Tom Rapp
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{{Infobox musical artist <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject Musicians -->
| Name = Tom Rapp
| Img = Famsongs.jpg
| Img_capt = Cover of ''Familiar Songs'', 1972
| Img_size = <!-- Only for images narrower than 220 pixels -->
| Landscape =
| Background = solo_singer
| Birth_name = Thomas Dale Rapp
| Alias =
| Born = {{birth date and age|1947|3|8|mf=y}}<br />{{flagicon|USA}} [[Bottineau, North Dakota]], [[USA]]
| Died =
| Origin =
| Instrument = Vocals, guitar, etc.
| Genre =
| Occupation = Singer, songwriter, attorney
| Years_active = 1965-1976<br>occasionally since 1997
| Label = [[ESP-Disk]], Reprise
| Associated_acts = [[Pearls Before Swine (band)|Pearls Before Swine]]
| URL =
| Current_members =
| Past_members =
| Notable_instruments =
}}
'''Thomas Dale Rapp''' (b. [[8 March]] [[1947]], [[Bottineau, North Dakota]]) is an American singer and songwriter, best known as the leader of [[Pearls Before Swine (band)|Pearls Before Swine]], the [[psychedelic]] [[folk rock]] group of the 1960s and 1970s. More recently he has practised as a lawyer.
==Life==
Tom Rapp's parents were both teachers. As a young child his family moved to [[Minnesota]], where at the age of six he was given a guitar. A neighbour taught Rapp some chords, and he also learned to play the ukulele. He once came third in a talent contest in [[Rochester, Minnesota|Rochester]] where a certain [[Bob Dylan|Bobby Zimmerman]] from Hibbing was fifth. "''The winner was a cute little girl in a red sequined costume who twirled a baton''."
The Rapp family moved from Minnesota to Pennsylvania before settling in [[Melbourne, Florida]] in 1963. There, Tom Rapp formed Pearls Before Swine with three high school friends in 1965. They recorded first for the [[ESP-Disk]] label, and then for [[Reprise Records|Reprise]].
:''See main article - '''[[Pearls Before Swine (band)|Pearls Before Swine]]'''''.
By the time of the third Pearls Before Swine album in 1969, the other original members of the group had left, but Rapp retained the group name for recordings - at this time, Pearls Before Swine did not exist as a performing band. The next three Pearls Before Swine albums, ''[[The Use of Ashes]]'' (1970), ''[[City of Gold (Pearls Before Swine album)|City of Gold]]'' (1971), and ''[[Beautiful Lies You Could Live In]]'' (1971), contain some of Rapp's best songs, and were recorded with his [[Netherlands|Dutch]] wife Elisabeth and top session musicians in [[Nashville]] and [[New York]]. The album ''[[Familiar Songs]]'' (1972) was his first credited solo album, but was in fact a collection of demo recordings released by the record company without his knowledge. After moving from Reprise to [[Blue Thumb Records]], he released two further albums under his own name, ''[[Stardancer]]'' (1972) and ''[[Sunforest]]'' (1973). Perversely, although these were issued as solo albums, they included recordings by a new version of Pearls Before Swine which did tour and perform widely, as well as containing solo recordings with session musicians.
Rapp retired from music in the mid-1970s and, after graduating from [[Brandeis University]] in 1981 and the [[University of Pennsylvania Law School]] in 1984, became a successful civil rights lawyer. After being contacted by the magazine [[Ptolemaic Terrascope]], he re-appeared in [[1997]] at [[Terrastock]], a [[music festival]] in [[Providence, Rhode Island]], with his son's band, Shy Camp, and began recording again with [[1999]]'s ''[[A Journal of the Plague Year (album)|A Journal of the Plague Year]]''. He also performed at Terrastock 6 in April 2006 <ref>[http://www.terrascope.co.uk/TerrastockPages/terrastock.html Terrastock!<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>. He currently lives in Florida.
==Discography==
===Solo albums===
* [[Familiar Songs]] (1972, Reprise)
* [[Stardancer]] (1972, Blue Thumb)
* [[Sunforest]] (1973, Blue Thumb)
* [[A Journal of the Plague Year (album)|A Journal Of The Plague Year]] (1999, Woronzow)
====''See also '''[[Pearls Before Swine (band)|Pearls Before Swine]]'''''====
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
*[http://www.furious.com/perfect/tomrapp.html Tom Rapp bio by Mark Brend]
*[http://www.wildcatrecording.com/ Record company site]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rapp, Tom}}
[[Category:1947 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Brandeis University alumni]]
[[Category:People from Brevard County, Florida]]
[[Category:People from North Dakota]]
[[Category:North Dakota musicians]]
[[Category:Psych folk musicians]]
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