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Cassette: WFMU THE HAPPY LISTENER'S GUIDE TO MIND CONTROL 1992 CASSETTE + GLEN JONES +COMP
41.00 USD
15.00 USD
21 May 2023
14 May 2023
7 bids
1203
892
United States
Like New
Self-Released
Comedy & Spoken Word
1990s
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This auction is for a multi-piece collection of THREE WFMU CASSETTES AND A LCD CATALOGUE. After digging out all my WFMU premium shirts and LCDs, I thought I was done...but nope. I keep digging, and every once in awhile, I get surprised.
There are four different items in this auction. They are all separately listed below.
1. WFMU's FIRST CATALOG OF CURIOSITIES - LCD WINTER 1993 - This was a special edition of WFMU's Lowest Common Denominator magazine. 52 pages of items that you needed to have!
Some of the sections include "Music from Outer Space", "Ed Wood Jr.", "Japan Unhinged", "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music", "Sounds Cinematic", "The Hound's Picks", "Conspiracy Theories" (keep this section in mind for later), "The Fine Art of Tape Splicing", "Crackpots and Visionaries", "Serial Killers", "Do-It-Yourself Masterworks", "WFMU-TV", "Unknown Rock Legends", "Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy", "Unusual Instruments", "For The Tots", and "Global Cooling".
Looking over the content of this catalog, I realized that I had a lot of these items that I had purchased on my own. Unfortunately, most are now gone, but some I still own. Now...just to find them...HA!
The catalog itself is in excellent condition. Some very light creasing appears on the top right corner of the front cover. There is a mailing address on the back cover. See photographs #2 through #9.
Even if you don't own or will never be able to own any of these items, this catalog will satisfy your soul and make a great read.
2. "WFMU presents THE HAPPY LISTENER'S GUIDE TO...MIND CONTROL" - This short blurb is from WFMU's own blog; "Back in the waning days of the Cold War, I made a cassette compilation of corporate, religious and political propaganda called The Happy Listener's Guide to Mind Control, and I offered it to donating listeners as a fundraising tchotchke for our 1991 fundraiser."
This is the original cassette I received for donating to WFMU back in the day. It has the WFMU cassette labels, inlay card, and a content paper folded inside. It looks like this is a 92 minute cassette (it's just a white generic cassette with a label), 46 minutes per side. Check out pics #10 through #14 for the cassette, and photos #15 through #19 for the content listing.
3. "The Glen Jones Show" 1993 Cassette Aircheck - Around this time, a couple people that I had gone to college with ended up at WFMU. One was the music director and later program director, and the other was a young lady I was friends with. One of them made me this (and the following) cassette. The cassette is 100 minutes long, 50 minutes of mayhem per side. Not much to see, but check out pictures #20 and #21.
Against my better judgement, I listened to this cassette in one sitting (the person even wrote on the inlay card "You may have to listen to this in pieces - Do not listen to all at once"...HA!). Back in the 1990s, when I would be making the trip from visiting my family in New York back to my home in Pennsylvania I would hear this show. Crazytown!
At the very beginning is a clip of DJ Chris T. singing "Born to Run"...nice & distorted.
The FIRST side is from May 1993, with Glen Jones co-hosting with a guest, one Bernie Fleshkin. It took a long while, but I believe Bernie Fleshkin was a comedy character voiced by Ted Bonnitt, a Pacifica Broadcasting Network alumnus.
To quote an article on the website current.org; "Bonnitt was also doing a comedy show on WBAI. From 1984 to 1993, he played the title character on The Bernie Fleshkin Show, joined by a stable of New York actors. He referred to it as a “radio cartoon.” The voice of Bernard T. Fleshkin, according to a New York Daily News review, sounded like “a cross between Cookie Monster and your basic fast-talking Hollywood agent.”
For the entirety of side one they talk...a lot. I think Glen had Bernie on because they were both supposed to be in attendance at some event.
The SECOND side sounds like it was recorded on "Boxing Day", the day after Christmas, 1993. Some other guy is hanging around the studio named Peppitone. Excerpts of music are heard throughout this side. There is a another different Glen Jones show also on this side. Some Frank Sinatra and Perrey and Kingsley music can to be heard.
4. "WFMU EXCERPTS - VARIOUS 1988 - 1992" - This compilation tape is 90 minutes long and is LOADED with tons of bits from WFMU! See pics #22 and #23.
Side one of the tape begins with some sound bites from movies. There are different WFMU IDs heard throughout. An excerpt from the 1989 (?) marathon is here. The DJs talk about the cassette premium they're giving away that contains "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music", then play some Perrey & Kingsley and music from the fab soundtrack to "The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T.".
THEN.....THE HIGHLIGHT OF EVERYTHING IN THIS LOT.....AND ONE OF THE GREATEST STORIES EVER TOLD ON RADIO...IS THE GREAT BRONWYN C!
A little background here. In one of the years covered on this cassette (I can't remember what year, Wikipedia says she's been on WFMU since 1988, and I can't remember if it was before or after Christmas), I believe I was going home for Christmas from PA to NY.
I'm listening to Bronwyn C. on WFMU, and she begins telling this story of hearing John Denver's "Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk This Christmas" at her home in Missouri (I think...I didn't write the state down). Somehow, the story moves on to her visiting a friend in NYC and staying at the house of a guy named Tuna. Right before going back home, she gets so sick that she doesn't even remember how she got home or how long she was out of it. And it all started because she heard John Denver's "Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk This Christmas".
I am listening in the car and I AM MESMERIZED...I think I even started crying. She is a master story teller. Sometime after that, I asked a couple of the previously mentioned friends who worked at WFMU if they could get me a dub/aircheck of her telling this story...and somehow they did!
I had an extended college radio show for about twelve years, and I would actually play her story on my annual Christmas show. Just hearing this again, after so many years, brings back a flood of memories. Thanks Bronwyn!
To continue with side one's content, this is followed by some unnamed music, a great Casey Kasem American Top 40 outtake, and then more music by Perrey & Kingsley.
Then we return to more marathon talk (I don't know who the DJs are), where the jocks are lambasting Village Voice writer and record reviewer Robert Christgau.
They play an unreleased (at that time) Daniel Johnston song called "Harley Man". The side ends with a hilarious bit of someone singing along with the Fifth Dimension song "Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In".
Please note that all music on this cassette is edited, and not the full songs.
Side two begins with some more Bronwyn C. Then a caller tells a great story of almost getting robbed right after he gets out of the shower. Someone having trouble ordering fast food at the drive-thru is next. A bad solo piano recital with someone singing "The Impossible Dream" is played, followed by some other DJ airchecks and music.
Wrapping up this side are excerpts of a couple songs on the above "Mind Control" cassette; "Hank Levine & George Watkins - The Trumpet" and "Victor Lundberg - An Open Letter To My Teenage Son".
ALL CASSETTES WERE LISTENED TO IN THEIR ENTIRETY. This was done to make sure that there were no breaks in the tape (considering their age).
These tapes will be shipped by media mail in a box. I don't do envelopes, and sellers that do are cheap...and lame.
If you have any questions about these items, please feel free to email me. Also, check out my other auctions going on NOW of various other items of interest. Thanks again for looking...during these most very...very...very...troubled times...
5-14-23