WoG 0009 - Cultural Sabotage
a 90 minute cassette officially attributed to multiple bands all of which were later considered the "band" Walls Of Genius.
- THE DIRT CLODS (Ed Fowler, Evan Cantor), recorded Winter 1982-83, on a cassette boombox, at Ed's house in Denver
- TONS OF FUN (EF, David Lichtenberg, EC, Glenn Swanson), recorded on a boombox, probably at Ed's
- JOE COLORADO (EC), recorded September 31(?), 1983, live on KGNU, Boulder - when Hal pointed out to Evan that there are not 31 days in the month of September, he replied: "oh ha ha ha Yes!! I put 9-31-83 on the liner notes. What a maroon! My guess is that I would remember if that was a deliberate joke and I don't, so it's probably just a hand-written "typo". 9-30-83 was a Friday night, so that's probably the actual correct date."
- YOU CAN DIGEST A ROCK (EF, EC, DL), recorded Friday, October 7, 1983, on 4-track reel to reel, at the Hall Of Genius, 2473 20th Street, Boulder.
- THE DIRT CLODS (Ed Fowler, Evan Cantor), recorded Winter 1982-83, on a cassette boombox, at Ed's house in Denver
- TONS OF FUN (EF, David Lichtenberg, EC, Glenn Swanson), recorded on a boombox, probably at Ed's
- JOE COLORADO (EC), recorded September 31(?), 1983, live on KGNU, Boulder - when Hal pointed out to Evan that there are not 31 days in the month of September, he replied: "oh ha ha ha Yes!! I put 9-31-83 on the liner notes. What a maroon! My guess is that I would remember if that was a deliberate joke and I don't, so it's probably just a hand-written "typo". 9-30-83 was a Friday night, so that's probably the actual correct date."
- YOU CAN DIGEST A ROCK (EF, EC, DL), recorded Friday, October 7, 1983, on 4-track reel to reel, at the Hall Of Genius, 2473 20th Street, Boulder.
Evan Cantor:
The album title is descriptive of our ‘mission’ at this point. We are challenging the traditional measurements of what music is supposed to sound like. After the primarily “serious” set previously released (Little Victor Meets Violent Vince), this release is dedicated to both obnoxious cover versions as well as another film noir experiment. I can’t help but feel that these cover versions, for the most part, would have benefited from more extensive over-dubbing of mania and craziness. There is, to my ears, a subdued quality to some of these tracks that doesn’t completely jive with my memory of what we were “trying” to do. Perhaps we were trying to tone it down, although I cannot imagine why.
Little Fyodor:
Cultural Sabotage! A concept album! Every song was a cover!! Of some sort! By this time we were aware of the reaction our covers elicited. Part of that was in live performance. But our prior release hadn’t had any, none at all. It wasn’t planned that way, it just happened! And the one before that (going by recording chronology) had only two, and one of those was with mostly different music, it kinda only semi counts. For the You Can Digest A Rock sessions, we let ‘er rip, we indulged our self-indulgent selves, we went straight for the cover song jugular. Evan’s a good musician and Ed is transcendent and I’m utterly awful, what a formula! It was mainly from seeing what we had from that session and then seeing what we had from some others that made us realize we had a concept in the making. Evan asked me if it should be called "Cultural Vandalism" or "Cultural Sabotage", and I didn’t hesitate and straight out chose the latter. At that point Evan showed some hesitancy, maybe he had been leaning toward the former, maybe he thought I chose too hastily. Vandalism is really more accurate, descriptively. We can only hope we sabotaged anything, but we certainly, quite clearly vandalized it! But he gave me the choice and I thought Sabotage had the punch and the power. It was catchier! And what’s pop music and culture about if not catchiness…? (Evan did still get a mention of vandalism in the liner notes!)
EC:
The band name “You Can Digest A Rock” was likely suggested by advertisements at the time for Euell Gibbons’ television show, in which Euell’s voice intones, “even some parts of the pine tree are edible”. At the time, we had never heard of piñons (pinyon nuts), so we thought this was pretty funny. “Tons Of Fun” is self-explanatory, probably one of my names. “The Dirt Clods” tracks were culled from the un-released “first” cassette related to the WoG project. “Joe Colorado” is Evan Cantor, the nom-de-plume that he used for the open stage at Pachamama’s Coffee House and a sort of alternative solo-entity for Evan as WoG's many different sides evolved.
The cover art features a photo that I took at an overlook in Canyon De Chelly National Monument, Arizona. At first glance, you read “Do Not Leave Vehicles Unattended”, but then it’s obvious that this is a monument to bad spelling and reversed stencils. “Do Not Leave Vechiles Unattened”... And this was a sign in a National Park!
LF:
I believe this was our first release with a cover. I mean a visual cover, on the front of the cassette package. I do believe the covers shown for earlier tapes were created afterwards, not when those tapes were first released. At release, all they had were liner notes. Evan took the picture of the misspelled sign at Canyon De Chelly National Monument during one of our fairly frequent forays further into the Southwest, into what might be called the Four Corners area. Canyon De Chelly is in Arizona. I think I’ve only been back once. Damn, I don’t know if I looked to see if the sign is still there! It was at an overlook on the north rim, I believe, I do. We thought such a badly misspelled sign at an official US Government establishment was pretty funny….
EC:
We had a statement that “this is a no over-dubs tape”. We must have felt that somehow that explained the “purity” of the music. Again, in retrospect, I think the cover versions, especially “Your Song” and “Just The Way You Are” would have benefited from overdubbed mania, as the ‘sabotage’ is rather gentle compared to earlier outings. We also stated that we were “equal opportunity” vandals, and that we “destroy songs we like, as well as songs we don’t like.” Obviously we thought pop music like “Your Song” and “Just The Way You Are” were hopelessly sappy. But nonetheless they were big hits and are great songs in their own sentimental way. That doesn’t mean that we liked these songs. They were in our songbooks and in learning how to play the guitar, I tried to learn all the songs in every songbook I had. Songbooks weren’t cheap and there was no Internet providing lyrics/chords for almost every song conceivable. About this state of affairs, we stated “We just don’t care.” Well, we obviously cared or we wouldn’t be doing our thing in the first place. This was just part of Walls Of Genius’ hyperbolic approach to promotion.
