Pruning Tomatoes

"...Please explain a little more about cutting back tomato plants?... Just clip those plants back by 1/3 to 1/2..."

July 22, 2009
Welcome to Texas Gardener’s Seeds, the weekly newsletter for Texas gardeners.

Pruning tomatoes:

"Please explain a little more about cutting back tomato plants," writes Susan Crane. "I have 4-5 in a side yard and they are as tall as I am! They are still bearing fruit and I would think that they will continue to do so since they have so far survived mostly 100+ degree days (a few high 90s sprinkled in there) and are still doing OK. Their bottoms are getting leggy; the leaves at the bottom have turned yellow and dropped off, but the tops and fruit are still very much green. Tell me how to prune them back. I heard about pinching them back, but I tried that last year and they just grew around and kept growing taller. Am I doing something wrong? How do I prune them back so they will produce into the fall?"

It sounds like your plants are relatively healthy and should respond well to being pruned back. Plants that have been wiped out by early blight or spider mites should be removed and new transplants set out to replace them. We like to use long handled pruning shears when we do ours. Just clip those plants back by 1/3 to 1/2. That may sound severe but the plants will have time to rejuvenate and produce fruit before the first frost in the fall. It also makes them more manageable in the limited space of a home garden. When temperatures turn relatively cooler in late August and early September, the vines will start setting fruit again. Once you see tomatoes about the size of marbles it is time to start top dressing the plants with a good quality organic fertilizer every week or so. Be sure to keep them well mulched and evenly watered to avoid problems with blossom end rot and cracking. — Chris S. Corby, Publisher

(my photo from back in May)

New Horton

Thanks to:
http://rockisdeadrip.blogspot.com/2009/07/reverend-horton-heat-laughin-and-cryin.html

The story behind Picasso’s masterpiece Demoiselles D’Avignon

"...Perhaps due to the general reception amongst those who had first seen it, Picasso hid the painting from public view for nine years, it was not until 1916 that it was shown in an exhibition at the Salon d’Antin. It shows five naked female prostitutes, whose bodies & faces have been reduced to angular shapes which stare out at the viewer, two radically so..."

http://www.webphemera.com/2009/07/picassos-masterpiece-demoiselles.html

WEDNESDAY, 22 JULY 2009

Arguably one of the most important paintings of the twentieth century, Picasso's Demoiselles D'Avignon is also one of those love it or hate it pieces of art. Well, we love it at Webphemera! It also has a fascinating story behind it too, and here Rynn Michaelz tells the story. African art, Gertrude Stein and prostitutes. What more can you ask? Fascinating!

Posted by RJ Evans at 21:03


http://quazen.com/arts/visual-arts/picassos-masterpiece-demoiselles-d’avignon/

Picasso’s Masterpiece Demoiselles D’Avignon

Published on June 20, 2009 by Rynn Michaelz in Visual Arts

Why is the Demoiselles d’Avignon regarded as one of the most important paintings of the 20th century?

(Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, PAblo Picasso, 1907)

By 1907, Picasso had began to cause a stir in the art world. At the relatively young age of nineteen his work was shown in Paris, amongst the examples of Spanish art at an exhibition simply entitled “Universal Exhibition” (1900). By autumn 1906 he had painted his famous portrait of Gertrude Stein and had begun to be seen by a select few, including Stein, as an emerging modernist leader. It was in early 1907 that he began work on what would eventually be titled Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, a painting regarded by many as the most important of the 20th century. Here I will discuss the reasons for the painting’s importance, starting by looking closely at Picasso’s motivation for producing the piece and the ideological significance behind it.

Like Picasso himself, Les Demoiselles made an impact amongst a number of people within art coteries before it became famous. While he was still at work on the painting talk began circulating throughout Paris of the interesting and unique nature of the piece, with many people (such as the art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler who would later become Picasso’s dealer) coming to view it before it was fully finished. It was so strikingly different from anything the artist or any of his other contemporaries had painted that quite a divided buzz began about the painting; some of the Parisian art community who observed it saw the potential of the work to change the nature of visual art. Most people however, including some of Picasso’s close friends, such as Leo Stein viewed it as a travesty.

Perhaps due to the general reception amongst those who had first seen it, Picasso hid the painting from public view for nine years, it was not until 1916 that it was shown in an exhibition at the Salon d’Antin. It shows five naked female prostitutes, whose bodies and faces have been reduced to angular shapes which stare out at the viewer, two radically so. The woman standing on the left is holding the curtain open, forcing us to watch the scene. Their shapes are sometimes so angular that they almost become abstract, especially on the right half of the painting. As a Proto-Cubist (which I will discuss later) element, the still life at the bottom of the canvas defies gravity and the entire painting refuses any sense of perspective and any realistic proportion or sense of depth. A relatively narrow palette is used; the cold, icy blues contrasting with the warm brown tones, giving the whole painting an impression of general discomfort. Two men were to have been included in the composition, a sailor seated amongst the women and a medical student on the left hand side of the painting, who held either a skull or a book. We know this from looking at Picasso’s preliminary sketches, which are plentiful, but both men were removed from the final composition. The faces of the women are similar to masks; the eyebrow, the ears and the shape of the eyes all combine to produce a mask-like quality.

At the time of Les Demoiselles creation Picasso was interested greatly in primitive statues and sculptures, which he showed in his work immediately preceding the piece, in what some critics have termed his “Negro Period”. By 1907 he had long moved his work towards simplification and “crudity” (Leighten, 2001, 79) and he introduced Iberian forms into his work during 1906. What is new for Picasso in Les Demoiselles is his introduction of a “more brutally primitivising style” (Leighten, 2001, 79) in the mask like faces of the prostitutes. The use of such forms also suggests at popular images and associations with superstition at the time, adding, in the words of Patricia Leighten, to the artist’s “considerable arsenal of anti-classical devices with which he assaulted European traditions of representation and taste”. (2001, 80)

Through these mask like faces Picasso “Africanizes” the pink (white European) bodies of the two prostitutes who are seen on the right hand side of the picture, the other three figure’s faces evoking Iberian ideas. This creates an effect of cultural confrontation; difference is explicitly present and causes uncomfortableness. Many people who first viewed the work did not like it, as can be seen in the words of Gertrude Stein (whose own opinion on the painting I will discuss later), who describes the reaction of Tscoukine, a wealthy Russian tea merchant and early buyer of Picasso:

“So Picasso commenced and little by little there came the picture Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and when there was that it was too awful. I remember, Tscoukine who had so much admired the painting of Picasso was at my house and he said almost in tears, what a loss for French art.” (Stein, 1938, 18)

Aside from the altogether differentness of Les Demoiselles, such sentiments regarding the painting might have arisen due to racist feelings (both conscious and sub-conscious) about Africa and its art at the time. French imperialism in Africa and the Pacific was at its peak, with boats and trading steamers bringing back ritual carvings and masks as curiosities. While the African carvings had a kind of quirky otherness, becoming very collectible in France, the general view of Africa was the symbol of savagery. Unlike most Europeans, however, Picasso saw this savagery as a source of vitality and renewal that he wanted to incorporate for himself and for European painting. His interpretation of African art, in the mask-like faces of the figures on the right hand side, was based on this idea of African savagery; the brush-strokes which create them have a stabbing violent quality to them.

(A ‘fang’ mask, used in ceremonies by the Ngil tribe of Gabon, West Africa)

The “Iberian faces” (Leighten, 2001, 92) of the three central figures suggest at Picasso’s origins and artistic concerns as outside of, and against, the tradition of classical French painting. The two right hand figures whose faces are transformed by African rather than Iberian masks add a significant charge to the work as do their poses, which “aggressively challenge ‘bankrupt’ Western imagery of the classical nude” (Leighten, 2001,93). The setting of the brothel also highlights the prostitutes lack of freedom, they are commodities who are bought and sold, slaves. Painting prostitutes was not something that was new to Picasso, he and many other artists throughout history used whores as life models, presumably due to their lack of scruples about being painted in the nude. As well as the mask-like faces, what was so different about Les Demoiselles was the way in which the figures are painted, in which Picasso goes against previous conventions of depicting the female body. All of the figures appear deformed - their breasts are misshapen, and arms and legs look like flat planes. Eyewitnesses who saw the painting before it was finished attested to the wider art world their shock at “its willful travesty of acceptable canons of female beauty” (Lomas, 2001, 104).The women in the painting are not sensual, they are angular and are far from erotic, an anti-idealistic depiction of a far from ideal situation.

The crude sexuality of the prostitutes poses also contributed to the painting’s controversy. In previous paintings of nude figures there had been no overt intimation of sexuality, The figures were simply unclothed. But in Les Demoiselles, the figures were not pictured nude to prove how well Picasso could paint a woman’s body - they instead constituted an explicit sexual display. The two central demoiselles stand with blank, vacant faces, their arms bent behind their heads in a display of their wares, whilst the figure in the bottom right half of the canvas, the most distorted of the five, crudely squats in an improbable position, we see her body from the back but she is facing the viewer. This blatant depiction of sex workers displaying their goods was profoundly upsetting to a society used to viewing painting of exalted and idealized historical, mythological and religious subject matter.

The squatting prostitute remains the most enigmatic of the painting and its being may give us an insight into the private fears of Picasso himself. A major association with prostitutes at the time of Les Demoiselles was syphilis, which at the beginning of the twentieth century had no effective cure. It had been suggested by historians and from some of those who knew him that Picasso was a habitual user of prostitutes in his youth and may have contracted a venereal disease sometime between 1901 and 1902 (Picasso: Magic, Sex and Death) and as such the threat of syphilis, especially its nature of lying dormant in a victim in some cases, may have been a worry of the artist’s. He also visited the hospital prison of St-Lazare in 1901 presumably for inspiration, upon where he saw patients who were in the late stages of the disease, some of whose physical appearances had been horrifyingly distorted. Some people have looked away from the interpretation of Africanism in the “masked” face of the crouching figure and have suggested that Picasso’s imagination was fuelled by his fear of, and his memories of infected patients with, syphilis.

