Yeah, dude. Mason Williams is just one of those people I can't help but love. Everyone's heard "Classical gas". There's so much more to the guy, though. In the 60s, he was a writer for the Smothers Brothers' TV show, and wrote many of the songs they performed. He also knew exactly how to be self-indulgent in such a way that others could come along for the ride and be massively entertained. And if his facial expression on the cover is any indication, he ate a lot of acid. No matter. In 1966 he hired an orchestra and cut a record of pop songs he wrote, and it's fucking fantastic. Mike Post produced it, in fact, and Mike Post is awesomeness squared. But back to the album at hand. Everyone knows "Classical Gas". It's on here, but it's in with so many cheesy little musical gems it almost doesn't matter. So, being from 1966, it's pretty dated. It's got that Hugo Montenegro-esque "pah pah pah" pop orchestra choral style all over it. I like Hugo Montenegro and Pizzicato Five, so I'm all about the "pah pah" pop chorus. It sounds good to me. The album starts with an overture called "Overture", taking the listener through the musical themes of the album from start to end, announcing "the mason williams phonograph record!" and then trumpeting a little fanfare before mellowing into a lazy lull of an outro. Then it goes into its orchestral pop con queso, singing ridiculous songs about Dylan Thomas and life. One of the standouts is "Baroque-a-nova" which is perfectly titled, and "the prince's panties", the first of his five-part "dada trilogy". The trilogy is continued in subsequent albums with "the tomato vendetta" and "the exciting accident", and another two I can't remember the names of off the top of my head. The panties in the song are actually his dogs, who get pissed at him and eat him, so that the "prince was eaten by his panties". This album is just totally aces, and it's a perfect accompaniment to the ingestion of psychedelics. In fact, it's peerless in that facet.
Get this.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Mason Williams - The Mason Williams phonograph record
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3 comments:
Never heard this in its entirety, but yeah, "Baroque-A-Nova" is definitely the shit, besides "Classical Gas" of course.
Yeah, it's pretty awesome. I have a few other albums of his, too, and I like 'em all. I was able to record an appearance he made on the Ed Sullivan show once, he performed "Greensleeves" on classical guitar. And his performance was interspersed with the corniest video he possibly could have mustered: wearing a billowy shirt and playing in a sunny field full of flowers, up in a tree, by a babbling brook. It was hilarious. His albums (the first 5, at least) are glorious, cheesy, self-indulgent piss-takes of his own self-indulgence in making them. I love this guy.
The other two songs in the five-part trilogy are "(Whistle) Hear!" and "The Last Great Waltz."
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