MCINTYRE@MSUPA.BITNET (02/14/90)
>From: PRESTON@MOREKYPR.BITNET > I was at this really cool party Saturday night back in the hometown, > and the home-owner decided to play for me a very mysterious piece of vinyl > titled _The Masked Marauders_ . I don't remember what year it was released, > but I do remember that it was on a label that has never existed, save for > this lone album (or so my host said). The jacket also gave no hint as to > who was playing or performing on said vinyl platter, although in one song, > you can hear someone obviously complaining to a record-store clerk that > he's disappointed that he's "paid $5.87 for an album that has Bob Dylan, > Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Mick Jagger, etc. etc. on it, and all > I've wound up with is THIS bullsh*t", or something to that effect. Anyone > know the story on this one... John McIntyre? A bit slow in responding, I know, but when you get over a thousand messages overflowing your mailbox, they take away the editor. Down to 913 now, so here goes in hopes I finish before AllMusic is unlocked again. 8-) Back in the late sixties, a new phenomemon hit the pop music scene: bootleg records. (Bootlegs weren't really new, but this was the first time people realized they could make a lot of money by bootlegging pop stars.) The first "best-selling" bootleg was "The Great White Wonder", a collection of obscure Bob Dylan material, most of which was later released as "The Basement Tapes". Common features of bootleg albums were: minimal packaging (the name "Great White Wonder" referred to the plain white cardboard jacket and plain white label. Some albums would put a title on the cover with a rubber stamp), often poor sound quality, usually high prices, and erratic distribution. And material you could not hear elsewhere: publishers demos, rehearsal tapes, live concerts. At first there were only a few bootlegs. "Liver Than You'll Ever Be" by the Rolling Stones with the extra verse to "Honky Tonk Women". The Plastic Ono Band at Toronto. Then came the deluge. Crosby Stills Nash and Young were bootlegged on "Wooden Nickle", one of the first to have a real cover. Labels were started: Rubber Dubber, Trade Mark of Quality with its colored vinyl. Desparate for material, bootleggers started bootlegging the competition. And then someone thought up the Masked Marauders. Think of the biggest name stars: Dylan, Jagger, McCartney, anybody, everybody. Say that they all got together one night in a studio for a party. And you just happened to have the tape in your hot little hands. The greatest bootleg of all time! Of course, what is really on the tape is the bootlegger's friends doing half-assed imitations, but with bootleg sound quality, who can tell? Hey, "I Can't Get No Nookie" sounds as much like Jagger as "Jamming With Edward" does. So the Masked Marauders were a joke, a scam on the gullible fools who would buy bootlegs just to hear music by their heroes that they couldn't get through Columbia or Capitol. Nowadays, we would call it performance art. John McIntyre Physics - Astronomy Dept Michigan State University