Looked at in this way, it could be said that Les Demoiselles carries a message of filth and disease through its representation of these prostitutes, the crouching figure the most so. It is as if Picasso has deliberately mutated the figures as a way to express the rising cultural awareness and effects of venereal disease, which had become a major threat to prostitutes’ and their clients lives and each prostitute in the painting depicts a stage in the effects of sexual disease and decay. The whole painting gives an impression of uneasiness, because it breaks all the traditional rules of Art and also because it shows a disturbing scene that offers no sensuous interpretation; the Demoiselles are not pretty, they look barely human and some even interpret their distorted faces as the signs of illness.

Tamar Gard in her essay To Kill the Nineteenth Century states that there is “universal agreement” that Les Demoiselles was intended to be viewed by men - virile, heterosexual men of European origin, not unlike the painter himself” (2001, 55). This leads onto the issue of how women viewed the painting. However, Gertrude Stein, whilst being an “extraordinary” and “unconventional” (Garb, 2001, 56) woman, was a woman none the less, and one of the first people to view the painting. She and her brother Leo had become friends with Picasso two years before he completed the picture, with the artist completing a portrait of Gertrude in 1906. She had only recently started to collect art when she met Picasso, and had become particularly fond of the work of Cezanne. Through her love of Cezanne’s compositional techniques Stein became more open to Picasso’s refusal of traditional modes of representation and was one of the first people to think Les Demoiselles the most important painting of he modernist era.

(Picasso’s portrait of Stein)

As a modernist writer, her investigation and exploration of language and grammar, which was rubbished by her brother, helped her to sympathise with Les Demoiselles, she could identify with the painting’s experimentation, its rejection of traditional artistic principles and realised that the work could not be understood within the sanctioned boundaries of beauty. In her eyes to talk of an artwork as “ugly” or “brutal” (words which greeted the painting initially from many people) was to praise its “innovative power” (Garb, 2001, 58), she saw a work’s “ugliness” as a direct correlation with its innovativeness. Through this opinion anything which was truly modern and forward-looking could not immediately register as “beautiful”, this would only happen when the thing in question eventually seeped over time into tradition and became familiar. To Stein, she and Picasso were intellectual birds of a feather, who were united in their struggle against the restrictive conventions of past art; two people who, to use the title of Tamar Garb’s essay, set out “to kill the nineteenth century”. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was the first major step in doing this within the medium of fine art.

There is no doubt today that Les Demoiselles style marked a dramatic break from the past in the linear history of art, and heralded a new twentieth century beginning. The way in which the painting places the onus on the relationship between it and the spectator and not the artist and the work of art was also a crucial shift, in the painting the cold, vacant stares of each prostitute invite the viewer into the scene that is taking place, making us, the work’s observers, the centre of attention. When viewing the work we are seated in front of the prostitutes and we have “become their clients” (Golding, 2001, 24) in the brothel. The work becomes less of a statement pertaining to Picasso as a challenge for the viewer to respond and by doing so to give the work meaning. This re-direction of artistic meaning was important in the whole of modernism and I will now discuss Les Demoiselles importance and relevance in influencing successive art movements, most crucially cubism.

It was in Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler’s 1920 book Der Weg zum Kubimus (the rise of cubism) that the two right-hand side Africanized prostitutes, especially the one squatting, are first called the “beginning of cubism” (Green, 2001, 134). The geometric elements are an indication of what was to come with the movement, but it is only in Spring 1908 that Cubism would really be born, as a “natural evolution of Primitivism” (Laurent, 2005), which as I have discussed was clearly present in Les Demoiselles. The containing of bold, brash diagonal lines and angular planes within the painting add a sense of violence to the composition, which add to the unsettling feeling that most spectators have when viewing the work and which were a major part of cubism. The prostitutes are shaded in a way that gives them a three dimensional quality but they are by no means ‘real’ either. In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analysed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form; instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to present the piece in a greater context. In the figure of the squatting prostitute, her back and buttocks are facing the viewer, but we can still see her face/mask; her head is twisted round so that it stares out along side the two central figures in an impossible angle. Also there is no discernible foreground or background, with the surfaces intersecting at seemingly random angles, Picasso doing away with the concept of perspective and spatial depth. The background and object/figure space interpenetrate one another creating the ambiguous shallow space characteristic of cubism.

Of course, in the wake of Cubism came Surrealism, Futurism, Dadaism, Abstract art, Abstract Expressionism, and any other number of isms which have shaped the art world leading right up to the present day. The shock factor that Les Demoiselles had could also be said to be a predecessor to the contemporary art scene today, where it is undeniable that the “shockingness” of a work of art is almost a convention in itself. Les Demoiselles subject matter and unique, proto-cubist style shook up the French art community and divided peoples opinions over whether the work was any “good” or not; a common situation that arises in contemporary art. For example, one only has to think of the furore caused by each year’s Turner Prize awards, where there have been numerous examples of entries that have gained national news coverage due to their controversial nature.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is considered so important because it arguably marks the real beginning of Modern Art and the art world as we know it today. It is a confronting and unsettling piece, with Picasso breaking the rules of traditional representative art and ideas about the depiction of the female form. It was perhaps the first coming together of all of the bits and pieces which Picasso had began to use to challenge the general perception of what was considered fine art at the turn of the twentieth century. Picasso’s use of African “primitive” influences such as masks was something radically new at the time and could be seen to make comments on France’s colonial situation at the time. These masks have been seen by some critics to represent Picasso’s fear of syphilis, which means that Les Demoiselles gives us an insight into the mystery and personal life of the artist. The painting’s unconventionality paved the way for further experimentation, widening the berth for what could be considered fine art in the 20th century and from this defiance of the norms other important art movements have been created, most noticeably Cubism. The controversy which surrounded the work; its subject matter and style of depiction could also be said to be the fore-father to the “shock factor” of contemporary art. Perhaps the best way to describe the painting’s initial impact and subsequent influence is through a famous quote of Picasso’s: “Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.”

Bibliography

Bois, Yve-Alain - Painting as Trauma in Green, Christopher (ed) - Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 2001, Cambridge University Press

Garb, Tamar - “To Kill the Nineteenth Century”: Sex and Spectatorship with Gertrude and Pablo in Green, Christopher (ed) - Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 2001, Cambridge University Press

Golding, John - Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and the Exhibition of 1988 in Green, Christopher (ed) - Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 2001, Cambridge University Press

Green, Christopher (ed) - Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 2001, Cambridge University Press

Leighten, Patricia - Colonialism, l’art negre, and Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, in Green, Christopher (ed) - Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 2001, Cambridge University Press

Stein, Gertrude - Picasso, 1938, Dover Publication Inc.

WHY ORGANIC CONSUMERS & FAIR TRADE ADVOCATES ARE PRESSURING WHOLE FOODS & UNFI

"...Whole Foods has employed an expansion strategy that resembles Wal-Mart with its targeting of local & independent retailers with new store locations while steadily buying out competitors like Wild Oats... Whole Foods & UNFI's business model of centralized sourcing & prioritizing natural products over organic rewards large corporate farms & processors, to the detriment of local & regional small-scale organic farmers &..." brands.

http://organicconsumers.org/unfi.cfm


SAFEGUARD ORGANIC INTEGRITY

WHY ORGANIC CONSUMERS AND FAIR TRADE ADVOCATES ARE PRESSURING WHOLE FOODS
AND UNFI


Corporate Takeovers & Monopolistic Practices

The $25 Billion organic marketplace has enjoyed substantial growth for
over a decade, thanks to growing consumer consciousness and farmer
innovation. No longer a passing trend or simply a niche market, organic food
and farming are proving to be a viable alternative to the unhealthy,
unsustainable and unjust conventional food system. Unfortunately
unprecedented wholesale and retail control of the organic marketplace by
UNFI and Whole Foods, employing a business model of selling twice as much
so-called "natural" food as certified organic food, coupled with the
takeover of many organic companies by bottom line multinational food
corporations such as Dean Foods/Horizon
(http://organicconsumers.org/Organic/OrganicTop25Jul07.pdf), threatens the
growth of the organic movement.


Perpetrating "Natural" Fraud

Consumers are confused about the difference between conventional
products marketed as "natural," and those nutritionally and environmentally
superior products that are "certified organic." Retail stores like WFM and
wholesale distributors like UNFI have failed to educate their customers
about the qualitative difference between natural and organic. A troubling
trend in organics today is the calculated shift on the part of certain large
companies from certified organic ingredients and products to so-called
"natural" products. With the exception of the "natural" meat sector, where
there are limited voluntary guidelines, there is no definition of "natural."
In the majority of cases, "natural" products are greenwashed conventional
products, with "natural" label claims neither policed nor monitored. Whole
Foods and UNFI are maximizing their profits by selling quasi-natural
products at premium organic prices. Organic consumers are increasingly left
without certified organic choices while organic farmers continue to lose
market share to "natural" imposters. It's no wonder that less than 1% of
American farmland is certified organic.



