Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
All right, listen up, Caves, I got your assignments riga six four
three wheeler one four eight not eightoh four, and only you. You
need to join host HP and fathermAlone as they examine one of the greatest
sitcoms in television history, Taxi inKnight, Mister Walters, a taxi podcast
BANDA zero like your boxing record,Frank, mister Walters, weird w what
(00:50):
do You Kiss? Front man PaulStanley and mentalist Yuri Yeller have in common.
They both wittingly or unwittingly recorded theirown spoken word albums. What started
out in the nineteen forties as simpleperformances of classics like A Christmas Carol and
a Fellow later morphed into weirder andmore wonderful LPs featuring the likes of Elvis
(01:10):
Presley and David Lynch. Tonight,the Noise Junkies discuss one of the more
unique musical genres visited upon us.Before the music, there was the word
spoken word. Hello and welcome toNoise Junkies. I am HPM in the
(01:34):
Captain's seat and with me as alwaysare my fellow noise Junkies. First,
we have from Mondo Heather we haveHeather drain Heather, how are you?
I'm doing good? I was aboutto interject that was a damn fine intro.
Oh, thank you very much,Thank you very much, and joining
us in our little zoom Brady Bunchquadrant. Here is the other noise junkie,
(01:57):
Father Malone, Father Malone. Howare you? I am well?
I suppose how are you? Iam well too. Very excited to see
you both and excited to dive intothe realm of spoken word. Very excited
to do this. But first,before we get to the main event,
as is our custom, we're goingto talk about your little show and tell.
(02:21):
We're going to talk about what we'relistening to this week, artist album,
what have you? I'm going tostart with you, Father Malone,
Father Malone, what are you listeningto lately? Lately or always? I'm
forever listening to this particular album andit's got it's hooks in me again right
now. From nineteen eighty three IslandRecords, Speaking of spoken Word, mister
(02:42):
Tom Waite's Swordfish Trombones And he camehome from the wall with the body and
see an idea for five works displayand knew that aam be read and with
a dayless deal massit half a panof Ba Navid. What an incredible album.
(03:02):
This. I knew of Tom Waits, but hadn't really ever heard them
until I got to California. Itook this out of the library at USC
and immediately I made a copy ofit, and then wore that copy out.
It is an incredible album from howdo you even describe Tom Waits?
Just a modern day balladeer, honkytonkin' beat poet, sort of defies classification,
(03:28):
and this album is all of that. It's all of his best instincts.
I think it's his best album.Probably Frank's Wild Years Alons that could
be any pick for any of thespoken word selections. Later later in the
program, drove home, doused everythingin the house and torched it. Parked
across the street, laughing watching itburn. All Halloween orange and Chimmney red
(03:53):
and Frank put on a top fortystation, got on the Hollywood Freeway and
headed north. I'd like to saythat I like one song over another,
but it's one. It's a perfectalbum. I put it on and just
listen to it beginning to end,and I have been again recently. Everyone
should listen Tom Waits. I'm sureyou guys are familiar with this album.
Oh, absolutely fantastic pick. Andyou're right Tom Waits really he's his own
(04:17):
classification. He defies any sort ofeasy genre. He's been all over the
place. But that's a wonderful pick. I love that pick. That was
actually my second Tom Waits album.The Black Writer was my gateway, and
that was love. I was immediatelyhooked into that and with all of its
sort of like Bowie Brecdian charm,but then sort offish. Tombones was number
(04:43):
two, and that's all she wrote. I love Tom Waits, love love,
love love. I will defend himto the to my dying day.
I actually once ruined a party.Well I don't think I ruined it,
but in college I actually got anargument with the guy because he was trying
to be an edge lord. Andit wasn't even like he was like,
oh I don't like Tom Waits becauseof this or that. Like I know,
everybody tastes different. You can intelligentlyjust be like, yeah, it's
(05:05):
just not my flavor. Cool,no harm, no foul. But if
you're gonna be a you know,just like a dumb ass and just try
to be like that, I will, I will educate you. Well,
I was more obnoxious about it thanbecause I was. When you're eighteen,
that's a good age to be theobnoxious, pretentious girl at a party.
Oh that's a great age to bepassionate about music anyway, Right, that's
(05:27):
really when you're sort of becoming Imean, for me, that's when I
really started to assume it as areal identity, speaking of really be pretentious
when you're discussing Tom Waits. It'sjust if I may double back for a
second, like, I don't havea particular favorite album, favorite song on
the album, but the song thatmade me realize that I loved this man
is the last song on the firstsong, which is called in the Neighborhood,
(05:48):
which is this like German umpah brass, backing to what is effectively the
most mundane neighborhood activities. Okay,come yet, I scream of the market
a newspaper sleeping back. Oh downly, my god, damn Flad again elevated
(06:24):
it to like mythic status, andI thought, Jesus Christ, this guy's
hilarious. All right, Heather,how about you go next? What have
you been? What's been spinning?On your turntable. Lately, well lately,
I have been completely transfixed and enchantedby an EP that came out twenty
twenty one by being called LeSEA andLycia. You can call them darkwave,
(06:47):
you can call them goth, Icall them electronic acoustic whatever. I just
called them good sweet. They wereformed in nineteen eighty nine and I believed
(07:19):
by Mike Vanport Fleets and the countriof the band is him Tara van Flower,
who's also done some incredible solo work, and David Galas and the EP,
which is under the title of Casalunais it's dreamy. It's a parts
you feel like you're surrounded by natureright as a storm is about to hit,
(07:41):
just like when the sky gets kindof like purple and thick. But
there's kind of like a sweet beautyto it. There's just a lot of
(08:07):
layers going on. It's a beautiful, beautiful work. In fact, it's
so beautiful that I actually have writtenan article about it and it's currently on
my Pagereon. It may or maynot show up later on at my website.
But I just I adore, Iadore this album and it's on Spotify.
Effect I see his discography is onthere and I highly encourage people check
(08:30):
it out. And Little Trivia oneof one of the biggest fans it was
Peter Steele, legendary frontman of Typeof Negative, and in fact, Tara
does backup vocals on the song Halloweenin Heaven, which was off their last
album, so it's a great song. So Dead again that was the album.
But yeah, Casa Luna gorgeous,gorgeous, and one of the songs
(08:52):
is totally there's a song called doYou Bleed? And if you're a fan
of artists like Jarbo, particularly likeher work with Neurosis, like this will
hit your sweet spot, you youwill, and other songs are a little
(09:31):
more just sort of like sad,and there's just a it's a beauty.
There's such a beauty and intensity tothis work and to this band, and
uh yeah, I cannot recommend itenough. It sounds like a nice choice.
As we're moving from fall into winter, things are getting kind of cold.
It's my favorite season of the year, but it's a good season for
that kind of bruised beauty. Ifyou will it sounds oh yeah, I'll
(09:56):
definitely check it out on Spotify.So my pick this week, just a
little bit of background before I launchedinto it. When I was in college,
I got into a band called Kingof Fools. Someone had recommended them
(10:28):
to me because they said the vocalistssounded a lot like Bowie, and it
was kind of a nice way,kind of a nice introduction to the band,
like a way of easing into itis with something familiar, like David
Bowie. And it's true. Theguy, the vocalist, his name is
Roy White, sounds a lot likeBowie. And the album was kind of
almost like taking tin machine but softeningsome of the edges. It wasn't quite
(10:52):
as angular and kind of intense asthat. So anyway, I knew that
this guy, Roy White, hadhad other band before that, but I
could never find any information on them. He had a band in the eighties
nearly eighties called White and Torch.It was a band that he did with
a guy named Steve Torch, whotrivia note he was later one of the
(11:13):
many credited writers on Shares Believe,which is weird if you've ever heard of
this band. But so the bandWhite and Torch, they just recorded a
bunch of singles, but they neveractually had a proper album. For a
variety of reasons I'm not going togo into, but I kind of forgot
about them, and then I wasdoing some searching for Scott Walker. I
(11:35):
got into Scott Walker a little bit, gotten to a Scott Walker thing for
the past week, and the YouTubealgorithm spit out White and Torch. I
never knew they were there, butthey spit out this video for this song
called Parade, which was one oftheir big sit well, it's probably their
biggest hit. People in the know. This is the one people always point
to and say, Wow, thisband should have been something. They should
(11:56):
have been bigger than they were.Oh, Jo, I'm just but the
(12:33):
song was produced by Paul Buckmaster.He's done a lot of work with He's
worked with the Stones, Leonard Cohen, Nelton John. This song was recorded
and Abby Road. It's got thisbeautiful, lush orchestral arrangement. I would
put them as sort of angsty,gothy sort of pop, but with a
great sort of arrangement behind it,a lot of passion. But the thing
(12:54):
that knocked me out was this isthe guy that I thought sounded like David
Bowie in nineteen ninety one. Backthen in eighty two for the song Parade,
he's doing a Scott Walker thing,which is it's like it hit me
all at once. It's like seeingDavid Bowie's evolution in microcosm, Like this
guy started out as a Scott Walkerkind of intense kind of vocalist and he
(13:16):
later went into It was just itkind of blew my mind that these two
great sort of influences on me,these my favorite sort of musicians were all
kind of encapsulated in this guy,Roy White. But it's a fantastic song.
It's kind of it's very nakedly passionateand theatrical, which I really love
about it. And I just Ireally got into this song. I couldn't
(13:37):
stop listening. I still can't stoplistening to it. I've chased up more
of their material. White and Torch. I think they have like fifteen or
so singles that you can find onYouTube, but this is by far the
best and among Like I said,this is pointed to as their best single.
In fact, it was even featuredon series four of the UK version
of X Factor. The in fact, like I want to think the runner
(14:01):
up performed it as his final song. So it's got legs. I mean,
people know this song, and actuallythe guy put it on his third
album, so it had a littlebit of juice at least in the I
guess it's like the early or themid two thousands. But I would recommend
anyone check this out. It's reallyif anyone who likes Scott Walker that's sort
of intense, brooding intensity, checkthis song out. You won't be disappointed.
