The Hellers / Creative Freakout
The best thing about this record is the packaging. I don’t just mean its physical packaging, a 10″ record in a paper sleeve that fits into a larger cardboard folder, but its trappings as a collectable record. Promotional only industrial item? Command Records “psych” connection? Wiggy weird 60s spoken word pop culture kitsch? Strangely good reputation? This record may sound like it must be great, but I hope it’s not something you’d actually want to listen to, cause “subversive” ad jingles from stoned, smug pseudo-counterculture ad men are still just dated-ass jingles at the end of the day. I’m not down with this record.
If I sound bitter it’s because I traded this for a Daisy Chain six months ago and I’m still waiting cause my Daisy Chain is lost somewhere in a massive, massive collection of records like this.
I’m not bitter, but I do think waxidermy needs more negative reviews, so here is one.
2 Comments
I like old advertising. I wish you had posted a sample track.
This album is a great piece of ’60s zeitgeist, yet the great craftsmanship and creativity that went into it makes it in a sense timeless. The ads are not meant to be “subversive”, they’re just ads intended to sell products. The interesting thing is the narrative background, which gives a perspective on the westcoast counterculture you’re not going to find anywhere else.
Of course, if someone listens to this and expects it to be like Dr Strangelove or something, he won’t understand it at all.