Excluding Small and Family Farms

Whole Foods and UNFI's business model of centralized sourcing and
prioritizing natural products over organic rewards large corporate farms and
processors, to the detriment of local and regional small-scale organic
farmers and brands. Organic farmers must "get big or get out" to be able to
compete and have free access to markets. Many industrial organic farms and
dairy operations reflect the same abuses and problems of the conventional
food system: extremely energy intensive, systematic abuse of workers,
reduced food quality, and damage to biodiversity. And of course so-called
"natural" products, since they are actually in most cases conventional
products in disguise, are being sold at lower prices than genuine organic
products--thereby retarding the growth of the organic sector.


Organic and Local Food?

In light of the food system's significant contribution to the climate
crisis and the deepening economic troubles facing local food economies, it
is more important than ever to prioritize locally produced organic food.
Though Whole Foods talks a lot about supporting local food and producers,
the fact is that the vast majority of their products are not local, and much
of what they sell is sourced from a small number of industrial organic
operations in California, often owned by the same conventional food
conglomerates responsible for destroying the world's food system.
Organic Monopoly and the "Whole Paycheck" Phenomena
UNFI has undermined the growth of the organic movement by implementing
an unfair tiered pricing system that gives Whole Foods deep discounts while
other grocers, coops and independent retailers pay significantly higher
prices, in effect subsidizing UNFI for its reduced profits at Whole Foods.
With UNFI as the largest organic (but of course their sales are mostly
so-called "natural" products) food wholesaler and Whole Foods as the largest
organic (like UNFI most of its sales are "natural") food retailer, organic
consumers are assured higher prices, lower quality and fewer choices.


Cancer in a Bottle?

In 2008, the Organic Consumers Association exposed a problem which
particularly threatenss women - a large number of leading conventional as
well as "natural" and "organic" brands of shampoos, lotions, cosmetics and
household cleaning products which contained the carcinogen 1,4-Dioxane.
Included in the list of products were several Whole Food's 365 brand
products and many products in the UNFI catalog. While several dozen
companies have committed to eliminating the 1,4-Dioxane, neither Whole
Foods, nor UNFI, have endorsed OCA's Coming Clean Campaign:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/index.cfm
nor have they called on the USDA to crack down on blatant labeling fraud
in the organic personal care and cosmetics sector.


#7 Corporate Consolidation of Organics

In the last decade, the organic marketplace has experienced hyper
consolidation, with numerous small to medium-sized farmers, manufacturers
and retailers being taken over by larger, profit-hungry corporations. Whole
Foods has employed an expansion strategy that resembles Wal-Mart with its
targeting of local and independent retailers with new store locations while
steadily buying out competitors like Wild Oats. UNFI has also grown rapidly
over the last decade, in part by aggressively taking over other
distributors, regional wholesalers and manufacturers.


Organics for Elites?

The organic food and farming movements were born out of the desire to
provide healthy and safe food to all. Whole Foods' business model: selling
overpriced conventional foods as "natural," with organics in a subordinate
role, is a recipe for maximizing profits rather than maximizing the growth
of organic food and farming. Worse yet, Whole Food's high prices have not
translated into larger profits for family farms or small-scale
manufacturers. Likewise, UNFI's growing market share and near-monopoly of
the organic and "natural" market has reduced the options for consumers and
independent retailers alike, undermining the growth of consumer buying clubs and the lower-cost alternatives.


Anti-worker

UNFI and Whole Foods have a history of cutting workers' benefits. Both
have gone to extreme lengths to block their employees from choosing to
unionize. Whole Foods has long fought unionization of its retail locations,
largely ignored the demands of farm workers organizations, like the United
Farm Workers, and kept workers' wages consistently low by industry
standards. UNFI has repeatedly fought efforts by its employees to fight for
better pay, benefits and working conditions. Where workers have sucessfully
formed unions, UNFI has begun moving jobs to new, non-union locations.


WHY OCA BELIEVES THAT MOST "NATURAL" FOODS ARE A FRAUD
1. There is widespread use of GMO (genetically modified organisms) ingredients in so-called "natural" foods, including the "natural" brands that make up most of WFM and UNFI's sales.
2. So-called "natural" (non-organic) soy milk, including leading brands such as "Silk," are made with conventional soy lecithin, utilizing the hazardous chemical, hexane, as an extraction agent.
3. 90% or more of the vitamins and supplements now on the market labeled as "Whole Foods," "natural" or "food based" are spiked with synthetic chemicals.

The Story of the Raspberries, The Rebirth Of The Cool & Reviews of first 2 albums

"...Who are they? The inspired combination of two of Cleveland's finest unsung rock bands of the late '60s – Cyrus Erie & The Choir – this gleefully anachronistic quartet formed in 1970 & included Eric Carmen (bass), Wally Bryson (guitar), David Smalley (guitar) & Jim Bonfanti (drums). Following a brief 1973 break-up, Carmen, Bryson, & new members Scott McCarl & Michael McBride recorded the band's fourth & final album, the tragically mistitled Starting Over..."


http://www.rocksbackpages.com/article.html?ArticleID=1418



The Story of the Raspberries
Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, October 1972

"I couldn’t say what I wanted to say till she whispered 'I Love You', so please, baby, go all the way..."

I'VE HEARD the disc jockies turn blue on the air from the embarrassment of stating the title of the song 'Go All The Way', and the name of the group... the Raspberries. Now what sort of a dorky name is that? Just at a time when the Revolution had cleaned up all our music, made it fit for human consumption, along came groups like Grand Funk to corrupt the kids. And then their progeny! Not only that, but now from the other side of the fence, the Raspberries – no regard for vibes, no menowness, none of the things that made our counter-culture what it is today. What's a respectable 1972 DJ to do. Just when you're getting hip, so making dope on the job, learning how to talk slower than the speed of sound... Shit.

Besides, it's obvious that these Raspberries are out-and-out reactionaires, utilizing Beatles riffs from the dark ages back before the Grateful Starship discovered rock in 1967.

Another early sign, and a good one, was that rock critics by and large hated the Raspberries. The sticker affixed to the group's LP seemed to be the problem – yes, that sticker...Now really. You have to remember, there were people who hated the Troggs. Spoilsports beyond conception of the imagination.

Among the confusion (and the reaction that this group might be lame cuz they sounded awfully commercial and might have Top 40 hits and stuff), one thing got lost: the Raspberries are really, really good. Ask any aficionado of lightweight English pop, and they'll inform you that the Raspberries' two and three-part harmonies are near-perfect for the genre, and secondly that the group's songwriting shows a thorough assimilation of Beatles derived rock in all its many forms. Plus, in Eric Carmen the Raspberries possess one of the finest lead voices ever heard in the style. Add everything up, and you've got a Top 10 single and hit album the first time out, and quite possibly the most promising group to emerge in the vein since Badfinger.

Ask the Raspberries what’s going on and you learn the following:

PRM: How long have you been together?

Eric: Two years. I was in only one band before the Raspberries, and that was Cyrus Erie...we recorded two or three terrible singles for Epic. Wally, Dave, and Jim were all in The Choir, who had a semi-hit with 'It's Cold Outside'.

Dave: Forming the Raspberries was a logical outgrowth of our previous experiences. If you don't count the James Gang, the Outsiders were the only group to ever make it out of Cleveland, and sometime shortly after that the local rock and roll scene died.

PRM: How much original material had each of you written before your first album?

Wally: About 50-100 songs each; Eric, Dave, and myself. Some of the tunes on the album were written just a week or two before it was recorded. AS a bar band we couldn't play original material, we had to do Beatles and Stones stuff. So it was a big thing getting to record our own material.

PRM: How did you (Eric) learn to sing like that?

Eric: From having sung in groups 6 or 7 years, with my first obsession having been trying to sound like Paul McCartney. There were times in my singing career when I was Roger Daltrey, at times I was Steve Marriott, and for one brief period I was Robert Plant. But Paul McCartney was the biggest influence, and my own style developed out of that.

PRM: When will there be a second Raspberries album out?

Wally: We just finished recording it. We do much more rock and roll on our new album because we're much more of a R&R group than our first LP indicated.

Eric: With the first album, we wanted to demonstrate a variance of styles. Some songs wound up orchestrated, and we had trouble reproducing them on stage. Because we don't want to wind up like the Bee Gees, toting a 30-piece orchestra around, this time we wanted to have more songs that would be good stage numbers.

PRM: What do you think of Badfinger?

Dave: They're really good. They sort of have an advantage, being from Liverpool and being on the Beatles' label.

Eric: I love their albums, because they sound just like the Beatles. We played on the bottom of a local bill featuring Badfinger about two years ago, when we'd just been together three months, and they were really trying then – I thought they were just about the best rock and roll band I had ever heard.

Wally: It floored us that you mentioned the Left Banke before we started the interview. Although they only had two hits, they were a heavy influence on both Eric's group and the one Dave, Jim, and I came out of.

PRM: What were you saying about the Hollies earlier?

Wally: That I liked the old Hollies best, back when Graham Nash was with them. Blaring harmonica's and stuff.

PRM: Can you reproduce your recorded vocals outside of the studio?

Dave: Yes. We really sing like that.

PRM: As far as vocals go, what did you think of the mid-60s Beach Boys?

Eric: Tremendous. Now there was a group.

Wally: You can't say enough about some of the things Brian Wilson did. Really. Our own *** is a tremendous producer. But Brian Wilson...he was both a one-man group and a superproducer all in one.

PRM: What sort of stage act do you want to have?

Dave: We don’t like audiences that sit on their asses stoned...Ideally, we'd like to help bring hysteria back to rock and roll shows.

PRM: Finally, do you see your success as symbolizing anything in particular?

Eric: That a tender teenage sex-oriented song can still make it...if it has a good melody.

