WoG 0002 - Sunday, Monday, or Always!
a 90 minute cassette officially attributed to multiple bands all of which were later considered the "band" Walls Of Genius.
Recorded at Natasha Brown's house in Eldorado Springs, Colorado
- Religious Services (Ed Fowler, David Lichtenberg, Dena Zocher, Evan Cantor) - recorded late April, 1983.
- The Have Mersey Beats (EF, DL, EC) - recorded Sunday, May 1, 1983.
- Good Enough For A Hell Hole (DL, EC) - recorded Saturday, May 6, 1983.
- Major Faultline (EF, Marsha Wooley, EC) - recorded Friday, May 12, 1983.
Recorded at Natasha Brown's house in Eldorado Springs, Colorado
- Religious Services (Ed Fowler, David Lichtenberg, Dena Zocher, Evan Cantor) - recorded late April, 1983.
- The Have Mersey Beats (EF, DL, EC) - recorded Sunday, May 1, 1983.
- Good Enough For A Hell Hole (DL, EC) - recorded Saturday, May 6, 1983.
- Major Faultline (EF, Marsha Wooley, EC) - recorded Friday, May 12, 1983.
Side A
1. RELIGIOUS SERVICES - Invocation To Mania
2. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Art's, In Denver
3. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Riverside
4. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Making A Deal With The Druids
5. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Red Meat/Throbbing Earthworm
6. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Long Tall Woman
7. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Medley:
- Listen To The Mockingbird
- Beautiful Dreamer
- While Strolling In The Park One Day
8. RELIGIOUS SERVICES - Guitar And Dog Duet
9. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Sunday, Monday Or Always
1. RELIGIOUS SERVICES - Invocation To Mania
2. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Art's, In Denver
3. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Riverside
4. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Making A Deal With The Druids
5. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Red Meat/Throbbing Earthworm
6. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Long Tall Woman
7. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Medley:
- Listen To The Mockingbird
- Beautiful Dreamer
- While Strolling In The Park One Day
8. RELIGIOUS SERVICES - Guitar And Dog Duet
9. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Sunday, Monday Or Always
Evan Cantor:
Religious Services was a joke on the fact that three of us in the group were ordained ministers via the Universal Life Church of Modesto, California, Incorporated. I still have my certificate ordaining "The Reverend E. Lee Cantor" as minister. This was something I did as a joke when I played with the Blitz Bunnies in 1979. In those days, you had to have the recommendation of another ordained minister and the Bunnies’ bass player, Tim Carter, happened to be one. WoG’s promo material refers to "the Reverend E. Lee". My middle name is "Lee", a nod to the fact that I was born south of the Mason-Dixon line in a family of New York Jews. "Lee" is a common southern name, a reference to Robert E. Lee, the famous Confederate general.
Little Fyodor (David Lichtenberg):
Religious Services was a reference to Evan's sudden mania for getting everyone to join the Universal Life Church. Ed and Dena signed up. I was resistant for some reason. Maybe Evan's passion as mania scared me! It was presented to me too almost as something I was expected to do, and my contrarian, againster impulses shrugged my shoulders in indifference. Evan took that as a firm answer that I wasn't going along and that's the way it ended. I'm a member of the Church, now! Boyd Rice asked me to join the ULC to marry him, and I did! (Though I found out you don't even need to be ordained to marry in Colorado!)
Invocation To Mania
by Religious Services
EC:
This opens with Dena playing a classical music solo on her cello and then a flanged bass line comes in to establish a rhythm.
Non-harmony voices float in, likely overdubbed, getting a little out-of-hand as the piece moves along. Then, overdubbed, is Evan’s voice reciting one of his rants. “Those amongst us… I say Phooey!” There is nice cello weaving in and out as the rant goes along and Ed’s psychedelic guitar is very nice here also. This is a rather sci-fi oriented rant, invoking ancient civilizations in addition to Gigantor and The Man From Planet X, combining elements of Erich Von Däniken’s Chariots Of The Gods with The Invasion of The Body Snatchers. When the rant finishes, the jam goes on. More mania is overdubbed and the dogs are barking their little hearts out. Evan does a lot of gibbering amidst sheet-metal-waving noise. The cello is very audible and contributes a great deal on this track. There is a nice clean ending.
LF:
In retrospect "Invocation to Mania" is almost our Rubber Soul type moment, where we really started taking the templates of what we were doing into a more quasi serious and studied direction. Evan dedicates a poem to the whole concept of what we're doing, a defense of it almost, but consistent with the concept itself it's got its share of silliness and cursing and funny voices mixed in with a philosophical treatise full of obscure literary references! And then the dogs and scrap metal are put to good use!
Anyway, I don't do anything in this piece but play this Latin percussion instrument that had showed up at some point. Was it Natasha's? I kinda play it well at times and kinda clumsily at others. Dena has, as you can see, re-joined the festivities! She's playing her cello here. I believe the musical structure was based around Evan's bass line. He's probably telling you how and when he came up with that in his own description! The rest of us jammed to that, it was one take, then Evan overdubbed his poetry and MANIA later!
Religious Services was a joke on the fact that three of us in the group were ordained ministers via the Universal Life Church of Modesto, California, Incorporated. I still have my certificate ordaining "The Reverend E. Lee Cantor" as minister. This was something I did as a joke when I played with the Blitz Bunnies in 1979. In those days, you had to have the recommendation of another ordained minister and the Bunnies’ bass player, Tim Carter, happened to be one. WoG’s promo material refers to "the Reverend E. Lee". My middle name is "Lee", a nod to the fact that I was born south of the Mason-Dixon line in a family of New York Jews. "Lee" is a common southern name, a reference to Robert E. Lee, the famous Confederate general.
Little Fyodor (David Lichtenberg):
Religious Services was a reference to Evan's sudden mania for getting everyone to join the Universal Life Church. Ed and Dena signed up. I was resistant for some reason. Maybe Evan's passion as mania scared me! It was presented to me too almost as something I was expected to do, and my contrarian, againster impulses shrugged my shoulders in indifference. Evan took that as a firm answer that I wasn't going along and that's the way it ended. I'm a member of the Church, now! Boyd Rice asked me to join the ULC to marry him, and I did! (Though I found out you don't even need to be ordained to marry in Colorado!)
Invocation To Mania
by Religious Services
EC:
This opens with Dena playing a classical music solo on her cello and then a flanged bass line comes in to establish a rhythm.
Non-harmony voices float in, likely overdubbed, getting a little out-of-hand as the piece moves along. Then, overdubbed, is Evan’s voice reciting one of his rants. “Those amongst us… I say Phooey!” There is nice cello weaving in and out as the rant goes along and Ed’s psychedelic guitar is very nice here also. This is a rather sci-fi oriented rant, invoking ancient civilizations in addition to Gigantor and The Man From Planet X, combining elements of Erich Von Däniken’s Chariots Of The Gods with The Invasion of The Body Snatchers. When the rant finishes, the jam goes on. More mania is overdubbed and the dogs are barking their little hearts out. Evan does a lot of gibbering amidst sheet-metal-waving noise. The cello is very audible and contributes a great deal on this track. There is a nice clean ending.
LF:
In retrospect "Invocation to Mania" is almost our Rubber Soul type moment, where we really started taking the templates of what we were doing into a more quasi serious and studied direction. Evan dedicates a poem to the whole concept of what we're doing, a defense of it almost, but consistent with the concept itself it's got its share of silliness and cursing and funny voices mixed in with a philosophical treatise full of obscure literary references! And then the dogs and scrap metal are put to good use!
Anyway, I don't do anything in this piece but play this Latin percussion instrument that had showed up at some point. Was it Natasha's? I kinda play it well at times and kinda clumsily at others. Dena has, as you can see, re-joined the festivities! She's playing her cello here. I believe the musical structure was based around Evan's bass line. He's probably telling you how and when he came up with that in his own description! The rest of us jammed to that, it was one take, then Evan overdubbed his poetry and MANIA later!
Art’s, In Denver
Riverside
by The Have Mersey Beats
EC:
The Have Mersey Beats is a play on the British Merseybeat movement out of which emerged The Beatles.
"Arts, In Denver" is based on jazz chords I learned in my early guitar playing days from somebody back in Charlottesville. It’s roughly a descending pattern in A-minor, as a ‘bass’ line goes down the fat E-string on the guitar. I am playing this rhythm pattern and Ed is doing lead on an acoustic guitar. My bass is overdubbed, as is the narration. I am doing a faux-lounge narration, totally off-the-cuff with no lyric sheet. David plays the “ice jiggling” percussion, likely overdubbed on the same track as the narration. Where did the notion of “Lulu LaMont and her Dancing Rattlesnake Band” come from? I have no idea, even though it came out of my head. Nice clean ending on this also. We had previously done so much fading in and fading out that we were very likely interested in actually “ending” some of our pieces.
