LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

Imagine the following scene taking place in San Francisco, a few months pre-Altamont, circa mid-October, 1969. Rock 'n' roll scribe T.M. Christian has just turned in a favorable review of The Masked Marauders' debut album to his editor at Rolling Stone Magazine.Now, further imagine the Rolling Stone Copy Editor looking over Christian's review with bemusement as he wonders just who this new reviewer is and why he's never met the man. Nevertheless, he scans Christian's review of this group's eponymous effort, reading how the group members have been forced to conceal their true identities for "contractual reasons", but reads that the album's recordings were the combined efforts from a one-off session by John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan.Christian proceeds to describe the contents therein, writing that the double-LP opens side one with an 18-minute version of Donovan's "Season Of The Witch", which features Bob Dylan's lead vocal doing a "superb imitation of early Donovan", and features a stellar performance by Paul McCartney, playing both bass and piano in a duet with himself. There are versions of "With A Little Help From My Friends" and "In The Midnight Hour"… Side four features Bob Dylan's "Cow Pie", and Mick Jagger's new instant classic, "I Can't Get No Nookie."If you've read this far and haven't already sussed it for yourself, The Masked Marauders' album reviewed in the pages of Rolling Stone regretfully never existed. Christian was none other than Rolling Stone scribe Greil Marcus having a bit of fun at the expense of his readers. A few weeks later, on Wednesday, October 18, 1969, Ralph J. Gleason, a writer for The San Francisco Chronicle, broke the news in his "On The Town" column that the whole thing was a joke, calling the review "a delightful bit of instant mythology."Marcus and fellow Rolling Stone critic/editor Langdon Winner decided to take the gag a step further by recruiting a group from Berkeley called The Cleanliness And Godliness Skiffle Band to go into the studio and record a group of songs somewhat matching those described in the original Rolling Stone review, right down to imitating the voices of the famous singers putatively involved. Incidentally, The Cleanliness And Godliness Skiffle Band, who have been described as "an 'acid'-influenced skiffle band", were the real deal. Marcus took the tapes down to KMPX-FM, another local San Francisco radio station, who put them on the air. Almost immediately the switchboards lit up with excited callers wanting to know more about the band.The Masked Marauders cut a deal for $15,000 with Warner Bros., and their album was released on Deity Records. The record company didn't want to fully mislead music buyers, of course, and so they included the original Rolling Stone review by Marcus, err... "T.M. Christian," who also penned the album's tongue-in-cheek liner notes. And so, with this release, the notorious saga of The Masked Marauders is happily revived. The Complete Deity Recordings has been remastered from the original STEREO master tapes and includes the group's only single in its original MONO version. The Complete Deity Recordings is available as an individually numbered limited edition of 2,000 copies.
TRACK LISTING I Can't Get No Nookie (5:29 ) Duke Of Earl (3:21 ) Cow Pie (2:18 ) I Am The Japanese Sandman (Rang Tang Ding Dong) (3:45) The Book Of Love (2:21 ) Later (1:11 ) More Or Less Hudson's Bay Again (3:31) Season Of The Witch (10:13 ) Saturday Night At The Cow Palace (1:30) Cow Pie (MONO Single Version) (2:18 ) I Can't Get No Nookie (MONO Single Version) (5:02)