The Raspberries' success also attests to the durability of Beatles influenced rock, a phenomenon with a diverse and fascinating history. It all started in 1964 with the Beatles, of course, who like the Hollies had patterned their group harmonies largely after the Everly Brothers. The main effect was that group vocals were brought into white rock in a way never before really tapped – the Fab Four proved that their vocal harmonies could be just as exciting and inspiring as the buzz-bomb instrumental work of, say, the Yardbirds or Who. The excellence of the Beatles' early albums through Rubber Soul hardly needs to be reiterated here, and the Hollies' early work (particularly such LPs as In the Hollies Style and Hear! Here!) has been hugely underrated.

The rather uningeniously-dubbed Mersey Sound of groups like the Searchers, Gerry & The Pacemakers. Billy J. Kramer, and Peter & Gordon was almost wholly Beatles sound-alike stuff (Lennon-McCartney songs having in fact launched the careers of the latter two artists), but it proved to be short-lived. What eventually evolved into the music described by the term lightweight English rock proved to be a much more refined style.

Countless groups following the English Invasion were indirectly or otherwise influenced by the Beatles, naturally, but when groups like the Merry-Go-Round and Left Banke (who left a fine album before Mike Brown and Steve Martin split) emerged in 1966-1967, it marked a new event American groups whose overriding inspiration was the Beatles.

Then came the Bee Gees from Australia, the most blatant Beatles sound-alikes to date, hitting the U.S. in 1967 during the second English wave (The Who, Hendrix, Cream, Procol Harum, etc.) with instant commercial success and an extremely promising debut album. Their specialty turned out to be over-orchestrated ballads, though and the Bee Gees have tumbled down the road to a very uneven career ever since – fine singles on occasions, but the bulk of their albums contained alleged merits that seem discernible only to staunch bee Gees fans. It's interesting though, to see groups like Tin Tin and the Marbles record in a style some would call Bee Gee derived rock, although little of worth has come of it yet.

The late '60s saw many groups turn with great success to a Beatles sound at one time or another: The Herd, early Move, Idle Race, the Marmalade, Grapefruit, among others. The Beatles' own white album/Abbey Road period seems to have had huge effect on the course of lightweight rock: later groups frequently mixed an early Beatles influence with a large helping of the later Beatles style (with the instrumental sound of the white album serving almost as a prototype for many groups). Eventually, the music evolved into numerous off-shoots, encompassing even one shots like Edison Lighthouse and the Flying Machine – it was no longer so much a matter of Beatles sound-alike vocals as it was now a distinct musical genre, with characteristic types of songs and chord changes. Which, when scrutiny was applied, usually traced back to the Beatles.

In recent years we’ve had Emmitt Rhodes, who achieved repute for a while through his Paul McCartney emulations; Marvin, Welch & Farrar, who had a fine debut album only to sputter with Second Opinion, an uneven second LP that wasn't even released in the States: the Flame; regularly periodic comebacks by the Hollies; and current American groups like Stories and the Family Tree-Roxy evolved Wackers (strong Abbey Road influence on Hot Wacks).

By the most successful group though, both commercially and aesthetically has been Badfinger – No Dice is widely regarded as a classic album of the genre. Certainly the group with the most raw talent to burn Badfinger remain a total enigma in so far as Straight Up wallowed in the solemnity and mock profundity that was the ultimate undoing to the Beatles themselves; where Badfinger goes from here is anyone's guess.

Anyway, that's a very sketchy outline of the heritage the Raspberries are heir to. One of the most encouraging things about the continued existence of Beatles-influenced groups, to me anyway, is that the charisma of the early Beatles is still seen as something worthy of total emulation. And it’s not just the music, you know: it’s the whole image. The Beatles were not nearly so much a cleaned-up antithesis of the Stones as they were a reflection of innocence and youthful exuberance – in this respect the Beatles certainly triggered strong identification ties in their audience.

The sort of innocence common to the air of Beatles rock groups is hardly a substantial alternative to the punk-ish or otherwise commandeeringly authoritative swagger common to almost every great hard rock group, but its' a proposition I would hate to see lost. You'd have to be a total jade to disapprove of the idea of joyousness in rock, and the same goes for the irresistible melodies Beatles-influenced groups have specialized in over the years. Oh, I know how Progressive rock snobs can't stand the idea of music being catchy, but us less loftily-minded fans sure do like those pretty ballads. As for the Raspberries' place in all of this, their music admittedly may be ephemeral to an almost unprecedented degree at times, but they still carry a bit of that magic. And the stuff that they do well, they've got down letter perfect.

Where the big question lies for the Raspberries at present is in developing a consistent rock and roll-ish side although guitarist Dave Smalley wrote two reasonably good rockers on their debut album, the group's forte so far remains ballads. This is really ironic, too, because what made 'Go All The Way' a big hit, and indirectly the album, were those raunchy opening chords. Can the Raspberries make it on Top 40 with more balladic numbers? Or in an attempt to guess what's expected of them, will they try and come up with some more rocky stuff? Oughta be interesting.

Lastly, I've got to mention the thing that knocks me out most of all about this group. The Raspberries' songs, any of them, would sound great on a car radio. And that's really all there is to it.

© Metal Mike Saunders, 1972

Citation (Harvard format)
The Raspberries/1972/Metal Mike Saunders/Phonograph Record/The Story of the Raspberries/22/07/2009 02:03:28/http://www.rocksbackpages.com/article.html?ArticleID=1418




http://www.rocksbackpages.com/article.html?ArticleID=3770

The Raspberries: Raspberries (Review of first album)
Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 6 July 1972

RASPBERRIES opens with the finest burst of lightweight English rock I've heard all year, a raunchy 16-bar guitar intro, and followed by a verse that sounds like a cross between ‘Reflections Of My Mind’ and early Badfinger. The rest of the album is just as ephemeral, and just as good.

The funny thing is that the Raspberries aren't English at all – they're from Cleveland, Ohio. Just like the Wackers, though that hasn't stopped them in cultivating a perfect three-part English group harmony, and the Raspberries go one further by even looking strikingly English. When you're dealing with groups whose aim is to do energetic, melodic rock, nationality simply seems to be no deterrent.

What makes this album easy to recommend is the fact that there really isn't a bad cut on it. With the exception of ‘Rock & Roll Mama’, an only slightly above-average rocker, and ‘With You In My Life’ (a nice uptempo good-timey number), Raspberries is composed in toto of potential hit singles, all with excellent vocals and terrific production. Even the eight-minute piece ‘I Can Remember’ works superbly, flowing through several sequences and ending with an irresistable chorus.

And if you've heard either of the Raspberries' two singles on the radio, ‘Don't Want To Say Goodbye’ and the aforementioned album opener ‘Go All The Way’, you already know how infectious their music is. With the original material quite impressive and the filler cuts all adequate, Raspberries is much more impressive than Badfinger's debut album, and I find myself already looking forward to the group's second.

There've been several other entries in the lightweight rock sweepstakes this season, things like Stories (ex-Left Banke leader Michael Brown's new group), Chesapeake Juke Box Band, and so on. Forget them: this is the one any true lightweight rock fan shouldn't be without for an instant.

© Metal Mike Saunders, 1972

Citation (Harvard format)
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http://www.rocksbackpages.com/article.html?ArticleID=4507

Raspberries: Starting Over (Review of second album)
Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, September 1974

IT'S A TEEN-CLUB midsummer Saturday night at Papa Joe'sParlour-pizza, pinball, pretzels, and pop-available without I.D. Raspberries, with no fewer than three Top Forty hits in less than two years, are rocking smooth as brushed steel for a buncha kidz who just won't dance, give it a chance, try a romance. You get the picture? Yes, we see. As the Buckinghams, pop pride of the Windy City, would've said, it's kind of a drag.

But like the survivors from the wreck of a supposedly unsinkable ship, the Razz rock on, more sure of themselves than their audience, more into playing than posing, more mod than they are marketable. They've returned to the Midwest teen scene, 'cause it's rent money, jack; not that they don't appreciate the thirty flirty pre-pubescent punkettes who storm their hotbox beerless dressing room to Demand, rather than request, autographs, souvenirs, anything pop, anything to prove they were there when the Raspberries were. Even to the point of pressuring the visiting rock writers who all at once understand what it's like to be Maureen Starr, let alone Eric Carmen.

But Papa Joe's is more a place to smoke menthol cigarettes and rack up free games than an au-go-go haven, so the better than ever big beat band of today and tomorrow anticipates the release of their fourth album Starting Over. Hoping for that "Hit Record," they wanna hear it on the ray-Dee-oh, so that a million at least can get the picture and learn to dance.

Starting Over is the beginning of yet another hard day's night for Raspberries, who have been underestimated by so many that we almost don't deserve them. It comes down to a matter of attitude: theirs and ours.

Theirs is that they had a Concept – to be clear, tight, sharp, familiar, dynamic, positive, but most of all Pop. A band with a sound as natural and as thrilling as holding her hand. I don't thing Raspberries ever worried much at first about who they'd reach; if their music and material came up to their own high standards, then the message and magic would just feel right to whomever watched, listened, and (crossed fingers) screamed. It wasn't a question of what would sell in the Seventies, though simplicity and salesmanship were part of it.

What the Raspberries were out to prove was that they were as gear as any guys that ever worked a Liverpool cellar into a sweat. Groups like the Who, Small, Faces, and Stones, not to mention the Fabs, provided the most basic kind of challenge. Girls are only as impressed with you as you are with yourself, and four very self-impressed young mods could be very impressive.

Pop gave the emerging mods of the Midwest something to master, to get down letter perfect – as essentially pointless a goal, perhaps, as memorizing the Bible, but undeniably a kind of code that only a few could speak as it was meant to be spoken.