(14:24):
It's fantastic. How have you notshared this with me prior? You
know I like Scott Walker? Youknow I like David By What's wrong with
You? HB? I will,And I know this is a neat follow
along to the last episode, butbut I will, I'll, it'll be
in the playlist he did. Sothe version that you're going to cut into
(14:45):
this is the original one on Spotify. This guy, Roy White re recorded
it at some point, so it'son Spotify, this particular song, but
it doesn't match like the beauty ofthe original recording, I have to say,
so there is that. But andby the way, if you check
out, there's a great performance video. It's sort of like their lip syncing.
(15:05):
I think it's an English sort oftalk show that they're performing on.
But check it out because there's awoman playing piano in the background who looks
just like Kate Bush with a BobbyBrown microphone. It's the weirdest thing in
the world. But anyway, Idigress. Nevertheless, now let's get into
our main discussion. We're here totalk about spoken word tonight. For me
(15:26):
personally, just as by way ofintroduction, I feel like I was a
little bit pre programmed to enjoy spokenword at an early age, because I
can remember as a kid, Ihad a little record player that I used
to carry around, and one ofmy favorite records as a kid was Doctor
Seuss's Fox and Socks and Green Eggsand Ham. It was a double like
(15:46):
one side was green Eggs and hand, the other side was Fox and Socks.
He is an easy to say yousucks, oh sucks os socks shoes.
So I loved Marvin Miller. Hedid He did all the voices in
it, and he had this wonderfulrecitation of these doctors who's classic books,
(16:10):
and it really kept me enthralled asa child, and I didn't really understand
what spoken word was. I didn'thave a name for it, obviously,
but I think formatively I really appreciatedlike the idea of having a poetic performance,
if you will, on record.So that was kind of my introduction
to spoken word. But I'm curious, Yeah, you two find folks,
(16:32):
what were some of your early formativeinfluences around spoken word, the things that
got you interested in spoken word asa general concept. I'm going to start
with with you, Heather. Ohno, I was afraid of that.
So I have to confess the spokenword genres as one that's not really enchanted
me. Like, because even theartists that are classical spoken word artists that
(16:57):
I love, I tend to be, I tend to would almost just rather
either read their work or see likea video of them performing it. I'm
not even a big fan of likelike audio books. I don't know what
it is about my brain. Iwould rather do the reading or have it
in a visual and sonic context.So because even as a kid, I
(17:19):
mean when you're kid, I rememberI had like a little Grimlins forty five,
but I would usually just like notplay it and just find my mom's
copy of Panama by Van Halen,and I would play that while reading about
Kismo's Shenanigans. But so, butthat's why I'm actually I'm really curious,
and I'm eager about this episode becauseI think the cool thing about having a
(17:41):
good discussion, especially with like peoplelike I'm the like cowist the world because
like, not only like their yourtwo friends, but like you guys,
your knowledge. You both have likethis great knowledge and great taste, and
so I'm always open to be openminded these things. But I'm not a
big spoken word I'm the ones thatI like that you might call that.
(18:03):
There is one of my picks,and I will mention obviously which I don't
spoil it, but there's one Idid pick that as a classical what you
call it classical spoken word piece,like the other three is probably nebulous,
but no, that's I'm excited though, I mean, that's but it's interesting
because what you bring up is there'slike this sort of not really a debate,
but there's this notion some people believethat poetry should be heard and not
(18:26):
read. Some people feel the opposite. So it's I guess a lot of
where you land within spoken word,and if you're looking at it specifically as
poetry, I think informs that choiceof whether it's something you're really into or
not. I kind of I alwaysfell into the category of I love to
hear the poetry in the poet's voice. I think you gain a lot from
(18:48):
hearing that, which is not tosay, by the way, that a
lot of my choices are can beput into the broad category of poetry.
But I guess that's you can looselyterm this as spoken word word poetry written
by the poet. But that's good. How about yourself following along? Well,
I have to echo you, HP, I wasn't necessarily toting a record
(19:10):
player. And by the way,when you described your younger self with the
record player and the record like,I just imagined you on the streets of
Brooklyn throwing down the thing like walkingup like to a DJ set and putting
down your record, putting on Foxand socks. Anyway, get Yeah,
there was an LP I had asa child. I actually tracked it down
and I own it again. It'scalled Famous Ghost Stories, and it yeah,
(19:34):
like four tales on each side,the pinnacle of it being a reading
a recitation of the telltale Heart.When when I was in kindergarten and kids
were for nap time, you wouldbring in a record of music you would
play, and I brought in thetelltale art for the other kindergarten. It
as dripp off to sleep too.You would have left to see how cunningly
(19:59):
I did it, very so thatI could see him as he lay on
his bed. Would a madman ofbeIN as wise as this? So that
sort of wet my appetite, whichled almost immediately into the chilling, thrilling
sounds of the Haunted House, thatDisney album from the sixty four. Yes,
(20:22):
I have that, of course weall do. I have five copies
of it. I buy it everytime I see it. I can't.
It's compulsive. It's awful so inthat we have it like a female narrator
leading us through these atmospheres and reallyintroducing us to specific sound effects, which
is perfect for me because I'm soobsessed with both. You must reach the
other side, and carefully you stepout onto the breach. It sways dangerously
(20:51):
with your weight. It seems safeenough. I think those two primed that
particular pomp. I didn't really understandwhat I mean. I had some albums
of recitations of straight up like BasilWrath bhone reads Sherlock Holmes, and I
had a Basil Wrath phone read EdgarAllan Poe too, actually, but it
(21:11):
wasn't until college for me and theHP around the early nineties, I suppose,
And it was HP who was verydeep into Henry Rollins, so he
could play a lot of Henry Rollins'sspoken word stuff, which that facillated between
the poetry and the sort of justhim being a raconteur. But oh man,
(21:32):
the poetry remains. I can't thinkof Christmas but without thinking of you,
HP and family man, family man, with your Christmas lights already up.
You're such a man and you're puttingup your Christmas lights first on the
block. Family Man. I thinkthat was my real first introduction to it.
(21:55):
But it didn't get obsessed with spokenword as such till I heard Gil
Scott heron with all that money Imade last year, Well, Whitey owned
the moon. How come I ain'tgot no money here? White is on
the moon. You know. Ijust about had my bill. Oh Whitey
on the moon. I think I'llsend these doctor bills a male special.
(22:18):
Once I heard him that got mehooked. And then an album I bought
in nineteen ninety five, which I'mgoing to talk about when we get to
our picks as well. That wasmy intro, and I dig it.
I love listening to people recite thingsand perform things. And yeah, I'm
so glad that you brought up HenryRowlands because that really was when I really,
I will echo exactly what you saidis where I really fell for spoken
(22:41):
word as kind of an art form. It was kind of it was a
great time to sort of dive intothat because, as you said, Henry
Rowins, his star was on therise. Rowlands band was a monster band
at the time. They were onall the palouvers of the first year,
and he was just putting out spokenword and poetry books and all this material
(23:02):
that I just I dove into,like headfirst, I loved it all,
but I didn't but before all ofthat, like, I didn't even know
that he had that side of him, because I only knew about Rollin's band
up to that point in Black Flagobviously, when I wasn't much of a
fan at that point. But thensomebody in my college dorm in ninety one
had said, hey, he hadthis album family Man that you referenced,
(23:23):
and it like kind of blew mymind. I mean, at first we
would goof on it a little bitbecause it's also self serious. You and
I would goof for years and yearson it, and I how silly it
was, andy At it stuck withus. I mean, even though it's
kind of you know, he lovedto propagate this image that he would rawlins,
would go to this shed that helived in and write and write,
(23:44):
and he was this negative vibe,the world suck all this kind of stuff.
But Family Man stuck with me.But I that whole first side,
which is it's really two sides brokenup, like one side is Rollin's doing
sort of spoken word and the otherside is just the band doing instrumental stuff
Greg Ginn and so forth. ButFamily Man is fantastic. He had a
track called Armageddon Man, which kindof splits the difference. It's sort of
(24:08):
him doing his version of slam poetrythat you brought up earlier, Heather,
and it's great. It's almost likethis journey. But that's really what kickstarted
it. And I'm so happy alsoto hear you talk about Gill Scott Heron
because he sort of I didn't getinto Gill Scott Heron until much much later,
I think, after I graduated college, but he was It hit me
(24:29):
like a ton of bricks. Iloved all of his stuff. He had
a great flow. He really wassort of the prototypical rapper fantastic, but
he was Everything he rapped about wasvery relatable, which I think is really
important to really connect to the material. Why don't we go ahead, let's
dive into our choices. So,just to give you an idea what we're
gonna do, we're gonna talk aboutfirst, we're going to talk about our
(24:52):
favorite spoken word album, and thenwe're going to go into the Weirdest.
We're going to have two of each. We're gonna go into favorite Weirdest,
then break it up with a littlequiz of my concoction, and then we'll
go into other two choices. Solet's start out here. We're going to
talk about our favorite spoken word LP. And this time I'm not going to
put you on the spot heat I'mgonna talk. I'm going to go to
(25:12):
father Belone first. What is youryour first pick for favorite spoken word LP?
I mentioned it picked up a CDin nineteen ninety five. It came
out in ninety five and I actuallybought it at a little record store in
Santa Monica called Moby Disc, whichis long gone, but I'm also long
lamented. Great great store, greatstaff. They were all musicians, They
(25:37):
all knew the best shit that wascoming down. They would know you and
what your tastes were, and theycertainly knew mine because they immediately handed me
a record call from Research Magazine.Remember Research Magazine the film Oh My God.
That's going to come up later onfor me. So volume two of
intically Strange Music. It I oh, oh my God. If you in
(26:02):
that year came to see a movieat the movie theater I played at no
doubt you were hearing this before themovie began. This album, it it
opened up a whole I thought Iknew what the underground was. I thought
I knew all the cool stuff.I didn't know a goddamn thing. I
was a dumb kid. This albumopened up a lot of doors for me,
including one I didn't even realize untiltonight when I was re looking at
(26:23):
the track list, because I havenot heard this particular album in twenty years.
At least in the interim, Imyself have become obsessed with the sort
of Hawaiian guitar music from the fifties, the forties, fifties and sixties.
