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Favorite obscure album

post #1 of 52
4/1/07 at 6:53am
Thread Starter 
While contemplating this post I Googled “The Masked Marauders” and was amazed at the amount of material available.
You’ve never heard of them, right?
In October of 1969 a review of the forthcoming album appeared in Rolling Stone. The album's recordings were the combined efforts from a one-off session by John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan.
The Masked Marauders was a hoax by Rolling Stone editor Greil Marcus. Under the pseudonym T.M. Christian (a reference to Terry Southern’s novel The Magic Christian), the review was intended to parody the “supergroup” trend then taking place (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Blind Faith and Led Zeppelin) and was also inspired by Great White Wonder, a double album of unreleased Dylan recordings often credited as the first bootleg.
Turns out, not everyone got the humor. There was such a demand for the disc that a band was put together to record a version of the previously nonexistent record.
Which I bought and liked.
I never knew anyone else with a copy but I do recall constantly spotting the discs in cutout bins for years.

Here’s a track list:

· I Can't get No Nookie (The Masked Marauders)
· Duke of Ealr (Williams, Edwards, Dixon)
· Cow Pie (The Masked Marauders)
· I Am the Japanese Sandman (Rang Tang Ding Dong) (A.Williams)
· The Book Of LOve (W.Davis, C.Patrick, G.Malone)
· Later (W.Davis, C.Patrick, G.Malone)
· More or Less Hudson's Bay Again (The Masked Marauders)
· Season of the Witch (Donovan Leich)
· Saturday Night at the Cow Place (The Masked Marauders)

Apparently upwards of 100,000 copies sold. Less obscure than I thought.

In 2003, Rhino Records, under its Handmade label, remastered the album, releasing a numbered edition of 2,000 copies under the title The Masked Marauders - The Complete Deity Recordings. They’re sold out!
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post #2 of 52
4/6/07 at 8:41pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

good topic, have to thi k about it.

who was actually on the released MM record.
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post #3 of 52
4/7/07 at 3:16am
Thread Starter 

Re: Favorite obscure album

The Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band were a Berkeley based, acid influenced, skiffle band. The were formed, possibly, in Berkeley sometime around 1967. They released one LP in 1968. In 1969 the members of the group were co-opted to record the spoof Masked Marauders LP
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post #4 of 52
4/7/07 at 7:26pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

i think my favorite obscure or forgotten lp (now known as cd's) is

the friends of mr. cairo.
jon anderson and vangelis
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...0:09fexq95ldae


i remember the first time i heard that was o a local philly fm station that had a show on sunday nights hosted by ed sciaky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Sciaky).

it was called the "sunday night alternative".
it was a kinds of stuff like the jon and vangelis record.
and it was my favorite thing to listen to.
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post #5 of 52
4/7/07 at 11:26pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

I'm sure this isn't the first time this topic has come up, but what the heck.

Easy choice: Compendium, by Mr. So & So.

TonyD, I have that Jon/ Vangelis disc (on CD, not LP) too. Not bad.
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post #6 of 52
4/8/07 at 5:58am

Re: Favorite obscure album

Mabe not as obscure, but I have been wanting to hear In the Court of the Crimson King.


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post #7 of 52
4/8/07 at 9:16am

Re: Favorite obscure album

yeah thats not obscure, might be their most known album.

i have the mr cairo on vinyl and cd
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post #8 of 52
4/8/07 at 9:32am

Re: Favorite obscure album

Heck even I have a copy of In The Court Of The Crimson King. That automatically makes it non-obscure.
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post #9 of 52
4/8/07 at 12:49pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

Don't have the Mr Cairo album, but I do have the first Jon and Vangelis "Short Stories" LP which was OK, but not much else.

One of my favorite LP's "Matrix IX" by a band of the same name which honestly has one of the most beautiful jazz fusion compositions I've ever heard from anybody name 'Clea.' The group has reformed several times since the 70's and hopefully someday there old stuff will get released because my LP is a bit worn.

Probably my all time favorite LP wasn't so obscure, but I do think very underrated album from Rick Wakeman called Criminal Record. Loved Six Wives and King Arthur, but the number of hours I listened to CR is College and Grad School was almost sad.
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post #10 of 52
4/8/07 at 2:29pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

Quote:
yeah thats not obscure, might be their most known album.
Quote:
That automatically makes it non-obscure.

