December 5, 2024 • 35 mins
HP returns with another concept album from his collection. This time, it's a gloriously weird gem from 1968. You think you know the real story of The Wizard Of Oz? Think again.
This episode also features a guest chat with the very person that introduced HP to this classic! Join HP as he freaks out (in a good way) to the magic of: The Wozard Of Iz by Mort Garson.
JUNKIES
Father Malone: FatherMalone.com
HP: hpmusicplace.bandcamp.com
Heather Drain: https://www.mondoheather.com/
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5nS86knITjRR45uGkRvuNt?si=b28780d1699f4135
This episode also features a guest chat with the very person that introduced HP to this classic! Join HP as he freaks out (in a good way) to the magic of: The Wozard Of Iz by Mort Garson.
JUNKIES
Father Malone: FatherMalone.com
HP: hpmusicplace.bandcamp.com
Heather Drain: https://www.mondoheather.com/
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5nS86knITjRR45uGkRvuNt?si=b28780d1699f4135
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
We Like many of you, I've had tons and tons
of albums recommended.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
To me over the years. Some I grew to enjoy,
some missed the mark.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
But every once in a while, a record comes recommended
that ticks so many boxes almost immediately that it's skyrockets
to cherished status in no time at all. It doesn't
happen very often, but when it does, it's magic. I'd
like to share one of these discoveries with you. Get ready,
because tonight we're off to find the waws It of His.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Hello.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Listeners to another special episode of Noise Junkies, I'm HP.
This episode will be covering another great concept album from
the HP archives. This time it's nineteen sixty eight's The
was It of Isz, composed by Mort Garson and conceived
and written by Jacques Wilson. I first became aware of
The It of is back in nineteen ninety nine. I
(01:37):
just started a new job and almost immediately became good
friends with someone in my group. We had a lot
of shared interests video games, bad movies, and had a
very similar sense of humor still do. Plus, we both
loved oddball or weird music. At some point, I don't
know when he mentioned this album from his dad's collection
called the was it of his I thought he was
(02:00):
at first. Then the more he told me about the record,
the more I thought it was some kind of put
on a parody of sixties electronic weirdness. But no, this
was authentic, recorded earnestly, no trace of irony whatsoever. Based
on his description, I had to see and hear this
record for myself. He eventually brought the record in for me,
(02:23):
and as much as I built up in my head
what it would sound like, the reality was so much better.
More on my friend and a little bit. But before
we get into Wazard, let's delve deeper into mort Garson's career.
Garson started out as a session musician who later went
on to a successful career as an arranger and songwriter.
In the late fifties on into the sixties. His credits
(02:46):
included arrangements for Doris Day, The Letterman, Paul Revere and
the Raiders, and Leslie Ugghams. In nineteen sixty seven, he
arranged the strings on Glenn Campbell's cover of Jimmy Webb's
By the Time I Get to Phoenix, which was a
big hit for Campbell.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
By the time.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
I get to Phoenix, she'll be rising. She'll find the
note I left hanging.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
On her note.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
She'll leave when she reached the part that says I'm
leaving because I've left that girl so manute times before.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Garson met electronic music innovator Robert mog at a convention
in nineteen sixty seven, and subsequently became one of the
first people to start using the Moge synthesizer for compositions
and arrangements. This formed the basis for his nineteen sixty
seven album The Zodiac Cosmic Sounds, co written with Wilson
and featuring Paul Beaver on the synthesizer. It was the
(04:09):
first West Coast album to feature the Moge synth.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Nine Times, the color Red explodes like heated blood. The
Battle is on Mars. The Master of Matchmaker Sulfu rizes
the sky. Incendiary diamonds scorch the earth.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
As you listen to these samples of Garson's music, bear
in mind that the Mogue synth was monophonic, meaning it
was only capable of playing a single note at a time.
The first polyphonic Mogue wouldn't come out until nineteen seventy five,
but given Garson's background and arranging, he was savvy enough
to piece each track into a cohesive piece of music.
(05:29):
Wendy Carlos was innovating to an even greater degree with
her Switched On Back album in nineteen sixty eight, but
that's the story for another episode. After the Cosmic Sounds album,
Garson dove deeper and deeper into electronic music using the
Mogue on a series of subsequent releases. Nineteen sixty nine's
Electronic Hair Pieces featured covers from the hippie musical hair
(05:53):
performed with the synthesizer. He also wrote and performed nineteen
(06:40):
seventy six's Mother Earth's Plantasia entirely on the Mogue synth.
This was an album based around the pseudoscience that plants
could respond to and appreciate music played to them. Garson
(07:45):
was even commissioned to write electronic music to soundtrack the
Apollo eleven moon landing in nineteen sixty nine. This piece
was used as incidental music during the televised coverage of
the mission. The Wizard album cover art was done by
(08:59):
Tom will a Grammy winning designer who is also the
creative force behind the covers for such albums as George
Harrison's All Things Must Pass, Neil Young's Harvest, The Rolling Stones,
Beggars Banquet, and Janis Joplin's Pearl. Wizard was a true
concept album, a psychedelic retelling of the Wizard of Oz,
(09:19):
filled with riffs on the counterculture and wild mog playing.
Aside from the vocals, every sound you hear, including all
of the drums and percussion, were generated from the mogue.
The album was wonderfully sincere, totally dated, and fully committed
to its hippie ideals. I fell in love with it immediately.
In this updated version of the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy
(09:42):
is a bored hippie girl on a search to find
where it's at.