I owned a vast Polynesian and Hawaiiancollection, my favorite album of which is
a guy named Billy Muir, whowas this like DJ in Cleveland, who
(26:45):
like he slings the hardest goddamn Hawaiianguitar I've ever heard, and I've been
obsessed with that guy ever since.Turns out one of his tracks was on
this research album. But more important, it contained a track by mister Dell
(27:07):
Close and mister John Brent from analbum called how to Speak Hip. Hey,
look, you know, like ifyou brought this record to learn how
to Speak Hip from a record,man, that is the squarest thing I
ever heard of. I mean wow, But look so like you brought it,
you must need it. So thatwas a smart move, you know
what I mean? Or something.Hello there and welcome to the exciting world
(27:29):
of hip. Just relax. Meanthis other cab we're going to strain you
out. It was released back innineteen fifty nine on Mercury Records. It's
in high fidelity. Boy, ifyou listen to it with headphones on,
you're going to hear that it's aparody of what was at that time.
Old Rage continued to be for atleast twenty or so years, which is
the how to album. Those proliferatedin the nineteen fifties. So these two
(27:52):
guys noticed that, and they alsonoticed that there was an entire new language
being spoken, an entire new culture, which is beat nick color culture,
and that a lot of straight peoplehad no fucking idea what anyone was saying.
So they figured they'd do a howto record on that. So it's
an album that's broken into a seriesof lessons by Close as the narrator,
(28:14):
with the aid of an actual hishipster, mister Yeats Romo played by John
Frinn. Now I mentioned it's highfidelity close as in your left ear,
Brent, is in your right ear? Do you hipsters regard squares as the
enemy? Oh? No, man, squares are cool, you know,
enemy if they attack you one wayor another, but you've got to have
them. They run the subways likeit's not their fault. It's just the
(28:37):
bag there in. It's disorienting.Now, Dell Close, if you're already
hip, you know who he is. But he is effectively the father of
modern improvisational comedy. There were groupsbefore him, but he belonged to most
of them, including Second City,which he helped found the Compass players,
but it was close as obsession withtransforming what were effectively theater games into a
(29:00):
workable narrative that changed the comedy world. Him and Charna Halpern, who was
his partner or assistant whatever, theybasically gave birth to the Harald, which
is the blueprint for all improvisational comedy, where each of your little improvisations add
up to a whole. That brandof comedy has dominated for the past fifty
(29:21):
years, and it's really all thanksto mister Dell Close. He's also got
a perfect announcer voice, speaking ofjust the album here, He's got this
Midwest drawl that hides behind this veneerof like aerodype but not pretentious. It's
a fantastic voice on his own,and he should have had a bigger career
in voiceovers if he weren't so fuckingobsessed with with live theater. But Brent
(29:42):
John Brent playing Keets Romo, Ohmy goodness, he is. He's the
star of the show obviously because hegets all the cool hip lingo. If
you've ever seen symphony and slang,it's an old tech savery cartoon where they
where it's a character spouting all thisjargon and that they make it literal.
By animating it, you'll get someidea of what this album is like.
But Close is the real hero here. He absolutely shines because he's got the
(30:04):
straight man role. But he comesoff as this guy like genuinely trying to
understand this new cultural world as itspirals away from him, and he doesn't
ever seem desperate, but he seemslike he has a longing to understand this
new generation. The whole thing beginningto end to this day is very,
(30:26):
very funny. Evidently Brian Wilson quotedthis album all the time. There's a
line where John Brent says, andthen we'll get you no world peace.
So that's my first choice, DellClose, John Brent. You can hear
the entirety of it on YouTube,you can hear it on Spotify. I'm
gonna have links to a lot ofit, so please check it out.
(30:47):
That is such a fantastic pick.I cannot believe I should have guessed that
you were going to pick that becauseI know how much you love Dell Close,
and it's a wonderful it's funny,I mean because spoken word, it's
such a broad day finish, andit doesn't have to be someone delivering poetry
or something like that. Some inthe very staid. I mean, it
(31:07):
really encompasses comedy, a lot offun stuff. My favorite trivia note about
Dell close by the way is Ididn't he correct me if I'm wrong?
Follow didn't he will his skull tolike a school for drama in Chicago after
he died so they could use itfor Hamlet productions. Correct? Yeah,
the University of Chicago. He nowplays the role of Yorick. Oh my
(31:29):
god, I'm sorry. That islike the radest thing I have ever heard.
This might be apocryphal, but supposedlyhis final words were, I'm tired
of being the funniest one in theroom. Yeah. I choose to believe
that's true. True. I don'thave any tattoos, but I get one.
(31:51):
It's going to be a tribute tothis man. That's awesome. You
know, you might have seen himif you watched the remake of The Blob
from nineteen eighty eight. Chuck Russell'sremake of The Blob. He's the preacher
in the film. He's also inBrian de Palmer's The Untouchables. He's the
one who comes to bribe them.Your fellows are untouchable? Is that the
(32:13):
thing? No one can get toyou? And you took a phone?
Pay everyone can be gotten and I'llsee you in hell. Take it's a
titular line. Yeah, titlar line. Yeah, I love it. He's
great, He's he's so fantastic.Wonderful choice which brings us to you,
Heather, what is your first pickfor favorite spoken word album? I'm very
(32:36):
excited. I didn't even see Thisis perfect expanding how one views a category,
because I didn't even think of HauntedHouse Records, which I am an
immense fan of and listen to yearround. And of course, like I
mean, I I purposely not pickedcomedy because I thought that would be too
easy. But you mentioned research andone of my one of my golden goddesses
(32:59):
is Rusty war Who's not on mylist. If there were not a network
in existence on TV, here aresome of the programs I'm sure that we
might see. First, there'd beAlive Spectacular on that television screen, featuring
Lusty Laurent scenes from Confidential magazine.Then a daily drama with sparkle, sex
(33:20):
and fizz, starring all the gradesof show Biz called I Married Liz.
Everybody should have a shrine to thequeen of knockers up herself, Rusty Warren.
And that's also a reference from myfriend Stephen, So if he ever
listens to this, our queen,our saint, Rusty Warren. But Rusty's
(33:43):
not my pick here tonight, mypick number one. And this is an
album I love so much from oneof my bands that I love so much.
This is a band. When Ifirst heard them, it's like it's
like when you when DNA meets DNA, Like it's like you you see a
part of yourself that nobody else seesor recognizes or can identify. And that
(34:05):
is the residence the class the SanFrancisco but originally from Louisiana. And I
often think that few can do highweirdness quite like anybody from the South,
because this is it's a weird assregion. And I can say that as
a Southerner, but the residents there, we could do it, probably will
at some point do a whole episodeon them, because their body of work
(34:27):
is riveting. It's vast, it'sdiverse, it's really formidable. I mean,
it's I prolific. I take I'vetaken because they were on Raco Disc.
They had a whole reissue campaign whenBowie had his stuff come out on
Raco Disc. And I used tosee their stuff in catalogs that you get
with the CD and I go andI tried to kind of cause it looked
(34:47):
really cool. I mean, theseguys and these eyeballs and these top hats
and everything. But to be honest, like I tried to get into it
as a high school dude, Ijust it was way over my head at
the time. Maybe it's time torevisit it. I was probably late and
I was I don't know if Iwas in high school. I was like
eighteen nineteen. And but the Residentsdefinitely, I mean, it's a band
(35:09):
not for everybody, and I candefinitely see I tried to get people that
was a band I tried to foolishlyget people into and it was It didn't
go well for me. But oneof my favorite albums of theirs, and
one that I think I'm going tosay is a spoken word album because it's
a narrative story and that is theiralbum got in Three Persons. Oh,
(35:30):
I was down believe the bottom onemob. They could stare bottom daily breaking
numbing down the stream a followed bysome sneaking masks streaming giving gas was doing
brown and nearly worn out here,and the residents before this we're we're not
(35:52):
strangers necessarily doing storytelling. I meanthey have what they had the Mole trilogy,
where you've had this whole story aboutthe prolls here, basically the living
underground that are very sort of almostlike an indigenous parallel, and they end
up getting kind of exploited for worksource by the chubbs who live above grounds.
(36:13):
Give up never, not as longas never souls imprisoned in the dark
life, not as long as awhisper of life clinged in my body,
there will be freedom in the hoods. Oh well, Hail the New Machine.
They did three albums on that thoseare great, and of course they
(36:35):
did a film that was I don'tthink it was quite finished called Whatever Happened
to Violeness Fats, which they madewith Graham Whiffler, who worked on a
number of their music videos but gota Three Persons is basically this tale of
this man named mister X, whothe descriptor online compares them to sort of
Colonel Parker. I just view askind of just like a drifter almost like
(37:00):
quasi elmer gantry kind of, youknow, Southern drifter who meets these two
conjoined twins and that have powers.They have like tell up like telepathy,
telepathic powers, and he becomes transfixedand kind of wants to exploit that power
(37:20):
in a car anyway, but it'salso legit kind of enthralled by them and
ends up getting very mixed up becausehe develops lust for the female twin.
But the thing is, like thisalbum and the twins themselves are very fluid
gender wise, Like there's a fluidsexuality. The whole story is it's like
(37:40):
Flannery O'Connor meets Catherine Dunn, whowrote the incredible book Geek Love, which
I can't recommend. Yeah, drawinginto a situation that, with some consideration
never would fulfilled and smile and smile, but there was no hesitation in my
step, all right, mam,making sure the door was quiet, close
(38:08):
the music behind it. Because that'sthe thing. I'm a music girl at
heart, Like I if you mixin music with something, you got me
like it's like roses but better,yeah, because roses time, but music
lives. And but the storytelling,the narration. I believe it. It
sounds like Homer Flynn playing mister X. Of course, the great thing about
(38:29):
The Residence is there's always a lotof nebulousness as far as like whose identity
is what? But I think it'sI think it's an incredible album. It's
also an interesting one in there intheir point in this career because this is
I want to say, eighty seven, and this was the last album they
would ever record on tape, butit was the first album that they had
specifically planned to release on CD first, which that's still pretty early. And
(38:54):
the technology but the Residents were alwaysvery forward thinking, but technology like they
were one of the first groups tolike experiment and play aground with like computer
generated imagery for their videos. Andthis is like early eighties, so yeah,
and but it's also on kind ofa more sad note. They originally
(39:14):
were gonna have Snake Finger who Philipsnake Finger Litman was an ambidexterous guitarist,
a guitar legend for me, SnakeFingers amazing brilliant, brilliant fucking guitarist,
and I do recommend a solo work, and he he was going to add
guitar parts to it, and hedied and so that was never to be.
