Death Dealers
This is a nasty record. Featuring cover artwork by John Wayne Gacy, this compilation of songs about murder and mayhem sandwiched between interviews from (and concerning) notorious serial killers/murderers Ed Kemper, John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson, Albert DeSalvo, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ed Gein, and Ottis Toole. It was the first and only album put out by Nasty Records. The runout grooves read EVIL HANDS ARE HAPPY HANDS / FOR JOE THE GENERAL AND FRED WEST. It's a rather interesting relic of pseudo-murderabilia highlighting a wide range of music with the thread of murder tying them together. Eddie Noack, best known for his 1968 cover of Leon Payne's serial killer song Psycho, was a major influence on Bob Dylan. Red River Dave McEnery is known for his topical songs, of which the one included in this compilation is about the Tate-LaBianca murders. The Uncalled 4 were a garage punk group hailing from Texas that penned the Ed Gein influenced tune featured on this album. Mentally Ill were one of the Chicago-area's first and most mysterious punk acts that developed a cult following, finding such famous fans as Steve Albini and Jello Biafra, after their song Gacy's Place gained popularity. The Bugs were a garage rock group that used lyrics penned by the Boston Strangler himself. Johnny Legend (not the rockabilly/comedy icon) is mainly known for his narrative compositions about murderers and infamous individuals, so he's rightly included on this compilation as well.
A1 Eddie Noack - Dolores
A2 Ed Kemper - Interview
A3 Eddie Noack - Psycho
A4 Charles Manson -Interview
A5 Red River Dave -California Hippie Murders
A6 Ed Gein - Interview
A7 The Uncalled 4 - Grind Her Up
A8 Ottis Toole - Interview
B1 John Wayne Gacy - Interview
B2 Mentally Ill - Gacy's Place
B3 The Bugs - Albert Albert
B4 Albert De Salvo - Police Press Conference
B5 Albert De Salvo - Strangler In The Night
B6 Johnny Legend - The Tower
B7 Jeffrey Dahmer - Interview
Taste:
Murder
Two blood-red 7" records containing segments of interviews of four convicted killers. Ed Kemper, Henry Lee Lucas, Ted Bundy, and Ken Bianchi all talking about their motives, memories, feelings, and ideas. This special interest series (of one) deals with the brutal reality of man's murderous capabilities. Each side's runout groove has a different word: ISOLATE, DOMINATE, ENSLAVE, EXTERMINATE. A truly bone-chilling, stomach-churning, and bizarre compilation of murderabilia if there ever was one.
Taste:
Rev. Jim Jones - Thee Last Supper
"How very much I have loved you, how very much I have tried my best to give you the good life..."
Everyone knows about Jim Jones, Jonestown, and The Peoples Temple. The infamous mass cult suicide has become a notorious fixture in American culture - referenced in art (Jonestown Carpet), film (The Sacrament), music (The Brian Jonestown Massacre), and even figurative language ("drinking the kool-aid").
The story of Jim Jones and The People's Temple of the Disciples of Christ is an interesting one, to say the least. What began as a religious organization under the leadership of Jones, eventually distinguished itself from most of the modern religious movements with its overtly political message, preaching "apostolic Socialism" and Marxist revolution. It quickly expanded through cross-country bus caravans that distributed pamphlets, administered faith healings, and raised massive funds (upwards of one million dollars annually) for the organization. Jones forged media alliances and gained support from a large amount of notable individuals - including Jerry Brown, Mervyn Dymally, George Brown, Jr., Willie Brown, George Moscone, Art Agnos, Harvey Milk, Herb Caen, Carlton Goodlett, Walter Mondale, and Symbionese Liberation Army. But even with this wide support from influential media and political icons, The Peoples Temple faced constant scrutiny while it expanded across the states, which eventually led to a mass exodus to a remote commune in northwestern Guyana.
Amid investigative political controversy and looming governmental incursion, Jim Jones spoke his final sermon under the compound's center pavilion in the early evening of November 18, 1978. The 900+ members of the cult gathered en mass while aides prepared a large metal tub with grape Flavor Aid - supplemented with diazepam, promethazine, chloral hydrate, and cyanide. The poisonous concoction caused death within five minutes, even quicker for children and infants. As Jones administered his ultimate exhortation, the group reluctantly consumed the contaminated beverage. Those who resisted were coerced with guns, until every last one of the members, including Jones himself, lay dead on the pavillion lawn. The events at Jonestown constituted the greatest single, deliberate loss of American civilian life until the WTC attacks on September 11, 2001.
Peoples Temple maintained extensive records of its activities, from monthly community censuses, to an assortment of letters, photographs, tape recordings, and other related materials. Many of these documents were recovered by the FBI after the massacre and released for public consumption as a result of a lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act. This LP contains the entire "death tape" (Q 042) recording of Jim Jones' final sermon at Jonestown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 spread over two sides: A - Thee Beginning and B - Thee End?. This tape was one of the 53 tapes initially withheld from disclosure. It's a haunting document brimming with eerie poignancy - a cult, lead by a paranoid megalomaniac, that proved to be one of the most deleterious gatherings in American history, in its final hours. The death tape is more than just a macabre curiosity - it serves as a finite and clearly defined example of submission to religious dogma, and control by an insatiable ego.
The 45 minute recording is lo-fi and heavily edited into segments. By the time Jones started the recording, California Congressman Leo Ryan and his party (who had come to investigate Jonestown the day before) had been murdered by Jonestown gunmen. In the chilling final monologue, Jim Jones pontificates at length about the "revolutionary suicide", his thoughts on the crisis, and the afterlife that awaits the group. As he instructs the congregation to partake in the tainted Flavor Aid, the echoes of crying infants and children are present in the background. With time, these little voices go silent. Various individuals are heard either proclaiming their allegiance or dissent against the events unfolding, though most of it is the crowd fervently repeating and agreeing with the man on the pulpit.
One of the more curious components of the tape is the occasional flittering appearances of doleful, slowed down and reversed soul music (including the eerily apropos 1968 Delfonics song "I’m Sorry") that weaves in between the madman's words. Other instances of hidden, "shadow" audio is that of military "ham talk", or radio code, that has been slowed down and reversed. One explanation for the presence of these audio snippets is that the Jonestown tapes were recorded on recycled/reused cassettes, in which the previous contents happened to sporadically bleed through. Either way, it's just another haunting piece to the puzzle that is the death tape.
Taste: