jvs@iwu1d.UUCP (John V. Smith) (11/18/83)
<no blank> I rember seeing an album on the records racks back in 1969 or 1970 that produced a very strong reaction in me. I was appaled by the title and the cover. The album was titled "America Eats Its Young" and the cover had a drawing of the Statue of Liberty eating children. The record was probably some sort of protest or anti-war album, but I don't really know. The title and the art work grossed me out so much at the time that I could never buy it in spite of my curiosity. No, I don't know who put the album out and I don't really know what kind of music it contained. But this thing has stuck in my mind all these years. With all the discussion here concerning album titles and gross song titles/lyrics I couldn't help but think about this one. Is there anyone out there who might possibly know what album I'm talking about? I'm really curious again. Who did it and was the music any good? This record must not have been very popular because I have never met anyone who owned it or had heard of it. And to my knowlege I have never heard any songs off of it. But back in 69/70 this thing seemed to be every where (in all the stores). I hope someone can fill me in. Thanks in advance John V. Smith
notes@ucbcad.UUCP (12/04/83)
#R:iwu1d:-15400:ucbesvax:8100003:000:1527 ucbesvax!turner Nov 26 05:42:00 1983 The "America Eats Its Young" album was done by a group called [The] Holy Modal Rounders, who were perhaps a little ahead of their time. I couldn't listen to it (ca. '75), but now, who knows? Not that my tastes were so stodgy back then--my two favorite albums to clean kitchens by were the Ramones and Velvet Underground + Nico. (The latter was re-issued a few years back, but don't buy that disc. The sound is way bad, compared to the original, which wasn't so great to start with. Try to find the original. Lou Reed at one if his peaks, I thought.) Got Eno's "Apollo" LP--pretty nice, the usual syntho-atmospherics but showcasing some American string-plucking talent whose name I forget right now. Sounds oddly like something Kreutzman & Hart would do if they could restrain Garcia to the minimum. (Speaking of K&H, check out the soundtrack credit on "Vietnam: a TV dinner", or whatever they call that revision of history running on PBS. K&H do that haunting back- ground music quite well.) I digress. "Apollo" is another music-for-films piece, for a documentary on the manned lunar landing project of the same name that features a great deal of beautiful footage, according to Eno's liner notes, and which inspired him to use a slightly Americanized sound. It is, for the most part, VERY VERY QUIET. Almost as quiet as vacuum. Strictly for headphones at 3 AM. Kitchen-cleaning sounds would drown it out completely. IT'S QUIET MUSIC! DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU!!! --- Michael Turner (ucbvax!ucbesvax.turner)