(39:36):
And I always feel like this pointonwards, their career changes without Snake
Finger a little bit like sonically,because he was like such a pivotal contributor
and he was one of the fewmember, like few kind of associated members
of the Ralph Records Residence Corps thatwasn't like under a pseudonym or anonymous.
So but yeah, I just gotin three persons. I think it's in
(39:59):
a incredible story. It's an incrediblealbum. I know they've done a few
sort of like stage productions of itin more recent years, but you don't
even this is what I don't thinkyou you know, still leave any of
the visuals because it's it's so evocative. This would be as much as I
said earlier, I don't like audiobooks. I guess that's a lie.
It depends on how you do it, right, because this is a story
that it's it's fucking great and yeah, listen to it, you know.
(40:21):
I think that might have been theCD that I took a stab at listening
to the Residents with. I thinkprobably because it was described as a concept
album in some way or a story. But I just I'm guessing my sixteen
seventeen year old brain just wasn't preparedfor all of the craziness of that.
But I'll definitely check it out.I'll revisit it for sure. That sounds
(40:42):
awesome. As for myself, myfavorite my choice for a favorite spoken word
LP. My first choice is anAmerican Prayer by Jim Morrison and the Doors.
Shoes they crew in the ancient ones. The time has come again.
Shoes Now they crew begneath the moonand he's tied on ancient lake. Enter
again the sweet forest, Enter thehot dream, You come with us,
(41:07):
Everything is broken up and dances.Father Malone and I were big Doors fans
in high school, and I rememberone time going to the Record Exchange and
Salem this used record place, andI had just bought up everything I could
find on the Doors, every tape. It was all on cassette at that
time, and then I found oneday I found this cassette called an American
(41:30):
Prayer with this picture of Morrison ina beard, and it was it looked
different than all the other Doors albums. And this was pre internet, so
I couldn't really find out what wasthis all about. It didn't it wasn't
one of the big ones like MorrisonHotel or Strange Days. I knew it
wasn't one of the main ones,and I knew it wasn't even one of
the two that came out after hedied. They put out two records after
(41:52):
he died, and they both stiffed. So I bought it, just signed
up, basically just taking it onfaith that this wasn't some kind of weird
bootleg. Given if it had been, it would have been kind of cool
to check it out. But Ibought it in no way of knowing that
this is probably this may end upbeing my favorite Doors album of all time,
(42:13):
which I know is a lot tosay. But so way before Free
as a Bird, when the Beatlesresurrected, I deceased John Lennon and put
him alongside modern day Paul McCartney andGeorge Harre, even before Hank Williams Junior
(42:36):
saying there's a tear in my beerwith his father that had died when he
was four years old. Deer beer, pull the right on you. The
Doors there were the surviving Doors,I should say, did this, and
they had already called it quits bynineteen seventy three after. Like I said,
there are two post Marson albums thathad gone belly up and hadn't done
(42:59):
a thing. But they reconvened innineteen seventy eight to do this sort of
project using Morrison's He had recorded somespoken word by himself at odd times during
when we were still alive, obviously, and they set about taking those tapes
and creating an album, not justan album with them backing him up,
(43:22):
but really took great care into makingit an audio experience, a little bit
like an audio movie, if youwill. And the interesting thing is the
album really kind of takes you throughpoetically, not literally, but it basically
starts out with Morrison as a childand we resolved the past, lurking jaws,
(43:42):
joints of time, the bass tocome of age in a dry place,
holes and caves. My friend drovean hour each day from the mountains.
The bus gives you a heart onwith books in your lap. The
progression of the album goes through hisearly childhood into him sort of striking out
(44:04):
on his own living in California,taking him through those years and USC as
a pot on the rise, throughhis ascent with the doors tight lit Losers
and less folk fuck sales with myMilitant Dandies, all strange order of monsters,
hot on the trail of the woodvine. We welcome you to our procession.
(44:27):
And then finally it ends with adog. It's his death. But
they're using all of this great poetrythat he'd recorded. He recorded an American
Prayer, which was one of hisbooks. Basically they used they recorded all
new music behind him. They weresmart enough not to and the technology didn't
exist for them to actually take hisvocals and kind of beat match them.
(44:50):
So a lot of it was reallykind of him reciting poetry and reciting these
sort of stories just behind a freeform backing by the surviving doors. They
but they also use pre existing music. They used Peace Frog, they did
Texas Radio and the Big Beat,they used Unknown Soldier. The remaining members
of the band still had great musicalchemistry. It's clear, like I said,
(45:13):
that a lot of care went intothe crafting of this album. I
mean, even now, this kindof thing happens where you take this just
happened. John Lennon just came backon the Now and Then song with the
Beatles, the so called last Beatlessong, and people are still kind of
looking at that as a little unseemly, like is that what John Lennon really
(45:34):
would like? And there's no gettingaround the fact that Morrison didn't intend these
spoken word pieces to be part ofa Doors album. He very specifically was
going to do this outside of theDoors. In fact, he had approached
Leilo Schiffrin, the composer, tocontribute backing for what he had hoped would
be a solo record of sorts,which I thought was an interesting bit of
(45:57):
trivia. Despite that, like Isaid, for me, this album has
really had legs because it really isan experience. It's not a record that
you can just listen to this songor that song out of context. It
really kind of demands that you sitdown and listen to it from beginning to
end, and it takes you throughthis sort of journey, which I really
like. It's something very unique.I think it's a fascinating record. It's
(46:22):
even really poignant at times. Andas a side note, not that this
is any measure of quality, butit was nominated for the nineteen eighty Grammy
Award for Best Spoken Word Album,so take that for what it's worth.
It was finally it was only availableon cassette and record for years and years,
and in ninety five they finally putit out on CD with a couple
of bonus tracks, which I wasdelighted by. But you can check this
(46:45):
out on Spotify. I'm sure it'llbe in the playlist. And yeah,
if you're a fan of the Doors, if you like interesting poetry, if
you like something that's a little moreof a movie and audio, a movie
for your ears, yes, Ilike that out very much as well.
Am I Going to Die? HbFather Malone and I had a period where
(47:05):
we were making music and it's doinga lot of sampling, and that was
one of the things that I sampled. Was Jim Morrison saying, am I
going to die? Over and overas we talked about our first favorite,
Now I want to talk about theweirdest we're looking for. Now. This
(47:29):
doesn't mean that this is your anotherfavorite. This may even be something that
you don't even like very much,but it's just the weirdest off the wall,
kookiest idea, kookiest execution. Whathave you know? You said?
Kooky and I all I can thinkabout? Ed Byrne Well. We went
(47:49):
at to talk about like that songwas an Elosi, and that was there
was a parody called Spooky Skirt Spookythan for me. Of course, the
weird is going to be also myfavorite, because that's just how I roll.
And Father Malone, when you mentionedResearch, my heart jumped up,
(48:12):
sang did a parauete and just grewfive times its original size. Research.
I never had access to the magazine, but the books particularly, they're Incredibly
Strange film book and the two volumesof Incredibly Strange Music Books were tann them
out to bibles for me as ateenager, absolutely pivotal reading for me,
(48:34):
and I was lucky enough to findit. Took me a lot longer to
find volume two. But the companionCDs for these two volumes are fantastic.
And so when you mentioned Billy Mure, immediately was like, ooh, I
know what that is because my numbertwo pick is an artist that is also
on Volume two of Incredibly Strange Musics, and that is a man named Eden
(49:00):
who was known as Abby to hisfriends and Eden and in fact, there
looks like there is a documentary beingmade about him. There's a really good
looking trailer for it on YouTube.Eden is a fascinating cat. This guy
born in nineteen oh eight. Wassome would call him a proto hippie.
He was very much into naturalism,like living off the land, had long
(49:22):
hair and a beard, and probablyarguably one of the most conformist eras of
well, I mean, I guesssaid he's always been conformist, but you
know, particularly in the forties andfifties, vegetarian. But however, in
nineteen forty eight he kind of gotknown to like the masses because he pinned
a song called nature Boy, whichwould be covered by Nat king Cole.
(49:44):
Fact Na King Cole's version was numberone for eight weeks. A little shy,
I'm sad of but very why hewas. Yeah, he was a
(50:06):
yogi and just it's surreal when yousee pictures of Eden, particularly from this
period, because he looks like ahippie, but this is the forties,
so it's like, it's so fascinating. But it would take a few years
for Eden to release his solo album, which is nineteen sixties Eden's Island,
The Music of the Enchanted Isle.There's a line that is great and it's
(50:34):
grand. There's no fear and nopain. We will all live again,
and everyone well fine, the onesthey love this is a beautiful piece of
(50:55):
exotica. First of all, ifyou like me, I love exotica.
I live for it. This ismy just some of the music that puts
me in the most happy place isgoing to be exotica. And not all
of this is spoken words. I'mcheating a little bit, but some of
it is, and there's a lot. There's a number of tracks that have
Eden reciting is poetry with this music. And the track that I would highlight
(51:20):
from this is full Moon, whichis also the one on the cop But
it's just it's a simple tale aboutseaside living and just valuing nature over sort
of the bigger ill gotten gains ofa capitalist lifestyle, being poor but happy,
and the full moon, the tide, the wind to serve and calm
(51:52):
the beach and gather seashells and driftwood and know the thrill of loneliness and
lose all sense of time and befree to high cover the island credit.
(52:15):
It's a lot easier to be pornhappy when you live in a warmer climate.
Yeah. Yeah, if you havea paradise, walk down to the
lagoon because I got nothing, Okay, how horrible. Yeah, that's a
life style that would later on alsobe praised by a band called Mungo Cherry
in the Summer Time. I'm totallygonna get haunted by Eden Opice's ghost now
(52:38):
for evoking Mango Jerry. But butit's serious as Eden's Island. I think
it's I think it's a very coolalbum history. He lived until nineteen ninety
five and he was killed by alike he was in a car wreck,
like, so this guy obviously wasliving living right like very like and just
kind of a fascinating cult figure.And he always always maintain this lifestyle like
(53:02):
this wasn't a fad. Nobody couldaccuse Eden of sell it out like this
man was the real deal. AndI'm looking forward to that documentary definitely.