The pop-group America was a big hit at the time. They were being hailed as new Crosby Stills & Nashes after their smash hit “Horse With No Name”. “Riverside” was one of their follow-ups. Ed knew the rhythm guitar part, so I played some acoustic lead. Ed had a record of stock car racing at Islip Racetrack on Long Island and we played along with it.
LF:
I barely remember "Art's" or "Riverside", and I think I was completely surprised to find out we'd done an America cover! I'm just doing incidental percussion and some slide whistle or whatnot here and there. I notice Evan's "Art's" spiel is almost another introduction to WoG, like imagining you're in this imaginary lounge will put in the right frame of mind where you can relax and let the craziness transpire.....
The Have Mersey Beats were a bit of a concept gathering. Nowadays they'd call it unplugged, though I say that almost cause I feel I have to. But Ed and Evan brought their acoustic guitars and decided to have an acoustic session! It was a self-imposed limit! But well, except that Ed kinda cheated by bringing his electric and a miniature amp, but more on that later! Any way, they played their acoustics and I jammed along, on incidental percussion, miscellaneous percussion instruments, maybe found objects, anything that was on hand! Ed and Evan both overdubbed stuff on these pieces after the original jam. I'm thinking maybe it was Ed's idea to use the stock car sounds on "Riverside"? Evan's obviously (to me) reciting prose of his own writing, and I believe he said he swished ice around in a glass to get the audience sound.
Making A Deal With The Druids
by The Have Mersey Beats
EC:
I am playing abstract runs on the acoustic guitar in no identifiable key or scale to start. My voice, overdubbed, is run through a guitar amp with effects. David adds some nice bongos. This is rather mellow, but intentionally discordant. It morphs into a more rhythmic groove towards the end. Later versions of this piece would be more codified into a song structure and I sometimes play it to this day.
LF:
"Making A Deal With The Druids" started out like the last two but with maybe less direction at the outset. Ed and Evan played (on acoustics!) and I percussed. There was a contact mic attached to this music stand, and I got a lot of percussive sounds from banging on the stand. I'm not sure what else I was playing, if anything. Evan again kind of ran the direction of the music. He started out meandering, and Ed and I meandered with him. Then he came up with a riff, and I played off of that, and maybe it affected Ed's playing, too. Ed later said he was just playing "anything". What'd I tell ya! He said it with a mischievous chuckle, too! Evan played an actual riff that he could actually bring back at a later time and he played it for a little while even. Evan overdubbed non-verbal vocals through a flanger along with more percussion, so there's actually a lot of percussion, albeit all taking a fairly subtle role.... I love this piece, or at least I think I do. It's got to be listened to just the right way, it creates a real nice feeling in a non-focussy kinda way....
Riverside
by The Have Mersey Beats
EC:
The Have Mersey Beats is a play on the British Merseybeat movement out of which emerged The Beatles.
"Arts, In Denver" is based on jazz chords I learned in my early guitar playing days from somebody back in Charlottesville. It’s roughly a descending pattern in A-minor, as a ‘bass’ line goes down the fat E-string on the guitar. I am playing this rhythm pattern and Ed is doing lead on an acoustic guitar. My bass is overdubbed, as is the narration. I am doing a faux-lounge narration, totally off-the-cuff with no lyric sheet. David plays the “ice jiggling” percussion, likely overdubbed on the same track as the narration. Where did the notion of “Lulu LaMont and her Dancing Rattlesnake Band” come from? I have no idea, even though it came out of my head. Nice clean ending on this also. We had previously done so much fading in and fading out that we were very likely interested in actually “ending” some of our pieces.
The pop-group America was a big hit at the time. They were being hailed as new Crosby Stills & Nashes after their smash hit “Horse With No Name”. “Riverside” was one of their follow-ups. Ed knew the rhythm guitar part, so I played some acoustic lead. Ed had a record of stock car racing at Islip Racetrack on Long Island and we played along with it.
LF:
I barely remember "Art's" or "Riverside", and I think I was completely surprised to find out we'd done an America cover! I'm just doing incidental percussion and some slide whistle or whatnot here and there. I notice Evan's "Art's" spiel is almost another introduction to WoG, like imagining you're in this imaginary lounge will put in the right frame of mind where you can relax and let the craziness transpire.....
The Have Mersey Beats were a bit of a concept gathering. Nowadays they'd call it unplugged, though I say that almost cause I feel I have to. But Ed and Evan brought their acoustic guitars and decided to have an acoustic session! It was a self-imposed limit! But well, except that Ed kinda cheated by bringing his electric and a miniature amp, but more on that later! Any way, they played their acoustics and I jammed along, on incidental percussion, miscellaneous percussion instruments, maybe found objects, anything that was on hand! Ed and Evan both overdubbed stuff on these pieces after the original jam. I'm thinking maybe it was Ed's idea to use the stock car sounds on "Riverside"? Evan's obviously (to me) reciting prose of his own writing, and I believe he said he swished ice around in a glass to get the audience sound.
Making A Deal With The Druids
by The Have Mersey Beats
EC:
I am playing abstract runs on the acoustic guitar in no identifiable key or scale to start. My voice, overdubbed, is run through a guitar amp with effects. David adds some nice bongos. This is rather mellow, but intentionally discordant. It morphs into a more rhythmic groove towards the end. Later versions of this piece would be more codified into a song structure and I sometimes play it to this day.
LF:
"Making A Deal With The Druids" started out like the last two but with maybe less direction at the outset. Ed and Evan played (on acoustics!) and I percussed. There was a contact mic attached to this music stand, and I got a lot of percussive sounds from banging on the stand. I'm not sure what else I was playing, if anything. Evan again kind of ran the direction of the music. He started out meandering, and Ed and I meandered with him. Then he came up with a riff, and I played off of that, and maybe it affected Ed's playing, too. Ed later said he was just playing "anything". What'd I tell ya! He said it with a mischievous chuckle, too! Evan played an actual riff that he could actually bring back at a later time and he played it for a little while even. Evan overdubbed non-verbal vocals through a flanger along with more percussion, so there's actually a lot of percussion, albeit all taking a fairly subtle role.... I love this piece, or at least I think I do. It's got to be listened to just the right way, it creates a real nice feeling in a non-focussy kinda way....
Red Meat/Throbbing Earthworm
by The Have Mersey Beats
EC:
Evan’s voice says “Ed knows how to play it” and then Ed’s fuzz-guitar comes roaring in. There is a nice blathering lead vocal by David. Evan screams “Let it out, let it out!”, apparently egging him on. There are Throbbing Gristle references. Throbbing Gristle was an avant-punk group at the time that we all admired. It ramps up to victorious screaming “Release him! Save him!” David moans and gibbers right up to a nice clean ending. I suspect the title was something that David and I came up with together. The “Throbbing” part was a reference to Genesis P-Orridge’s group, Throbbing Gristle. I’m not sure why we felt this was tip-of-the-hat to Throbbing Gristle, but my memory is that Throbbing Gristle was an awful lot of wild noise.
LF:
One of the things I loved about WoG was how proud I was of pieces like the above where I played a very secondary, even subservient role. On "Red Meat/Throbbing Earthworm", I dare say I took over! It was unpremeditated, I swear! I won't vouch for it being EXACTLY this way, but I remember Ed was going to play a song called "Throbbing Gristle" (a song called that, nothing to do with the band, I believe). I don't think it was quite determined what me and Evan were going to do when Ed played, but microphones were set up and Ed played! You hear Evan say, "Ed knows the song" and Ed starts right up playing. And then I go for it, I let loose!! With what? I really can't say what tradition I'm evoking here. Those Soupy Sales dogs again sure, but kinda unleashed, huh?
A friend later said about my "Magic Carpet Ride" vocals (on Crazed To The Core) that I seemed to be letting out a lot of anger, and I suppose I did a lot of that! Well, good for me! What was I angry at? Oh, no more than the average person probably has to be angry at, but I liked to express it! But yeah, y'know a lot of horniness due to a total lack of a sex life up to this point of 25 year old's life. A dead-end job and not having any idea of whether I was on anything close to a worthwhile life's path. Heh, and other reasons for the latter part of that sentence other than the former part. Not good at making friends, no hope for a girl friend in sight. Compared to most people in the world I had it pretty cushy -- and here I was all bent out of shape!! And THAT realization only made me even MORE frustrated and self-chagrined! Well, it was a difficult time. But I had big fun doing this! I felt it was my time to go for it and go for it I did, and immediately I had something to be proud of that others seemed to like, too!