On the ‘flip side’ of the insert, was a cartoon of Evan (a self-portrait) proclaiming “Let IDIOCY reign”. Again, hyperbolic promotion.
LF:
Also funny was what Brian Ladd said when we met him and at some point made reference to his seemingly (to us) dismissive words about the first side of the tape. He said he loved that side, that it was great! We never asked how that squared with his writing in his zine (Objekt) that it should be ignored, but it became a bit of a pattern. Reviewers (and others) sometimes seemed to think that we wanted to be abused, like we were the musical equivalent of a “kick me” sign. Not that I’m complaining per se, but it’s something that cropped up a few times, it’s a pattern worth noting. In retrospect I have nothing but gratitude for the work zinesters put into their zines, and of course they gotta say what they think at the time, they were doing it for the same freedom to do and say what they wanted that we were doing our music for. And of course too if it was a pattern, then there was something about what we did that elicited that reaction…..
The album title is descriptive of our ‘mission’ at this point. We are challenging the traditional measurements of what music is supposed to sound like. After the primarily “serious” set previously released (Little Victor Meets Violent Vince), this release is dedicated to both obnoxious cover versions as well as another film noir experiment. I can’t help but feel that these cover versions, for the most part, would have benefited from more extensive over-dubbing of mania and craziness. There is, to my ears, a subdued quality to some of these tracks that doesn’t completely jive with my memory of what we were “trying” to do. Perhaps we were trying to tone it down, although I cannot imagine why.
Little Fyodor:
Cultural Sabotage! A concept album! Every song was a cover!! Of some sort! By this time we were aware of the reaction our covers elicited. Part of that was in live performance. But our prior release hadn’t had any, none at all. It wasn’t planned that way, it just happened! And the one before that (going by recording chronology) had only two, and one of those was with mostly different music, it kinda only semi counts. For the You Can Digest A Rock sessions, we let ‘er rip, we indulged our self-indulgent selves, we went straight for the cover song jugular. Evan’s a good musician and Ed is transcendent and I’m utterly awful, what a formula! It was mainly from seeing what we had from that session and then seeing what we had from some others that made us realize we had a concept in the making. Evan asked me if it should be called "Cultural Vandalism" or "Cultural Sabotage", and I didn’t hesitate and straight out chose the latter. At that point Evan showed some hesitancy, maybe he had been leaning toward the former, maybe he thought I chose too hastily. Vandalism is really more accurate, descriptively. We can only hope we sabotaged anything, but we certainly, quite clearly vandalized it! But he gave me the choice and I thought Sabotage had the punch and the power. It was catchier! And what’s pop music and culture about if not catchiness…? (Evan did still get a mention of vandalism in the liner notes!)
EC:
The band name “You Can Digest A Rock” was likely suggested by advertisements at the time for Euell Gibbons’ television show, in which Euell’s voice intones, “even some parts of the pine tree are edible”. At the time, we had never heard of piñons (pinyon nuts), so we thought this was pretty funny. “Tons Of Fun” is self-explanatory, probably one of my names. “The Dirt Clods” tracks were culled from the un-released “first” cassette related to the WoG project. “Joe Colorado” is Evan Cantor, the nom-de-plume that he used for the open stage at Pachamama’s Coffee House and a sort of alternative solo-entity for Evan as WoG's many different sides evolved.
The cover art features a photo that I took at an overlook in Canyon De Chelly National Monument, Arizona. At first glance, you read “Do Not Leave Vehicles Unattended”, but then it’s obvious that this is a monument to bad spelling and reversed stencils. “Do Not Leave Vechiles Unattened”... And this was a sign in a National Park!
LF:
I believe this was our first release with a cover. I mean a visual cover, on the front of the cassette package. I do believe the covers shown for earlier tapes were created afterwards, not when those tapes were first released. At release, all they had were liner notes. Evan took the picture of the misspelled sign at Canyon De Chelly National Monument during one of our fairly frequent forays further into the Southwest, into what might be called the Four Corners area. Canyon De Chelly is in Arizona. I think I’ve only been back once. Damn, I don’t know if I looked to see if the sign is still there! It was at an overlook on the north rim, I believe, I do. We thought such a badly misspelled sign at an official US Government establishment was pretty funny….
EC:
We had a statement that “this is a no over-dubs tape”. We must have felt that somehow that explained the “purity” of the music. Again, in retrospect, I think the cover versions, especially “Your Song” and “Just The Way You Are” would have benefited from overdubbed mania, as the ‘sabotage’ is rather gentle compared to earlier outings. We also stated that we were “equal opportunity” vandals, and that we “destroy songs we like, as well as songs we don’t like.” Obviously we thought pop music like “Your Song” and “Just The Way You Are” were hopelessly sappy. But nonetheless they were big hits and are great songs in their own sentimental way. That doesn’t mean that we liked these songs. They were in our songbooks and in learning how to play the guitar, I tried to learn all the songs in every songbook I had. Songbooks weren’t cheap and there was no Internet providing lyrics/chords for almost every song conceivable. About this state of affairs, we stated “We just don’t care.” Well, we obviously cared or we wouldn’t be doing our thing in the first place. This was just part of Walls Of Genius’ hyperbolic approach to promotion.
On the ‘flip side’ of the insert, was a cartoon of Evan (a self-portrait) proclaiming “Let IDIOCY reign”. Again, hyperbolic promotion.