And if you love exotica, ifyou love pseudo spiritual nature based poetry,
which I have a little crunchy granola, I guess in me more spacey really
because I love Hawkwind. But butyeah, definitely check it out. It's
(53:25):
a cool album. By the way. Another cover of nature Boy very underrated
Leonard Nemoy a little shy and sadbut very wide was her boy in space
(53:45):
music from Outer Space. I love, Yeah, I didn't know the album
was called that. Yeah, Ilove checking that out as you should.
I love that we're all talking aboutare you guys are talking about incredibly strange
music in research and all that,because I remember it's one of those things.
I remember going there was a coolbookstore on campus in college, Vaughn's,
(54:08):
and they had all kinds of crazycool books and records and everything,
and that's where I came across incrediblystrange music and research the books. But
it was one of those things whereI kind of felt like I was the
only one who had ever come acrossthis stuff because it was just so like
(54:28):
it wasn't prominently featured. You hadto go down and find it in this
crazy you know. It was justit really felt like something that spoke to
me uniquely, But I think weall had a similar experience finding this exotica
and all this kind of interesting sortof totrit us over the years. So
very cool. I'm gonna go ahead, I'm going to jump in and I'm
(54:49):
going to take the second spot onthis talk about my the weirdest spoken word
that I've come across, and thisone, I know is going to speak
to you, particularly Heather, becausemort Garson is prominently in Yes, yeah,
so this I did not go with, was it of that would be
too easy? But what Garson's goingto maybe get his own show. Eventually,
(55:09):
He's going to be featured elsewhere Asca. Apparently we're going to have an
exotica program. Yeah apparently, butno, but this particular and I'm cheating
a little bit because it's not onealbum or one song one album, it
is twelve. I'm talking about thesigns of the Stodiac series from nineteen sixty
(55:30):
nine. Capricorn's moon in Taurus isthe case of the goat and the bull
coming up with a horseshoe. Thiscombination appears to be a lucky one,
and when good luck produces success,you are impatient to share the fruits with
others. Dude, that was myrunner up, no joke, because like,
particularly the voluptuary track Taurus, whichis also my sign. I'm listening
(55:54):
to that. Oh my god,the twink is I'm listening to that track
a lot, like, oh that'sa great pick. Wow. Yeah.
So I obviously there's no getting aroundthe fact I'm a huge More Garson fan
and I came across this a fewyears ago. It's it was music by
Morc Garson and script written and directedby Jacques Wilson, who also did what
(56:15):
was it of viz? What ILove about this? And where it gets
the weirdest pick is. It wasa series of twelve albums, one for
every sign of the zodiac, fromAquarius to Virgo. There was each one
was made just for you, andeach one came with a moon chart specific
to that sign in question. Imean they really, they didn't do this
(56:37):
halfway. I mean it was inthe inside slip cover and I wrote this
down, it said quote. Withthe release of this series, A and
M Records acknowledges the birth of anew renaissance among people everywhere, especially among
people who have opened their minds tosee beyond the ordinary and recognize the true
relationship between man and the universe.That's poetry right there. Just let's forget
(57:00):
about the album that was off Eden'sAlbum's so like I said, each well,
each album basically featured the same eighttracks, and each one that there
was one about how to deal withlove from and as that particular sign for
this moment is nothing to take lightly. Love must be a meaningful thing and
(57:23):
one does not scatter their roses.You move into it carefully, with an
eye to where it's going, anda desire to make it last. For
in love, as in all things, Taurus must feel he's building something,
or whether you should work for orhire someone who had that sign. The
(57:45):
mature lion is ready to assume command. His belief in his worth rises until
he gains recognition for the person hetruly is and for the values he most
deeply possesses, and how even howthe various moves affected that That signs essential
qualities. But also this is great. I didn't know this until I did
(58:06):
the research. So there were threenarrators that basically traded off speaking duties in
these albums. Each one it's justfascinating. The first one is an actress
named Nancy Pritty, who also happenedto be the mother of Christina Applegate.
I've seen you Cancer, making yourdaily journey between heaven and Hell, running
(58:27):
the emotional scale, making a symphonyof every note, ringing it roun bizarre.
The second one is an actor namedJohn Irwin. He's better known later
in life as the voice of heMan in the popular TV series The Librin
Has theories on everything, and you'llhear them all. Nevertheless, his powers
(58:50):
of concentration are legendary, and whenthe scales tipped toward the work side,
his output is tremendous. The thirdnarrator is an actor name Michael Bell.
In one job, you serve thecause of work. In one cause,
you serve all causes. In onelove, you know all love for the
aquarian has the greatest contribution to make. It is the talent for seeing beyond
(59:15):
notion the truth. He is aloving other jobs. Do you know who
Michael Bell is? Horslo I'm seeingHe was in an episode of Night Gallery
recently. He's in the Star Trekpilot encounter at our point. He's the
villain at the end who's holding thosealiens hostage. Yeah. He's the voice
(59:35):
of every cartoon character you've ever heard. From Saturday Morning he was also the
voice He did the dubbing for PeterChris with Kids meets the fanom of the
Park when oh, my god,you need to be careful cat man,
I mean buck oh with his scurvycrew steaming close behind, and I do
meet steaming. We are serious.Yeah, he because Peter Chris refused to
(59:58):
come back and do the looping sothey have Michael Bell come in and do
all of his lines. That alonewas worth the price of admission. But
when you listen to this, I'mvery heavy obviously, as I talked about
American prayer on experience and feeling likewhat you're getting taken on a journey,
and there's no better way to feellike You're sort of sitting in a darkened
(01:00:19):
room, maybe lit by a blacklight and the finest velvet paintings on the
wall, maybe one of those,maybe a lava lamp shining in the corner,
and it just really gives you thatvibe. I mean, I don't
know who actually bought this record.I suspect if they probably missed the mark.
Probably any self respecting hippie probably avoidedthis because it was a little square,
(01:00:39):
even for nineteen sixty nine. Butbeyond that, the music itself is
typically wonderful work from mort Garson.There's some really great melodies and great stuff
on there, and overall it's justa great time capsule of the sixties.
The reason why this hit my listof the Weirdest is just them. I
just admire the immense scale of this. To take one album for every sign
(01:01:04):
of the zodiac and how comprehensive thewhole thing is. I just thought it
was, you know, really reallywonderfully crazy, ambitious project to take on
fatherm alone. What is your choice, your first choice for the weirdest spoken
word around, Well, mine dovetailsnicely into yours. Not necessarily the album
of the content or anything, butin the segue of late nineteen sixties new
(01:01:25):
age spiritualism that would take a bitmore hold in the coming decade, and
everyone with new aging. You knowwhat goes with New agism. Plants.
You got to have plants in yourhouse, right, You got to have
green plants. And this is analbum I picked up about fifteen years ago,
and I could not believe I foundit when I did. This is
(01:01:46):
It's an album from nineteen seventy six. It's called Plant Talk Sound Advice for
House Plants by Molly Roth. Thefirst no, I'll say the second side
first. The second side is straightinstructional telling you how to care for your
plants in repotting. Never use apot more than one or two inches bigger
(01:02:07):
than the present size. The plantis in repot in something too big and
the plant can sit for months growingroots like crazy and putting out exactly zero
above the top of the pot.Her side is the important sign. This
is the plant Talk side of thealbum where Mollie Roth, who has a
very smoky voice, let's say shespeaks to your plant. The album is
(01:02:30):
broken up into plants. There aredozens of them, like the Iron Cross,
Bogonia, the African violets, andshe speaks to each of them,
assuming she knows their personality. Soyou get a bit of I knew a
jade tree once that was five feettall. He was fifty years old,
and he costs six hundred dollars.See what can happen to you jade?
(01:02:52):
Oh, mister Schuffala, you're goingto have to have a bath. You're
covered in red Spider Man. Thisis probably the weirdest album I own,
and I will throw it on occasionallyjust because of the sheer, batshit insanity
of it. I don't have anyplants, but it works on humans too.
I see. And I thought youwere gonna go Plantasia on us,
(01:03:15):
which was more Garson's record that's supposedto be played for houseplants. Your choice
is much weirder and much better thanthat, So bravo. That's the thing.
I knew that there were tons ofalbums out there for plants as musically,
like you mentioned the more Garson,there are others. There were classical
music for house plants and things likethat. So when I found this,
I'm like, oh, you're kidding, because this is something you'd always heard
(01:03:37):
about. You should talk to yourplants, you know, they get used
to your voice, treat them nicely. And so that somebody actually went ahead
and did the recording of the album, It's just fantastic. What a world
we live in. How lucky arewe? I'm serious, Like that's the
thing. Anybody listening to us you'rehaving a bad week, just like,
oh my god, Like listen tous and US three alone, You're welcome.
(01:04:00):
But I mean, like, ohmy god, this suxist. Also,
like I'm the knowing that there's individualI don't know how I missed it
being a huge Mark Garrison fan.There's individual vinyl albums for each sign Criminy,
Like, I don't that's gonna Bedskog'shere, I come. I guess,
Yeah, it's crazy because he putout there were a couple of He
(01:04:24):
actually put out a single record aboutthe zodiac. What is it called?
It was just I think it wasactually just called the Zodiac. It was
credited to the Zodiac and the albumwas called Cosmic Sounds. But it's it's
a little I mean, it's similar. It's a little more kind of what's
the word I'm looking for. It'sa little more kind of chaotic and all
(01:04:44):
over the place, whereas the Zodiacseries is a little more like you kind
of know what you're getting regardless ofwhich sign you go for. But they're
all really, really good, andthat could have made my list. But
this was just crazy. Twelve twelvealbums no that I can't wait to hear
that Father alone. That's exactly somethingthat I would have probably bought it a
(01:05:06):
used record shop. That's the kindof record you pray that you find when
you're like at a thrust store ora goodwill, because a lot of times
you're just having to go through alot of copies of like some old monte
Vanni records, some Christian music,Herb Albert on a brass. If you're
(01:05:26):
lucky, Oh my god, ifyou're lucky, you get Herb Albert.
