Who spoofed who?
Throw back the veil of rock-related ignorance, as nagging queries are resolved.
Re: Dave Goodman’s bogus 1985 Sex Pistols record, by ‘The Ex Pistols’ (Time Machine, MOJO 340). I have to admit I fell for this one too, for longer than I’d like to admit. What are the other musical forgeries people believed? Simon Holder, via e-mail
MOJO says: Like computer-generated postmodernist blather and the BBC’s famous ‘spaghetti harvest’ prank of 1957, someone has to take it seriously for it to really count. Leaving the unfortunate likes of Milli Vanilli aside, one ripe example was on April Fools’ Day 2004, when it was announced that the new theme to venerable Radio 4 soap The Archers was an electronic “urban” re-arrangement by Brian Eno; also on the BBC, in 1961, Mobile For Tape And Percussion was presented as a serious work by the Polish modernist composer Piotr Zak (it was actually a load of random drumming by classical musicologist and Pink Floyd interviewer Hans Keller and composer Susan Bradshaw). In 2006, cultural commentator Waldemar Januszczak admiringly wrote about lost Berlin noiserockers Lustfaust, who had in fact been devised by conceptual artist Jamie Shovlin, and later appeared on a split 7-inch with Schneider TM (other fabricated groups who may have been believed for five seconds include psychedelic XTC side-project The Dukes Of Stratosphear and Dave Stewart’s Jagger, Elton and Ringo-endorsed Platinum Weird). The wish to believe also plays a part – see the 1969 LP by The Masked Marauders. Supposedly a Beatles/Stones/ Dylan team-up, it was devised by Greil Marcus in a gag review for Rolling Stone. Quickly recorded by Berkeley’s Cleanliness And Godliness Skiffle Band, the LP not only charted in the US but got the Rhino reissue treatment in 2001. And we must take our hat off to George Harrison, who shortly before his passing sent Phil Collins a tape of what purported to be his unused teenage conga contributions to All Things Must Pass. “I thought, Oh my god, this sounds terrible,” Phil told Entertainment Weekly. Yet the offending percussion, it was revealed, was actually top session man Ray Cooper coached by George to play deliberately badly. Said Collins, “I couldn’t believe that a Beatle had actually spent that much time on a practical joke for me.” As ever, tell us your favourite musical hoaxes, please!
WEIRD BILLS (RETURN)
I once saw Mud support Captain Beefheart in Stevenage. Both were surprisingly excellent on the night! Dave Shaw, Enfield
In Indianapolis in September 1972. Opening was a prog band from Fort Wayne, Indiana, called Ethos. Next up was the country-rock with Christian underpinnings of Mason Proffit. And the headliners (the band that I had come to hear) were the greasy 1950s revivalists, Sha Na Na. Something of a roller-coaster for the ears. Jym Mooney, Milwaukee
MOJO says: It’s the Ask MOJO poser that will not die! And thanks to Linzeh from Toronto for the memories of Joe Jackson awkwardly supporting The Who in 1982, when his white suit and a “loaded hot dog” messily collided.
WHAT BOOTS DID VIRGIN SELL?
Richard Branson and the late Nik Powell both said you could buy bootlegs and smoke dope in the first Virgin record shops. But which bootlegs did they sell? And when did they stop? Keith Greenwood, via e-mail
MOJO says: Richard Branson, whose Irish wolfhound was called Bootleg, admitted “a furtive trade in live bootleg recordings” in his 1998 memoir Losing My Virginity. These included Jimi Hendrix’s Live At The Los Angeles Forum 4-25-70 and Live At The Isle Of Wight, Led Zeppelin’s Live On Blueberry Hill, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Wooden Nickel, Bob Dylan’s Great White Wonder, Pink Floyd’s Embryo (mistitled ‘Embrwo’ on the sleeve), The Rolling Stones’ Beautiful Delilah and H-Bomb by
Deep Purple. The latter was the cause of legal action in January 1972: after a raid, a court judgment and a fine, Virgin bowed out of selling LPs on such august labels as Rubber Dubber and Trade Mark Of Quality. Anyone still got theirs?
RAP MOUTH ORGANS, ANYONE?
I was recently enjoying Non Stop by Young MC, which samples The Wizard by Black Sabbath. But has anyone ever played live harmonica in hip-hop? David Wright, via e-mail
MOJO says: We can think of other examples of sampled harmonica – The Geto Boys’ Life In The Fast Lane, or Trilogy Of Terror by Kool G Rap & DJ Polo, which uses a sample of Area Code 615’s Stone Fox Chase (AKA the OGWT theme). But live? Step forward rap veteran Doug E. Fresh, who’s mixed beatboxing and harmonica playing in his live performances.
…AND NOW, THE POTTIEST SEGUES
I’ve been enjoying the incongruous bill discussion. In a similar fashion, a few years ago I went to a junior school summer fete one sunny afternoon and while people ate hot dogs and kids had their faces painted, a DJ came on and opened his set with… Public Image by PiL. Anybody beat that for pure unexpectedness? Mark Frost, via e-mail
MOJO says: It’s like when Prince Philip died and Radio 1 Xtra confused the ravers by going abruptly from pumping-in-your-face house music into the National Anthem. Hit us, readers!