LF:
Also funny was what Brian Ladd said when we met him and at some point made reference to his seemingly (to us) dismissive words about the first side of the tape. He said he loved that side, that it was great! We never asked how that squared with his writing in his zine (Objekt) that it should be ignored, but it became a bit of a pattern. Reviewers (and others) sometimes seemed to think that we wanted to be abused, like we were the musical equivalent of a “kick me” sign. Not that I’m complaining per se, but it’s something that cropped up a few times, it’s a pattern worth noting. In retrospect I have nothing but gratitude for the work zinesters put into their zines, and of course they gotta say what they think at the time, they were doing it for the same freedom to do and say what they wanted that we were doing our music for. And of course too if it was a pattern, then there was something about what we did that elicited that reaction…..
SIDE A
YOU CAN DIGEST A ROCK - Black Magic W0man (Green)
YOU CAN DIGEST A ROCK - Ed ZeppeLln
YOU CAN DIGEST A ROCK - R0cky M0untain Way
THE DIRT CLODS - All Al0ng The Watcht0wer
TONS OF FUN - Medley: Y0ur Song / Just The Way Y0u Are
JOE COLORADO - I Call Y0ur Name
TONS OF FUN - Whistle While Y0u W0rk
YOU CAN DIGEST A ROCK - Black Magic W0man (Green)
YOU CAN DIGEST A ROCK - Ed ZeppeLln
YOU CAN DIGEST A ROCK - R0cky M0untain Way
THE DIRT CLODS - All Al0ng The Watcht0wer
TONS OF FUN - Medley: Y0ur Song / Just The Way Y0u Are
JOE COLORADO - I Call Y0ur Name
TONS OF FUN - Whistle While Y0u W0rk
“Black Magic Woman” (You Can Digest A Rock)
EC:
This starts with a garage-band style rendering of the tune with Evan’s rhythm guitar and Ed playing the Santana style leads. This is played straight until the singing commences. When the singing comes in, it’s a restrained, but warped, duet by both Evan and David. Evan sings more melodically with some operatic vibrato and David’s voice dominates, a more aggressive and growly kind of approach. Then the two of us trade a couple of verses.
LF:
Okay now, “Black Magic Woman.” What is it about Ed’s guitar that’s so funny? He plays Carlos’s lead so perfectly yet simultaneously just a little crudely. Evan and I jump in with the vocals simultaneously, to start. I think I was trying to shout him down for a while cause I wanted the limelight. I finally succeeded a line into the start of another verse when Evan gave up competing with me! When we listened back to this song, after I completed this verse, Evan cracked up and called me the greatest comedian in the world! But then Evan jumped in quickly on the next verse before I had a chance and I relinquished and let him solo and we both had our solo vocal sections and it worked out quite nicely that way! That’s my ah-ha at the end…. BTW, You Can Digest a Rock probably came from something I said as I remember a high school science teacher saying that once for some reason….
“Ed Zeppelin” (YCDAR)
EC:
This was called “Ed Zeppelin” because Ed knew this Led Zeppelin riff and we riffed on it. David sings an unintelligible squeaky lead throughout and Evan adds some percussion. It ramps up, it ebbs and flows. This would have benefited, I think, in retrospect, from some over-the-top Robert Plant mimicry and our “typical” over-dubbed mania. I cannot remember why David’s vocals were so restrained when usually we exhorted him to go apeshit.
LF:
“Ed Zeppelin”, ha-ha, ho-ho! Ed had learned that Zepp song probably many years prior, and he was really playing it pretty straight, while I did my best/worst Robert Plant impersonation/parody. And hey, what’s that Evan’s playing? Sounds like the roto-toms! He bought them at some point, maybe after the prior owner had lent them to us? I wish I remember who that prior owner was. They became a major part of our arsenal, and this might be their introduction! They were a set of three tom drums on top of a stand….
“Rocky Mountain Way” (YCDAR)
EC:
Evan plays the rhythm guitar, Ed is on slide and David adds percussion. This one works on all cylinders. Evan sings the lead in a kind of self-consciously autistic squeaky voice. Ed’s leads are terrific. The song breaks down part-way and Evan croons lines from John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High, Colorado” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, before returning to the main Joe Walsh riff. This was a pretty big hit for Walsh. It’s an easy three-chord rocker in a Leiber-and-Stoller mode (think “Riot In Cell Block #9”).
LF:
“Rocky Mountain Way” starts out with Evan describing his bewilderment at the way the sheet music is written. Then we jump straight into the song. This is no Phil Spectorish edit. It was just, WTF? Well whatever, and we just did it, bewilderment and all! I remember Charlie Verette complimenting Ed’s guitar, which was so ironic and quite the compliment coming from him since he was playing music that seemed to be an attempt to steer a path away from the big guitar sound and classic rock. But there’s something about Ed’s playing! Charlie said Joe Walsh should hear Ed’s playing and would like it! Evan on vocals and I played bongos with a drum mallet.
“All Along The Watchtower” (The Dirt Clods)
EC:
This was culled as a stand-out track from the unreleased “first” cassette of WoG-project related material. The flute-sounds in the background are a real mystery to me since this pre-dates David Lichtenberg having a synthesizer in the room and we did not have a flute player. It might have been a record that Ed had, but it fits like a glove. There is a lot of toy percussion on this one. The bell sound was part of a percussion toy, one that had a ratchet sound and a spinning wheel sound. I am singing the lead on this, experimenting with different voices including a Louis Armstrong impression and a faux West-Indian accent. Ed was likely playing the acoustic guitar on this since he knew the song from Jimi Hendrix, one of his idols. We often went in directions that reflected something we already knew.