All right, this is the momentwe've been waiting for. It's quiz time,
and we're gonna do this. I'mgonna I'm gonna switch off. I'm
gonna start with you, Heather.I'm gonna ask you the first question I
get and we'll just switch off.So we'll go that way this time.
Okay, So the first question istrue or false? Okay? Okay.
(01:05:48):
The celebrated mime Marcel Marso produced analbum of his most famous routines called The
Best of Marcel Marceau. True orfalse? That is true, and in
fact, the bulk of the albumis completely silent except for the very last
moment where you hear applause. Technicallyfalse. There is an album that exists,
(01:06:09):
but it was not recorded by MarcelMarceau. If you look, his
name is actually spelled differently. It'sactually spelled Marcel Marceau with an oh at
the end. It was a parodyrecord released in nineteen seventy by a man
named Michael Weiner. But you're right. Each side consisted of nineteen minutes of
silence followed by a minute of applause. So technically false, but the album
(01:06:30):
does exist. Well, see Iwas testing you and you pass follow blone
Yo are you ready? Sir?I am okay, which actor narrated the
spoken word LP The Begatting of thePresident, which was a satirical summary of
lbj's presidency and Nixon's election in nineteensixty eight, done in the style of
(01:06:54):
Biblical verse, which actor narrated thisLP. Is this a comedic actor or
just like a straight up Steve McClean. This is a straight up actor.
They don't get more straighter up thanthis guy. Then, But it's LBJ
and Nixon, Ronald Reagan, noOrson Wells, oh Orson Wells. I
(01:07:14):
have it. It's a terrible album. It didn't. It's weird, but
not good enough to make any ofmy lists. And LBJ said, let
us make war on poverty and lothere were welfare checks fallen upon the land,
and upon them it was writ foldnot neither should you spindle nor mutilate.
Heather who was the antagonist of MuhammadAli's nineteen seventy six spoken word album,
(01:07:40):
which featured contributions by Frank Sinatra,Howard Cosell, and Richie Havens,
who is the antagonist of this recordTooth to k You are right, you
absolutely right. It was mister chicky, I think, and he's got a
bad too. Boks like tooth hasSadden. All oh, he said in
(01:08:01):
already read to get your dinner flossand your tooth brushes, and let's start
right now. The full title wasThe Adventures of Ali and his Gang Versus
Mister Tooth Decay. It was recordedto raise awareness of tooth decay among children,
and it was even officially endorsed bythe American Dental Association. Very good,
(01:08:24):
Hey, that album cover alone isfucking balkers. Of course I would
know this. Wow, that isI'm bravo fantastic. All right, it's
one to zero fo them alone.I think she's tex first one too.
She's two to zero here, twoto zero. We'll give it to you.
A truth of true false. TimothyLeary recorded a spoken word album with
(01:08:46):
Pete Townsend during Townsend's tax exile innineteen seventy true or false false correct.
Although he did record an album calledYou Can Be Anyone This Time Around,
it was not recorded with Townsend.It was recorded to raise funds for Leary's
gubernatorial candidacy for the governor of California, and it had Hendrix, It had
(01:09:09):
Buddy Miles, Stephen Stills, andit contained the earliest known examples of sampling
on a commercial record. I'm onthe Board, You're on the board two
to one. Back to Heather,which famous DJ was sampled for Negative Lands
infamous song The Letter You and theNew World Too. Yeah. About that,
(01:09:31):
I was like, somebody, whatdoes he say? Like, god,
damn dead dog dog dyet Yeah,dog named Snuggles And he says it
(01:09:59):
was it was all American top fortyout takes that they cut in to like
a Muzaki version of I still haven'tfound what I'm looking for? But even
yeah, and they got sued.They did. They they got sued very
aggressively by U two and it reallyled to a larger discussion over the use
of fair use in entertainment. Soit was a very important song, really,
(01:10:25):
But you went around and hired EmergencyBroadcast Network to do all of their
stuff for their Zoo TV tour.How do you like them apples? That's
true, Well, depending on whoyou talk to. The edge like he
pleads like innocence, Like I didn'ttell him to sue anybody. It was
our lawyers. They got over asZellas. I don't really believe that.
But nevertheless, very good. Soit's three to one. You can't win.
(01:10:48):
But maybe you can make a bettershowing of it alone. The last
last question. Steely Dan co founderWalter Becker collaborated with William S. Burrows
on a track from his nineteen ninetyspoken word album Dead City Radio. True
or false? True? That wouldbe false too, it was again,
(01:11:09):
maybe I'm taking liberties with the questionsare a little tricky. It was Donald
Fagan who recorded a song with WilliamBurrows on that LP. The song was
called a new standard by which tomeasure infamy is not yet no, no,
it will in good time, sofoul, and actors that will out
like murder. This man still lives. Surely he was born and saved,
(01:11:34):
set for men a news standard bywhich do measure inter me and shame sadly,
well, not sadly for Heather,because Heather, you won three grade.
My god, Ali one alone shouldhave gotten you. In the title,
(01:11:55):
I am the only I knew thatbecause if you watched the movie when
we were Kings right befo, whereAli goes to Zaieir he's having an interview
and he goes we mos whoop toothdecay. I got a cavity here and
a cavity here, but I didn'tknow that he recorded an album to combat
mister tooth decay. I think that'sfantastic. Now we're going to talk about
(01:12:15):
our second choice for favorite spoken wordLP. Because you're the Winter Heather,
We're going to go to you.What's your second choice for favorite spoken word
album? Wow? My second choiceis a key member to a band I
alluded to earlier. But this isalso a choice that is a probably the
(01:12:36):
most classical like spoken word of mychoices for the evening And I'm a going
with Robert Calvert. This house iswashed up on a mountain of rain.
The night has made us famous allaround. Huge microphones are being tested and
flashbulbs blind out windows. And hisalbum grade at two thirty two. This
(01:13:01):
was a him reciting a book ofpoetry that he had released earlier. The
album came out in eighty six.And Robert Calvert, for those who don't
know, he is probably best known. He wrote Silver Machine. He was
a member of hawk Wind for severalyears. So fantastic frontman, fantastic writer
(01:13:43):
like he was a poet and aprose writer before he was ever a musician,
but just absolutely captivating frontman. He'sone of my favorite artists period I
love Robert Calvert. I think he'sreally unsung. I mean, I think
one could argue that hawk Win orstill kind of underrated, but Calvert,
especially and this particular group of poetryis just it's beautiful. I mean Calvert
(01:14:06):
his voice alone, he has suchan interesting voice because it's in parts,
it's imparts. It is very richand has a strength to it and a
quirkiness. But there's always like alittle tinge where you could tell he's either
gonna maybe make a little sly commentlike he's like a little witty aside,
or even kind of revealed, likea really kind of heartbreaking too truthless I
(01:14:28):
say tooth the Alie decay thing andstill in my brain, but just like
a heartbreaking yeah, heartbreaking truth.And he does that both with his voice
and his lines like and that takesa special I think a special writer and
speaker to be able to do that. The cool thing, too, is
that a number of these poems youcan kind of because they're a lot older
(01:14:49):
than eighty six, there are seedsthat would become songs like some of them.
There are alliance that would be inHawkwind's spirit of the age being alone,
laws to identify even this dog Roomthat paurs from my pen has just
been written by another twenty telepathic men. Word for word, Oh, for
(01:15:11):
the wings of any bird other thana battery head a cloud, I have
those laws to identic by of thisdog roll that flaws on my ben has
done by twenty tavy pathic mend OhBlood says a battery Ahead, which is
(01:15:40):
one of the best songs for MyMoney, as well as Robert's first solo
effort a Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters, which is a great, great album
if anybody is a fan of ourjust like kind of weird prog. There's
actually spoken word bits in that album. Definitely check that out. And the
second one, like as was producedby Brian Eno. Was it Lafe,
(01:16:02):
the one I'm gonna Lucky Lafe,Lucky Life. It's something it's got like
a crazy long name, but it'sokay. Arthur Brown's on Captain Lockheed as
well as a lot of members ofHawkwin like Nick Turner's on This Day Rock.
But to go back to Cintigrade,it's just I think it's just a
great It's a great collection of poetry. What more do you need? It's
compelling. Whether he's reciting pieces thatare talking about other worlds or something that
(01:16:27):
could be right in the home.His way of telling a story and looking
at life is eternally compelling, andthere's always a nestle of truth and just
sheer, clean insight to Robert Calbert'swork. That's fantastic. And I'm familiar
with Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters,so and I'm a huge Hawkwind fan.
(01:16:48):
I was just the other day listeningto Warrior on the Edge of Time,
which is an amazing album. Oh, such a great that's actually one of
my favorites. Yeah, Space forChill too. They just re released Space
Rituals, like this huge set.But to know that's I'll have to what
was the name of that album?Again? For the Robert Calvern album since
you grade two thirty two, I'mdefinitely gonna check that out father alone.
(01:17:13):
Second pick favorite spoken word. Okay, this is actually my favorite spoken word.
The Dell Close one was up there, but this is the actual favorite.
And let me peel back the curtainhere for our listeners. As soon
as HP announced what this subject was, my brain screamed, don't get scooped
by these two. Speak up.And thus I present to you Ken Norden's
(01:17:36):
colors. Now this was I mentionedhow to speak him? I had first
heard on that research Incredibly Strange MusicVolume two. That same album features three
tracks from this album. Ken Nordeen. Who is he? He's a gift,
That's who he is. He didvoiceover work for commercials and trailers.
No, I must go to othertowns, he said, and he left
(01:17:57):
left us with our new levis.He was to Blair's vocal coach for The
Exorcist. He worked with The GratefulDead and Billy Vaughn. He appeared on
The Tonight Show and Sesame Street.In nineteen sixty seven, he was hired
by the Fuller Paint Company to writeand perform and produce ten radio ads about
colors, nine actually nine colors,and one was about the Spectrum King Purple
(01:18:20):
feels. There's a right that ishis, that goes way way back to
beginning, to the place where Pompbegan, that is Purple Pomp. The
ads ran, and then the strangestthing happened. People started calling in requesting
(01:18:42):
to hear them again, which isan impossibility given that they were paid advertisements.