Speaker 6 (09:55):
I'm out of the coffin, I'm out of the box.
The city isn't where it's at. It's a place where
people throw rocks at dreams, and the dream shouldn't be stoned,
only the dreamer. I'm looking for a place where I
(10:31):
can look at a stranger's face and not be afraid.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
To offer him a flower. I want that kind of power.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Susie Jane Hocumbe, a sometime collaborator of singer songwriter Lee Hazelwood,
played the role of Dorothy in later years. There was
a myth surrounding her on this album that she was
actually Nancy Sinatra using a pseudonym, but that was later debunked.
Instead of following the Yellow Brick Road, Dorothy follows the
(11:13):
yellow green road.
Speaker 7 (11:30):
Roland Getty's work isn't the wool movies, honor as you
can be sure that you're mine. Hope be blown that
(12:01):
collars starts getting white there. Everybody's way up tight. They
say that thest young guys off the light there, but
they're a flame to go out late at night.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
The scarecrow is called the scared crow who is so
(12:36):
obsessed with money and material possessions that he fears he
can no longer think.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Help me, please, I can't move.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Who are you? Why are you carrying all those things?
Speaker 7 (12:49):
I'm the scared crow.
Speaker 8 (12:51):
I'm afraid if I don't have, people won't think I am.
In fact, I may even have a list of my
possessions tattooed on my forehead.
Speaker 9 (13:06):
Thing thing hear that, a cash registered ring, thing, a
ling thing, See them nice goodies that I bring.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
The tin man is called the in man, a coldly
analytical robot so concerned with facts and hard data that
he can no longer feel.
Speaker 10 (13:48):
I'm the man and I'm keen. I'm a mind like
a machine. Charge some digit digital charge. I will totally
all your parts. I'm the man and I'm all head.
But elsewhere I'm kind of dead. Grabs and data, data
and craps. I get answers, but no laughs.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I'm the in man.
Speaker 10 (14:09):
I define, I deduce, then I design games and busses,
lusses and games. I'm just loaded down with brains. I'm
the in man number one one, three, five eight seven,
six oh two three five seven nine five two five
six nine oh three. Boy, do I have your number?
Speaker 1 (14:33):
The Cowardly Lion is known as the Lion Coward, a
blowhard who spouts rhetoric to the masses that even he
knows his bullshit.
Speaker 11 (14:42):
Glory glory, bloody glory to my in in ordertory.
Speaker 12 (14:52):
Dinner. Every word I say it's a grabber.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
But all my talking is an attraction. You won't find me.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Near the action.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
Do.
Speaker 12 (15:11):
I'm listen to and trusted.
Speaker 8 (15:16):
Those who listen all get blustered.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Fun fact, actor Barney Phillips played both the Scared Crow
and the Lion Coward. He acted in movies and TV
throughout the fifties, sixties, and seventies, most notably appearing in
the Twilight Zone episode Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?
He famously played a short order cook who spoiler alert
is revealed at the end of the episode to be
(15:42):
a three eyed alien from Venus in disguise. The image
of Phillips lifting his hat to reveal the third eye
was an iconic image from the series.
Speaker 8 (15:52):
And I think I really ought to tell you now
that your friends are not coming. They've been intercepted. Oh,
colony is coming, but it's from Venus. And if you're
still alive, I think you'll see how we differ it.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
All of the action in The Wizit of Is comes
to a head with the track Blue Poppy. In the
film The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and the others have
to walk through a vast field of poppies on their
way to the Emerald City, but the Wicked Witch used
the spell to enchant the poppies to make Dorothy fall
asleep so she won't make it. The song Blue Poppy
(16:36):
is an abstract spin on this scene, a freak out
of the highest order. It's half instrumental and half Wild,
Jacques Wilson Rantings.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Opened the door for the Prince's piety.
Speaker 7 (16:55):
If the rocks, who am I?
Speaker 11 (16:56):
If I have the rock, A man could live in
a summer and still dream.
Speaker 8 (17:15):
Of the ball.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Another highlight of the album is the song I've Been
Over the Rainbow, a ballad sung by Dorothy in which
she reflects on the banality and uncertainty of life that
she glimpses behind the rainbow in colorful psychedelic trappings.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
I have been over the rainbow and I found nothing
but very thin aird.
Speaker 6 (18:12):
I have looked under my shadow, unseen us souver.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
That guide in the night.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I've Been Over the Rainbow has been sampled by modern artists,
which is a reflection of the cult cachet that Wizard
has gained over time. Australian electronic group The Avalanches sampled
several Wizard tracks, including I've Been Over the Rainbow for
a song on their twenty sixteen album Wildflower. The song's
name the Wizard of izmer So no discussion of the
(19:32):
Wazard would be complete if I didn't bring up the
man who introduced me to the Wizard so many years ago.
He's here, He's straight from upset strip. It's my friend, Chris. Chris,
how are you this evening?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Oh? Pretty good?
Speaker 12 (19:43):
A little upset, but you know it comes from a strip.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
You're high on big sir, this evening.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yes, just to back up you and I. I started
at a company in late ninety eight, really early ninety nine,
and you've already been there. You had been there for
what about a year before I started, or a few
months that summer, so okay, maybe six months. We obviously
became really good friends really quickly. We were in the
(20:09):
tech support group together.
Speaker 12 (20:11):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
A bunch of us were there learning the ins and
outs of the product. And that's where I met. That's
where I met Chris. Let's talk about Wazard specifically. Now.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
I want to know a little bit about your history
with the album. When when's the first time you learned
about the album? This was your dad's album originally, right.