LF:
“All Along the Watchtower” was taken from the Dirt Clods tape and session. Evan on vocals, that’s all I know since I wasn’t there, hopefully Evan remembers the rest. I actually thought others were at this session besides Ed and Evan, but maybe they were gone by the time this was recorded? Michael Belan of Rumours of Marriage vintage heard this and told me he thought it was some of the best comedic vocals he had ever heard. He was trying to compliment me cause he thought I had done them. I set him straight….
“Your Song/Just The Way You Are” (Tons Of Fun)
EC:
Ed’s pal from the Telethon Party days is back. Glenn Swanson is on the keyboard, with its built-in drum track, playing these pop tunes from piano sheet music. But the miracle is that this is just a tape of Glenn! Glenn was set to get married and he wanted Ed to play the guitar with him at the reception, so he had sent a cassette tape of the tunes for Ed to practice with. Ed produced the tape and we played along with it. These were popular tunes and were in all the songbooks of the era. Glenn is singing, but his voice is very much in the background and he is singing them completely ‘straight’. David is punctuating this with synthesized fart-noises as Ed’s lead guitar playing wells up. At one point, it sounds like Evan has picked up an acoustic guitar and attempts to ramp things up with a few strums. The synthesizer plays some mellotron effects and Evan’s guitar is still attempting to ramp things up, but it’s surprisingly mellow soft-rock for this bunch. There are lots of farting synthesizer noises and some slide-whistle. Finally, silliness comes up to speed, David cries out, yelping from the sidelines, handclaps hit the beat and bells ring. Glenn carries on in his straight, traditional approach. It changes key and finally Evan starts singing “Just The Way You Are” in a funny voice on the refrain. Glenn, on the tape, is obviously unfazed by Evan’s vocal additions, and then Evan pushes the envelope, claiming the verses for himself and pushing with the rhythm guitar. The group finally moves into jam mode and Ed gets some nice leads. Evan sings another whole verse and then ad-libs in a self-consciously autistic voice. This is a strangely mellow track that would, in retrospect, have benefited from any number of maniacal overdubs. Why we decided not to do so remains a mystery to me.
LF:
OMG. Okay, Glenn Swanson, Ed’s longtime friend, wanted Ed to play guitar at his wedding, cause he knew how good Ed was. He wanted Ed to play along with him on these songs and he gave Ed a tape to practice with. Ed suggested we in WoG all play along with the tape and record the results. Funny, Ed continues to play it fairly straight. Well, at least while he’s playing guitar. I think that’s him on slide whistle too, which obviously wasn’t going to be “straight” whatever he did with it! Probably me playing on my synthesizer, which accomplished the most blatant of the butchering, with some downright obnoxious sounds, at least until Evan starts making fun of Billy Joel’s accommodating sentiment (obviously this was a song we didn’t like!)…. The name Tons Of Fun may have come from something I said, though I may have taken it from something Dena had said (about playing in Walls Of Genius!)…. Most of the clapping was probably me. It was nice to have an instrument like the synthesizer that could be played hands free! Well then the whole small lot of us goes wild during the fade. I wonder if Scott Childress was actually there too? That doesn’t sound like me, Ed or Evan with the “yeahs” in that last second or two….
“I Call Your Name” (Joe Colorado)
EC:
This is Evan solo, playing over the radio on Davide Andrea’s KGNU call-in radio show, “Go For It”. You hear Davide’s voice inviting the caller to “go for it” and then a moment of silence as Davide and the world wait to hear what this caller has in mind. Then a halting rhythm guitar starts up and Evan starts a twisted version of this Beatles’ song. This arrangement owes more to the Mamas & The Papas version than it does the Beatles. It was a part of my straight repertoire at the time. Davide runs reverb through the radio station board and that adds a nice element to the zaniness of this track.
LF:
The subsequent WoG tape explores this phenomenon much further, but with “I Call Your Name” we have the first appearance of Davide Andrea’s live direct to air call-in show from KGNU, eventually to be called “Go For It.” It probably wasn’t called that yet when we released this tape or the liner notes would have likely reflected that. But Davide, a friend and Italian immigrant and KGNU deejay (have I mentioned yet that I too was a KGNU deejay?) (still am!) decided to make it a feature of his Friday night public community radio show that he would open up the phone lines and put all callers directly onto the air, without any screening or filtering or interceding words from him. Since he found that callers didn’t always realize when they’d been put on the air, he’d let people know it was their turn by telling them, “Go for it,” thus the eventual name of the show. He would sometimes talk in between calls, as this track starts off with him doing, but once the caller was connected, it was entirely the caller’s thing, to say or sing or make whatever noise they chose to, up until such time as the caller chose to hang-up. Throughout the show, between and often during calls, Davide would be playing records like any other deejay, though he would fade them up or down as the particular moment called for. His taste in music tilted towards European artsy stuff. You hear a little bit of that before and after Evan’s call. Actually, as I was the one holding the phone, I probably made the call, and then I pointed the receiver at Evan as he strummed and intoned the Beatles tune. A kind of combo silly and stoic rendition, a combo Joe Colorado would visit again, though it too made its first appearance here. I don’t know what makes that noise right after the word “blame”, maybe something Davide did? Davide definitely adds the reverb that appears part way through. Then you hear me hang up the phone and then just a tiny bit more of Davide’s show…. (More on this show in the next tape’s description!)
“Whistle While You Work” (Tons of Fun)
EC:
This starts with a bongo beat and then David leads us on a chant of “whistle while you work”. David and I both hated our jobs, so whistling while we worked was an ironic commentary. Ed was the one with the ‘good’ job at Midwest Airlines. David plays a wacky kazoo lead on this. We listed it as “traditional”, but of course it was penned by Disney songwriters for Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. We didn’t have the internet to make songwriting credits easy and accurate in those days, plus we didn’t really give a damn, so ‘traditional’ it was. In the long run, all “traditional” material was written by somebody, we just don’t know who. In this case, it was Frank Churchill and Larry Morey that we neglected to credit. But it’s not like they missed out on any substantive royalties.