You can't give free advertising after theypaid. But the popularity was not
lost on Ken Nordine, who thenexpanded the idea of ten up to thirty
four forty four actually originally before orthey put it so what we yet are
jazz number tracks. Each track isabout a minute and a half to two
(01:19:05):
minutes tops, each expounding the joysand sorrows and wonders of colors, sometimes
speaking to the color, sometimes speakingabout the color. Seems that green,
you know how green can be.Didn't want yellow in some silly primal envy,
I suppose, but for whatever cause, the effect was bad on yellow
(01:19:31):
and caused yellow to weep yellow tearsfor several eternals before there were years.
It is a hypnotic in ways youcan't believe. Ken Norden has one of
the greatest voices of all time.The fact that he's not as well known
as my next weird album choice isshocking to me. He look, he
(01:19:56):
was on the radio for many,many years. He first got sort of
notari an when he released an albumcalled word Jazz, which is the sort
of proto version of colors that wasback in the fifties, I think,
and but that's more spoken word like. He was telling stories and he continued
to do that for the majority ofhis career and the albums he put out.
But Colors is a little more specific. It's a little more just straight
(01:20:19):
poetry, even if it sounds likepros at times. I put my girlfriend
had never heard of Ken Nordine,didn't know what the hell I was talking
about. And I said, Oh, it's this album this guy doing.
He's talking about Colors and they putlike some bbop jazz behind him. She's
like, that's ridiculous, and Isaid, yeah, here, listen to
one. She's like, oh,that was good. Play play another one,
Like oh really, so yeah,yeah, play another one. Her
name is Amber, and there's atrack named Amber, and it's not the
(01:20:42):
best track on the album. Ifelt so about it's just okay, it's
you know, it's like it's comparingAmber to like the amber of a of
a stop light. Amber, fromits vantage, winks among the many millions,
stops and goes because Amber knows fromthe bottom of its amber that even
made in God's image, even somethingas smart and as special and as serious
(01:21:05):
as that, has to be toldwhen to stop. You know, it's
no yellow, it's no green,it's no olive. Olive, which are
featured on the album It makes youfeel groovy even if you're not. And
those of us who are maybe alittle bit older will also remember that Ken
Nordeen was the voice of Taster's choicethe coffee commercials. This rich, sort
(01:21:30):
of bassy, reassuring voice that wasKen Nordean, Taster's choice, looks and
smells like ground roast and tastes fresh. Curt I cannot love this choice anymore,
Father Malone. Obviously, I wasvexed by the fact that you swooped
in and took him from me.But but it's such a worthy choice.
(01:21:51):
They a few years ago they putout a collection of all the word jazz
albums onto a double disc set,and I cherish it. Flippity Jib is
a fantastic track. The videot,Like you say, it's more storytelling,
and some of them are funny,some of them are a bit shocking,
some are even a little bit sadin places. But he's so magnetic.
(01:22:15):
His delivery is so unique. Butcolors is It's peak Ken Nordine. It's
fantastic. He's so comforting, evenat his most chilling, because he's got
some chillers in the early albums.But it still always feels like it's all
right, I've got you. Yeah, he's got his voice is what kind
of grabs you and pulls you in. But his mind and his storytelling and
(01:22:39):
the stories that he comes up with. It's completely offbeat and off kilter and
off center and just wonderful. Actually, interestingly, my second choice for favorite
spoken word album in a funny way, it kind of to use your same
turn for phrase. It dovetails intowhat you just went through fought them alone.
My second choice is a record calledJourneys Inside the Mind Potier meets Plops
(01:23:05):
from nineteen sixty four. It's SydneyPoitier reading the dialogues of Plato over a
jazz backing led by Fred Katz.Until political greatness and wisdom meet in one
ruler, and those commoner natures willpursue either attribute to the exclusion of the
other. Art compelled to stand aside. Cities will never have rest from evils,
(01:23:29):
No, no, the human race. Then, only then will our
state have a possibility of light andbehold the light of day. This was
a record I first came across.A lot of these records, and a
lot of the stuff I came acrossin late night crate digging sessions. I
was the music director at my dormsradio station in college, and we had
(01:23:51):
a massive record collection this closet.It would just go on forever, and
some nights, if I didn't wantto go to bed or couldn't sleep,
I would go up there, justgo through the stacks, and this was
one of those records that I cameacross. It was Obviously people should know
who Sydney Poitier is or was.He was the groundbreaking Academy Award winning actor
(01:24:13):
and civil rights activist. Everyone shouldknow who this man is. Frank Katz,
on the other hand, was anAmerican cellist and composer who was once
described as the first real jazz cellist. He composed the music, among other
things, he composed the music forRoger Corman's Bucket of Blood movie, which
(01:24:43):
oddly enough also appeared in seven otherCorman movies, so I guess his music
got reused a lot there. Hewas the professor of Ethnic music at California
State University, and one of hisstudents was John Densmore of the Doors A
little bit of Trivia there. Therecord consists of Poitier reading these dialogues of
Plato over the sort of hipster backingjazz backing music composed by cats, and
(01:25:09):
Poitier simply has one of the smoothest, most beautiful voices that you could ever
want to hear. He was obviouslya wonderful actor, but his sort of
reciting of these dialogues is transfixing,and despite the incongruity of the subject,
it's really well matched by the livelyjazz compositions on display, and I can
(01:25:31):
honestly I could hear Poitier read thephone Book and I would be just as
transfixed. This knowledge was lost atbirth but may be recovered by the use
of the senses, so learning isreally an act of recovering by recollection.
And our souls existed without bodies beforethey were in the form of man,
and must have had intelligence. It'ssuch a weird combination of confluence of ingredients,
(01:25:58):
but it really works. Jazz andPoitier with Plato mixed in you can't
go wrong. I believe archive dotorg has a digital copy that you can
listen to, and of course it'son YouTube. Let's go into our final
choice for weirdest spoken word album.Let's start with you Follow Them Alone,
what's your pick for the weirdest?Solomon Freeze all to his pals. Guy
(01:26:20):
had a four octave vocal range.Started in vaudeville in the thirties as Buddy
Green doing impressions. In the fortieshe was a voiceover man par Excellence and
show Us Like Crime, Classics andgun Smoke. He provided the adr for
Humphrey Bogart and his final film,The Heart of They Fall, when he
was unable to complete the dialogue dueto ill health. Wow. He worked
(01:26:43):
for every animation company, Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, Walter Lance, Hannah
Barbara, on and on and on. He was Boris Badanoff On, Rocky
and Bullwinkle. I Like It,I Like It. He was John Lennon
and George Harrison and the Beatles Cartoon. Look at this lovely picnic casket they
packed for us. He was MeisterMeisterberger and Santa Claus is coming to Town.
I hate toys and toys hate me. He passed away in nineteen eighty
(01:27:08):
six, and yet he's still performingday in day out Disney World in Disneyland
on the Pirates of the Caribbean ManTale. Now that's Paul Freeze, but
He'll always be the ghost host ofthe Haunted Mansion. Take two from Welcome
(01:27:30):
Foolish Mortals. I may as wellgive you another one, right you want
it? Very good? Welcome FoolishModels, Find the Way Out. Paul
Freeze is who we're talking about.In nineteen seventy one, somebody thought it
was a really good idea to releasean album of mister Freeze, and I
couldn't agree more. He's fantastic.Why wouldn't we memorialize him? The result
is Paul Freeze and the Poster People. It is an album of then contemporary
(01:27:56):
songs, each interpreted by Paul Freese. Now that description is ten lining enough
to hear him singing those songs.Oh but you have no idea. See,
each of the songs is done inthe speak singing style, spoken word
if you will, in the mannerof mister Freeze. Many impressions. So
yes, you get Bella Lugosi performinggames. People play and they while away
(01:28:17):
the hour. De dere aybody,how de oya. My personal favorite on
the album is Sugar Sugar, asessayed by Sydney Greenstreet. Sugar Sugar,
(01:28:40):
you are my candy gun and you'vegot to be wondering what it's crazy.
I can't, but everyone will wantto hear him. Hey, Jude,
by Peter Lauree, you have noidea how wonderful this is. Hey Jude,
(01:29:00):
don't be afraid. You were meto go out in dinner a minute
your letter under your scheme, thenyou begin to make it better. The
(01:29:23):
final track on the album is EverythingIs Beautiful, where Paul free cycles through
all of his impressions. Look,I have to warn everybody if you're going
to go pick up this album,the let It be cover, which should
be a fantastic cover. I sawthe title of the track, I went,
oh my god, this is goingto be great. He's doing it
as Warner Orlan. Oh my god, it's Charlie Chance. So it's it
(01:29:44):
hasn't aged well. You might wantto just skip that one. Don't skip.
Mama told me not to come byw C. Field pumping up the
(01:30:05):
wind though, what's somewhere into thisroom? I love it crazy. I
had no idea this because I lovePaul Freese. I didn't know this existed.
That's amazing. Seriously, I hadno idea either. I love Paul
Freeze too, Like, holy shit, it was quite a revelation when I
found this out. Yeah, Ithink Paul Freese was Actually he was also
(01:30:29):
an undercover narcotics agent back then.I think he was the one who inspired
Elvis to want to be Remember thatfamous Elvis sets Nixon. He's the one
who inspired Elvis to want to becomean undercovered narc himself, but not a
lot of people knew that about him. Paul Freese directed one movie called The
beat Nicks. It's like the someand like slightly right wing screed, but
who cares. Paul is the hauntedmansion guy. It was an album.
(01:30:51):
It's it could have. I wastempted to add to this list, but
it's more comedy than spoken word.Stan Freeberg had an album called Stan Freiberg
Presents the United States of America,Volume one, and Paul Freese is the
narrator of that. It's basically likea song in dance history of the US
up to that point. But PaulFreese is just unmistakable. We have a
(01:31:13):
lot of great voices represented in thisparticular. I didn't expect that, but
that's awesome, Sonna. I'm gonnatake the next spot. I'm gonna go
with my second choice for weirdest LP. This one. I can almost guarantee
neither of you have heard of it. I'm pretty certain of that. It's
an album called Basic Black Parentheses,a poetical odyssey through inhumanity by a fellow
(01:31:39):
named Jason Black. That's ja ySon Black. This was another record that
I came across in my late nightcreat digging in the record stack of my
radio station in college. And whatdrew me to it was the cover is,
and I said, I have tosee what this is all about.