Speaker 12 (20:27):
My dad was in the service during you know, late sixties,
early early well, very early seventy. He might have been
out by them. He served, but he wasn't Vietnam. He
was in Europe. He was a Russian linguistic linguist, whatever
you want to call it. He listened a spy transmissions
in Germany. So the Good Side, the West Side records
(20:48):
were cool, you know Vinyl. He was hip, he was
in his twenties. He was groovy. He went to the
store and people were talking about this move synthesizer music
and all this fire out groovy stuff and like, oh
was it of Is? So he bought this album not
knowing what it was, and he listened to it and
he's like, sucks. He hated it. He was a classic
(21:11):
rock guy.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Three Dog Night.
Speaker 12 (21:14):
The Kinks, the Beatles, Zeppelin, Blood Sweat and Tears, you
know my name off of You know, these are all
albums I eventually inherited, not inherited, but he gave them
to me. I would say I was four or five.
I think it was kindergarten when he gave me some albums.
I can tell you exactly what they were. You know,
(21:34):
it was the was it of Is? It was led
Zeppelin two, which I will go on record as saying
is the greatest album ever. There was Bongos, Bongos, Bongos,
and I actually looked it up recently and it's just
an album of bongos. So there I am with the
five albums. But of course, what did I like was
it of is? Because I thought it was Wisdom of Oz,
(21:56):
not realizing what the meaning really was.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
The covers nice and colorful. It's a rainbow type thing.
I could see that young inviting.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
For a child, for sure. Yeah, I had that face.
Speaker 12 (22:05):
It has the cherubs flying on the backside. It has
this huge computer that's with a keyboard and buttons lit up,
and it was all state of the art, and I
was like mesmerized by it and the music.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
So was this an album that you went back to
over the ensuing years as you got older, did you
find yourself returning to it?
Speaker 12 (22:26):
I remember having a little turntable, a little record player
that would fold up and snap and turn into a
suitcase and you could have a handle and you could
carry it around. You'd lock up the arm and the
needle so it wouldn't get destroyed, and I would just
bring that into whatever room my parents weren't in. So
if it was a living room, the family room, the
dining room, they had an old almost like a dry
(22:49):
sink stereo, the ones that you would lift up the
counter and the stereo was down below. Yeah, and if
I was in there, they would let me put that
on and I would listen to those same five albums,
but always went back to WAWS. And it is because
it was weird. I mean, it sounded weird. It was
like a narrative. It was telling a story. I knew
(23:12):
what Wizard of Oz was, so I could relate.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
It's psychedelic to its core. There's veiled and not so
veiled drug references all over it. I can only imagine
what this would do to an impressionable.
Speaker 12 (23:25):
Child, totally innocent on that one.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
So here we are.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Let's flash forward a little bit. So you and I
are in this group at this job together. Do you
remember when you first told me about the album. I
was trying to think of this myself, like, what, at
what point did you think this is totally a Paris Sally,
He's gonna he's gonna flip for this.
Speaker 12 (23:44):
I'm pretty sure it was the same time that we
were talking about Buckethead, which could be a whole other episode,
but talking about different stuff that we kind of knew
about but couldn't relate to each other type thing.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I feel like this would have been something you and
I would have been talking, laughing, having a fun time
at work, and you might have said, oh, like that,
like positive is like I had this album where it's
the Wizard of Oz but it's all and I can
just see myself going, what you're kidding?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
You must be.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Because it sounded so on the nose. And I said
this earlier in this episode. It sounded like a parody
of a psychedelic record.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
But you said, I.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Can see you in my mind's eyes saying no, no, no,
this is real.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I will bring it in to show you, right.
Speaker 12 (24:32):
M hm, oh, yeah, you know something wasitive is thing
I got as a kid, And you were like what
And I think, yeah, you know, I started explaining and
you were like, you gotta be kidding me. You know,
it's yeah. So it sounded like something that I could
have pulled out of my rear and just made up.
But yeah, I was dead serious about telling you that
this is a real album. I know you, I know
the songs.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
It wasn't like you could just go online and pull
up information on mort Garson and why.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
What it is? It just wasn't that much at that point.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
He was still very much a lost relic of the
of that time. So I couldn't just search you know
what alta Vista or whatever the search engine might have
been Google.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I think it was still early goings. This would have
been ninety nine.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
So you actually, after you told me you had this record,
you said, well, I'll bring it in. And not only
will will I bring it in, but you said I
will bring in a record player so you can listen
to it at your desk, because there was no way
that it wasn't on CD at the time.
Speaker 12 (25:32):
It's really three's of it, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
No, because I think this was right around I'm pretty
sure this right around Napster time. You brought in the
record player for me. It was a sort of inexpensive
little all in one record player. I remember having it
at my desk, plugged in headphones. I think it may
have only had one channel, like I think I might
only it might have been mono, like I could only
hear out of one speaker. I just remember listening to
(25:58):
it and it just The phrase blow your mind is
an overused cliche, but it truly blew my mind. This
ticked so many boxes and a funny way. It was
one of these things that made our friendship even better
because this just confirmed to me like this guy knows me,
because it was every bit as good and better than
(26:20):
how you described it to me.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
You couldn't record this now. It's so earnest and so honest.