LF:
“Whistle While You Work” was impromptu even by our standards. The vague memory I have feels like it was after something, after our other Tons Of Fun recording, and/or maybe after watching a football game or a bad movie? Whatever it was after, suddenly the moment struck us to sing “Whistle While You Work”! I think it was Ed’s idea. If memory serves, he even directed the whole thing, giving us all instructions on what to do! He played the woodblock. I believe I played the kazoo (not credited!). I did the main vocals and Ed did some demonstrative backup vocals! Y’know, I’m thinking more that Scott was there as there seems to be four things going on…. (Sneaking a peak at the following WoG tape, I see Scott does get credit for being part of Tons Of Fun!)
Whoa, “Psycho Killer,” another side ending “hidden track,” not listed in the liner notes! I’d forgotten about that! I believe that was just me and Evan. Who know when or where… or why? Well actually we know why: for the sake of Idiocy, of course!
EC:
This starts with a garage-band style rendering of the tune with Evan’s rhythm guitar and Ed playing the Santana style leads. This is played straight until the singing commences. When the singing comes in, it’s a restrained, but warped, duet by both Evan and David. Evan sings more melodically with some operatic vibrato and David’s voice dominates, a more aggressive and growly kind of approach. Then the two of us trade a couple of verses.
LF:
Okay now, “Black Magic Woman.” What is it about Ed’s guitar that’s so funny? He plays Carlos’s lead so perfectly yet simultaneously just a little crudely. Evan and I jump in with the vocals simultaneously, to start. I think I was trying to shout him down for a while cause I wanted the limelight. I finally succeeded a line into the start of another verse when Evan gave up competing with me! When we listened back to this song, after I completed this verse, Evan cracked up and called me the greatest comedian in the world! But then Evan jumped in quickly on the next verse before I had a chance and I relinquished and let him solo and we both had our solo vocal sections and it worked out quite nicely that way! That’s my ah-ha at the end…. BTW, You Can Digest a Rock probably came from something I said as I remember a high school science teacher saying that once for some reason….
“Ed Zeppelin” (YCDAR)
EC:
This was called “Ed Zeppelin” because Ed knew this Led Zeppelin riff and we riffed on it. David sings an unintelligible squeaky lead throughout and Evan adds some percussion. It ramps up, it ebbs and flows. This would have benefited, I think, in retrospect, from some over-the-top Robert Plant mimicry and our “typical” over-dubbed mania. I cannot remember why David’s vocals were so restrained when usually we exhorted him to go apeshit.
LF:
“Ed Zeppelin”, ha-ha, ho-ho! Ed had learned that Zepp song probably many years prior, and he was really playing it pretty straight, while I did my best/worst Robert Plant impersonation/parody. And hey, what’s that Evan’s playing? Sounds like the roto-toms! He bought them at some point, maybe after the prior owner had lent them to us? I wish I remember who that prior owner was. They became a major part of our arsenal, and this might be their introduction! They were a set of three tom drums on top of a stand….
“Rocky Mountain Way” (YCDAR)
EC:
Evan plays the rhythm guitar, Ed is on slide and David adds percussion. This one works on all cylinders. Evan sings the lead in a kind of self-consciously autistic squeaky voice. Ed’s leads are terrific. The song breaks down part-way and Evan croons lines from John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High, Colorado” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, before returning to the main Joe Walsh riff. This was a pretty big hit for Walsh. It’s an easy three-chord rocker in a Leiber-and-Stoller mode (think “Riot In Cell Block #9”).
LF:
“Rocky Mountain Way” starts out with Evan describing his bewilderment at the way the sheet music is written. Then we jump straight into the song. This is no Phil Spectorish edit. It was just, WTF? Well whatever, and we just did it, bewilderment and all! I remember Charlie Verette complimenting Ed’s guitar, which was so ironic and quite the compliment coming from him since he was playing music that seemed to be an attempt to steer a path away from the big guitar sound and classic rock. But there’s something about Ed’s playing! Charlie said Joe Walsh should hear Ed’s playing and would like it! Evan on vocals and I played bongos with a drum mallet.
“All Along The Watchtower” (The Dirt Clods)
EC:
This was culled as a stand-out track from the unreleased “first” cassette of WoG-project related material. The flute-sounds in the background are a real mystery to me since this pre-dates David Lichtenberg having a synthesizer in the room and we did not have a flute player. It might have been a record that Ed had, but it fits like a glove. There is a lot of toy percussion on this one. The bell sound was part of a percussion toy, one that had a ratchet sound and a spinning wheel sound. I am singing the lead on this, experimenting with different voices including a Louis Armstrong impression and a faux West-Indian accent. Ed was likely playing the acoustic guitar on this since he knew the song from Jimi Hendrix, one of his idols. We often went in directions that reflected something we already knew.
LF:
“All Along the Watchtower” was taken from the Dirt Clods tape and session. Evan on vocals, that’s all I know since I wasn’t there, hopefully Evan remembers the rest. I actually thought others were at this session besides Ed and Evan, but maybe they were gone by the time this was recorded? Michael Belan of Rumours of Marriage vintage heard this and told me he thought it was some of the best comedic vocals he had ever heard. He was trying to compliment me cause he thought I had done them. I set him straight….
