The Crazy People – Bedlam
Rumor has it that the album Bedlam by the Crazy People was actually the brainchild of one person: American jazz trumpeter, producer, and musical entrepreneur Johnny Kitchen (real name Jack Millman), who assembled it in 1968. Kitchen’s modus operandi was to cook up a well-seasoned sonic stew by combining discarded recordings from unreleased and / or obscure bands, combining them with other random bits and bobs that he found on tossed tape reels. What it all amounts to is a wacky, zany combo of 1960s pop, naïve song poem music and sound collage. The whole shebang includes but is not limited to: light, organ-led ‘60s pop with awkward starting and stopping shot through with accapella singing, really strange echoes, wailing voices in the background, a horn fanfare, a rooster crowing, a motorcycle’s racket, fuzz guitar, sudden explosions, chirping birds, snippets of classical music, a tinkling music box, bubblegum pop, sirens over
shopping mall jazz, a rocket launch, some spoken word over easy listening music, crickets, acoustic guitar strumming with a cliché blues ending, echoing voices, gunfire, choral singing, church bells, barking dogs, screaming girls, gongs, African drumming, bubblegum pop layered with a blowing whistle and an alarm bell, a car crash, sirens, one side of a really tweaked telephone conversation, jazz piano and flute, Camptown Races played on a jews harp, prepared piano, car horns, a snippet of a parade, a strange tinkling sound, a ringing sound, harpsichord, a lascivious and wasted pilot who welcomes you aboard Trans Luv Airlines, where “We’ll be turning on at about 50,000 feet and we’ll try to stay as high as possible,” country-tinged rock, xylophone, a Velvet Underground-inspired pop song, a snippet of circus music, a car crash, and someone singing “We’re the Crazy People!” over and over. Recommended if you like Frank Zappa, Fille Qui Mousse and Pierre Henry.
Label: Condor Records Catalog Number: CST-2457 Format: LP Packaging: LP jacket Tracks: 10 Country: Canada Released: 1968 More: Discogs
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