Speaker 12 (26:27):
It's authentic. You have war, you have politics. It was
made when that stuff was going on. Nowadays it would
just be like, you know, it'd be like watching Forrest Gump. Okay,
they're doing you know, a hippie scene on it, but
it's fake.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
How do you feel about the album now after so
many Like you said, it's been over forty years or so,
actually closer to fifty years now, how do you feel
about the album now after all these years.
Speaker 12 (26:54):
I appreciate it in a different way now. I appreciate
what they were trying to relay as a message as
opposed to it being you know, like thinking it's a
kid's album, which we know al it was a good
time with music. I mean, was there better music to
listen to? Probably? But I'm listening to it of Is
(27:18):
and Bungos Bungos bongos, so you know, that might.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Be the next podcast.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
I don't think I've ever actually asked you this, but
I'm really curious, what's your favorite song on the was
it of and why? I think I know the answer,
but I want to hear what you say.
Speaker 12 (27:35):
It has to be upset strip, and it's the beat
in the background. I think, take out the vocals, which
are hilarious anyways. But if I was like a famous
recording artist, I'd be sampling that background beat on upset stript.
Speaker 6 (28:00):
My breath, get the word, get the straight word. General
Westmoreland trades in his dog tags.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
For love beats.
Speaker 12 (28:32):
It just has that groovy, basy sound to it. So
I would have to say, yeah, upset strip has always
been my favorite.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
See I thought you were gonna say, big sir, that.
Speaker 12 (28:46):
Was a work haha one that we would crack up on.
But yeah, that one was. That's you know, you get
out your cigarette lighter on a concert and you know
you're gonna wave the arm and you know, andever you know,
everyone is high on big sir.
Speaker 9 (29:04):
This sad.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I will teach you a song.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
I will teach you a song.
Speaker 12 (29:26):
I will teach you song.
Speaker 11 (29:36):
Send.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
You created this image for me at the time, it's
been indelible. You said, this is like you had in
your mind's eye. It's the recording studio. There a guy
there with a like a beard or a Van Dyke,
love beads sunglasses listening to somebody sing and they're.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Like, yeah, baby, yeah, give it to me. That to
me is like the essence.
Speaker 12 (30:14):
He's got the slip on boots with the bell bottoms.
You know, he's a groovy you know, he's got the
rose colored round glasses and everything, Johnny Bravo type stuff.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
That's what I was gonna say.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
It's like the It's like the guy in the Brady
Bunch episode who wanted to record Greg as Johnny Bravo.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
You fit the suit man, that guy right.
Speaker 12 (30:33):
Exactly what they're doing in this recording studio. You know, Yeah,
I hit it man, big Sir.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
For me, my favorite, I would say I've been over
the Rainbow. I know it's a pretty safe pick, but
I love the keyboard in it, and I love the
fact that so many contemporary artists have sampled it. There's
I can think of at least three or four different
techno and electronic artists that have sampled directly from that
(30:59):
I referenced in this podcast as well where I will.
But I think that speaks to that this is something
that has cachet with the modern day. It's a little
hipper than you would think because people are seeing the
value and some of this electronic music, and certainly the
mode being kind of a prized instrument nowadays and something
that's considered vintage.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
But I really like I've Been Over the Rainbow.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
It's maybe not the sexiest pick, but I just love it.
Speaker 12 (31:25):
Probably the most mainstream song on the album too, it's
very conventional.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I think you're right that it's not as weird and
out there some of the other ones. The word you
use that, I think it's the best word I can
think of. It's authentic. There's no subterfuge here. You're getting
a direct line to how these people feel about the
sixties and about how things were at that point. It's
maybe not the most hard hitting expose on the sixties,
but it's fun, right. I think it speaks volumes that you,
(31:55):
as a four or five year old, can get just
as much out of it and not be damaged. But
you know, because it's a safe record, even some of
the things that are maybe are a little out of
the ordinary and maybe a little bit shading into something
a little more adult. If you're not listening carefully, you'll
miss it, and you'll just be hearing the bright sounds
and the popping electronic noises and everything works really well.
(32:19):
I just think that speaks to the beauty of this
album that it can appeal to a five year old
playing records in his parents room or a fifty some
adults listening to it now in my car, which I
do on occasion. So it's great. And I've said this
to you before, but I'm so appreciative Chris that you
introduced me to this record. We've known each other now,
(32:41):
I was thinking about this before we started talking. We've
known each other for upwards of twenty.
Speaker 12 (32:44):
Five years of a century.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yes, I just want to thank you again for introducing
me to this absolute gem of a record. Like I said,
I still return to it like you do on a
regular basis, and it's still as good as it was
the first time I listened to it. So thanks again, Chris.
Speaker 12 (33:01):
Oh, no problem.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
And while I'm in a thanking mood, thank you so
much for joining me here on this podcast. Is there
any parting words for our listeners, Chris.
Speaker 12 (33:10):
Other than General Wes Moreland treaded in his dog tags
for Lovebeads, I mean, well there, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
In more recent years, mort Garson's contributions to music have
gone through a reappraisal. He is now widely considered one
of the early pioneers of the synthesizer in pop music.
Sacred Bones Records has begun reissuing Garson's back catalog, including
many pieces of music that have been out of print
for decades. He's finally getting his due as a true
(33:42):
innovator in electronic music. Though there's plenty of dated aspects
to the wosit of is and some truly cringey bits
as well, it's not hyperbole to suggest that it occupies
an important place in the history of electronic music. It's
also one of those records that could only be made
in the late sixties.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
So there you have it.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Thank you for indulging me once again.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
When I'm not listening to.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Music, you can find me elsewhere on the Weirding Wade Network.
