[2] As a young man, he made two trips through the Deep South, where he knocked on doors seeking to acquire old blues records.
In 1967, Perls began re-recording the sides in his collection, using high-tech equipment in his home, and issuing 33-rpm record albums.
He continued releasing the same type of 33-rpm recordings under the Yazoo name, conducting all operations out of his residence in the West Village in New York City.
The label stayed small and rarely caught much public attention beyond the hardcore blues devotees who eagerly awaited each new release.
Blue Goose Records, boasting almost no well-known celebrity talent names, stayed an even smaller operation than Yazoo.
Many of the Blue Goose releases were subsequently converted to compact disc format by a company in Japan whose name translates to Airmail Recordings.
According to John Ramsey, Nick's assistant in the mid-1970s, Perls was a verbose New Yorker who strived to be "outrageous", an adjective that he loved attributing to himself.
For instance, for several years he made a habit of wearing different colored checkered socks, (such as green and yellow on one foot, red and white on the other), which he cited as evidence of insanity.
In contrast, his personal lifestyle was built around "cruising" New York's 7th Avenue and picking up such individuals, leading to numerous short, intense relationships.