It's especially sweet and particularly important for the Raspberries to stay in touch with each other and audiences as living proof that neat can be nice and still have a heavy backbeat. But as much as they're practicing popstars, they're also accomplished record people. Thus, Starting Over, the first record by the reformed Razz is a deliberate extention of the image directly responsible for the original band's personal and musical split late last year.

Wally Bryson and Eric Carmen are one of the great ambivalent couples of rock, along with Mick J. and Brian J., Ray D, and Dave D., David J. and Johnny T., Pete T. and Roger D. Eric knew that Wally was "his" guitarist the first time he heard him years ago, while Wally is one of those rare students of the medium who can notice the size of another guitarist's bands before they've met and still like lyrics. When just about every other raver in Cleveland had defaulted on his original mid'-60s promise of pop Potential, Wally and Eric agreed that theirs was no longer a marriage of convenience, but if simple sexy songs were to be "preserved", one of necessity.

So Wally, a rebel to the last, came a full circle from when he was the first kid to be kicked out of school for shoulder length hair: he cut his mane thrice to become a Raspberry, no small sacrifice and definite declaration of spiffy intentions distinctly out of time in the late acid-laced sixties. One imagines the individual members of the Nazz subjecting themselves to similar soul searches at about the same time.

You can imagine as easily, then, how Eric and Wally felt when original Razz David Smalley told them he still loved the Beatles, but his thus far closeted Colorado tendencies were getting the better of his songwriting, and couldn't they go back to wearing jeans on stage? Kee-Rist! And then, to really aggravate the jam Raspberries found themselves in, Jim Bonfanti, the powerhouse lunatic behind 'Ecstasy' and 'Tonight' on Side 3, refused to accept the need to present himself as anything but a Drummah. "His idea of a good time after a show," Eric recalled with rueful regret, "was to go back to the motel and do the band's books. He was really happy adding columns of figures in his head.

"I was writing all these Beach Boys and piano-based tunes, and Jim just stubbornly stuck to his perfect Ringo. He looked the youngest of us all and he'd been married the longest." When Wally and Eric, David and Jim, all comprehended that the rhythm section of 18 was going on 40, the time had come for a mutually desirable change.

To patch up the berry-basket came Mike McBride, a nonstop drummer with lungs like Jagger's, who had worked in Cyrus Erie with Eric and Wally, as well as fronting Wally's Stones Copy-band, Target. McBride is strikingly strong, physically and percussively, and it's unusual for a blond to be so imposing as a rock Face. He's got all the butch charisma of Sweet's Brian Connolly, without the responsibility of carrying the group. Mike wears white coveralls when the rest of Raspberries wears black, and everything he plays looks as good as it sounds.

Scott McCarl, newly recruited bassist and writer, provides a balance for the teenego energy of the others. From Omaha, Nebraska, Scott's "Beatle band" experiences (as he himself calls them) led to nought until he sent tapes to Todd Rundgren and Eric Carmen, in hopes of getting himself produced. McCarl's days as a roadie with an all-girl group had evidently lent him a modesty and romanticism Eric admired, as well as his ability to write and sing just like "1965 John Lennon."

This is expressed in most masterful fashion by Raspberries; new single, 'Hit Record (Overnight Sensation)'. A record about records that says straight out that records aren't records unless somebody hears them, 'Hit Record' is full of words like "bullet", "Extra", "demos", and "program Director" instead of "beach", "dance", and "mother" which were staples of the previous Razz vocabulary. The song has the best production any hard rock band has benefited from in years, and that includes the best "sound" per se to come from the Stones or the Who.

Jimmy Ienner has taken the Spector Wall of Sound one step further. Like Tony Visconti, he's in a class by himself for crating impenetrable density from perfectly distinct elements mixed in layers. His dynamic sense is unmatched as the shifts easily from Eric's Left Banke piano intro to the thunder of Drifters-type percussion in the chorus. Throwing 'Yeah – Number One' at us in a million different ways, 'Hit Record' acts subliminally at the same time as it is campishly over-obvious, ending with the faintest echo of 'Go All the Way' in the segue groove to the Carmen-McCarl collaboration 'Play On'.

'Play On' is perhaps the most significant song on Starting Over, because as one of the first Eric/Scott compositions it indicates most clearly the direction Raspberries are going in. "Side 3, as happy as I might have been with it at the time," Eric explained, "was our 'white album'. Things had gotten to the point where we could play together but we couldn't write together." Eric had every interest in ending this state of affairs by bringing Scott into the group.

Scott sings with surprising assurance of the torn fingers and throats endured when you spend "every night in a different bed". The youthful sexual intensity of 'Play On' is underscored by a jangling John Lennon guitar riff countered by a beautifully harmonized chorus that is a ray of idealism bursting through clouds of fatigue. Scott sounds jaded before he's even had that Hit Record; coo, huh? You oughta see him sing it; shy and sure, all at once.

'Party's Over' is as delightfully dumb and right on as 'Play On' is satirically subtle. Wally, its punk purveyor, had the reputation as the "Baddest guy" in town 'cause all the birds thought he left eggs in every nest, but "I was a virgin, believe me," Wally can say years after the fact.

So far as Starting Over is concerned, Wally Bryson is a man of contrasts. His co-penning with Scott, 'Hands On You', is the Beatles Fan Club Christmas record of 1974, with a 'Do It in the Road' Liverpudlian tongue in cheek complete with hee-haws from the other boise. Wally's solo on 'Cry' is also as metallic and methodical as any you'd want to hear in this day and age.

The first side of Starting Over is conceptual in the sense that all the Raspberry writers had been thinking along the same thematic lines in the past year and it seemed smart to sequence the tunes that dealt with their creeping disillusionment. In the midst of 'Hit Record', 'Play On', 'Party's Over', and 'Rose Coloured Glasses', is Eric's 'I Don't Know What I Want (But I Want It NOW!!)'. 'I Don't Know' is the meatiest beatiest Who-snatch since the Move's early singles, John's Children's first; you name it, Raspberries got it on this one in Happy Jacks.

"It sounds awfully realistic," said one blindfold listener, afraid to guess it wasn't the Who, too smart to think it was. How hypocritical that we should be breathless with expectation about a film version of Tommy when the Raspberries can compress Quadrophenia into three minutes, besting Bowie's better than alright cover of 'I Can't Explain' in the process. Wally's been known to break four strings at once with his birdman wrist action on this one, kids, so bear with us. The Raspberries' new manager says he likes to think of the new band as "mature", but if their idea of mature is to sound like a Shepherd's Bush Saturday Night, then 'I Don't Know' is my idea of a rock dream.

'Cruisin' Music', Carmen's blockbuster on side two, should have been the anthem for the Endless Summer that has seen the Beach Boys become chart-toppers once again. Sleigh-bell sleek, 'Cruisin' Music' is better than Columbian coffee to wake up to. The Raspberries sing together as one, "We could use a little sunshine", and "more of that good good music, cruisin' music" on the radio. Promoting good vibrations 'til Daddy takes the T-Bird away, Eric was long on striped T-shirts, tennis sneakers, and white Levis in his teens, and even today, his bouffant-banged shag can't hide the Surf City gleam in his eye. Two girls for every boy, and twenty for every rockstar, right?

I think Carmen's eclecticism gets the better of him on the album's title track; 'Starting Over' would make the same kind of sentimental soppy single as Elton John's 'Your Song', and could be just as big for the Razz. But if it's pulled as a hit and makes it, then all of the disbelievers' prejudices against Raspberries will be confirmed and good fight they've fought for years unwon.

Chances are that won't happen as long as Wally can steal your heart away with buzzer-Berry leads that breathe fire into 'Oh Carol'. And as long as the Raspberries can whip up a rocker like 'All Through the Night', as if Rod Stewart were singing in Keith Richard's lap, they'll be on top and in touch. Like Bowie, they'll try everything once, hoping to carch our eye and ears by their sheer audacity. But the Raspberries have an even more illuminating insight into their place in the pop picture: "We hope the Dolls make it huge," Wally told me, "because right now we're the Only Ones."

If it makes it easier for you to swallow the Raspberries, though, don't think of them in the same situation as the Dolls, who were apparently too much too soon for their own good. Think of the Raspberries as the band breathing right down the neck of fastbreathing piece of hot manufactured goods like Bad Company. If a band that sounds like the seventies Stones, had they never met Brian Jones or Andrew Oldham, can break overnight as the group everybody dislikes least, then the Raspberries should be underwritten by a philanthropic organization as a positive force in American education. They're the most accessible band around performing and writing on the same scale as any of the Invasion era greats. They aren't snide or snobbish, true, just guys with guitars who want to "woo you, ooh ooh you, all night." But you just got to learn to dance if it takes you all night, and day-time, too.

© Ron Ross, 1974

Citation (Harvard format)
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http://www.rocksbackpages.com/article.html?ArticleID=11437

The Raspberries: Rebirth Of The Cool
Dave DiMartino, Mojo, November 2002

Who are they? The inspired combination of two of Cleveland's finest unsung rock bands of the late '60s – Cyrus Erie and The Choir – this gleefully anachronistic quartet formed in 1970 and included Eric Carmen (bass), Wally Bryson (guitar), David Smalley (guitar) and Jim Bonfanti (drums). Following a brief 1973 break-up, Carmen, Bryson, and new members Scott McCarl and Michael McBride recorded the band's fourth and final album, the tragically mistitled Starting Over.

What did they do? Blew a raspberry in the face of hippy excess and Tarkus-era prog rock via short sharp pop hooks, divine harmonies and contextually inappropriate songs about cars and girls. With conspicuous lookalike outfits, radio-friendly pop hits such as 'Go All The Way', 'I Wanna Be With You' and 'Tonight', they became the progenitors of powerpop: pioneers in a pantheon soon to include Big Star, Dwight Twilley, Shoes and even Badfinger.