I am the co host of The Night Mister Walters,
a Taxi podcast. I'm an occasional guest on The Culture
Cast with Christashu, and I have a bandcampsite hpmusicplays dot
bandcamp dot com.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Please check it out.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
As always, please feel free to write us, rate us,
review us.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
We'd love to hear.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
From you in any manner you choose, Thanks again for listening,
and we'll see you again next time.
Speaker 12 (35:10):
St.
We Like many of you, I've had tons and tons
of albums recommended.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
To me over the years. Some I grew to enjoy,
some missed the mark.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
But every once in a while, a record comes recommended
that ticks so many boxes almost immediately that it's skyrockets
to cherished status in no time at all. It doesn't
happen very often, but when it does, it's magic. I'd
like to share one of these discoveries with you. Get ready,
because tonight we're off to find the waws It of His.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Hello.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Listeners to another special episode of Noise Junkies, I'm HP.
This episode will be covering another great concept album from
the HP archives. This time it's nineteen sixty eight's The
was It of Isz, composed by Mort Garson and conceived
and written by Jacques Wilson. I first became aware of
The It of is back in nineteen ninety nine. I
(01:37):
just started a new job and almost immediately became good
friends with someone in my group. We had a lot
of shared interests video games, bad movies, and had a
very similar sense of humor still do. Plus, we both
loved oddball or weird music. At some point, I don't
know when he mentioned this album from his dad's collection
called the was it of his I thought he was
(02:00):
at first. Then the more he told me about the record,
the more I thought it was some kind of put
on a parody of sixties electronic weirdness. But no, this
was authentic, recorded earnestly, no trace of irony whatsoever. Based
on his description, I had to see and hear this
record for myself. He eventually brought the record in for me,
(02:23):
and as much as I built up in my head
what it would sound like, the reality was so much better.
More on my friend and a little bit. But before
we get into Wazard, let's delve deeper into mort Garson's career.
Garson started out as a session musician who later went
on to a successful career as an arranger and songwriter.
In the late fifties on into the sixties. His credits
(02:46):
included arrangements for Doris Day, The Letterman, Paul Revere and
the Raiders, and Leslie Ugghams. In nineteen sixty seven, he
arranged the strings on Glenn Campbell's cover of Jimmy Webb's
By the Time I Get to Phoenix, which was a
big hit for Campbell.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
By the time.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
I get to Phoenix, she'll be rising. She'll find the
note I left hanging.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
On her note.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
She'll leave when she reached the part that says I'm
leaving because I've left that girl so manute times before.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Garson met electronic music innovator Robert mog at a convention
in nineteen sixty seven, and subsequently became one of the
first people to start using the Moge synthesizer for compositions
and arrangements. This formed the basis for his nineteen sixty
seven album The Zodiac Cosmic Sounds, co written with Wilson
and featuring Paul Beaver on the synthesizer. It was the
(04:09):
first West Coast album to feature the Moge synth.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Nine Times, the color Red explodes like heated blood. The
Battle is on Mars. The Master of Matchmaker Sulfu rizes
the sky. Incendiary diamonds scorch the earth.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
As you listen to these samples of Garson's music, bear
in mind that the Mogue synth was monophonic, meaning it
was only capable of playing a single note at a time.
The first polyphonic Mogue wouldn't come out until nineteen seventy five,
but given Garson's background and arranging, he was savvy enough
to piece each track into a cohesive piece of music.
(05:29):
Wendy Carlos was innovating to an even greater degree with
her Switched On Back album in nineteen sixty eight, but
that's the story for another episode. After the Cosmic Sounds album,
Garson dove deeper and deeper into electronic music using the
Mogue on a series of subsequent releases. Nineteen sixty nine's
Electronic Hair Pieces featured covers from the hippie musical hair
(05:53):
performed with the synthesizer. He also wrote and performed nineteen
(06:40):
seventy six's Mother Earth's Plantasia entirely on the Mogue synth.
This was an album based around the pseudoscience that plants
could respond to and appreciate music played to them. Garson
(07:45):
was even commissioned to write electronic music to soundtrack the
Apollo eleven moon landing in nineteen sixty nine. This piece
was used as incidental music during the televised coverage of
the mission. The Wizard album cover art was done by
(08:59):
Tom will a Grammy winning designer who is also the
creative force behind the covers for such albums as George
Harrison's All Things Must Pass, Neil Young's Harvest, The Rolling Stones,
Beggars Banquet, and Janis Joplin's Pearl. Wizard was a true
concept album, a psychedelic retelling of the Wizard of Oz,
(09:19):
filled with riffs on the counterculture and wild mog playing.
Aside from the vocals, every sound you hear, including all
of the drums and percussion, were generated from the mogue.
The album was wonderfully sincere, totally dated, and fully committed
to its hippie ideals. I fell in love with it immediately.
In this updated version of the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy
(09:42):
is a bored hippie girl on a search to find
where it's at.
Speaker 6 (09:55):
I'm out of the coffin, I'm out of the box.
The city isn't where it's at. It's a place where
people throw rocks at dreams, and the dream shouldn't be stoned,
only the dreamer. I'm looking for a place where I
(10:31):
can look at a stranger's face and not be afraid.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
To offer him a flower. I want that kind of power.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Susie Jane Hocumbe, a sometime collaborator of singer songwriter Lee Hazelwood,
played the role of Dorothy in later years. There was
a myth surrounding her on this album that she was
actually Nancy Sinatra using a pseudonym, but that was later debunked.
