Jerry Williams Jr. cut his first record at age 12 as Little Jerry, produced at Atlantic Records alongside Jerry Wexler, co-wrote a number two country hit for Johnny Paycheck, helped launch the electro-hop group that gave Dr. Dre his start, and later collaborated with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. He is also the man who posed in his underwear on a pile of garbage for the cover of his 1970 debut as Swamp Dogg. This deep dive explains how those two facts belong to the same career.

We trace the frustration that drove the transformation, including the 1968 Gene Pitney single She's a Heartbreaker, where Williams did the production work but was credited only as vocal arranger and left out of the trade ads. We break down the meaning of the name, the Muscle Shoals swamp sound and the idea that a dog can do anything and never be out of character, then f ...