Evan chimes in, never one to let me solo alone. Well, he probably did it sometime, but I'd let him be a lot more readily than he'd give me any space! He WAS the Head Moron of course, so it makes perfect sense in that sense, and I sure like what he does on this piece! Kinda both egging me on and responding both at the same time! I believe he was also beating on a little toy "Indian" drum he'd got when we were visiting the tourist town of Estes Park. I remember Evan vowing to get such a thing as we walked the streets! (We were there assuredly as a result of one of our many ventures into the mountains. Boy, Evan's sure a good one for getting one into the mountains! And Boulder was a good place for fairly easy access for anyone motivated like him! He was always up for it and I was usually up for going along!)
Swami Loopynanda did his own version of this piece for my 2013 Tribute album! He said he didn't want to do one of the common ones (yeah, everyone in America's sick of Little Fyodor's most common songs!), so he asked to do this Little Fyodor led Walls Of Genius piece, and allowed he was. He says, "Ed knows the song," taking the sentence totally out of its original meaning!! By the way, I have no idea if Ed ended up playing this "Throbbing Gristle" song that it was my understanding that he was getting set to play.... Oh, and did I mention the Pignose amp?
As I mentioned earlier, this session had been devised to be an unplugged set, though that term had yet to be invented. My understanding is that Evan asked Ed to bring his acoustic guitar and they'd both play their acoustics. And they did to a large degree (witness "Art's", "Riverside", "Ed's Raga" and "Making a Deal..."). But Ed kind of cheated by bringing his electric and this little mini amp. I guess he felt like the non-loudness of the mini amp (*) would be more closely aligned with the idea of an acoustic outing than were he to bring his big old Fender Twin Reverb. You can hear this amp used in this song as well as in the old timey medley two tracks coming. He didn't have any effects and he got a very unique sound, and that's what we were going for, unique sounds, no need to always do things "right" (though we did things right sometimes too, it was just another option, neither to be avoided nor vaulted). Evan once told me that he and Ed discussed the possibility (I don't know how serious they were!) of parading down the hallowed busker ground of the Boulder downtown Pearl Street Mall playing their guitars with Pignose amps on their backs and with me (presumably vocalizing) on a leash! Never happened, though, what a shame....
(*) Little Fyodor remembered this amp as being a Pignose. When asked about it, Ed Fowler said that he did indeed use a mini amp on "Red Meat/Throbbing Earthworm", but that it was a miniature Marshall amplifier.
Long Tall Woman
by The Have Mersey Beats
EC:
Ed is playing the rhythm guitar here. This was a blues tune that he “knew”. I am singing in a faux blues voice, a la Al Jolson or Leon Redbone. Did we have a lyric sheet? Probably not, it sounds like I’m making up stuff off-the-cuff. Ed said it was a Big Bill Broonzy song and that’s how we credited it, but, in retrospect, it appears to have no real connection to the Broonzy song “Long Tall Mama”. My lyrics include a lot of blues clichés that can be found all over the pantheon of the blues. The last line, “If she wants to kiss you, Brother, Beware!” is straight from a Louis Jordan song (“Brother Beware”).
by The Have Mersey Beats
EC:
Evan’s voice says “Ed knows how to play it” and then Ed’s fuzz-guitar comes roaring in. There is a nice blathering lead vocal by David. Evan screams “Let it out, let it out!”, apparently egging him on. There are Throbbing Gristle references. Throbbing Gristle was an avant-punk group at the time that we all admired. It ramps up to victorious screaming “Release him! Save him!” David moans and gibbers right up to a nice clean ending. I suspect the title was something that David and I came up with together. The “Throbbing” part was a reference to Genesis P-Orridge’s group, Throbbing Gristle. I’m not sure why we felt this was tip-of-the-hat to Throbbing Gristle, but my memory is that Throbbing Gristle was an awful lot of wild noise.
LF:
One of the things I loved about WoG was how proud I was of pieces like the above where I played a very secondary, even subservient role. On "Red Meat/Throbbing Earthworm", I dare say I took over! It was unpremeditated, I swear! I won't vouch for it being EXACTLY this way, but I remember Ed was going to play a song called "Throbbing Gristle" (a song called that, nothing to do with the band, I believe). I don't think it was quite determined what me and Evan were going to do when Ed played, but microphones were set up and Ed played! You hear Evan say, "Ed knows the song" and Ed starts right up playing. And then I go for it, I let loose!! With what? I really can't say what tradition I'm evoking here. Those Soupy Sales dogs again sure, but kinda unleashed, huh?
A friend later said about my "Magic Carpet Ride" vocals (on Crazed To The Core) that I seemed to be letting out a lot of anger, and I suppose I did a lot of that! Well, good for me! What was I angry at? Oh, no more than the average person probably has to be angry at, but I liked to express it! But yeah, y'know a lot of horniness due to a total lack of a sex life up to this point of 25 year old's life. A dead-end job and not having any idea of whether I was on anything close to a worthwhile life's path. Heh, and other reasons for the latter part of that sentence other than the former part. Not good at making friends, no hope for a girl friend in sight. Compared to most people in the world I had it pretty cushy -- and here I was all bent out of shape!! And THAT realization only made me even MORE frustrated and self-chagrined! Well, it was a difficult time. But I had big fun doing this! I felt it was my time to go for it and go for it I did, and immediately I had something to be proud of that others seemed to like, too!
Evan chimes in, never one to let me solo alone. Well, he probably did it sometime, but I'd let him be a lot more readily than he'd give me any space! He WAS the Head Moron of course, so it makes perfect sense in that sense, and I sure like what he does on this piece! Kinda both egging me on and responding both at the same time! I believe he was also beating on a little toy "Indian" drum he'd got when we were visiting the tourist town of Estes Park. I remember Evan vowing to get such a thing as we walked the streets! (We were there assuredly as a result of one of our many ventures into the mountains. Boy, Evan's sure a good one for getting one into the mountains! And Boulder was a good place for fairly easy access for anyone motivated like him! He was always up for it and I was usually up for going along!)
Swami Loopynanda did his own version of this piece for my 2013 Tribute album! He said he didn't want to do one of the common ones (yeah, everyone in America's sick of Little Fyodor's most common songs!), so he asked to do this Little Fyodor led Walls Of Genius piece, and allowed he was. He says, "Ed knows the song," taking the sentence totally out of its original meaning!! By the way, I have no idea if Ed ended up playing this "Throbbing Gristle" song that it was my understanding that he was getting set to play.... Oh, and did I mention the Pignose amp?
As I mentioned earlier, this session had been devised to be an unplugged set, though that term had yet to be invented. My understanding is that Evan asked Ed to bring his acoustic guitar and they'd both play their acoustics. And they did to a large degree (witness "Art's", "Riverside", "Ed's Raga" and "Making a Deal..."). But Ed kind of cheated by bringing his electric and this little mini amp. I guess he felt like the non-loudness of the mini amp (*) would be more closely aligned with the idea of an acoustic outing than were he to bring his big old Fender Twin Reverb. You can hear this amp used in this song as well as in the old timey medley two tracks coming. He didn't have any effects and he got a very unique sound, and that's what we were going for, unique sounds, no need to always do things "right" (though we did things right sometimes too, it was just another option, neither to be avoided nor vaulted). Evan once told me that he and Ed discussed the possibility (I don't know how serious they were!) of parading down the hallowed busker ground of the Boulder downtown Pearl Street Mall playing their guitars with Pignose amps on their backs and with me (presumably vocalizing) on a leash! Never happened, though, what a shame....
(*) Little Fyodor remembered this amp as being a Pignose. When asked about it, Ed Fowler said that he did indeed use a mini amp on "Red Meat/Throbbing Earthworm", but that it was a miniature Marshall amplifier.
Long Tall Woman
by The Have Mersey Beats
EC:
Ed is playing the rhythm guitar here. This was a blues tune that he “knew”. I am singing in a faux blues voice, a la Al Jolson or Leon Redbone. Did we have a lyric sheet? Probably not, it sounds like I’m making up stuff off-the-cuff. Ed said it was a Big Bill Broonzy song and that’s how we credited it, but, in retrospect, it appears to have no real connection to the Broonzy song “Long Tall Mama”. My lyrics include a lot of blues clichés that can be found all over the pantheon of the blues. The last line, “If she wants to kiss you, Brother, Beware!” is straight from a Louis Jordan song (“Brother Beware”).