Instead of following the Yellow Brick Road, Dorothy follows the
(11:13):
yellow green road.
Speaker 7 (11:30):
Roland Getty's work isn't the wool movies, honor as you
can be sure that you're mine. Hope be blown that
(12:01):
collars starts getting white there. Everybody's way up tight. They
say that thest young guys off the light there, but
they're a flame to go out late at night.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
The scarecrow is called the scared crow who is so
(12:36):
obsessed with money and material possessions that he fears he
can no longer think.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Help me, please, I can't move.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Who are you? Why are you carrying all those things?
Speaker 7 (12:49):
I'm the scared crow.
Speaker 8 (12:51):
I'm afraid if I don't have, people won't think I am.
In fact, I may even have a list of my
possessions tattooed on my forehead.
Speaker 9 (13:06):
Thing thing hear that, a cash registered ring, thing, a
ling thing, See them nice goodies that I bring.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
The tin man is called the in man, a coldly
analytical robot so concerned with facts and hard data that
he can no longer feel.
Speaker 10 (13:48):
I'm the man and I'm keen. I'm a mind like
a machine. Charge some digit digital charge. I will totally
all your parts. I'm the man and I'm all head.
But elsewhere I'm kind of dead. Grabs and data, data
and craps. I get answers, but no laughs.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I'm the in man.
Speaker 10 (14:09):
I define, I deduce, then I design games and busses,
lusses and games. I'm just loaded down with brains. I'm
the in man number one one, three, five eight seven,
six oh two three five seven nine five two five
six nine oh three. Boy, do I have your number?
Speaker 1 (14:33):
The Cowardly Lion is known as the Lion Coward, a
blowhard who spouts rhetoric to the masses that even he
knows his bullshit.
Speaker 11 (14:42):
Glory glory, bloody glory to my in in ordertory.
Speaker 12 (14:52):
Dinner. Every word I say it's a grabber.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
But all my talking is an attraction. You won't find me.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Near the action.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
Do.
Speaker 12 (15:11):
I'm listen to and trusted.
Speaker 8 (15:16):
Those who listen all get blustered.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Fun fact, actor Barney Phillips played both the Scared Crow
and the Lion Coward. He acted in movies and TV
throughout the fifties, sixties, and seventies, most notably appearing in
the Twilight Zone episode Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?
He famously played a short order cook who spoiler alert
is revealed at the end of the episode to be
(15:42):
a three eyed alien from Venus in disguise. The image
of Phillips lifting his hat to reveal the third eye
was an iconic image from the series.
Speaker 8 (15:52):
And I think I really ought to tell you now
that your friends are not coming. They've been intercepted. Oh,
colony is coming, but it's from Venus. And if you're
still alive, I think you'll see how we differ it.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
All of the action in The Wizit of Is comes
to a head with the track Blue Poppy. In the
film The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and the others have
to walk through a vast field of poppies on their
way to the Emerald City, but the Wicked Witch used
the spell to enchant the poppies to make Dorothy fall
asleep so she won't make it. The song Blue Poppy
(16:36):
is an abstract spin on this scene, a freak out
of the highest order. It's half instrumental and half Wild,
Jacques Wilson Rantings.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Opened the door for the Prince's piety.
Speaker 7 (16:55):
If the rocks, who am I?
Speaker 11 (16:56):
If I have the rock, A man could live in
a summer and still dream.
Speaker 8 (17:15):
Of the ball.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Another highlight of the album is the song I've Been
Over the Rainbow, a ballad sung by Dorothy in which
she reflects on the banality and uncertainty of life that
she glimpses behind the rainbow in colorful psychedelic trappings.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
I have been over the rainbow and I found nothing
but very thin aird.
Speaker 6 (18:12):
I have looked under my shadow, unseen us souver.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
That guide in the night.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I've Been Over the Rainbow has been sampled by modern artists,
which is a reflection of the cult cachet that Wizard
has gained over time. Australian electronic group The Avalanches sampled
several Wizard tracks, including I've Been Over the Rainbow for
a song on their twenty sixteen album Wildflower. The song's
name the Wizard of izmer So no discussion of the
(19:32):
Wazard would be complete if I didn't bring up the
man who introduced me to the Wizard so many years ago.
He's here, He's straight from upset strip. It's my friend, Chris. Chris,
how are you this evening?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Oh? Pretty good?
Speaker 12 (19:43):
A little upset, but you know it comes from a strip.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
You're high on big sir, this evening.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yes, just to back up you and I. I started
at a company in late ninety eight, really early ninety nine,
and you've already been there. You had been there for
what about a year before I started, or a few
months that summer, so okay, maybe six months. We obviously
became really good friends really quickly. We were in the
(20:09):
tech support group together.
Speaker 12 (20:11):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
A bunch of us were there learning the ins and
outs of the product. And that's where I met. That's
where I met Chris. Let's talk about Wazard specifically. Now.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
I want to know a little bit about your history
with the album. When when's the first time you learned
about the album? This was your dad's album originally, right.
Speaker 12 (20:27):
My dad was in the service during you know, late sixties,
early early well, very early seventy. He might have been
out by them. He served, but he wasn't Vietnam. He
was in Europe. He was a Russian linguistic linguist, whatever
you want to call it. He listened a spy transmissions
in Germany. So the Good Side, the West Side records
(20:48):
were cool, you know Vinyl. He was hip, he was
in his twenties. He was groovy. He went to the
store and people were talking about this move synthesizer music
and all this fire out groovy stuff and like, oh
was it of Is? So he bought this album not
knowing what it was, and he listened to it and
he's like, sucks. He hated it. He was a classic
(21:11):
rock guy.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Three Dog Night.