“Your Song/Just The Way You Are” (Tons Of Fun)
EC:
Ed’s pal from the Telethon Party days is back. Glenn Swanson is on the keyboard, with its built-in drum track, playing these pop tunes from piano sheet music. But the miracle is that this is just a tape of Glenn! Glenn was set to get married and he wanted Ed to play the guitar with him at the reception, so he had sent a cassette tape of the tunes for Ed to practice with. Ed produced the tape and we played along with it. These were popular tunes and were in all the songbooks of the era. Glenn is singing, but his voice is very much in the background and he is singing them completely ‘straight’. David is punctuating this with synthesized fart-noises as Ed’s lead guitar playing wells up. At one point, it sounds like Evan has picked up an acoustic guitar and attempts to ramp things up with a few strums. The synthesizer plays some mellotron effects and Evan’s guitar is still attempting to ramp things up, but it’s surprisingly mellow soft-rock for this bunch. There are lots of farting synthesizer noises and some slide-whistle. Finally, silliness comes up to speed, David cries out, yelping from the sidelines, handclaps hit the beat and bells ring. Glenn carries on in his straight, traditional approach. It changes key and finally Evan starts singing “Just The Way You Are” in a funny voice on the refrain. Glenn, on the tape, is obviously unfazed by Evan’s vocal additions, and then Evan pushes the envelope, claiming the verses for himself and pushing with the rhythm guitar. The group finally moves into jam mode and Ed gets some nice leads. Evan sings another whole verse and then ad-libs in a self-consciously autistic voice. This is a strangely mellow track that would, in retrospect, have benefited from any number of maniacal overdubs. Why we decided not to do so remains a mystery to me.
LF:
OMG. Okay, Glenn Swanson, Ed’s longtime friend, wanted Ed to play guitar at his wedding, cause he knew how good Ed was. He wanted Ed to play along with him on these songs and he gave Ed a tape to practice with. Ed suggested we in WoG all play along with the tape and record the results. Funny, Ed continues to play it fairly straight. Well, at least while he’s playing guitar. I think that’s him on slide whistle too, which obviously wasn’t going to be “straight” whatever he did with it! Probably me playing on my synthesizer, which accomplished the most blatant of the butchering, with some downright obnoxious sounds, at least until Evan starts making fun of Billy Joel’s accommodating sentiment (obviously this was a song we didn’t like!)…. The name Tons Of Fun may have come from something I said, though I may have taken it from something Dena had said (about playing in Walls Of Genius!)…. Most of the clapping was probably me. It was nice to have an instrument like the synthesizer that could be played hands free! Well then the whole small lot of us goes wild during the fade. I wonder if Scott Childress was actually there too? That doesn’t sound like me, Ed or Evan with the “yeahs” in that last second or two….
“I Call Your Name” (Joe Colorado)
EC:
This is Evan solo, playing over the radio on Davide Andrea’s KGNU call-in radio show, “Go For It”. You hear Davide’s voice inviting the caller to “go for it” and then a moment of silence as Davide and the world wait to hear what this caller has in mind. Then a halting rhythm guitar starts up and Evan starts a twisted version of this Beatles’ song. This arrangement owes more to the Mamas & The Papas version than it does the Beatles. It was a part of my straight repertoire at the time. Davide runs reverb through the radio station board and that adds a nice element to the zaniness of this track.
LF:
The subsequent WoG tape explores this phenomenon much further, but with “I Call Your Name” we have the first appearance of Davide Andrea’s live direct to air call-in show from KGNU, eventually to be called “Go For It.” It probably wasn’t called that yet when we released this tape or the liner notes would have likely reflected that. But Davide, a friend and Italian immigrant and KGNU deejay (have I mentioned yet that I too was a KGNU deejay?) (still am!) decided to make it a feature of his Friday night public community radio show that he would open up the phone lines and put all callers directly onto the air, without any screening or filtering or interceding words from him. Since he found that callers didn’t always realize when they’d been put on the air, he’d let people know it was their turn by telling them, “Go for it,” thus the eventual name of the show. He would sometimes talk in between calls, as this track starts off with him doing, but once the caller was connected, it was entirely the caller’s thing, to say or sing or make whatever noise they chose to, up until such time as the caller chose to hang-up. Throughout the show, between and often during calls, Davide would be playing records like any other deejay, though he would fade them up or down as the particular moment called for. His taste in music tilted towards European artsy stuff. You hear a little bit of that before and after Evan’s call. Actually, as I was the one holding the phone, I probably made the call, and then I pointed the receiver at Evan as he strummed and intoned the Beatles tune. A kind of combo silly and stoic rendition, a combo Joe Colorado would visit again, though it too made its first appearance here. I don’t know what makes that noise right after the word “blame”, maybe something Davide did? Davide definitely adds the reverb that appears part way through. Then you hear me hang up the phone and then just a tiny bit more of Davide’s show…. (More on this show in the next tape’s description!)
“Whistle While You Work” (Tons of Fun)
EC:
This starts with a bongo beat and then David leads us on a chant of “whistle while you work”. David and I both hated our jobs, so whistling while we worked was an ironic commentary. Ed was the one with the ‘good’ job at Midwest Airlines. David plays a wacky kazoo lead on this. We listed it as “traditional”, but of course it was penned by Disney songwriters for Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. We didn’t have the internet to make songwriting credits easy and accurate in those days, plus we didn’t really give a damn, so ‘traditional’ it was. In the long run, all “traditional” material was written by somebody, we just don’t know who. In this case, it was Frank Churchill and Larry Morey that we neglected to credit. But it’s not like they missed out on any substantive royalties.
LF:
“Whistle While You Work” was impromptu even by our standards. The vague memory I have feels like it was after something, after our other Tons Of Fun recording, and/or maybe after watching a football game or a bad movie? Whatever it was after, suddenly the moment struck us to sing “Whistle While You Work”! I think it was Ed’s idea. If memory serves, he even directed the whole thing, giving us all instructions on what to do! He played the woodblock. I believe I played the kazoo (not credited!). I did the main vocals and Ed did some demonstrative backup vocals! Y’know, I’m thinking more that Scott was there as there seems to be four things going on…. (Sneaking a peak at the following WoG tape, I see Scott does get credit for being part of Tons Of Fun!)