(01:32:00):
The cover is a rather blank facedman who kind of looks a little like
mister Spock. He's wearing a robeand he's sitting Lotus style in front of
what looks like two sort of Greekarches, but he's gied the weirdest expression
on his face. And I said, well, this is weird. But
then I turned it over and thisreally sealed the deal for me to want
to listen to it. An excerptof what's printed on the back. It
(01:32:23):
says, Jason Black should be arrestedfor exposing himself in public. What he
exposed is not pretty to look at, it's not pleasant to hear, and
the aroma is definitely offensive to loftynostrils ok, and then further down it
says Jason Black has been an alcoholicsince he was eleven years old. He
(01:32:44):
has been in twelve mental institutions.He was a patient at Chicago State Hospital.
As recently as February nineteen sixty nine, wcfl's all night disc jockey Standale
found Jason Black at Chicago State andwas appalled at the conditions and which humans
were condemned. He placed Jason ina veterans administration hospital, where he is
(01:33:05):
now an outpatient. I'm reading this, going, what is this? This
is insane? Like this is usuallythat the back of an album is about
lyrics or groovy text about whatever.This is all about how awful this guy's
life is and how miserable everything isaround him. So I said, of
(01:33:25):
course I have to hear this.This is insane. I am cheese strange
ladies in my red cellophane wrapper.It is cool here on the shelf,
unmolested, but the smell inside isbad. Can't be me. So evidently,
(01:33:48):
from what I could gather, JasonBlack would go on this DJ Standale's
all night program and he would readhis poetry, where I would assume he
then was able to make the leadto laying it down on Wax if you
Will. Song titles include Social Workersand Other Fools, A Garrett for Failure,
(01:34:10):
Showdown with Nighttime, and my personalfavorite title, Inquisitorial Exorcism, which
would actually make a good band nameif you think about it. A Yeah.
So there's no music backing per se. It's mostly just his voice reciting
these poems. But there's sounds thatappear to come from actually, I'm pretty
(01:34:31):
certain like they come from a genericsound effects record of the day, because
like one of them begins with thesound of a woman screaming, and I
know I've heard the same scream inone of my Superman read along storybook records,
like a record of sound effects thatthey just threw on to make to
dress up this guy's poetry recitations.But his voice is pretty amazing. He
(01:34:57):
sort of seems like he's seething withanger, but he's also rather clear and
lucid, which I wasn't expecting giventhat he sounds like a mental patient,
a literal mental patient. But allthese years I've puzzled over this record.
Who was this guy? Really?Was he really as damaged as it seems?
From the copy on the record andhis poems, and how did it
(01:35:20):
end up This record end up inthe archives of a college radio station.
It baffles me because it's not amajor label. It's some label out of
Chicago, and I went to schoolin Indiana, so probably the close proximity
maybe that's how it ended up there. But it's a very odd ball.
(01:35:40):
They don't get more oddball than this. Although I think You're reading to the
Plants probably takes the cake there.But I think this guy had some pretty
severe issues going on, and alot of that's reflected in the poetry.
And yeah, like I said,it doesn't get weirder than this, Jason
Black, you will not find iton Spotify in case you were wondering.
(01:36:03):
I don't know where this ended upor where this guy ended up. So
that's my second choice. Finally,Heather, Wow, it's all been leading
up to this moment. What isyour final choice for weirdest spoken word album?
I had to pick. This isnot only a weird one, this
is a huge favorite of mine.This is an artist I have written about
(01:36:24):
for a pioneer who I think haslargely gone on sung, which is part
of the reason why I did anarticle because more people need to know about
her. And I'm going with RuthWhite and her album Flowers of Evil,
that swimming side by side, thatstrange to the use, and this,
(01:37:00):
as one may guess in the title, this is an adaptation of the poetry
of Charles Baudelaire done in a absolutelygroundbreaking manner, the seeds of what you
would later on hear, because thisis nineteen sixty nine. Ruth is doing
techniques and sounds here that you wouldgo on to hear bands like Throbbing Gristle
Integrate, and the way that she'smodulating her voice, it sounds at times
(01:37:27):
like she's a literal specter trying tocommunicate to you from another realm, like
through a mirror or something like.It's absolutely I've seen this one pop up
a lot on people's like creepy list. I of course, a lot of
things that I find soothing and fascinatingI think tend to make it on people's
creepy list, but I think itstunning work. Ruth is one of the
(01:37:50):
original innovators with the mode, whichshe doesn't get mentioned a lot, and
she should. She did a lotof compositional work for children's records, which
I think all so that it's probablyone of the reasons why she tends not
to get mentioned. It's kind ofweird when we think of things that are
creative and expressive that society kind ofthrows away and doesn't take seriously, and
like educational stuff, which I wouldsay in some ways, some of the
(01:38:12):
educational stuff that was creating the sixtiesand seventies is fascinating and very much creative
and artistic. But stuff for kidsisn't valued. But just maybe you should
value it because it's literally what you'rehaving your children like watch and listen to
and read. But Ruth's backstory isalso fasting. She studied as a college
student under another composer named Georgianathiel andGeorge He If she's fascinating, George his
(01:38:36):
backstory. He's another groundbreaker, butan auvant garde composer, was considered the
bad boy of auvent Garden in thenineteen twenties. His Paris' debut in nineteen
twenty five literally incited a riot,and at one point he pulled a revolver
out of his pocket and just putit on top of the piano like he
(01:38:58):
would do. This is a aftermy heart, like this is my we're
painting with my colors. Now,this is so just perfection. It's a
thinking about like Ruth is studying underthis guy and just she's I adore this
woman so much, and I thinknow we're finally starting to getting there where
people kind of know who Wendy Carlosis and Delia Derbyshire. Of course,
(01:39:21):
what helps is Delia's got the doctorwho connection and Wendy's got the shining and
so that's not to damn play.They're both fucking brilliant and they're both great
and everybody she listened to everything thosewomen have done as well, but also
listen to some Ruth White and especiallyespecially this album that should be We Didn't
(01:39:56):
Want Precious because before Ruth there werelike a few adaptations of Bottelaire to record,
but they're more sort of standard justyou know, Whre's nothing wrong with
(01:40:17):
that. What's fascinating is one ofthem was Robert Goulay. I'm sorry,
Robert Goulay. Reading Bottelaire's it ticklesme. I can't help it. But
I like to think there's like someversion of Story of the Eye out there
by George Batiel that that has aGulay vocal intonation on. But yeah,
(01:40:38):
Ruth White, absolute legend, groundbreaker, genius. This is one of the
most sonically brilliant albums I've ever heard, and it cannot ever be priced enough.
I'm unfamiliar with it. I feelashamed. Oh dumb, No shame,
Oh my god, you can youafter your picks, They're shame,
No shame for any of us.I am so smitten with all of our
(01:41:00):
picks. I usually am. That'syeah, I love my noise juggies.
But holy shit, this episode.What a powerhouse and the fact that we
can all like not only turn ourhumble, wonderful listeners hello, thank you
for still listening, and but alsoeach other like, oh my gosh,
this is so cool. And Ruth'sstuff is on Spotify, so it is
(01:41:23):
accessible and of course, if youlike it do I believe the Cities are
still in print through her company,which I believe was called They're still around,
so you can support physical media ifyou like what you're hearing on Spotify.
So that's been And now I haveRobert Gulay stuck in my head.
I'm gonna have to fetally start lookingfor Baudelaire by Holy Canelli. Right,
(01:41:45):
that's the Robert Gulay, just withthat stash and that that sort of slightly
sleazy but lovable essence. He seemskind of perfect for Battlelaire. Are you
sure this is the casino? Ithink I should call my man. Your
manager says for you to shut up. Vera said that fantastic, So that
will do it for this episode.For the spoken word episode, let's go
(01:42:11):
around a little bit, Heather.When you're not listening to music with your
fellow noise junkies, where can peoplefind your material? Well, I have
a link tree and it'slinktree dot comfor a slash Modo Heather, and there
you'll find links to my website Mondoheatherdot com, my Patreon Fond of Heather,
my social media, other podcasts I'mon which are also on the weirding
(01:42:35):
Way Media which we are also on, including the Culture Cast and Bollywood Cinema
Club, which I appear on.I also recently reviewed for my website a
shot on video horror movie called splatterFarm for nineteen eighty seven that's really very
cool, very sort of like Areadybut also art gore film made by Literal
(01:42:59):
Teenager and it has so much heartand charm and great composition and it's intriguing
and so do check that article out. And you can also just find all
my stuff there linktree dot com ora slashmando Heather and you follow them alone.
Where can people give us some informationon where people can find you when
you're not hanging out with the noisejunkies. You want to see my visual
(01:43:21):
nonsense, go to followm alone dotcom. If you want to hear me,
go to weirding Way Media where Ihost a show called Midnight Viewing,
the horror anthology podcast where we're wrappingup our look at Night Gallery Rod Serlings
series in preparation for Tales from theDark Side start recording very soon, so
(01:43:41):
check out Midnight Viewing. Also,I have a show called Dark Destinations.
It's a half hour radio drama,not necessarily spoken word, but it is
a lot of people talking and alot of sound effects and music by HB.
I would echo as I often do. I love Dark Destinations. If
you love good audio drama, goodstorytelling, you can't go wrong there.
As for myself, I am alsoamong the galaxy of personalities on the Weirdingway
(01:44:04):
Media network. I do a podcastwith Father Malone called Night Mister Walters,
a taxi podcast. I'm also anoccasional guest on the Culture Cast. Yes,
and also I have a band campsite hpmusicplace dot bandcamp dot com if
you want to hear some of mysome of the audio nonsense I've cooked up.
(01:44:26):
There's not a lot there now,but hoping to add more and more
good stuff as time allows. Butanyway, thank you both for everything.
Thank you for this wonderful treat ofaudio spoken word audio choices here p for
Heather and for Father Malone. Thankyou so much for listening, and we'll
(01:44:46):
see you again next time.