LF:
"Long Tall Woman" was sort of a cover and sort of just an improvisation. I guess Ed truly was playing the chords of a Big Bill Broonzy song, but neither Evan nor me knew the song ourselves, and we just did whatever while Ed played the chords! Which meant Evan improvised some lyrics in a general bluesy old timey big womanny way while I once again percussed, this time with some spoons. Not the type of spoons that you buy at a music store as an instrument, but two actual spoons that I clacked together. Twice Ed calls out real lyrics to the song. I think he told Evan those lyrics before we started playing with the expectation Evan would sing them, but Evan never got around to them until Ed prodded him (the first time, anyway)! I guess Evan quoted some lyrics of some other old blues song at the end while I added some gutteral scatting.... Oh and I yell something about fish! I must have been inspired by "Saturday Night Fish Fry", not that I was likely thinking of anything in particular specifically in the moment. Frying fish just seemed like a good thing to throw into a blues song! A springboard for some pleasant if borderline chaotic goofiness. Came nice on the heels of the prior frenzy! Good sequencing, Evan!
Medley:
Listen To The Mockingbird
Beautiful Dreamer
Strolling Through The Park One Day
by The Have Mersey Beats
EC:
These lyrics were all in the Silbers’ Folksingers’ Wordbook. We very likely just turned the page to find them as we were messing around. The piece opens with electric guitar (Ed) and an inspired slide whistle solo (Evan). David is banging on what sounds like Ed’s gong. I come in singing "Beautiful Dreamer", in a drunken operatic vibrato, purposely on-and-off key. To this day, I have no idea how that song is "supposed" to go. Then there is another long guitar and slide whistle section before I come in singing again, in a faux West Indian accent, "Listen To The Mockingbird", which is a more familiar melody. David intones a chant, "Listen… listen…" while I embark onto "Strolling Through The Park One Day" in another funny voice, perhaps a failed attempt at a Scottish brogue. David starts chanting "merry month of May… merry month…" as I now sing the main melody in a rich baritone. I sing the last verse in a guttural growl, a la hardcore punk meets Donald Duck.
LF:
The next medley finds our heroes trying to be avant-garde and ridiculous and silly and old timey all at the same time! Stockhausen only gets this annoying in his wettest dreams! Makes Throbbing Gristle sound like Fleetwood Mac!! Well actually maybe there's even a little Stockhausen and Throbbing Gristle in there in a peculiar way, justified by foolhardiness, though, rather than by high minded intellectuality! At times I attempted a little interplay with what Evan was doing and then some topical chanting, but mostly I was just in my own little world, like all good improvisors.....
Guitar And Dog Duet
by Religious Services
EC:
Ed starts this out with a great electric guitar solo. Bleed-thru is audible because of the previously-used reel-to-reel tape. David and I start in with "Malcolm’s Chant" in an effort to get the dogs barking, but David says "It’s not working." I start barking instead. The bleed-thru is now mixed up front and it sounds like some kind of Joni Mitchell song. That bleed-thru gets faded out and backwards tape sounds get mixed up, more bleed-thru from the happy accident of 2-track tape on a 4-track machine.
LF:
Almost anything would set the dogs off barking, so we thought a guitar and dog duet would be just the ticket! But it didn't work. Ed played away and suddenly the dogs were mute. Even when Evan started doing "Malcolm's Chant" which would get the dogs barking when we hadn't even expected them to, even that didn't get them to bark! So we barked instead....
Sunday, Monday, or Always
by The Have Mersey Beats
EC:
According to Wikipedia, this song is:
"a 1943 popular song with music by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Johnny Burke. The biggest hit version, recorded by Bing Crosby in 1943 and appearing in his film Dixie, was made during a musician's strike, and recorded with a vocal group background instead of an orchestra. It first reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on August 19, 1943 and lasted 18 weeks on the chart, peaking at #1."
Of course we didn’t know any of this at the time we recorded our version. Ed had the piano sheet music and we just played it as we found it. We had never heard the song before and figured out how it went by the sheet music. I play the rhythm guitar and sing the lead vocal. Ed plays the acoustic guitar. David sings "harmony" and does percussion. The bass was overdubbed later. We refer to the "Fab Four" on in our liner notes, believing that our approach to the song echoed some of the early uninhibited Beatles rockers.
LF:
The title track came from a songbook, I think it was Ed's. Maybe one about wartime songs? We sang the lyrics that were in the book, but I don't think it's the real melody. I know I certainly wasn't reading any music! I don't know about the others, but I'd never heard the song before (I doubt they did either). I've heard the song since, on a radio station that played hits from the 40's and 50's, and it sounds a lot different! I like our version better. Evan and I sang this as a duet while Ed and Evan played acoustic guitars, lead and rhythm respectively. I kinda got bolder toward the end and sang real loud, pretty much just trying to be ridiculous, while Evan maintained some semblance of melody. That's me whistling in the middle. Evan wanted to mix that down and I told him not to. "Ed plays an actual lead" was Evan's response, but he left my goofy off key whistling in. That was a genuine fork in the road to decide on, whether to emphasize Ed's genuinely good musicianship or to emphasize the idiotic silliness. Luckily you can still hear Ed's guitar along with my whistling, though you might not think to notice how good it is the way it's forced to share the limelight. Evan overdubbed his bass and the Latin percussion instrument. BTW, Evan did most of his overdubbing after the sessions were long over, on his own, while the rest of us weren't there. Not that there's anything wrong with that, just giving you the info!
"Long Tall Woman" was sort of a cover and sort of just an improvisation. I guess Ed truly was playing the chords of a Big Bill Broonzy song, but neither Evan nor me knew the song ourselves, and we just did whatever while Ed played the chords! Which meant Evan improvised some lyrics in a general bluesy old timey big womanny way while I once again percussed, this time with some spoons. Not the type of spoons that you buy at a music store as an instrument, but two actual spoons that I clacked together. Twice Ed calls out real lyrics to the song. I think he told Evan those lyrics before we started playing with the expectation Evan would sing them, but Evan never got around to them until Ed prodded him (the first time, anyway)! I guess Evan quoted some lyrics of some other old blues song at the end while I added some gutteral scatting.... Oh and I yell something about fish! I must have been inspired by "Saturday Night Fish Fry", not that I was likely thinking of anything in particular specifically in the moment. Frying fish just seemed like a good thing to throw into a blues song! A springboard for some pleasant if borderline chaotic goofiness. Came nice on the heels of the prior frenzy! Good sequencing, Evan!
Medley:
Listen To The Mockingbird
Beautiful Dreamer
Strolling Through The Park One Day
by The Have Mersey Beats
EC:
These lyrics were all in the Silbers’ Folksingers’ Wordbook. We very likely just turned the page to find them as we were messing around. The piece opens with electric guitar (Ed) and an inspired slide whistle solo (Evan). David is banging on what sounds like Ed’s gong. I come in singing "Beautiful Dreamer", in a drunken operatic vibrato, purposely on-and-off key. To this day, I have no idea how that song is "supposed" to go. Then there is another long guitar and slide whistle section before I come in singing again, in a faux West Indian accent, "Listen To The Mockingbird", which is a more familiar melody. David intones a chant, "Listen… listen…" while I embark onto "Strolling Through The Park One Day" in another funny voice, perhaps a failed attempt at a Scottish brogue. David starts chanting "merry month of May… merry month…" as I now sing the main melody in a rich baritone. I sing the last verse in a guttural growl, a la hardcore punk meets Donald Duck.
LF:
The next medley finds our heroes trying to be avant-garde and ridiculous and silly and old timey all at the same time! Stockhausen only gets this annoying in his wettest dreams! Makes Throbbing Gristle sound like Fleetwood Mac!! Well actually maybe there's even a little Stockhausen and Throbbing Gristle in there in a peculiar way, justified by foolhardiness, though, rather than by high minded intellectuality! At times I attempted a little interplay with what Evan was doing and then some topical chanting, but mostly I was just in my own little world, like all good improvisors.....
Guitar And Dog Duet
by Religious Services
EC:
Ed starts this out with a great electric guitar solo. Bleed-thru is audible because of the previously-used reel-to-reel tape. David and I start in with "Malcolm’s Chant" in an effort to get the dogs barking, but David says "It’s not working." I start barking instead. The bleed-thru is now mixed up front and it sounds like some kind of Joni Mitchell song. That bleed-thru gets faded out and backwards tape sounds get mixed up, more bleed-thru from the happy accident of 2-track tape on a 4-track machine.
LF:
Almost anything would set the dogs off barking, so we thought a guitar and dog duet would be just the ticket! But it didn't work. Ed played away and suddenly the dogs were mute. Even when Evan started doing "Malcolm's Chant" which would get the dogs barking when we hadn't even expected them to, even that didn't get them to bark! So we barked instead....
