Thursday, April 30, 2020

Reality 'D' Blipcrotch Is Alive And Well

Front. Probably.
Nothing anybody can tell you about this album other than it was by a band called 1 and called Come, on Grunt Records in 1972, is going to make anything any clearer.


Back. Maybe.
Not the Discogs page, nuthin'. Just accept there are certain events that defy our understanding; that human comprehension reaches its limits, not with the ineffable void or the value of Pi, but with this album.

Even the knowledge that Roger Crissinger was antecedently in Pearls Before Swine, the Illuminati house band, gets us no closer to explaining what's going on here.


Uh-oh.
Perhaps The Screaming Gypsy Bandits, who recorded In The Eye a year later, knew. Yes! That seems reasonable - let's ask them!

21 comments:

  1. What I can tell you about this album is that it was reviewed in Billboard issue 9 Dec 1972 and, two pages later, there was a full-page advert for Carly Simon's 'No Secrets' new release - you know, the one with the blue jumper and the nipple that you had on your bedroom wall

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    1. This only deepens the mystery. There was a Billboard review?

      But yeah ... Carly ...

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    2. Wait - there was a vinyl album inside of that square photo of Simon?!?

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  2. 1 was Peter Kaukonen's (Jomra's brother) band I believe. I also think he had a band called Kangaroo

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    Replies
    1. Peter was in Black Kangaroo, but not a member of 1

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  3. Illuminati confirmed! Color me pinqued and in search of the linq.

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  4. Come by 1, would have been more popular and or relevant if it had been released somewhere between 1965 and 1969, rather than 1972. Which, by then the counterculture revolution had failed to achieve its big-picture objectives regarding societal norms and government policies, operations, free speech, equality, whirled peas and Op Art. Not to mention: missing the Great Cosmic Joke. So this album was (for better or worse) the last gasp of the LSD-tripping hippie Bay area commune style of music championed by Paul Kantner, Phil Lesh, Spiro Agnew and David Crosby.

    Be that as it may....

    Screaming Gypsy Bandits' were the greatest band to ever come out of Indiana, no really. Caroline Peyton was quite the dame. *cue South Pacific soundtrack in 3...2...1*

    Speaking of nipples.

    I've always liked the Boys in the Trees cover, better than No Secrets.
    In other news: Victoria's secret is silicone implants.
    Back to Carley, who's so vein, she thinks we still care (as if we ever did) which schmendrick(s) she was singing about.

    Speaking of Simons and musical mysteries (and schmendricks).
    Just what was he doing with Julio down by the schoolyard? Seriously.

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    Replies
    1. I see your Boys In The Trees, and I raise you Playing Possum.

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    2. Ah yes, Playing Possum for the win!

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  5. In a July 20, 1972 interview for Rolling Stone, Jon Landau asked Simon: "What is it that the mama saw? The whole world wants to know." Simon replied "I have no idea what it is... Something sexual is what I imagine, but when I say 'something', I never bothered to figure out what it was. Didn't make any difference to me."

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  6. Album: Come
    Group: 1
    Initial release: 1972
    Label: Grunt 1008

    The only album released by 1.

    Tracks
    1 of a Kind (Granat, Blipcrotch)
    II Car Raga (Granat, Crissinger, Fee, Blipcrotch)
    Free Rain (Blipcrotch)
    3 Songs (Fee, Granat, Blipcrotch)
    Old Englishhh (Granat, Blipcrotch)

    Musicians

    Musicians include;

    Donald Ensslin - guitar, banjo
    Marc Granat - guitar, sitar, dulcimer
    Sarah Oppenheim - autoharp, vocals
    Theodore Teipel - flute, harmonica, piano
    Roger Crissinger - keyboards
    Frank Trevor Fee - bass
    Mark Baker - drums
    Reality D. Blipcrotch - percussion, vocals
    Laurie Paul - tempura, vocals

    Credits

    Produced by Reality
    Arrangements - 1
    Engineered - Ken Hopkins
    Engineering assistants - Valerie Clausen, Mike Denecky, Don Gooch, Rick Stanley
    Live Raga engineer - Ray Thompson
    Mixing - Ken Hopkins, Steve Barncard
    Mixing assistants - Rick Stanley, Valerie Clausen
    Album concept - Ben & Iris Willey Art
    Album design - Pacific Eye & Ear
    Photography - Chit Ran, Alvan Meyerowitz, Robert Ellison, Laurie Paul
    Production consultant - Pat Ieraci (Maurice) and Marc Granat

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  7. Here's th' link, pals! Sawry it's a little late, I had t'eat an samwidge.

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    Replies
    1. Came across this which may be of interest. The drummer even leaves his phone number in the comments (allegedly)!

      http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2015/09/one-come-1972-us-marvelous-spiritual.html

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  8. The group "1" (One) had an odd album called Come which was vaguely Asian sounding. The group was led by a certified (certifiable?) local eccentric who wanted the album to self-destruct after playing (so the listener would have to buy more)

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  9. Hi folks! I am the original drummer from One. If you are on Facebook, I created a page for the group with a lot of pictures. Search for One from Bolinas. Everyone in the band is still alive except the bass player.

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  10. Most of the stories you've read and heard about my band "One" are of course false. But, the stories told by Maurice in the book "Got a Revolution" are true to him. Reality was so stoned and drunk most of the time, that he blurted out lot's of BS that he likely never remembered saying.

    The band started out in 1968 as a 4 piece with me joining after I graduated from HS in 1969 replacing a local drummer named Clay, who is still there. We then added Sarah (Marc's GF), then Ted Tipel, then Donny, then Reality and Laurie.

    We were performing downtown a lot. When Grace Slick and Paul Kantner moved to town, they couldn't help but hear us, Reality and Paul hit it off somehow, and Paul paid $1,000 for a demo at Heider's.

    We were being courted by Electra Records when Grunt Records formed, and we went with Grunt.

    After Grunt closed down, we moved to LA and shopped our new demo everywhere. But, Reality got himself fired after throwing Laurie through a sliding glass door.

    Roger and I moved back to Marin, and the band continued on for awhile with a trumpet player taking the lead parts. That only lasted a year.

    All but Frank Fee are still alive. But, we have not been able to get in touch with Reality nor even tried finding Laurie. The rest of us stay in touch and some still get together once in awhile.

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  11. Given the "front" cover image, I was half expecting the "rear" view to be something like:

    *


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