Why are they hot now? Between relative newcomers like Ben Kweller, Brendan Benson and Arlo, back through Teenage Fanclub, the Pooh Sticks and the Posies, the immense appeal of perfect pop-energised guitars, heart-stopping harmonies, and teenage boy/girl lyrics hasn't faded, but grown stronger. In the same manner that The Strokes once stood apart for feeling so different from the now, The Raspberries were misfits by design. The pay-off? Plop the records on and they sound as contemporary as the day they were made.

But haven't they always been cool? Not really. With the wealth of late '70s monosyllabically-monikered powerpop bands, their sartorial similarities to the simply not-as-cool, later Knack, and Carmen's post-Raspberries solo career as a Manilow-style crooner, The Raspberries' look and feel seemed too studied and showy by the mid-'80s. That Carmen re-emerged via the Dirty Dancing and Footloose soundtracks – and even had his solo hit 'All By Myself' covered by Celine Dion – didn't help either. But in 2002, doesn't that seem godlike?

What's the story? Boasting a raspberry-scented scratch-and-sniff sticker and the prophetic opening track 'Go All The Way', the matching-suited foursome's 1972 debut album was a hit – and its follow-up, Fresh, was even bigger. But a dual dilemma would take its toll: though critics loved the band, their unique image put off 'serious' record buyers who regarded them as cutesy. Sales suffered. And though Bryson and Smalley penned material, only Carmen's tracks were hits. Bryson stuck around, Smalley and Bonfanti split after album number three, and Starting Over was the Raspberries final souffle. Carmen went on to late '70s solo success; Bryson played in groups Tattoo and Fotomaker; their former group was canonised by legions of skinny-tied Poptopians to come.

The music? Echoes of Beatles, Beach Boys, Kinks, Who, Zombies and Left Banke can be heard on the first three albums, each of which rocks progressively harder. Carmen's songs stand head-and-shoulders above his bandmates' and reach an enthralling peak via the autobiographical, Spectorian 'Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)' on the last album.

Where best to check it out? All albums are available as imports, but 1991's Capitol Collectors Series compilation is the definitive place to start. It's the Raspberries!

© Dave DiMartino, 2002

Citation (Harvard format)
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(& A PRE-RASPBERRIES BONUS FROM DEREK'S DAILY 45 BLOG)

http://dereksdaily45.blogspot.com/2009/06/cyrus-erie-get-message.html

MONDAY, JUNE 22, 2009
CYRUS ERIE - GET THE MESSAGE



First off I gotta say that when this record arrived in the mail on Saturday I listened to it five times in a row at wall rattling volume. I don't want to tell you what to do, but it was practically a religious experience for me.

This band was formed in Cleveland in 1967, and Eric Carmen joined later in the year when he was turned down to be a member of (other huge local band) The Choir. Eric also snagged guitarist Wally Bryson (fresh out of the Choir) to join Cyrus Erie, and Cyrus Erie became a local phenomenon, covering the likes of the Who and Small Faces in addition to their originals.

The band was scooped up by Epic records who tried to squeeze a more commercial and polished sound out of the band ("a" side of this single is the result, 'Sparrow" which is OK but not the MONSTER cut that this is). Legend has it this song was cut in hastily in very little time. Shows how incredible they must have been as a live band, as this track is on the same level as the best of the British r&b (they were aping) of the Pretty Things, Who and Small Faces.

Thanks a million to my friend in Chicago, eric Colin, for hipping me to this one.

from 1968...
CYRUS ERIE - GET THE MESSAGE

Posted by Derek See at 8:33 AM

(FOLLOW THE LINK TO DEREK'S DAILY 45 & THE ORIGINAL BLOGPOST TO LISTEN & DOWNLOAD "GET THE MESSAGE")

Carrie McLaren: How NOT to raise an ape in your family

"...behaviorist W.N. Kellogg, a man with a peculiar brainstorm: that he should raise a chimpanzee as a twin to his own infant son, treating them in exactly the same fashion, & comparing their development. Kellogg was fascinated by case studies of feral children: if kids raised by wolves become wolf-like, he hypothesized, could a human such as he mold an ape to act human?..."

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/07/21/how-not-to-raise-an.html


How NOT to raise an ape in your family
POSTED BY MCLAREN+TORCHINSKY, JULY 21, 2009 3:59 AM

Carrie McLaren is a guest blogger at Boing Boing and coauthor of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. She lives in Brooklyn, the former home of her now defunct Stay Free! magazine.



I collect books by people who have raised apes in their homes. One of the first, The Ape and the Child, was written in by behaviorist W.N. Kellogg, a man with a peculiar brainstorm: that he should raise a chimpanzee as a twin to his own infant son, treating them in exactly the same fashion, and comparing their development. Kellogg was fascinated by case studies of feral children: if kids raised by wolves become wolf-like, he hypothesized, could a human such as he mold an ape to act human?

Kellogg made four films of his studies and 1 of those films is now online:
http://www.archive.org/details/comparative_tests_on_human_chimp_infants



Results? Mixed. The chimp, Gua, took more quickly to her civilizing education than her brother. She appeared smarter, stronger, and more emotionally developed on a number of counts: she was better at using glasses and silverware, walked earlier (chimps generally don't walk upright), responded to verbal commands sooner, and was more cooperative and obedient.

What we don't learn from Kellogg's study, however, is that chimps' "domestication" peaks around age 2, when humans' surpass them. And the reason we don't learn that is because Kellogg discontinued his study when his charges were around 2. Kellogg explained that he had accomplished his goal: he proved that environment matters. After all, you don't see a lot of chimps eating cereal from a spoon in the wild.

But Kellogg's claim was a bit disingenuous. The fact that environment shapes animal development was already well understood. The real reason he abruptly halted the study, then, was likely because of results that Kellogg never anticipated: his son Donald started imitating the chimp.

For example, though Donald had learned to walk before Gua joined the Kellogg family, he regressed and started crawling more, in tune with Gua. He'd bite people, fetch small objects with his mouth, and chewed up a shoe. More importantly, his language skills were delayed. At 19 months, Donald's vocabulary consisted of three words. Instead of talking he would grunt and make chimp sounds.

Gua got sent back to the Yerkes center in Florida, where she promptly died. And Donald? Not much is known of his life, but, at 43, he committed suicide.

This study got a lot of press when it was published, but Kellogg ended up deeply regreting it — not because of what it did to his son, but because it prevented him from being taken seriously as a scientist.

Variations on this study were conducted repeatedly through the 20th century. There were a number of cases of people attempting to raise chimps in their homes as humans, and perhaps I'll write more about those later. But, to the best of my knowledge, no one ever used a human infant as a guinea pig again.

Sources:

The Ape and the Child by W. N. Kellogg and L.A. Kellogg, New York: Whittlesay House, McGraw-Hill, 1933

The Ape and the Child (W.N. Kellogg page at FSU)

Comparative Tests on Human and a Chimpanzee... (1932) (Archive.org)

I previously gave a talk on this as part of my Brooklyn-based lecture series, Adult Ed.

Some YoYo Stuff: An observation of the observations of Don Van Vliet by Anton Corbijn.

"...this short black-&-white film made in 1993 is an unique opportunity to see & hear Don van Vliet, alias "Captain Beefheart", one of the most influential, misunderstood, talked about, admired, copied, treasured, loved & quoted musicians & yet he is still an obscure & mysterious artist. The film is approximately 13 minutes long, directed & photographed in black & white..."

http://nightofthepurplemoon.blogspot.com/2009/07/some-yoyo-stuff-observation-of.html

PATHWAY TO UNKNOWN WORLDS
FREMDLING BIST DU NICHT LÄNGER - NICHT BITT'RES LOS IST EXIL DIR! HEIMAT, DIE ZWEITE, DU FANDST SIE.
SUNDAY, JULY 19, 2009



Some YoYo Stuff: An observation of the observations of Don Van Vliet by Anton Corbijn. 1993



Don van Vliet, alias "Captain Beefheart", is one of the most influential, misunderstood, talked about, admired, copied, treasured, loved and quoted musicians and yet he is still an obscure and mysterious artist. His quite abrupt artistic transformation from working with a microphone to a paintbrush in 1982 and his consequent move from the desert to the ocean meant even less direct contact with the outside world than before. Subsequently there is very little information about Don from this time onwards and this short black-and-white film made in 1993 is an unique opportunity to see and hear this unique man. The film is approximately 13 minutes long, directed and photographed in black and white by Anton and is available on VHS in PAL or NTSC.

http://www.corbijn.co.uk/frameset_film.htm

Reviews...

