Royal Crescent Mob, or RC Mob to fans, was David Ellison (vocals), “Mr. B” Brian Emch (axe) and Harold “Happy” Chichester (bass). Drummer Carlton Smith, the sole black member, would join in 1987 after a line of predecessors came and went.
The RC Mob was renowned for exciting live shows, including a gig at the ’88 state fair. Its single “Happy at Home” caught the ear of Sire executives, and before long it moved up from the minors to the home of Madonna and The Smiths. Spin the World is the best of the two Sire titles.
It’s a gem that still sounds fresh today.
Thematically-speaking it’s all over the map, from light pop (“Nanana”) to power pop (“Hungry,” “Stock Car Race”) to jazz-rock (“Corporation Enema”— Grohl’s favorite song).
“Goin’ to the Hospital” is rambling bohemian poetry about getting clean with no rhymes or chorus to speak of and Emsch alternates between acoustic plucking and his own stadium-rock riffs.
The song never lands anywhere, and those who like their music in discrete genre bins are advised to keep moving. The Mob were fans at heart, kids who grew up listening to James Brown and Slave. Dayton native Ellison even mowed the lawn of The Ohio Players’ Sugarfoot (aka Leroy Bonner) as a teenager. The band opened for the Players years later in Columbus and got Sugarfoot’s blessing to cover any Players songs they liked. They repaid the favor by naming their 1985 EP Land of Sugar in his honor.
In short, the RC Mob were postmodern before the term was cool.
Funk wasn’t its only inspiration either. Hard-rockers JoJo Gunne contributed the guitar licks to “5 More Minutes” from “60 Minutes to Go”— unbeknownst to them. The RC Mob even mined an Ellison family legend — David’s parents sharing an elevator with the Beatles — on the hilarious rap-rock “Big Show,” the only bad track on the record. “Getting through a piece about Ohio’s Royal Crescent Mob without using the word diverse,” said Spin’s Michael Corcoran, “is like writing about Quasimodo without mentioning his back.”
The what-will-they-do-next anticipation had been the point since 1987’s Omertà. It was a a garage band having fun while it lasted — because they knew it wouldn’t — and you can feel their joy on this record. Even curmudgeon Robert Christgau, who hated fun, loved these guys.
“They lock into their groove and don’t give a single song away,” he grudgingly admitted of Spin the World, giving it an A- in The Village Voice for its “command of the everyday detail.”
Dig the way Ellison rhymes meter with mosquito in the jivey “Walkin’ Down the Street.” Or Chichester’s Mick Jagger vocals on “Enema,“ a job-hate anthem that belongs on a shelf with Johnny Paycheck and Ween’s “Pumpin’ for the Man.” “I’m on the bottom/And I’m not afraid,” he proclaims as a statement of fact. “Tundra,” an ode to blue-eyed Swedish girls, sounds like The Beach Boys filtered through the Bay City Rollers. It ends the album on a high note, complete with yodeling chorus.
The Mob mocked the fantasy that things are always better elsewhere and accepted that it just wasn’t so. Its songs about a better life conflict with what already is — like walking down the street with your girl. That’s good. And good is good enough.
Its genre all-inclusivity was a marketing problem in 1989. Making “Big Show” the first song on side one didn’t help. Sire dropped them after 1991’s Midnight Rose’s, despite popular singles “Konk” and “Timebomb.” Chichester went on to groups Howlin’ Maggie and The Afghan Wigs. Ellison went on to manage Jay-Z, Avril Lavigne and Alanis Morissette.
The RC Mob’s Sire records are currently unavailable on Spotify. It reunited for two shows in December, 2022 — after 28 years — one in Covington and another in Columbus. Carlton Smith was dying of brain cancer and wanted to play with them again before he succumbed (the following year). Emch had been widowed by the disease months earlier, and Ellison was getting chemo for his own.
The proceeds went to medical research.
At the height of its popularity the RC Mob played with Living Colour, Primus, The B-52s and yes, Red Hot Chili Peppers. Spring of ’89 saw them touring on a double bill with The Replacements. Five years later it was history.
Then again, so were The Replacements.
Brian Hess is a local vinyl record enthusiast and may be reached at brianhessphd@outlook.com.
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