I used to have the LP, but I haven't heard it in over 15 years! I tried
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post #11 of 52
4/9/07 at 11:30am

Re: Favorite obscure album

I have two favorite obscure albums:

'Land of Opportunity' by E*I*E*I*O

'Mud, Lies and Shame' by 'The Wild Seeds'

Both groups specialize in 'rootsy' (Americana) rock 'n roll.
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post #12 of 52
4/9/07 at 11:45am

Re: Favorite obscure album

Thanks for re-starting this topic! It gave me the whim to look up Mr. So & So on Wikipedia, and I discovered that they're back together (they split up in 2000) and have a new album in the works!
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post #13 of 52
4/9/07 at 2:51pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

Captain Beyond - Captain Beyond.
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post #14 of 52
4/9/07 at 3:32pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

Udo Spanks - "Charlie Don't Surf"
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post #15 of 52
4/9/07 at 3:56pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Favorite obscure album

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Ulmer
Captain Beyond - Captain Beyond.

I'm pretty sure when I got that LP in '72 that it had a 3D cover.
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post #16 of 52
4/9/07 at 5:23pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Ulmer
Captain Beyond - Captain Beyond.

Most definitely not obscure! It was a very popular album in the southeast back in he 70's. Their other album, Sufficently Breathless, was quite popular too.

My obscure album is Gene Parsons, one time Byrd drummer, Kindling. It's a hippie bluegrass album. It was recorded on the cheap. Clarence White and Gene played all the instruments. It features the song Sonic Bummer about Gene's high sierra cabin getting buzzed by jets from the Torrence, Kalifornie air force base. The song was a novelty on FM radio for a month or two back in the 70's. Now, Gene, the song, and the album have slipped into obscurity. I don't think it's ever been on CD.
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post #17 of 52
4/10/07 at 6:06am

Re: Favorite obscure album

I'll throw my 2 favorites in the mix:

Gear Daddies: Billy's Live Bait
Klaatu: Hope
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post #18 of 52
4/10/07 at 9:33am

Re: Favorite obscure album

Fred Frith-Speechless.Don`t know how obscure,but I`m the only one I know that owns it.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speechless_%28album%29 also, regarding King Crimson,I think that "Starless and Bible Black" is a much better album,and a little more obscure.
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post #19 of 52
4/10/07 at 9:33am

Re: Favorite obscure album

Captain Beyond is ABSOLUTELY an obscure record. I defy you to poll random people in any city in the US and find more than a couple who've heard of it. (Limit it to people under 40 and you probably won't find too many outside this thread.) Just because it was moderately popular in your area 30 years ago doesn't make it unobscure.

Excellent album, though.
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post #20 of 52
4/10/07 at 11:04am
Thread Starter 

Re: Favorite obscure album

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aaron Silverman
Captain Beyond is ABSOLUTELY an obscure record. I defy you to poll random people in any city in the US and find more than a couple who've heard of it.


Sorry Aaron, I disagree. Captain Beyond are not obscure just because the masses in 2007 don't know them.
We're vinyl junkies. This is what we do.

I could poll random people and find that most of them could not name the vice president.
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post #21 of 52
4/10/07 at 1:56pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

Captain Beyond was very big with southern rock fans. I saw 'em play. Their two albums have been issued on CD even if they're OOP now....I'm not sure on that. A prerequisite for albums from the LP age being atleast somewhat obscure ought to be , never been on CD, IMO.

Since CD's came along, it's hard to argue that groups on big 5/4 labels are truly obscure. Many indie CD labels have released in such small quantity that their artists could be considered obscure, IMO. Here's a possible example....has anybody heard of Elvis Hitler? I have a CD by them called Disgraceland which features their college radio "hit", Green Heaven.....which is Purple Haze's music with the lyrics for the Green Acres TV show theme sung to it. It's definitely relatively obscure. How much so, I'm not really sure...???

I have a lot of jazz albums from the 50's and 60's that somebody gave me. One album that didn't play well but was intresting prompted me to search data bases for the artist and I never found a thing. That's truly obscure, just wiped out of music's recorded history.