Speaker 12 (21:14):
The Kinks, the Beatles, Zeppelin, Blood Sweat and Tears, you
know my name off of You know, these are all
albums I eventually inherited, not inherited, but he gave them
to me. I would say I was four or five.
I think it was kindergarten when he gave me some albums.
I can tell you exactly what they were. You know,
(21:34):
it was the was it of Is? It was led
Zeppelin two, which I will go on record as saying
is the greatest album ever. There was Bongos, Bongos, Bongos,
and I actually looked it up recently and it's just
an album of bongos. So there I am with the
five albums. But of course, what did I like was
it of is? Because I thought it was Wisdom of Oz,
(21:56):
not realizing what the meaning really was.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
The covers nice and colorful. It's a rainbow type thing.
I could see that young inviting.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
For a child, for sure. Yeah, I had that face.
Speaker 12 (22:05):
It has the cherubs flying on the backside. It has
this huge computer that's with a keyboard and buttons lit up,
and it was all state of the art, and I
was like mesmerized by it and the music.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
So was this an album that you went back to
over the ensuing years as you got older, did you
find yourself returning to it?
Speaker 12 (22:26):
I remember having a little turntable, a little record player
that would fold up and snap and turn into a
suitcase and you could have a handle and you could
carry it around. You'd lock up the arm and the
needle so it wouldn't get destroyed, and I would just
bring that into whatever room my parents weren't in. So
if it was a living room, the family room, the
dining room, they had an old almost like a dry
(22:49):
sink stereo, the ones that you would lift up the
counter and the stereo was down below. Yeah, and if
I was in there, they would let me put that
on and I would listen to those same five albums,
but always went back to WAWS. And it is because
it was weird. I mean, it sounded weird. It was
like a narrative. It was telling a story. I knew
(23:12):
what Wizard of Oz was, so I could relate.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
It's psychedelic to its core. There's veiled and not so
veiled drug references all over it. I can only imagine
what this would do to an impressionable.
Speaker 12 (23:25):
Child, totally innocent on that one.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
So here we are.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Let's flash forward a little bit. So you and I
are in this group at this job together. Do you
remember when you first told me about the album. I
was trying to think of this myself, like, what, at
what point did you think this is totally a Paris Sally,
He's gonna he's gonna flip for this.
Speaker 12 (23:44):
I'm pretty sure it was the same time that we
were talking about Buckethead, which could be a whole other episode,
but talking about different stuff that we kind of knew
about but couldn't relate to each other type thing.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I feel like this would have been something you and
I would have been talking, laughing, having a fun time
at work, and you might have said, oh, like that,
like positive is like I had this album where it's
the Wizard of Oz but it's all and I can
just see myself going, what you're kidding?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
You must be.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Because it sounded so on the nose. And I said
this earlier in this episode. It sounded like a parody
of a psychedelic record.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
But you said, I.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Can see you in my mind's eyes saying no, no, no,
this is real.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I will bring it in to show you, right.
Speaker 12 (24:32):
M hm, oh, yeah, you know something wasitive is thing
I got as a kid, And you were like what
And I think, yeah, you know, I started explaining and
you were like, you gotta be kidding me. You know,
it's yeah. So it sounded like something that I could
have pulled out of my rear and just made up.
But yeah, I was dead serious about telling you that
this is a real album. I know you, I know
the songs.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
It wasn't like you could just go online and pull
up information on mort Garson and why.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
What it is? It just wasn't that much at that point.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
He was still very much a lost relic of the
of that time. So I couldn't just search you know
what alta Vista or whatever the search engine might have
been Google.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I think it was still early goings. This would have
been ninety nine.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
So you actually, after you told me you had this record,
you said, well, I'll bring it in. And not only
will will I bring it in, but you said I
will bring in a record player so you can listen
to it at your desk, because there was no way
that it wasn't on CD at the time.
Speaker 12 (25:32):
It's really three's of it, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
No, because I think this was right around I'm pretty
sure this right around Napster time. You brought in the
record player for me. It was a sort of inexpensive
little all in one record player. I remember having it
at my desk, plugged in headphones. I think it may
have only had one channel, like I think I might
only it might have been mono, like I could only
hear out of one speaker. I just remember listening to
(25:58):
it and it just The phrase blow your mind is
an overused cliche, but it truly blew my mind. This
ticked so many boxes and a funny way. It was
one of these things that made our friendship even better
because this just confirmed to me like this guy knows me,
because it was every bit as good and better than
(26:20):
how you described it to me.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
You couldn't record this now. It's so earnest and so honest.
Speaker 12 (26:27):
It's authentic. You have war, you have politics. It was
made when that stuff was going on. Nowadays it would
just be like, you know, it'd be like watching Forrest Gump. Okay,
they're doing you know, a hippie scene on it, but
it's fake.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
How do you feel about the album now after so
many Like you said, it's been over forty years or so,
actually closer to fifty years now, how do you feel
about the album now after all these years.