Whoa, “Psycho Killer,” another side ending “hidden track,” not listed in the liner notes! I’d forgotten about that! I believe that was just me and Evan. Who know when or where… or why? Well actually we know why: for the sake of Idiocy, of course!
SIDE B
YOU CAN DIGEST A ROCK - Mars Needs Women
THE DIRT CLODS - Blue Jays
YOU CAN DIGEST A ROCK - Mars Needs Women
THE DIRT CLODS - Blue Jays
“Mars Needs Women” (You Can Digest A Rock)
EC:
Here’s a successful attempt to repeat our earlier experiment with “Johnny Rocco”. We jam with a recording of the movie Mars Needs Women, a cheesy 1967 sci-fi classic about a declining race on Mars that needs Earth women to reboot their genetic diversity. It starts with Ed manipulating the Echoplex and spacey beep-boop astronaut noises from David on the synthesizer. The soundtrack comes in with a dead-serious scientist voice. Percussion is happening on a set of rototoms, with a talking drum effect. A bass line is intermittent, but steady. “To maintain this snail’s pace is very frustrating,” announces somebody from the soundtrack. The bass is leading the jam session. The music stops as a voice announces “There you have it!”, something about a popular young girl (Brenda Nolan) on campus. The jam is mixed down to feature this commentary and then fades back in for more talk about flying saucers. There’s nice fuzz guitar from Ed behind discussion of genetics and mutation. There is a lot of percussion and rototoms in this section, then a chorus of girls count down to blast-off. As they hit “zero”, a new bass line comes rolling in and Ed wails on the electric guitar via the Echoplex. The bass moves into volume knob effects and the synthesizer continues its spacey beep-boop astronaut noises. The soundtrack music wells up and the bass solos behind it. “There you have it!” returns, more talk about the “Queen on Campus” (Brenda Nolan) who is also one of the geneticists involved with the women on Mars project. The bass comes in with a waltz time line (3/4). This breaks down and then returns. A nice bass and percussion line with great leads from Ed builds up. “Each of you must regard our plan as top secret” intones a voice while the bass plays chords. Then the bass introduces an ascending line in what I think is 4/18 time. The bass plays some more chords. “Nobody leaves this room!” exclaims a scientist voice and the jam quiets down for the final dialogue, “You must decide now!”
This was a very successful foray into a genre that we may very well have created. Instead of creating a movie soundtrack, we were playing along with one. It might sound like music was “overdubbed”, but we literally played along with the soundtrack, responding to the moment. It was entirely improvised with nothing practiced beforehand. Certainly there were a few places where I mixed up the soundtrack and mixed down the jam, but that was achieved simply by using the 4-track reel machine and mixer. One of the tracks took the movie soundtrack, the other three took Ed, Evan and David. I like this piece a lot! I love the threatening tone of the voices.
LF:
“Mars Needs Women” was kind of a follow-up to the “Johnny Rocco” piece, another jam to a movie soundtrack (which it was a “cover” of, ha-ha!), this time including me on my synthesizer, apropos to the subject matter! Starts off with a pattern I programmed into the synth along with Ed’s echoplex feedback, and then the famed, ridiculous B movie of the same name comes in! “You are now, for all intents and purposes, earthmen!” Gee, can’t tell where that’s going! Human, all too human…. Then Evan comes in on bass, and it sounds like I’ve moved to percussion. I never liked this nearly as much as “Johnny Rocco,” despite my being on it. Just not as inspired, just doesn’t click as well. Also there’s this undulating hiss that goes on through the whole thing, which doesn’t help. I think the concept is a brilliant idea, but it’s tough to be a Genius every time out! Maybe we should have tried more movie soundtrack accompaniments till it clicked just right again, but how many times can you do this kind of thing? Some of the movie dialogue is pretty choice, though, like the bit about the female space medicine expert who couldn’t hide her charms behind her horned rim glasses! There’s also some real good playing in parts, especially by Ed. And that’s clever when Evan’s bass blasts off with the simulated launch in the soundtrack! And now they’re looking for the perfect woman! Queen on campus! Whoo-wee!! Those Martians may not know much about Earth but they sure know what they like! Listening to this for the first time in years I realize I actually played a lot more percussion than synth. That’s probably more what was called for as Ed and Evan played their guitar and bass. I’ve never actually seen this movie, but sounds like one of the Martians has an attack of earthman conscience at the end there…. What will he decide?? Guess I’ll have to watch the flick to find out! Glad Brian Ladd and Ricky Starbuster liked this, even if I never got over my disappointment that it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped it would be, as well as those incessant waves of hiss….
“Blue Jays” (The Dirt Clods)
EC:
Another stand out track that was culled from the first WoG-project-related unreleased cassette. “Blue Jays” was metamorphosed from Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies” and overlaid with a sports announcer from an LP of sports history-stuff that Ed possessed. We used a section about Dave McNally of the Baltimore Orioles, a kind of 'bird' related theme. You know, Blue Jays, Orioles… I am playing the rhythm guitar, Ed chimes in with a few electric licks about halfway through. This is also a parody, in a sense, of Willie Nelson, who had recorded a selection of jazz standards that was getting a lot of airplay at the time. You can hear a little of my nasal Willie impression being discovered on this track. At the end, Ed turns his guitar to “Girl From Ipanema” and we fade out.
LF:
The final piece on the tape is taken from the old Dirt Clods tape, like “Watchtower” above. A “cover” of the old Irving Berlin song “Blue Skies” only changed to “Blue Jays” to better fit the baseball theme as Ed plays his father’s (or was it his friend’s father’s?) record about Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dave McNally who hit a grand slam homer in the world series! I like how jarring it is when the record comes in under Evan’s relaxed balladeering! And the whole absurdity of it when nothing gets resolved or explained, it’s just a baseball record dueting with a placidly strummed and sung take on an Irving Berlin song! Take that! It’s Cultural Sabotage, after all!! (Or vandalism…..)
