultimate goal is to alleviate the internal turmoil and unrest I am experiencing.
Through the valley
Even during times of great challenge or struggle, the presence will be with me and provide guidance.
Gonna spread her wings and fly
The presence will soar above difficulties and overcome obstacles with grace and confidence.
Tell me who you love
I seek clarity regarding my desires and attachments regarding relationships.
Who do you desire
I am struggling to identify and articulate my passions and aspirations.
Am I the one you're thinking of
The presence is questioning deeply whether I am truly aligned with my own personal values and goals.
Can I be your angel
I am questioning whether I am worthy of the guidance and protection of the presence.
Do I have to die
I question whether I have to undergo a significant change or transformation in order to benefit from the guidance and protection of the presence.
How do I release my soul
I am seeking insight and guidance regarding the nature of my own innermost self, and how to connect with it more deeply.
Spread my wings and fly
I yearn to move beyond barriers and limitations in order to embrace my true potential and opportunities.
Writer(s): HOROWITZ THEODORE JOSEPH, LESLIE WILLIAM MICHAEL
Contributed by Jordyn V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
duby55
A treat to my ears, could listen to Popa all night, and I think I'm doing that now.
Craig Palmer
Same here i fallen in luv music wise with the Big Fella !
Antonio Ramos
O fabuloso popa mostra a força a essência do Rock-blues.salve, salve...
crazy horse29
My fave off the live album. TURN IT UP!!!
Rick Brooks
Absolutely awesome
motokev
LOVE POPA, great song just what I like
TMSerena
Sonsaço!
Rob Dalton
Has become my favorite Guitar slinger pops is bad to the bone ,rock on !
snappa222
Loving the music and video! Thanks.
Toño Saavedra
Muy bueno este««Póppa Chúby»puro Róck—Blues pesado,me gusta.