Speaker 12 (26:54):
I appreciate it in a different way now. I appreciate
what they were trying to relay as a message as
opposed to it being you know, like thinking it's a
kid's album, which we know al it was a good
time with music. I mean, was there better music to
listen to? Probably? But I'm listening to it of Is
(27:18):
and Bungos Bungos bongos, so you know, that might.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Be the next podcast.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
I don't think I've ever actually asked you this, but
I'm really curious, what's your favorite song on the was
it of and why? I think I know the answer,
but I want to hear what you say.
Speaker 12 (27:35):
It has to be upset strip, and it's the beat
in the background. I think, take out the vocals, which
are hilarious anyways. But if I was like a famous
recording artist, I'd be sampling that background beat on upset stript.
Speaker 6 (28:00):
My breath, get the word, get the straight word. General
Westmoreland trades in his dog tags.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
For love beats.
Speaker 12 (28:32):
It just has that groovy, basy sound to it. So
I would have to say, yeah, upset strip has always
been my favorite.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
See I thought you were gonna say, big sir, that.
Speaker 12 (28:46):
Was a work haha one that we would crack up on.
But yeah, that one was. That's you know, you get
out your cigarette lighter on a concert and you know
you're gonna wave the arm and you know, andever you know,
everyone is high on big sir.
Speaker 9 (29:04):
This sad.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I will teach you a song.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
I will teach you a song.
Speaker 12 (29:26):
I will teach you song.
Speaker 11 (29:36):
Send.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
You created this image for me at the time, it's
been indelible. You said, this is like you had in
your mind's eye. It's the recording studio. There a guy
there with a like a beard or a Van Dyke,
love beads sunglasses listening to somebody sing and they're.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Like, yeah, baby, yeah, give it to me. That to
me is like the essence.
Speaker 12 (30:14):
He's got the slip on boots with the bell bottoms.
You know, he's a groovy you know, he's got the
rose colored round glasses and everything, Johnny Bravo type stuff.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
That's what I was gonna say.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
It's like the It's like the guy in the Brady
Bunch episode who wanted to record Greg as Johnny Bravo.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
You fit the suit man, that guy right.
Speaker 12 (30:33):
Exactly what they're doing in this recording studio. You know, Yeah,
I hit it man, big Sir.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
For me, my favorite, I would say I've been over
the Rainbow. I know it's a pretty safe pick, but
I love the keyboard in it, and I love the
fact that so many contemporary artists have sampled it. There's
I can think of at least three or four different
techno and electronic artists that have sampled directly from that
(30:59):
I referenced in this podcast as well where I will.
But I think that speaks to that this is something
that has cachet with the modern day. It's a little
hipper than you would think because people are seeing the
value and some of this electronic music, and certainly the
mode being kind of a prized instrument nowadays and something
that's considered vintage.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
But I really like I've Been Over the Rainbow.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
It's maybe not the sexiest pick, but I just love it.
Speaker 12 (31:25):
Probably the most mainstream song on the album too, it's
very conventional.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I think you're right that it's not as weird and
out there some of the other ones. The word you
use that, I think it's the best word I can
think of. It's authentic. There's no subterfuge here. You're getting
a direct line to how these people feel about the
sixties and about how things were at that point. It's
maybe not the most hard hitting expose on the sixties,
but it's fun, right. I think it speaks volumes that you,
(31:55):
as a four or five year old, can get just
as much out of it and not be damaged. But
you know, because it's a safe record, even some of
the things that are maybe are a little out of
the ordinary and maybe a little bit shading into something
a little more adult. If you're not listening carefully, you'll
miss it, and you'll just be hearing the bright sounds
and the popping electronic noises and everything works really well.
(32:19):
I just think that speaks to the beauty of this
album that it can appeal to a five year old
playing records in his parents room or a fifty some
adults listening to it now in my car, which I
do on occasion. So it's great. And I've said this
to you before, but I'm so appreciative Chris that you
introduced me to this record. We've known each other now,
(32:41):
I was thinking about this before we started talking. We've
known each other for upwards of twenty.
Speaker 12 (32:44):
Five years of a century.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yes, I just want to thank you again for introducing
me to this absolute gem of a record. Like I said,
I still return to it like you do on a
regular basis, and it's still as good as it was
the first time I listened to it. So thanks again, Chris.
Speaker 12 (33:01):
Oh, no problem.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
And while I'm in a thanking mood, thank you so
much for joining me here on this podcast. Is there
any parting words for our listeners, Chris.
Speaker 12 (33:10):
Other than General Wes Moreland treaded in his dog tags
for Lovebeads, I mean, well there, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
In more recent years, mort Garson's contributions to music have
gone through a reappraisal. He is now widely considered one
of the early pioneers of the synthesizer in pop music.
Sacred Bones Records has begun reissuing Garson's back catalog, including
many pieces of music that have been out of print
for decades. He's finally getting his due as a true
(33:42):
innovator in electronic music. Though there's plenty of dated aspects
to the wosit of is and some truly cringey bits
as well, it's not hyperbole to suggest that it occupies
an important place in the history of electronic music. It's
also one of those records that could only be made
in the late sixties.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
So there you have it.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Thank you for indulging me once again.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
When I'm not listening to.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Music, you can find me elsewhere on the Weirding Wade Network.
I am the co host of The Night Mister Walters,
a Taxi podcast. I'm an occasional guest on The Culture
Cast with Christashu, and I have a bandcampsite hpmusicplays dot
bandcamp dot com.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Please check it out.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
As always, please feel free to write us, rate us,
review us.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
We'd love to hear.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
From you in any manner you choose, Thanks again for listening,
and we'll see you again next time.
Speaker 12 (35:10):
St.
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