EC:
Here’s a successful attempt to repeat our earlier experiment with “Johnny Rocco”. We jam with a recording of the movie Mars Needs Women, a cheesy 1967 sci-fi classic about a declining race on Mars that needs Earth women to reboot their genetic diversity. It starts with Ed manipulating the Echoplex and spacey beep-boop astronaut noises from David on the synthesizer. The soundtrack comes in with a dead-serious scientist voice. Percussion is happening on a set of rototoms, with a talking drum effect. A bass line is intermittent, but steady. “To maintain this snail’s pace is very frustrating,” announces somebody from the soundtrack. The bass is leading the jam session. The music stops as a voice announces “There you have it!”, something about a popular young girl (Brenda Nolan) on campus. The jam is mixed down to feature this commentary and then fades back in for more talk about flying saucers. There’s nice fuzz guitar from Ed behind discussion of genetics and mutation. There is a lot of percussion and rototoms in this section, then a chorus of girls count down to blast-off. As they hit “zero”, a new bass line comes rolling in and Ed wails on the electric guitar via the Echoplex. The bass moves into volume knob effects and the synthesizer continues its spacey beep-boop astronaut noises. The soundtrack music wells up and the bass solos behind it. “There you have it!” returns, more talk about the “Queen on Campus” (Brenda Nolan) who is also one of the geneticists involved with the women on Mars project. The bass comes in with a waltz time line (3/4). This breaks down and then returns. A nice bass and percussion line with great leads from Ed builds up. “Each of you must regard our plan as top secret” intones a voice while the bass plays chords. Then the bass introduces an ascending line in what I think is 4/18 time. The bass plays some more chords. “Nobody leaves this room!” exclaims a scientist voice and the jam quiets down for the final dialogue, “You must decide now!”
This was a very successful foray into a genre that we may very well have created. Instead of creating a movie soundtrack, we were playing along with one. It might sound like music was “overdubbed”, but we literally played along with the soundtrack, responding to the moment. It was entirely improvised with nothing practiced beforehand. Certainly there were a few places where I mixed up the soundtrack and mixed down the jam, but that was achieved simply by using the 4-track reel machine and mixer. One of the tracks took the movie soundtrack, the other three took Ed, Evan and David. I like this piece a lot! I love the threatening tone of the voices.
LF:
“Mars Needs Women” was kind of a follow-up to the “Johnny Rocco” piece, another jam to a movie soundtrack (which it was a “cover” of, ha-ha!), this time including me on my synthesizer, apropos to the subject matter! Starts off with a pattern I programmed into the synth along with Ed’s echoplex feedback, and then the famed, ridiculous B movie of the same name comes in! “You are now, for all intents and purposes, earthmen!” Gee, can’t tell where that’s going! Human, all too human…. Then Evan comes in on bass, and it sounds like I’ve moved to percussion. I never liked this nearly as much as “Johnny Rocco,” despite my being on it. Just not as inspired, just doesn’t click as well. Also there’s this undulating hiss that goes on through the whole thing, which doesn’t help. I think the concept is a brilliant idea, but it’s tough to be a Genius every time out! Maybe we should have tried more movie soundtrack accompaniments till it clicked just right again, but how many times can you do this kind of thing? Some of the movie dialogue is pretty choice, though, like the bit about the female space medicine expert who couldn’t hide her charms behind her horned rim glasses! There’s also some real good playing in parts, especially by Ed. And that’s clever when Evan’s bass blasts off with the simulated launch in the soundtrack! And now they’re looking for the perfect woman! Queen on campus! Whoo-wee!! Those Martians may not know much about Earth but they sure know what they like! Listening to this for the first time in years I realize I actually played a lot more percussion than synth. That’s probably more what was called for as Ed and Evan played their guitar and bass. I’ve never actually seen this movie, but sounds like one of the Martians has an attack of earthman conscience at the end there…. What will he decide?? Guess I’ll have to watch the flick to find out! Glad Brian Ladd and Ricky Starbuster liked this, even if I never got over my disappointment that it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped it would be, as well as those incessant waves of hiss….
“Blue Jays” (The Dirt Clods)
EC:
Another stand out track that was culled from the first WoG-project-related unreleased cassette. “Blue Jays” was metamorphosed from Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies” and overlaid with a sports announcer from an LP of sports history-stuff that Ed possessed. We used a section about Dave McNally of the Baltimore Orioles, a kind of 'bird' related theme. You know, Blue Jays, Orioles… I am playing the rhythm guitar, Ed chimes in with a few electric licks about halfway through. This is also a parody, in a sense, of Willie Nelson, who had recorded a selection of jazz standards that was getting a lot of airplay at the time. You can hear a little of my nasal Willie impression being discovered on this track. At the end, Ed turns his guitar to “Girl From Ipanema” and we fade out.
LF:
The final piece on the tape is taken from the old Dirt Clods tape, like “Watchtower” above. A “cover” of the old Irving Berlin song “Blue Skies” only changed to “Blue Jays” to better fit the baseball theme as Ed plays his father’s (or was it his friend’s father’s?) record about Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dave McNally who hit a grand slam homer in the world series! I like how jarring it is when the record comes in under Evan’s relaxed balladeering! And the whole absurdity of it when nothing gets resolved or explained, it’s just a baseball record dueting with a placidly strummed and sung take on an Irving Berlin song! Take that! It’s Cultural Sabotage, after all!! (Or vandalism…..)
Listing from the third Walls Of Genius catalog, Give The Gift Of Genius, late 1983
Review from Objekt, in the fourth Walls Of Genius catalog, The Face Of The Fiend!, 1984
Review from Objekt, in the fourth Walls Of Genius catalog, The Face Of The Fiend!, 1984