Don Van Vliet, the subject of Anton Corbijn's short film profile, is probably better known to pop culture fans as Captain Beefheart, leader of the Magic Band and Frank Zappa cohort. Captain Beefheart listeners will expect musician-turned-artist Van Vliet's voice to be gruff, but they may be suprised at the croaking and grasping heard here as his comments are combined with near-static pictures of him in the corner of the screen to underline the artsy-craftsy aspect of this black-and-white outing. A video art/documentary hybrid, Some YoYo Stuff is stylistically of a piece with the artist's body of work, whether music or paintings (ie considerably off the beaten path). The chapter 'Flying Fish Head' works particularily well as footage shot from a moving car with a fish head held in front of the camera accompanies Van Vliet's various disquisitions relating to the passing desert landscape. Ever the tease, Van Vliet's terse treatment of the chapter titled 'Frank Zappa' is sure to annoy those hoping for some insider insights on the late Zappa (of course, provocation has been a theme in Beefheart's music going back to, well, his time with Frank). A curio that will appeal to an admittedly narrow audience, this is recommended for larger music and popular culture collections. - M Tribby - Video Library

This is Anton Corbijn's short (13 minute) black-and-white film from 1993. It is a personal and revealing look at the former master of Dadaist rock. Through the cryptic answers and strange metaphors, the man sounds so broken and old-beyond-his-years that it can be difficult to take in, as if this were too personal and revealing to be enjoyed from a film. Still, it is one of the few windows (if even only a keyhole) allowed into the life of Don Van Vliet since his 1982 retirement from music. Don's mother introduces the film and filmmaker David Lynch makes a running appearance as the questioner - Tom Schulte

There aren't too many films around that are worth almost a dollar a minute - but if you're a fan of dada-blues icon Captain Beefheart, Some YoYo Stuff will justify that price. Shot in 1993, a decade after the singer born Don Van Vliet gave up music for painting, this 13 minute black-and-white short juxtaposes shots of Van Vliet's art, clips of his mother and director David Lynch, and a few audio remniscences from the Captain himself, speaking in a craggy voice that quivers with age but hasn't lost its magnetism. If you're a Beefheart completist (and is there any other kind of Beefheart fan ?), it's essential at any price - Darryl Sterdan - Winnipeg Sun

This 13-minute short film offers music fans a rare glimpse of the media-shy musician and painter Captain Beefheart a.k.a. Don Van Vliet. Part interview, part artistic statement, the black-and-white footage mixes comments from the Captain with images prominent in his work, along with appearances from the artist's mother and David Lynch. Van Vliet appears on camera partially obscured in shadow and cigar smoke, glasses with white-painted lenses, or his open, raised hand. This seems likely to be the last interview given by one so averse to publicity. Some YoYo Stuff is tastefully done, respectful of its subject and is a fitting public appearance by an enigmatic figure many consider one of the country's greatest living artists. - Will McNaull - Rockpile

Anton Corbijn's luminous tribute to Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart ("an observation of his observations") is a decade old and at 13 minutes running time, still worth a shelf full of subsequent sedulous biographical research. Its opening shot sees the subject's mother plant a little cut-out Don in the desert, as if to suggest that the 'retired', retiring ex-Captain is both a flatly iconic simulacrum of his former self and a very real presence rooted in the Mojave: a desert-visionary painter and (on the svelte evidence here) gnomically hilarious raconteur. Corbijn frames Van Vliet's fragile stillness with ravishing desertscapes and two Captain Beefheart tracks ("What Are We Gonna Do With You ?" and "Evening Bell"), but it's his speaking voice that lingers. Illness may have grounded the flighty Captain's whoops and hollers, but his halting delivery still swerves into gravelled, lucid insistence on a single syllable : "the fish i used on the cover of Trout Mask Replica stank so bad.....Humans are so mean !" He's also a pure joy to watch : puffing on his cigar or suddenly executing one of those splayed, sweeping arm gestures that were the essence of his stage presence. Which is not to say that Some YoYo Stuff is a mere wake for pre-1982 Beefheart, evidence of some spectral half-life lived out after the fact. Here too is Van Vliet the artist and desert prophet, formulating 'naive' aphorisms ("when you sculpt little things, it makes your fingers feel delightful") and obliquely generous tributes to his peers ("he was the only Frank Zappa i knew"). His desert retreat may be legendary, but this is an artist still with an eye and ear outside his own myth "I'd like to tell you people watching and listening.....BOO!" - Brian Dillon - The Wire

from ubuweb
GEPOSTET VON BUMKUNCHA AN 20:41

http://www.freewebs.com/teejo/bolts/someyoyo.html

captain beefheart electricity

ANTON CORBIJN film SOME YOYO STUFF
(an observation of the observations of) don van vliet
england 1993

contains original van vliet compositions
1969 EVENING BELL piano demo 0:57 ice cream for crow 1982
early80s WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO WITH YOU? a capella 0:58 unreleased

'I'M JUST COMBING MY HAIR'


since don van vliet retired from music and became a happy painter he had little time for other artistic outings. the one and only public release is the cd-single of some poetry, part of his limited art book 'stand up to be discontinued' from late 1993. but earlier that year beefheart's personal photographer anton corbijn had paid him a visit and they put together a short film called 'some yo yo stuff'. the next year it was meant to be part of a planned special for the bbc tv program 'late show'. however, the ill-fate which so often pursued don struck again: the show simply vanished and the film was doomed to be lost forever....! fortunately the driving force behind the portrait wasn't satisfied with that, and anton began showing it at a few cultural festivals in england and holland in 1995. as he found out that the audiences mainly came for other stars, he used an unexpected chance to give the film an official release - on dutch tv! i witnessed it... and if this was a yellow press page with a fond for sensational news i would have made the following report:

'SOME YO YO STUFF' SHOWN ON DUTCH TV
beefheart fans delighted - a few out of control
captain beefheart fans from holland will always remember sunday august 4th 1996 as a historical day. that evening the camera wizard anton corbijn was the hero in the television program 'zomergasten' [summerguests], a series of monthly talk-shows broadcast by the v.p.r.o.. special interest had been aroused by the announcement that he was gonna show don van vliet's 'some yo yo stuff' film. although many a viewer stayed sceptic because beefheart projects usually have a curse on them, anton's 'observation of his observations' indeed closed off the program towards midnight. after this memorable climax some fans couldn't sleep all night, but the majority slept with its face wrinkled up real warm. several weeks later the showing still was a topic for music lovers and an important source of discussion among the beefheart spotters.

FRANK ZAPPA MENTIONED

it was a hard beef to wait almost three hours and a half for the great moment, as the live broadcast passed off disquiet. the host was nervous, often interrupted and mainly wanted to find out corbyn's motives to be(come) a pop music photographer. but anton stayed relaxed and adequately got round the questions. most of the time he even wore cool sunglasses due to a sudden attack of hay-fever. about his relationship with the former captain he told: 'don lives in total isolation in the north of california since he started full-time painting about fifteen years ago. one way or another i still have a close bond and i call him up by time and while, or i pay him a visit.'

to the film he explained: 'i got very irritated by the fact that record, book or video shops don't have anything on him except for his music, while there is an enormous amount of literature about similar artists like zappa for example. i always hoped to 'do something together' but had never dared to ask - until the b.b.c. came up with the same idea. however, what i didn't want was a kind of interview in which someone chats about his life - a bit like i do now -: only attracting people who are interested already. and as beefheart didn't have such a broad audience - and i think that what he did and still is saying is refreshing, very special - i'd like to make him better-known.'



'I'M JUST COMBING MY HAIR'

educated captain beefheart fans who have read the fanzine:
http://www.freewebs.com/teejo/suction/suction.html#zines
'steal softly thru snow' or the magazine q #100:
http://www.freewebs.com/teejo/argue/q100.html#q100anton
knew a little about the content, but they too were delighted to finally see the black & white video in real. after short intro-ductions in the mojave desert by his mother sue and anton, don van vliet makes jokes (surrounded by darkness he wonders: 'what's that noise?'; it turns out to be his raised hand) and delivers some inimitable statements:
* i have an expert memory. it's just not decorated properly.
* i enjoy the environment when there are no people around. yeah, give me lack of people...
* painting is so much fun: if you don't like something, you paint it out.
* mondriaan made a painting called 'broadway boogie', my favourite painting: you can hear the horns honk!
* van gogh made work, so good that upon walking out of the museum i said : 'the sun disappoints me so...'
* i hate to talk about art. what can it be when somebody says: 'i love the way you paint', and i say: 'i'm just combing my hair.'?
* the ocean is very similar to the desert. it's just that the ocean is wet - and the desert is dried-up ocean.
* ravens and buzzards are nice, they clean up the mistakes on the highway done by human beings.
* hopefully animals are smart enough to stay away from humans.
* zappa? he's the only frank zappa i knew.
* message. i like to tell you people watching and listening...: boo!

DON IN BAD HEALTH

between the acts two songs from his archives emerge: a 1969 (!) piano demo of the '82 instrumental 'evening bell' (with a fish-gliding-through-the-desert-landscape clip) and the unknown song 'what are we gonna do with you?' from the early eighties. like many van vliet works the 12-minutes video is quite unusual: it's mainly his head filmed in front of a screen on which questions, animals, paintings and desert images are projected full of dark/light effects in a strange cut-up frame. alternating normal and white-blinded spectacles he remains silent, smokes or makes a gesture; the text actually is spoken in a toilsome voice-over. the reason for the last fact is the affection of his throat, which has been evident since his 1993 'stand up to be discontinued' poetry cd. unfortunately closer examinations reveal more unpleasant details that he is in bad health; although his cigar smoking is stainless and the film smuggles it he is slightly trembling ... and sitting in a wheelchair. while don was as young as 53 during the shooting, experts fear captain beefheart isn't so extraterrestrial after all and has multiple sclerosis.

BBC TO BE STORMED

many a thousand satisfied dutch viewers have seen the amazing broadcast or recorded it, or did both. of course some disputes occurred in families divided about the spending of that sunday, but there are no reports of serious beatings, nor of negative injuries to the mind of close watchers; so the addict from purmerend who plays the tape over and over and doesn't want to leave his house is the ultimate exception. but when the news of the 'official release' will reach the british isles something really dirty can happen. for the fans there surely ain't gonna take it anymore the bbc promises them the 'late show' documentary for over a year and a half now but refuses to keep word. the company will be stormed by letters with shit, phone calls at mad cow disease level and questions in the parliament; and attacked in the back with boycotts of the cricket programs. there even is a possibility the beefheart hooligans who already are persuading john peel to lead them invading and taking over the tv studios, might get a worse idea and cross the northsea to obtain some copies by force....