Sunday, Monday, or Always
by The Have Mersey Beats
EC:
According to Wikipedia, this song is:
"a 1943 popular song with music by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Johnny Burke. The biggest hit version, recorded by Bing Crosby in 1943 and appearing in his film Dixie, was made during a musician's strike, and recorded with a vocal group background instead of an orchestra. It first reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on August 19, 1943 and lasted 18 weeks on the chart, peaking at #1."
Of course we didn’t know any of this at the time we recorded our version. Ed had the piano sheet music and we just played it as we found it. We had never heard the song before and figured out how it went by the sheet music. I play the rhythm guitar and sing the lead vocal. Ed plays the acoustic guitar. David sings "harmony" and does percussion. The bass was overdubbed later. We refer to the "Fab Four" on in our liner notes, believing that our approach to the song echoed some of the early uninhibited Beatles rockers.
LF:
The title track came from a songbook, I think it was Ed's. Maybe one about wartime songs? We sang the lyrics that were in the book, but I don't think it's the real melody. I know I certainly wasn't reading any music! I don't know about the others, but I'd never heard the song before (I doubt they did either). I've heard the song since, on a radio station that played hits from the 40's and 50's, and it sounds a lot different! I like our version better. Evan and I sang this as a duet while Ed and Evan played acoustic guitars, lead and rhythm respectively. I kinda got bolder toward the end and sang real loud, pretty much just trying to be ridiculous, while Evan maintained some semblance of melody. That's me whistling in the middle. Evan wanted to mix that down and I told him not to. "Ed plays an actual lead" was Evan's response, but he left my goofy off key whistling in. That was a genuine fork in the road to decide on, whether to emphasize Ed's genuinely good musicianship or to emphasize the idiotic silliness. Luckily you can still hear Ed's guitar along with my whistling, though you might not think to notice how good it is the way it's forced to share the limelight. Evan overdubbed his bass and the Latin percussion instrument. BTW, Evan did most of his overdubbing after the sessions were long over, on his own, while the rest of us weren't there. Not that there's anything wrong with that, just giving you the info!
Side B
1. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Ed's Raga/Gandhi's Theme
2. RELIGIOUS SERVICES - I'm So Glad
3. RELIGIOUS SERVICES - Buried Alive at Pine Ridge
4. MAJOR FAULTLINE - Medley:
- Red River Valley
- Streets Of Laredo
5. MAJOR FAULTLINE - Rock Island Line
6. GOOD ENOUGH FOR A HELL HOLE - The Gnome
7. GOOD ENOUGH FOR A HELL HOLE - Have Money
8. GOOD ENOUGH FOR A HELL HOLE - The Gnome (Revisited)
1. THE HAVE MERSEY BEATS - Ed's Raga/Gandhi's Theme
2. RELIGIOUS SERVICES - I'm So Glad
3. RELIGIOUS SERVICES - Buried Alive at Pine Ridge
4. MAJOR FAULTLINE - Medley:
- Red River Valley
- Streets Of Laredo
5. MAJOR FAULTLINE - Rock Island Line
6. GOOD ENOUGH FOR A HELL HOLE - The Gnome
7. GOOD ENOUGH FOR A HELL HOLE - Have Money
8. GOOD ENOUGH FOR A HELL HOLE - The Gnome (Revisited)
Ed’s Raga / Gandhi’s Theme
by The Have Mersey Beats
EC:
Ed plays "sitar-style" guitar here and Evan does lead on an acoustic guitar. I read some choice Sayings Of The Buddha in a light faux-West Indian accent, certainly overdubbed. The music builds and the guitars trade roles, which was typical since I was a strong rhythm player and Ed was the strong lead guitarist.
LF:
I didn't really remember "Ed's Raga" till I heard the opening riffs and remembered that Evan's "Indian guru" voice was coming and that made me smile! I'm still playing those "spoons" and Evan again probably overdubbed this spiel after the rest of us were long gone from our weekend frivolities and I have no idea where Evan got this text. Some Buddhist or Hindu text, I guess!
I'm So Glad
by Religious Services
EC:
This is a take on another old blues tune (Skip James) that we knew from Cream. It has an easy-to-play descending riff and every guitarist of my generation seemed to know it. David has a nice laughing manic vocal going on here as he ramps up his gladness: "I’m so fucking glad!" Ed is playing a fuzz rhythm while I doodle on lead. I start up a "Man From Glad" chant while switching from lead guitar to the main rhythm progression. David is ranting on, "I’m so glad, I can’t fuckin’ stand it!" Evan's voice rises up again with heavy reverb, "I'm the Man From Glad!" This is an obvious reference to Glad sandwich bags. I play my version of the intro to Carl Perkins’ "Honey Don’t" (which I only knew via the Beatles) and then return to the main progression. Dena’s voice chimes in with a deadpan recitation, "He’s glad… they’re glad…" I go back to one more "Honey Don’t" progression to end the whole thing.
LF:
Oh, what can I say about "I'm So Glad"? By my memory, Ed and Evan both knew the song and thus decided to play it (where have I heard that before?). And as usual too, I just wanted to parody the whole idea. And in fact, I always thought Cream's version (the only one I knew, even if I knew they were playing an older song) was kinda weird in that Jack Bruce didn't sound especially glad when he sang it, not to me anyway. So I guess I just wanted to take that sentiment even further! It was all entirely extemporaneous, I was making it up as I went along. There was a little competition between me and Dena for the microphone, cause she had her own idea of how to parody the song, with a deadpan delivery. I might have thought up some of my lines while she was at the mic. You'll notice Dena was still trying to get her lines in while I was at the mic doing mine, and they were good lines too, but I liked my own take on the subject too much and so once I got back to the mic, I wasn't relinquishing it!! I still get people tell me this cracks 'em up, and I'm rather proud of that! And dig that fucked up guitar by Ed!
Buried Alive At Pine Ridge
by Religious Services
EC:
This piece reflects my interest in Native American history and appropriates text from Native figures praying for the demise of the white man. David, Evan and Dena come in doing hi-yeh chants over a throbbing pow-wow beat led by a tom-tom. I bought the tom-tom at some Indian reservation somewhere. The dogs are barking throughout. The first section is Black Elk’s "horse dance"—"Behold, they will appear…" Black Elk is a famous character who lived through the end of the Indian Wars in North America and the text comes from John Niehart’s book Black Elk Speaks. The narrative ends but the chanting and gibbering continue to the beat of the relentless tom-tom, the dogs still barking. The groove abruptly stops and the bass comes roaring in with volume-knob effects. The next section is Wovokai’s "ghost dance". Wovokai was a religious shaman who alarmed the white authorities when he started predicting the destruction of the white man. This text comes from Dee Brown’s book Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. This morphs into the third section, "Womb Dance", that starts with an unintelligible reading of something but moves into the chant, "I Want To Go Back To The Womb". Evan chants, there’s some nice lead guitar from Ed, some good gibbering in here and off-the-cuff rapping by both David and Evan. The last section returns to "Wounded Knee", again reading Black Elk’s recollections of the infamous massacre on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. We go back to the tom-tom and hi-yeh chanting. David calls out to the Great Spirit and the piece ends.
LF:
Me and Evan had been going to Indian pow wows which are a genuine thing here in the West, and Evan was doing a lot of reading on Native American history, and I believe that's some authentic text(s) he was reading while pounding the little toy tom-tom and the rest of us are pretending to be Indians. (I don't remember if Evan's readings were live or overdubbed, there might be some of both?) Fits right in with the Religious Services theme, I guess! From Buddhism to Indian Pow Wows to our new religion of Mania, we really ran the gamut! I think I started screaming cause I'd just run out of Indianny stuff to do, and then the whole thing started to take a scarier, ghostier tone, which I don't think was originally planned. But then maybe it was? Y'know I don't remember! Of course I was always prone to taking things in a darker direction anyway....
Red River Valley / Streets of Laredo
by Major Faultline
EC:
Again, these lyrics came out of the Silbers’ Folksingers’ Wordbook. It starts with me playing a flanged rhythm guitar. Marsha Wooley (who participated in Ed's Telethon Parties in the past, also with The Dirt Clods) and I sing a duet, featuring Marsha’s inspired improvisation. I'm singing the verses, while Marsha raps alongside me. Finally, when we establish that the singer is an idiot and that Marsha's character is going to leave him, she says "let's go to the streets of Laredo" and we move on to the second song of the medley. I start this on the refrain, singing in a deadpan hillbilly voice. Marsha is doing the percussion. The rhythm is a kind of halting funk approach. Drop-outs indicate the poor quality of the reel-to-reel tape. There is slide whistle now, likely Marsha, because Ed and I are both playing our guitars. As my rhythm guitar goes into one-chord jam mode, Ed’s lead guitar is finally out front. Marsha and I reprise the main theme and the song ends.
by The Have Mersey Beats
EC:
Ed plays "sitar-style" guitar here and Evan does lead on an acoustic guitar. I read some choice Sayings Of The Buddha in a light faux-West Indian accent, certainly overdubbed. The music builds and the guitars trade roles, which was typical since I was a strong rhythm player and Ed was the strong lead guitarist.
