Gary Lucas' Bottom Shelf

credit: André Grossmann

One record I used to listen to frequently (well, semi-regularly) on acid whilst in high school I only recently found out was by the one and only Raymond Scott--it's a 78 rpm kiddie record entitled Rocket to the Moon, and it is the most delightful sort of demented take on '50s sci-fi, with narration, a vocal chorus, and honest-to-God actual lyrics like "Rocket Awaaaay! Rocket Awaaay! By Rocket to the Moon! In just 6 minutes, the Earth behind us, looks like a giant ballooooon!". Plus a tootling saxophone that reminds me of some of John Zorn's contributions on my Jewish kiddie album Busy Being Born. Fantastic stuff, I still laugh my ass off at the thought of this record and have been pestering Raymond Scott/outsider music maven Irwin Chusid for a cdr of it to play for Rockette Morton at the upcoming Magic Band reunion rehearsals/recording out in the Mojave Desert.

Also in this vein, here's one I gave to Zorn as a gift after he invited me and Walter Horn to play The Golem at his first Radical Jewish Culture fest in Munich in summer 1992 - the one and only Beat of the Traps, that collection of "Send us your money and we'll put your lyrics to music" studio demos compilation that one of the guys from NRBQ put together, featuring the golden pipes and way-off-the-wall arrangement sensibilities of Rod Keith (Ellery Eskelin's dad!). Zorn later put out more of this stuff out on Tzadik on a thing called "I Died Today"; let us just say, I was the first to inflict this shit on him. "Do You Know the Difference between Big Wood and Brush?" is my fave cut and boasts one of the greatoff-the-cuff anti-Semitic throwaway lyrics ever ("Jew came along /got into the house/got his clothes and was g one") describing a cheating Jewish adulterer (ahem...). The most p otent remedy for depression I know.

The coolest electronica album I've ever heard was the Electrosoniks Electronic Music album on Phillips from 1960 or thereabouts. It's actually by a sadly deceased Dutch avant composer named Tom Dissevelt and his partner Kid Balkan (actually Dick Rajmakkers), and is an extremely dense, erotic, tuneful, avant/pop mixture of tape-manipulated musique concréte, some normal instrumentation (Willem Breuker told me he did an arrangement for jazz band and electronic tape on this; probably "Twilight Ozone"), ring modulators and electronic keyboards. Bits and pieces floated up for years as background music on various '60s regional and national TV programs (Chiller Theater- type shows - and I even once heard a cue from this album on Red Skelton's program!). Fantastic action-painting album cover, probably by Karl Appel. If you loved the "White Noise" album (David Voorhaus), you'll adore this. I used it for years on Halloween mix tapes, which Walter Horn and I played back hiding over the front doorstep of my house in Syracuse to astonish trick or treaters. Best cut: "The Ray Makers". Basta are supposed to be releasing a Tom Dissevelt compilation album later this year, and it's about fucking time.

Arch Oboler's Drop Dead album (Capitol) was the source of Bill Cosby's "Chicken Heart" routine, herein not played for laughs. A collection of eldritch and horrific spoken word tales, done in Oboler's infamous "Lights Out!" radio-play style (think Suspense - anyone here old enough to remember that one? Was on the Mutual Broadcasting System for years through the mid-60's.). Arch Oboler invented 3-D (check out "Bwana Devil"). He schooled and employed fabulous voices in his radio productions like Mercedes McCa mbridge (the voice of Linda Blair in "The Exorcist") and Hal Peary ("The Great Gilder slee ve"-- here featured in the role of an avenging cuckolded dentis t who drills a hole in the head of a patient he knows has been cheating on his wife). Another good 'un for Halloween (or Walpurgisnacht).

< p> Alfred E. Neumann's "She Got a Nose Job" is a cardboard flexi-disc that was included as a free Mad Magazine giveaway around 1962. Later compiled on the Mad vinyl album compilation they put out a year later ("Mad 'Twists' Rock 'n Roll"), to capitalize on the dance craze 'o the day with more cheesy greasy rock 50's rock-type filler and snide lyrics (sample: "She got a nose job/She got a nose job/ It's now turned up/ instead of hangin' down/ She got a nose job/ She got a nose job/ and now she's the prettiest gal in town!"). In a vocal arrangement reminiscent of The Ravens, with a great basso profundo intoning "Nose Job!" ever now and then. But most likely, an Italian doo-wop group. Righteous, Retro, and Retroussee...

Another Side of Jonathan Winters (Verve) is quite possibly the funniest comedy album of all time (well, "The Weird, Wide World of Shorty Peterstein" comes close...) He still cracks me up (he must be about 70 or so today), and he's still certifiably out there. "Broadway Musical" puts that genre in a blender and the result is corn puree ("We'll put that STAMP on the aluminum!/ send that plane up in the blue!"- try humming this one while we bomb Baghdad). "Prison Movie" roasts that genre to a fine crispy crust. Winters' improv routines are the height of the airiest wit, like the best jazz. Jonathan Winters - and Don Van Vliet as well, also a superb humorist - both make me really glad to be alive in this world.

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