Friday, October 30, 2020

Demento's Mementos

We're quickly burning through the last few songs before the big day! Since this will be the last year of this blog, I want to make the last posts special. Today's combines several things I love, starting with one of the greatest radio personalities who has been spinning discs since 1970 and is still going strong today. 

Dr. Demento started as a regular radio DJ in L.A., but as he played more and more novelty records (such as a good number of the songs we've featured on this blog over the years), his fame and reputation grew. Soon his show was all novelty songs all the time. 

Dr. Demento not only helped launch the careers of people like Weird Al, but also introduced new listeners to music from the early days of recording, and helped bring novelty hits from the 50s and 60s back into the limelight. One of those songs was 1962's "Monster Mash," so it's quite likely this blog (and much Halloween music in general) wouldn't exist without The Dr. Demento Show! Dr. Demento legitimately knows his stuff, too--he has a Master's degree in folklore and ethnomusicology, and has written many music magazine articles and liner notes for albums. 

A couple of years ago, musician (and Dr. Demento fan) John Cafiero produced an album of punk covers of songs that originally aired on Dr. Demento's radio show. Dr. Demento Covered in Punk features such inspired pairings as William Shatner doing "Garbageman" by The Cramps and the cartoon character Brak doing "Institutionalized" by Suicidal Tendencies. Today's song comes from that album and is a cover of one of my favorite horror-obsessed artists, Roky Erickson. Quintron and Miss Pussycat put their singular touch on Roky's "Creature with the Atom Brain," utilizing one-man-band Quintron's tricked-out organ/synth sounds. Puppets bring the startling story of the Creature to life, with a very special puppet cameo by Dr. Demento halfway through!


Check out the producer of Dr. Demento Covered in Punk, John Cafiero, and his band Osaka Popstar doing the theme song to The Dr. Demento Show. Tar pits! Tar pits!


Lastly, here's a short news piece and interview with Dr. Demento about the album and his whole career. Don't forget to stay deeeeeeeee-mented!

No comments:

Post a Comment