LF:
I didn't really remember "Ed's Raga" till I heard the opening riffs and remembered that Evan's "Indian guru" voice was coming and that made me smile! I'm still playing those "spoons" and Evan again probably overdubbed this spiel after the rest of us were long gone from our weekend frivolities and I have no idea where Evan got this text. Some Buddhist or Hindu text, I guess!
I'm So Glad
by Religious Services
EC:
This is a take on another old blues tune (Skip James) that we knew from Cream. It has an easy-to-play descending riff and every guitarist of my generation seemed to know it. David has a nice laughing manic vocal going on here as he ramps up his gladness: "I’m so fucking glad!" Ed is playing a fuzz rhythm while I doodle on lead. I start up a "Man From Glad" chant while switching from lead guitar to the main rhythm progression. David is ranting on, "I’m so glad, I can’t fuckin’ stand it!" Evan's voice rises up again with heavy reverb, "I'm the Man From Glad!" This is an obvious reference to Glad sandwich bags. I play my version of the intro to Carl Perkins’ "Honey Don’t" (which I only knew via the Beatles) and then return to the main progression. Dena’s voice chimes in with a deadpan recitation, "He’s glad… they’re glad…" I go back to one more "Honey Don’t" progression to end the whole thing.
LF:
Oh, what can I say about "I'm So Glad"? By my memory, Ed and Evan both knew the song and thus decided to play it (where have I heard that before?). And as usual too, I just wanted to parody the whole idea. And in fact, I always thought Cream's version (the only one I knew, even if I knew they were playing an older song) was kinda weird in that Jack Bruce didn't sound especially glad when he sang it, not to me anyway. So I guess I just wanted to take that sentiment even further! It was all entirely extemporaneous, I was making it up as I went along. There was a little competition between me and Dena for the microphone, cause she had her own idea of how to parody the song, with a deadpan delivery. I might have thought up some of my lines while she was at the mic. You'll notice Dena was still trying to get her lines in while I was at the mic doing mine, and they were good lines too, but I liked my own take on the subject too much and so once I got back to the mic, I wasn't relinquishing it!! I still get people tell me this cracks 'em up, and I'm rather proud of that! And dig that fucked up guitar by Ed!
Buried Alive At Pine Ridge
by Religious Services
EC:
This piece reflects my interest in Native American history and appropriates text from Native figures praying for the demise of the white man. David, Evan and Dena come in doing hi-yeh chants over a throbbing pow-wow beat led by a tom-tom. I bought the tom-tom at some Indian reservation somewhere. The dogs are barking throughout. The first section is Black Elk’s "horse dance"—"Behold, they will appear…" Black Elk is a famous character who lived through the end of the Indian Wars in North America and the text comes from John Niehart’s book Black Elk Speaks. The narrative ends but the chanting and gibbering continue to the beat of the relentless tom-tom, the dogs still barking. The groove abruptly stops and the bass comes roaring in with volume-knob effects. The next section is Wovokai’s "ghost dance". Wovokai was a religious shaman who alarmed the white authorities when he started predicting the destruction of the white man. This text comes from Dee Brown’s book Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. This morphs into the third section, "Womb Dance", that starts with an unintelligible reading of something but moves into the chant, "I Want To Go Back To The Womb". Evan chants, there’s some nice lead guitar from Ed, some good gibbering in here and off-the-cuff rapping by both David and Evan. The last section returns to "Wounded Knee", again reading Black Elk’s recollections of the infamous massacre on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. We go back to the tom-tom and hi-yeh chanting. David calls out to the Great Spirit and the piece ends.
LF:
Me and Evan had been going to Indian pow wows which are a genuine thing here in the West, and Evan was doing a lot of reading on Native American history, and I believe that's some authentic text(s) he was reading while pounding the little toy tom-tom and the rest of us are pretending to be Indians. (I don't remember if Evan's readings were live or overdubbed, there might be some of both?) Fits right in with the Religious Services theme, I guess! From Buddhism to Indian Pow Wows to our new religion of Mania, we really ran the gamut! I think I started screaming cause I'd just run out of Indianny stuff to do, and then the whole thing started to take a scarier, ghostier tone, which I don't think was originally planned. But then maybe it was? Y'know I don't remember! Of course I was always prone to taking things in a darker direction anyway....
Red River Valley / Streets of Laredo
by Major Faultline
EC:
Again, these lyrics came out of the Silbers’ Folksingers’ Wordbook. It starts with me playing a flanged rhythm guitar. Marsha Wooley (who participated in Ed's Telethon Parties in the past, also with The Dirt Clods) and I sing a duet, featuring Marsha’s inspired improvisation. I'm singing the verses, while Marsha raps alongside me. Finally, when we establish that the singer is an idiot and that Marsha's character is going to leave him, she says "let's go to the streets of Laredo" and we move on to the second song of the medley. I start this on the refrain, singing in a deadpan hillbilly voice. Marsha is doing the percussion. The rhythm is a kind of halting funk approach. Drop-outs indicate the poor quality of the reel-to-reel tape. There is slide whistle now, likely Marsha, because Ed and I are both playing our guitars. As my rhythm guitar goes into one-chord jam mode, Ed’s lead guitar is finally out front. Marsha and I reprise the main theme and the song ends.
Rock Island Line
by Major Faultline
EC:
"Rock Island Line" is another one from the Folksingers’ Wordbook. I’m playing another funky kind of rock rhythm. Marsha and I both sing the chorus and then Marsha pursues the verses while I chime in on the chorus. Then Marsha and I trade roles, me singing the verses.
LF:
I wasn't there for the Major Faultline session. Could I have possibly had something better to do on a Thursday evening? I may not have been invited. I don't remember any resentment but I do seem to remember being surprised when I heard the results. Maybe that's just because I had no idea they were going to sing cowboys songs? Funny stuff, anyway!! And Marsha's got a good voice! It's nice too that Ed and Evan were able to "draft" her! (Interesting too that Evan paid homage to WoG's roots in the Dirt Clods in the liner notes. I hadn't remembered that!) Y'know, maybe I was invited but thought it was good to not be present at every session, that's actually very possible too.... (Obviously I don't remember!)
The Gnome
by Good Enough For A Hell Hole
EC:
David came up with this terrific arrangement of a Mussorgsky theme. David plays the rhythm guitar, Ed plays lead and I am on bass.
David and I overdub passages from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Possessed and Memoirs From The House Of The Dead. This is a direct link from literature to another thirty years of Little Fyodor music. David and I were both devotees of Dostoevsky at the time. In fact, it was David who introduced me to Dostoevsky, probably in Charlottesville before we came to Colorado. This is very literary stuff, but we thought Dostoevsky was timeless, compelling and right-on. He remains so—"What millionaire with his head in the noose wouldn't give all his millions for another breath of air?" "All His Millions" was a proposed band name later on, noted on a scrap of paper, that was never used.
LF:
Good Enough for a Hellhole was me and Evan, and Ed overdubbed lead on two of the three pieces later. I liked Dostoevski, whom I originally read for a couple of classes in college, and I turned Evan onto him. Particularly vile and dramatic lines were chosen from the two books cited in "Special Thanks" section of the liner notes, I'm sure some of it was chosen by me but I don't know if I chose it all or if we both found the passages. The music was based on my attempt to interpret Mussorgsky's "The Gnome" on the guitar. Unfortunately my little leads are pretty pathetic sounding. Oh, we overdubbed the Dostoevsky passages after playing the original jam live, as was our wont!
Have Money
by Good Enough For A Hell Hole
EC:
This was David’s piece entirely, his rhythm guitar and vocal. I am playing bass on this. David will have more to say about this track, but it's probably relevant that we both had jobs that paid less than $1000/month at the time.
LF:
I finally got to be a poet myself on "Have Money", just a little ditty I wrote about the poverty driven choices I faced in my life and read (and screamed) over a riff I wrote and Evan played bass to. It was nice how we could switch around roles like that!