Captain Beyond is not so obscure by comparrison at all.
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post #22 of 52
4/10/07 at 2:03pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Berthiaume
I'll throw my 2 favorites in the mix:

Gear Daddies: Billy's Live Bait
Klaatu: Hope

Klaatu, definitely not obscure! It's been on LP and CD. Klaatu had alot of notariety in he 70's as a mystery group. For a few years nobody knew who the members were. Speculation ranged from Paul McCartney, Emitt Rhodes, and even Todd Rundgren. Then.....all was revealed.
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post #23 of 52
4/10/07 at 2:16pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

Quote:
Originally Posted by Henry Gale
Sorry Aaron, I disagree. Captain Beyond are not obscure just because the masses in 2007 don't know them.

So what is your definition of obscure? The masses in 1997, 1987, and even 1977 didn't know Captain Beyond either.

Quote:
We're vinyl junkies. This is what we do.

Self-proclaimed "vinyl junkies" are not the measuring stick by which bands are labeled "obscure."
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post #24 of 52
4/10/07 at 2:20pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rachael B
A prerequisite for albums from the LP age being atleast somewhat obscure ought to be , never been on CD, IMO.

With all due respect, you are out of your freakin' gourd.

Quote:
Since CD's came along, it's hard to argue that groups on big 5/4 labels are truly obscure.

Huh? What is your definition of "obscure?"

Quote:
Many indie CD labels have released in such small quantity that their artists could be considered obscure, IMO. Here's a possible example....has anybody heard of Elvis Hitler?

I've heard of Elvis Hitler. That doesn't mean they aren't obscure. I'm into a lot of weird shit.

There's obscure, and then there's "so unknown that people who are into obscure stuff don't know them." You're thinking of the latter and calling it the former.

Quote:
I have a lot of jazz albums from the 50's and 60's that somebody gave me. One album that didn't play well but was intresting prompted me to search data bases for the artist and I never found a thing. That's truly obscure, just wiped out of music's recorded history.

Captain Beyond is not so obscure by comparrison at all.

Well, if your standard of obscurity is "no mention in any music databases," then sure, Captain Beyond isn't terribly obscure. Mine is more like "the average person who was around at the time of the band doesn't remember them."
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post #25 of 52
4/10/07 at 2:23pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

I will give you this: In The Court Of The Crimson King is not an obscure album.

Starless and Bible Black. . .maybe a *little* obscure. Awesome though.
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post #26 of 52
4/10/07 at 3:09pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

Arron, of course I'm out of my gourd....I follow the sign of the shoe, mate! I collect music heavily which is definite proof I'm gourdless! In the 70's Captain Beyond was very popular in the south. They aren't well known now like thousands of past groups, yes. They were one of the pack of so-called southern rockers along with Wet Willie, Cowboy, Grinderswitch, and the many better known ones.

I'm suprised you knew Elvis Hitler!

All we're talking about is the definition of obscure. I'm not sure what it is. Ask Henry, he started this.
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post #27 of 52
4/10/07 at 3:15pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

Lighten up guys. I know a hell of a lot more music than most people (not some of the ones here, admittedly) and some of that stuff is new to me. In the Court of the Crimson King? Definitely not obscure. I have Mr. Cairo and Short Stories, as well as Animation.

I'll start with one rather obscure album by a very well known musician, Peter Gabriel's OVO, and toss in a couple excellently weird Cow Punk albums from the early '80s, Sundown and Long Dead Gone by Rank and File. Their third and last album sucks donkey balls, though.
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post #28 of 52
4/10/07 at 3:16pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

Team Sleep - Team Sleep www.teamsleep.net One of Chino Moreno's (Deftones) side projects. Sort of a local favorite.
Sloth - Dead Generaton Saw them live and was very impressed. Album is very good. www.slothmusic.com
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post #29 of 52
4/10/07 at 7:40pm

Re: Favorite obscure album

Are we allowed to discuss The Incredible String Band here?
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post #30 of 52
4/10/07 at 7:48pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Favorite obscure album

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rachael B

All we're talking about is the definition of obscure. I'm not sure what it is. Ask Henry, he started this.
Don’t throw it to me Rachel, Aaron’s already on to my bullshit.

“We're vinyl junkies. This is what we do.”

I knew I wasn’t gonna get away with that.
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