Probe is Turning On the People's M.O. is basically the "dig it or don't" type of posting. Title and artist, that's it. Sometimes the year, writing credits or catalog #s are included, but no bios, profiles or backstories, and rarely photos. It's there and it's rare, if you need further reason to download, do a little legwork. (In a way, it gives a little respect to the site visitors.) But, even a little legwork couldn't help me find more information on his latest post, "Riot" by Jeri Jorden. A web search turned up squat (only a mention on WFMU playlists and a small crappy scan of a Jorden LP). So, all I gots me is a hunch, far fetched at best.
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Jorden seems to have a strong accent and a few of the lines sound like they could be in French, and given the vintage of the song (I'm guessing late sixties), it could be that the riots she sings of were the uprisings of May 1968 in Paris. That's a guess, I could be wrong about the language. And she is singing "Stop the Riots", a decidely unhip sentiment given that the record sounds, well, not like an unhip record. Come to think of it, Jorden sounds more like a Dutch name. My theory is full of holes.
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Musically speaking, her singing is rather sedate, but that's not what prompted me to download it (and my guess is that it's not the reason it was posted). It's the incredibly abrasive saxaphones that got me. Seriously, it sounds like their reeds are made out of sandpaper. One sax wails ala Lara Logic (X Ray Spex' "Oh Bondage Up Yours"), while the other one just-fucking-blows. It sounds like someone was handed a baritone saxaphone and told "just do that fog horn thing you always do to annoy us..." On top of that, the guitarist, buried in the mix, is quietly manic.
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Jeri Jorden - Riots mp3 at Probe is Turning-On the People (scroll to session 188)
X Ray Spex - Oh Bondage Up Yours mp3 at Dancing Queen Records
X Ray Spex - Oh Bondage Up Yours mp3 at Dancing Queen Records
3 comments:
Yes! 'Bout time someone else discovered this mess of a gem! I, too, have seen that LP cover scan and I have no clue whether it is *THE* Jeri or not, but it very well COULD be, as the voice kinda matches the look, if that makes any sense.
RIOTS, to me, always sounds like the world's worst bar mitzvah band on acid. Yeah, you have that sax, but there is also an oboe or clarinet or SOMETHING else blowing for his life in the background. I can *never* get tired of that record if I am in need of a laugh.
Jeri had another record called "Baby Goes Walking On The Moon", and the backing band, while not as chaotic as RIOTS, is equally as laughable. My copy of BABY came with a photo-copied (mimeographed?) letter which apparently originated in the LBJ White House after the Jorden people seemingly sent him a copy of the record as some sort of weird good will gesture. My guess is that they copies the response letter and shoved it into the sleeves of the promo copies that were then distributed. I have to wonder if stock copies of these two bucket lids even exist?
Holy shit Chip, that has to be the longest span of time between post and comment that I've had. Alas, the link no longer leads to that song. For anybody who is curious about what the fuss is about, you can go to Probe's site at the link below and scroll down to "Session 188". Thanks for piping in with the additional info Chip! You win the Fiend of the Day award!
Once at Probe's page scroll down to Session 188:
http://www.philxmilstein.com/probe/04.htm
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