The Gnome (Revisited)
by Good Enough For A Hell Hole
EC:
David’s guitar and my bass are going wild and then we return to a minor-key variation of The Gnome theme. A Russian announcer’s voice comes in, very excited about "Yuri Gagarin in the Cosmic Space", which was on a record that I found at University of Colorado’s Norlin Library’s audio collection. I did not yet work at CU, so I’m not sure how I had access to this, but 1983 was an innocent time when the world was still young. The music ends just as the announcer exclaims "Ultnika Vostok" and you hear a rocket taking off.
LF:
I guess I turned on my flanger and started playing more minor chords in a similar vein to what I'd come up with for "The Gnome" (though it clearly wasn't the same riff) and Evan called it "The Gnome (Revisited)" and he made the effort to find and overdub the Russian cosmonaut recording and to get Ed to overdub a lead. I think that's Ed, anyway? I wonder if Evan timed it so Yuri's last words would close the piece or if that was happy happenstance or the magic of mixing? I'm not sure if I ever knew, but I sure don't know now! Evan handled all the mixing -- as he had from the start -- sometimes with me in attendance, and sometimes not!
by Major Faultline
EC:
"Rock Island Line" is another one from the Folksingers’ Wordbook. I’m playing another funky kind of rock rhythm. Marsha and I both sing the chorus and then Marsha pursues the verses while I chime in on the chorus. Then Marsha and I trade roles, me singing the verses.
LF:
I wasn't there for the Major Faultline session. Could I have possibly had something better to do on a Thursday evening? I may not have been invited. I don't remember any resentment but I do seem to remember being surprised when I heard the results. Maybe that's just because I had no idea they were going to sing cowboys songs? Funny stuff, anyway!! And Marsha's got a good voice! It's nice too that Ed and Evan were able to "draft" her! (Interesting too that Evan paid homage to WoG's roots in the Dirt Clods in the liner notes. I hadn't remembered that!) Y'know, maybe I was invited but thought it was good to not be present at every session, that's actually very possible too.... (Obviously I don't remember!)
The Gnome
by Good Enough For A Hell Hole
EC:
David came up with this terrific arrangement of a Mussorgsky theme. David plays the rhythm guitar, Ed plays lead and I am on bass.
David and I overdub passages from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Possessed and Memoirs From The House Of The Dead. This is a direct link from literature to another thirty years of Little Fyodor music. David and I were both devotees of Dostoevsky at the time. In fact, it was David who introduced me to Dostoevsky, probably in Charlottesville before we came to Colorado. This is very literary stuff, but we thought Dostoevsky was timeless, compelling and right-on. He remains so—"What millionaire with his head in the noose wouldn't give all his millions for another breath of air?" "All His Millions" was a proposed band name later on, noted on a scrap of paper, that was never used.
LF:
Good Enough for a Hellhole was me and Evan, and Ed overdubbed lead on two of the three pieces later. I liked Dostoevski, whom I originally read for a couple of classes in college, and I turned Evan onto him. Particularly vile and dramatic lines were chosen from the two books cited in "Special Thanks" section of the liner notes, I'm sure some of it was chosen by me but I don't know if I chose it all or if we both found the passages. The music was based on my attempt to interpret Mussorgsky's "The Gnome" on the guitar. Unfortunately my little leads are pretty pathetic sounding. Oh, we overdubbed the Dostoevsky passages after playing the original jam live, as was our wont!
Have Money
by Good Enough For A Hell Hole
EC:
This was David’s piece entirely, his rhythm guitar and vocal. I am playing bass on this. David will have more to say about this track, but it's probably relevant that we both had jobs that paid less than $1000/month at the time.
LF:
I finally got to be a poet myself on "Have Money", just a little ditty I wrote about the poverty driven choices I faced in my life and read (and screamed) over a riff I wrote and Evan played bass to. It was nice how we could switch around roles like that!
The Gnome (Revisited)
by Good Enough For A Hell Hole
EC:
David’s guitar and my bass are going wild and then we return to a minor-key variation of The Gnome theme. A Russian announcer’s voice comes in, very excited about "Yuri Gagarin in the Cosmic Space", which was on a record that I found at University of Colorado’s Norlin Library’s audio collection. I did not yet work at CU, so I’m not sure how I had access to this, but 1983 was an innocent time when the world was still young. The music ends just as the announcer exclaims "Ultnika Vostok" and you hear a rocket taking off.
LF:
I guess I turned on my flanger and started playing more minor chords in a similar vein to what I'd come up with for "The Gnome" (though it clearly wasn't the same riff) and Evan called it "The Gnome (Revisited)" and he made the effort to find and overdub the Russian cosmonaut recording and to get Ed to overdub a lead. I think that's Ed, anyway? I wonder if Evan timed it so Yuri's last words would close the piece or if that was happy happenstance or the magic of mixing? I'm not sure if I ever knew, but I sure don't know now! Evan handled all the mixing -- as he had from the start -- sometimes with me in attendance, and sometimes not!
Little Fyodor:
And now a word about my gear. My guitar was a bright red Kalamazoo, a "practice guitar" made by Gibson that confused the hell out of guitar aficionados by having an SG like body and a Fender styled head. I'd heard various stories about this guitar over the years, including one that it was made by a renegade independent luthier who used parts discarded by both guitar giants! Alas, it was apparently just made by Gibson (per Wikipedia). One neat thing is that it's mentioned in the CCR song, "Down on the Corner"! ("Willy strums the rhythm out on his Kalamazoo") My mother bought this guitar for me for my 12th birthday, and it was the only guitar I ever owned until sometime this millennium when Ed sold me the early/mid 70's Strat that he used during these very same WoG sessions. This guitar also amazes (and impresses!) guitar aficionados! They tell me it's a '73 or a '74. I wonder what amp I used for WoG sessions since the only amp I owned back then was a super cheapo that I also got for my 12th birthday, but unlike my cheap guitar, that was a piece of crap so I may have used Evan's Sunn Alpha....
LF:
Regarding that Special Thanks section of the liner notes, F. Dostoevsky was Big Fyodor, of course. Ken Stock I think was "Space", Evan's original electronics repairman who I believe had one success and then a series of failures trying to repair the Dokorder. I think, though I'm far from sure, that Stephanie Kaye was the KGNU deejay who had played "The Murderer's Nightmare" on her radio show whom I mentioned previously in my Johnny Rocco notes. Brian Kraft was another KGNU deejay. He alternated with me on my time slot and similarly played very experimental music. He was much more of a connoisseur of the genre than I was. I'd play any wacky crazy out of the ordinary shit on my radio show, but for Brian it really had to be GOOD. I remember once talking to a record store owner who knew Brian well and said that Brian was very picky, he'd only buy music that was different and unusual but also GOOD. I guess I had a strong opinion that culture should go crazy and stop being so mellow, but beyond that, I had begun to lose my interest in making clear distinctions between what is and isn't good, and now I like to say that I have no standards and have no problem enjoying crap (though Babushka doesn't buy it!). I first learned of Nurse With Wound from Brian, and a lot of other interesting stuff. I was pretty friendly with him for a while, but he became quite the loner and I haven't seen him in decades.... Oh and Nah Tah Shah was Natasha Brown. We were genuinely thankful for the space she was renting us! It made Walls Of Genius possible! That was before the relationship between she and Evan went very south, and Evan then gives her a "no thanks" in a later liner note, I believe!
EC:
Ken Stock was "Space", who had an electronic repair shop in the second-story above the pawn shop on "The Hill" in Boulder. Neither shop exists today. That location is currently a girly boutique called "Frisk". "Space" was our first repairman, but his nick-name tells the story. He did fix the Dokorder one time by removing an entire interface-board of some kind and patching twenty or more wires directly onto another. With the bad connection excised, the music could proceed. Later on we used Walrus Sound (Paul Howes). Paul still lives a few blocks up the street from me and continues to do electronic repair into his 70s. He also attempts to find good homes for antique equipment that nobody else wants anymore. I have given him (for redistribution to the young, needy and experimental) a 4-track cassette machine that was no longer useful to me and an old Parasound equalizer that dates to the mixing of Walls Of Genius.
The credits on Sunday Monday Or Always conform to David's memory of these sessions. Combined with his recollections, it's clear that he was still getting up to speed as a major player in the project at the time we recorded Sunday Monday Or Always. However, the "Little Fyodor" persona had been identified prior to these recordings. It had been used as a nickname for David before there was any music associated with it, something that came out of our mutual admiration for Fyodor Dostoevsky's writings.