© august 1996 theo tieman



WHAT THEY SAID THEMSELVES...

*ANTON CORBIJN

THE SPOTLIGHT KID
from world art #19 011098 usa

don van vliet is an elusive artist, both geographically and intellectually. the short film piece i have done on him doesn't tell you where he lives or give away too much about the 'whys', but it does draw you closer to him and his world, without ever invading or losing a certain mystery and respect. we are all too obsessed with the capital 'why' in this world and expect answers for everything, which is a great thing where it involves companies, governments and so on messing with people's lives, but not when we deal with beauty. the subtitle for 'some yo yo stuff' is 'don van vliet - an observation of his observations'.



I love don. i knew very little about him when we first met in 1980, but after our meeting and subsequent photo shoot i went back home and started listening to his music, and soon started looking at his drawings and paintings. my respect for him grew as the years went by; we kept in touch, and i visited him and his wife jan a couple of times. these visits and the death of frank zappa were essential for me in terms of thinking about making some sort of film piece on don.

for shortly after zappa died, i was in a bookshop and realized how many books and bits of writing existed on him, and when i then went looking for anything similar on don i left the shop empty-handed. i felt that he deserved everyone's attention and as i am not a writer, i figured i could maybe put something on film with him. it took me a while, but i did finally manage to say: 'if you ever want me to make any sort of record or film about you, just let me know 'cause i would love to do that'. he said: 'yes, please', and apparently had been waiting for years for me to ask, turning away others.

it was a simple affair to make the film: his mother sue opens the movie with the photograph that i took when don and i first met, saying: 'this is don, my son', and, apart from david lynch (famous film maker - t.t.) asking him a few questions via projected film, it is all don's thoughts on various matters. some funny, some serious, but all sharp, poetic and beautiful. you really want to hear every single word he says - whether it's about paint, miles davis, an ear ('nice sculpture') or the desert.

i recorded his words separately. and then filmed him sitting in front of a film projection i had made in and around the desert and edited it all together in a way that i hoped was in keeping with his world. he supplied me with two never-used bits of music (anton doesn't seem to have checked the credits - teejo), one of which is an instrumental that i made into a one-minute music-video without don, using a mackerel instead. this was the first bit of the film i showed him, and he was rolling around with laughter, and it was after that i dared let him see the rest.

apart from showing the world at large what a unique man and artist don is, i really wanted to make it great for hím, as he is also a warm and funny guy and i do think the film brings that across.


DON VAN VLIET

outtake from
ANTON CORBIJN if i could be a camera
q #100 010195 england

(interviewer mark ellen:) what did you think of the movie?
it's like a horror picture, a horror movie! anton is awfully good. i think he's the best i've ever seen. the fish looks cute. it's incredible. he got the timing with the expressions on the different mackerel's faces.

how did he do that?

smart! (laughs) he's réal smart!

REMARKS

* as mentioned, my report dates from august 1996 - when the 'late show' still seemed to be living...
* the video stills in these pages have been taken from the 011098 magazine 'world art'
* the film also includes a picture with two young donnies

HURRAH ! HURRAH !

on august 19th 1997 the 2nd channel of the british broadcast company showed the 'some yo yo stuff' film in / after the really stunning documentary the artist formerly known as captain beefheart.

FINAL HURRAH & DISCOGRAPHY !

england 2000 pal video state ltd state 482 'waving hand' picture on back
england 2000 ntsc video state ltd state 482 'waving hand' picture on back

nobody knows why it lasted so long, but in february 2000 this film finally was released as an official VIDEO! 'state video' made two versions: for the pal system (most of europe, and australia among others), and the ntsc players (north-america). the box in which it comes is the same for both of the releases and features two pictures of don van vliet by anton corbijn.

canada 2003 ntsc veedee region 1 state ltd / mvd dr 4354 deformed front picture 'in front of painting' picture on back picture plate
england 2003 pal veedee region 2 state ltd / mvd dr 4354 deformed front picture 'in front of painting' picture on back picture plate



three years after the vhs releases, new technologies had created an alternate sound and image carrier: the VIDEO DISC (dvd). so the film was brought out again for people who never had video players. but as if we hadn't gone mad about the three 'old' video formats that existed, the manufacturers decided to create more confusion by producing the 'movie ceedee' for séven different regions!

which means that the (ntsc) veedee which was made in canada and brought out in spring 2002 is for region 1, and the one made in england in summer is meant for region 2 (pal)....

usa 2004 ntsc veedee region 1 rhino handmade artist ink editions (no cat.no.) in design case part of art set don van vliet * riding some kind of unusual skull sleigh limited numbered edition 1500 copies not sold separately manufactured in italy



when rhino handmade re-released the veedee in 2004 as a part of the riding some kind of unusual skull sleigh art set:
http://www.freewebs.com/teejo/books/donskull.html
the company also showed an e-clip:
http://www.rhinohandmade.com/artistink/index.lasso
of this film (the link is on the right hand bottom)

england / usa 2005 dvd anton corbijn * (the work of director) anton corbijn with book with pictures and hand-written notes bonus material includes excerpt
see complete discography:
http://www.freewebs.com/teejo/disco2/30scatvd.html#corcor

in september 2005 a mixed bag about corbijn and his art was brought out, which mainly is a compilation of the music clips he made as well as all sorts of background information. the bonus material contains an excerpt from the 'some yoyo stuff' film. the cut and paste version lasts four and a half minute and includes the piano demo and a part of the a capella piece, the three 'dialogues' with david lynch and a few short fragments (and the complete credits!). as an extra service people looking at the region 2 veedee can activate subtitles chosen from six languages....
[updated 170108]

ANTON CORBIJN
if i could be a camera
from Q #100 010195 england
by mark ellen
is end 1994 telephone interview

note: part of an interview with / article about don's later personal photographer

*

the longest and most inscrutable of all his relationships is with don van vliet, the artist formerly known as captain beefheart, several of whose paintings hang in the sitting room of anton's west london pile.
sightings of the good captain these days are rare. he lives with his wife jan overlooking the ocean up on the oregon border, funded by a brisk trade in his canvases. one of the few visitors he entertains is the fellow dutchman (? - teejo) he met in the mojave desert fourteen years ago and whose world-view he so profoundly adjusted. last time he called, they spent the day listening to blues records and watching beefheart's taped appearance on the 'david letterman show' and a john huston film called 'treasure of the sierra madre', all through a dense fog of davidoff cigar smoke.

picture by anton corbijn

anton corbijn: when i lived in los angeles, he'd ring me up in the middle of the night and say: 'listen to this!', and he'd play something on the cassette, miles davis, howlin' wolf, and ten minutes later he would go: 'whaddabouddat!'. i met his mother this year and she says he does the same to her. when the phone goes at two in the morning it's don, playing her favourite music.

he recently cut together a lavishly surreal twelve-minute profile of the great man, currently awaiting a nighttime screening on bbc 2 (ah, that must be some yo yo stuff - teejo). shot in stark, industrial, almost 'eraserhead' black-and-white, it begins with his octogenarian mum approaching the camera, nursing a familiar cardboard cut-out: 'this is my son, don!', which she leaves half-buried in the sand. there's a 75-second beefheart piano composition illustrated with high-speed footage of a forest of joshua trees and - strapped to the outside of the car, apparently lip-synching - something that is unmistakably a mackerel. and there's an interview with the captain conducted by david lynch, who's projected on to a screen beside him.

beefheart has some ailment that neither he nor those close to him will acknowledge, so he talks - as he's about to down the phone - in a voice that's painfully slow, strangely over-emphatic and, if this is imaginable, even more bass and sand-blasted than the one which once brought us 'gimme dat harp boy' and 'dachau blues'. this is him now.

what did you think of the movie?

it's like a horror picture, a horror movie! anton is awfully good. i think he's the... best i've ever seen. the fish looks cute. it's incredible. he got the timing with the expressions on the... different mackerel's faces.

how did he do that?

smart! (laughs) he's réal smart!

did you meet david lynch?

(lynch impression) hey don! daaaahhn! what do you hear nów?! he's cute. in the movie he was definitely there. i talked to him but i never met him in person. he said that he'd liked this song from 'trout mask replica', 'the dust blows forward 'n' the dust blows back'. (sings) there's old gray with 'er dove-winged hat / there's old green with her sewing-machine / where's the bobbin at? totin' old grain in uh printed sack / the dust blows forward 'n' the dust blows back... (laughs)

i love that mojave desert picture. you look like a sort of 19th-century itinerant pastor.

thank you! tell him, thank you too. i told him...: 'just shoot the meat!'. haha. yes! i like it because it's so honest. i think he's taken the best pictures of me that anybody has ever taken.

why are they the best?

because he made them that way!

what did he bring out in you?

he brought out... my love of animals.

how?

because he got the real me, the real stuff.

people's image of you seemed to change after those photos.

probably. he got parts of me i didn't even know i had. the complete proof. right there. scary!.

that picture seems to resonate.

yes! you can hear the twang. ter-wangggg! (laughs)

bono (from the popgroup u2 - teejo) thinks his pictures can give you a substance you might not have but were working towards. did they give yóu a substance you didn't have?

yeah. he made me feel like an older man... - immediately. i grew up looking at that picture.

he makes people look like isolated souls in torment.

i think i am that way to begin with. but i think he ingratiates it.

and exaggerates it.

sure! anton shoots the edges and occasionally... even the bent parts!

beyond that?

there isn't anything beyond that.

some people can't see the humour in his pictures.

(laughs) i think they've had too much to think! they have humour because they're... so real!

*