My memory is that Ed and I were delightfully surprised both by the impromptu vocalizations that we elicited from David, later identified more consistently as "Little Fyodor", and the ideas that he was presenting for the project, like "The Gnome". There was something inexplicably different about David's approach to both singing and playing the guitar. It wasn't that his singing and playing was "bad" His approach was somehow beyond that, especially in mainstream terms. Technically, he knew what he was doing with the guitar. He knew about diminished chords, for instance, and he had/has a firm grasp on rock song structure. He just had an odd rhythmic approach that was uniquely his own. His vocals were "bad" in the sense that no mainstream rock band would have this guy singing. He did not then, and does not now, have a "pretty" singing voice. We were all getting closer to the idea of something "so bad it's good" although we probably had not articulated it at the time. I often referred to our multiple electronic malfunctions as "the Curse of Fyodor", as if David's entire approach somehow constituted an electronic Anti-Christ, that the machines themselves objected to what he was doing. I don't think David liked this idea very much, so I dropped it, but it was all in good fun at the time, or at least so I hope. The truth of the matter is that our electronic malfunctions were linked to the finicky Dokorder, to using used reel-to-reel tape and to cheap equipment, which was all we could afford. It had nothing to do with the growing manifestation of Little Fyodor.
LF:
Evan actually (eventually) had an article published called "The Curse of Little Fyodor" on my avowed effect on recording equipment malfunctions in Robin James's book "Cassette Mythos", which was a compendium of stories about the entire cassette movement. I don't recall ever objecting to any of this per se, though my reaction at the time may have reflected the pinch of a sense I had that Evan may have been venting some of his antipathy towards me as an ingredient that he mixed into his very clever and humorous tongue-in-cheek endeavor to explain the frustratingly mysterious and incessant fuck-ups of the Dokorder while also mythologizing this budding character of Little Fyodor. My name, Little Fyodor, BTW, was entirely Evan's doing. At his home in Fairfax, VA (before we both moved to Colorado), I'd been showing him my earliest song lyrics of nascent to-be Little Fyodor repertoire, including one called "Nobody Loves Me and They Got Good Reason", and this was shortly after I had turned him onto Fyodor Dostoevsky. He said he liked the lyrics but they needed work because while the characters depicted in the songs were evil enough, they lacked a sense of exuberance and fun. I think he was thinking of songs like "Berserker" that was made by friends of his and depicted a character joyfully going berserk and wreaking havoc. I mumbled something about that not being what my songs were about and a light lit up in Evan's eyes. "Oh!" he said, "Now I get it! These characters can't even get any joy out of their own evil! They're like Dostoevsky's characters!!" He then called me Little Fyodor, which he later said he just meant as a joke, but I liked the name and decided to use it instead of my prior choice of John Leningrad. I'm still Little Fyodor today and I'll be playing at SXSW next month (March 2014) as such with a band using the very same name!
Regarding that Special Thanks section of the liner notes, F. Dostoevsky was Big Fyodor, of course. Ken Stock I think was "Space", Evan's original electronics repairman who I believe had one success and then a series of failures trying to repair the Dokorder. I think, though I'm far from sure, that Stephanie Kaye was the KGNU deejay who had played "The Murderer's Nightmare" on her radio show whom I mentioned previously in my Johnny Rocco notes. Brian Kraft was another KGNU deejay. He alternated with me on my time slot and similarly played very experimental music. He was much more of a connoisseur of the genre than I was. I'd play any wacky crazy out of the ordinary shit on my radio show, but for Brian it really had to be GOOD. I remember once talking to a record store owner who knew Brian well and said that Brian was very picky, he'd only buy music that was different and unusual but also GOOD. I guess I had a strong opinion that culture should go crazy and stop being so mellow, but beyond that, I had begun to lose my interest in making clear distinctions between what is and isn't good, and now I like to say that I have no standards and have no problem enjoying crap (though Babushka doesn't buy it!). I first learned of Nurse With Wound from Brian, and a lot of other interesting stuff. I was pretty friendly with him for a while, but he became quite the loner and I haven't seen him in decades.... Oh and Nah Tah Shah was Natasha Brown. We were genuinely thankful for the space she was renting us! It made Walls Of Genius possible! That was before the relationship between she and Evan went very south, and Evan then gives her a "no thanks" in a later liner note, I believe!
EC:
Ken Stock was "Space", who had an electronic repair shop in the second-story above the pawn shop on "The Hill" in Boulder. Neither shop exists today. That location is currently a girly boutique called "Frisk". "Space" was our first repairman, but his nick-name tells the story. He did fix the Dokorder one time by removing an entire interface-board of some kind and patching twenty or more wires directly onto another. With the bad connection excised, the music could proceed. Later on we used Walrus Sound (Paul Howes). Paul still lives a few blocks up the street from me and continues to do electronic repair into his 70s. He also attempts to find good homes for antique equipment that nobody else wants anymore. I have given him (for redistribution to the young, needy and experimental) a 4-track cassette machine that was no longer useful to me and an old Parasound equalizer that dates to the mixing of Walls Of Genius.
The credits on Sunday Monday Or Always conform to David's memory of these sessions. Combined with his recollections, it's clear that he was still getting up to speed as a major player in the project at the time we recorded Sunday Monday Or Always. However, the "Little Fyodor" persona had been identified prior to these recordings. It had been used as a nickname for David before there was any music associated with it, something that came out of our mutual admiration for Fyodor Dostoevsky's writings.
My memory is that Ed and I were delightfully surprised both by the impromptu vocalizations that we elicited from David, later identified more consistently as "Little Fyodor", and the ideas that he was presenting for the project, like "The Gnome". There was something inexplicably different about David's approach to both singing and playing the guitar. It wasn't that his singing and playing was "bad" His approach was somehow beyond that, especially in mainstream terms. Technically, he knew what he was doing with the guitar. He knew about diminished chords, for instance, and he had/has a firm grasp on rock song structure. He just had an odd rhythmic approach that was uniquely his own. His vocals were "bad" in the sense that no mainstream rock band would have this guy singing. He did not then, and does not now, have a "pretty" singing voice. We were all getting closer to the idea of something "so bad it's good" although we probably had not articulated it at the time. I often referred to our multiple electronic malfunctions as "the Curse of Fyodor", as if David's entire approach somehow constituted an electronic Anti-Christ, that the machines themselves objected to what he was doing. I don't think David liked this idea very much, so I dropped it, but it was all in good fun at the time, or at least so I hope. The truth of the matter is that our electronic malfunctions were linked to the finicky Dokorder, to using used reel-to-reel tape and to cheap equipment, which was all we could afford. It had nothing to do with the growing manifestation of Little Fyodor.
LF:
Evan actually (eventually) had an article published called "The Curse of Little Fyodor" on my avowed effect on recording equipment malfunctions in Robin James's book "Cassette Mythos", which was a compendium of stories about the entire cassette movement. I don't recall ever objecting to any of this per se, though my reaction at the time may have reflected the pinch of a sense I had that Evan may have been venting some of his antipathy towards me as an ingredient that he mixed into his very clever and humorous tongue-in-cheek endeavor to explain the frustratingly mysterious and incessant fuck-ups of the Dokorder while also mythologizing this budding character of Little Fyodor. My name, Little Fyodor, BTW, was entirely Evan's doing. At his home in Fairfax, VA (before we both moved to Colorado), I'd been showing him my earliest song lyrics of nascent to-be Little Fyodor repertoire, including one called "Nobody Loves Me and They Got Good Reason", and this was shortly after I had turned him onto Fyodor Dostoevsky. He said he liked the lyrics but they needed work because while the characters depicted in the songs were evil enough, they lacked a sense of exuberance and fun. I think he was thinking of songs like "Berserker" that was made by friends of his and depicted a character joyfully going berserk and wreaking havoc. I mumbled something about that not being what my songs were about and a light lit up in Evan's eyes. "Oh!" he said, "Now I get it! These characters can't even get any joy out of their own evil! They're like Dostoevsky's characters!!" He then called me Little Fyodor, which he later said he just meant as a joke, but I liked the name and decided to use it instead of my prior choice of John Leningrad. I'm still Little Fyodor today and I'll be playing at SXSW next month (March 2014) as such with a band using the very same name!
from WoG original one sheet catalog list, 7-27-83
from Walls Of Genius Catalogue No. 1, The Mark Of The Moron, late Summer 1983
above: reviews from Warning and Objekt zines
below: catalog description from Walls Of Genius Catalogue No. 2, The Brand Of The Bozo, Oct.-Nov. 1983
below: catalog description from Walls Of Genius Catalogue No. 2, The Brand Of The Bozo, Oct.-Nov. 1983
above: review clippings from Walls Of Genius Catalogue No. 3, Give The Gift Of Genius
below: review clipping from Walls Of Genius Catalogue No. 4, The Face Of The Fiend, 1984
below: review clipping from Walls Of Genius Catalogue No. 4, The Face Of The Fiend, 1984
