Irwin Chusid
Encyclopedia
Irwin Chusid is a journalist
, music historian, radio personality and self-described "landmark preservationist." His stated mission has been to "find things on the scrapheap of history that I know don't belong there and salvage them." Those "things" have included such previously overlooked but now-celebrated icons as composer/bandleader/electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott
, Space Age Pop avatar Esquivel
, illustrator/fine artist Jim Flora
, various outsider music
ians, and The Langley Schools Music Project
.
Since 1975, Chusid has been a DJ on free-form radio station
WFMU
, where he continues to host an unpredictable and idiosyncratic weekly program. Prior to that, he worked briefly at WPKN
radio while a student at the University of Bridgeport
. In 1988, he served as a comedy writer for author/humorist Tom Bodett
's syndicated radio series, The End of the Road.
His journalism has appeared in Mojo
, The New York Times
, Film Comment
, Mix Magazine, New York Press
, Pulse
and other publications.
In the late 1970s, Chusid was one of the first DJs to regularly air recordings of Jandek
, The Shaggs
, Lucia Pamela
, and R. Stevie Moore
on the radio. In the early 1980s he programmed a weekly segment entitled The Atrocious Music Hour, which featured recordings from such non-musical celebrities as William Shatner
and Leonard Nimoy
. This sub-genre was eventually chronicled by Rhino Records on their Golden Throats
series of albums, for which Chusid authored liner notes. These compilations contributed to Shatner's revived celebrity, albeit with overtones of self-parody.
Between 1997-2002 Chusid was the co-host (with Michelle Boulé) of the Incorrect Music Hour on WFMU. From 2005 to 2007 he programed 72 hours of vintage Calypso
, Soca
and Mento
on a feature entitled Muriel's Treasure.
In 2004 Chusid curated Interesting Results for UK's Sonic Arts Network
, a CD-publication of DIY music with cut-out figures of the featured artists.
He has lived in Hoboken, New Jersey
since 1992.
, which helped spark the 1990s retro resurgence of exotica
and lounge music
. He compiled the first CD reissues of Esquivel and Raymond Scott
, and manages the musical estates of both deceased composers/bandleaders. He has produced landmark CD reissues by The Shaggs
, Wendy and Bonnie
, Judson Fountain
, and Lucia Pamela
, while penning liner notes for dozens of releases on a multitude of labels.
In 2000, Chusid discovered two LPs of privately-pressed western Canadian schoolchildren recordings made in 1976-77 by music teacher Hans Fenger. After much legwork and ten label rejections, Chusid licensed the project to Hoboken-based Bar/None Records
, who in October 2001 released the recordings on a CD entitled The Langley Schools Music Project
. Within one week of its release, the album went to #1 on Amazon.com. The popularity of that CD led to a VH1
documentary in 2002, which sent the CD back to #2 on Amazon.com. Jack Black
's 2003 hit film School of Rock
was admittedly inspired by the Langley CD. In 2005, the story rights to the project were acquired by an undisclosed Hollywood film writer/director, who hopes to bring the story to the big screen. In a dismissive review of the album, former Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau
referred to Chusid as "a tedious ideologue with a hustle."
In 2002, Chusid produced an album by the New York based septet The Raymond Scott Orchestrette. That same year he produced the first solo sessions of former Suddenly, Tammy!
singer/songwriter Beth Sorrentino
.
Chusid chronicled the forgotten work of innovative record cover artist/commercial illustrator Jim Flora
(1914-1998) in his colorful 180-page trade paperback, The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora (Fantagraphics, 2004). A follow-up, The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora, co-authored with (former KFAI
radio host) Barbara Economon, was published by Fantagraphics in February 2007. The latter book unveiled Flora's bizarre and rarely seen paintings, woodcuts, sketches, and early works. A third anthology, The Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora, was published in July 2009.
In May 2009, Chusid (and printmaker Barbara Economon) teamed up with Drew Friedman to produce an exclusive line of limited edition fine art prints
of the noted illustrator
's works at DrewFriedman.net.
", which he defines as "crackpot and visionary music, where all trails lead essentially one place: over the edge." Chusid has drawn a distinction—too often lost on deadline-beset journalists—between the terms "incorrect music" (as used on his WFMU radio program) and "outsider music," which he insists are not synonymous and overlap only slightly. Chusid has explained that Incorrect Music was a radio concept, which included all manner of musical "wrongness," often by people who should have known better, or whose sincerity was questionable. Outsider musicians, on the other hand, he defines as "artists who are often termed 'bad' or 'inept' by listeners who judge them by the standards of mainstream popular music. Yet despite dodgy rhythms and a lack of conventional tunefulness, these often self-taught artists radiate an abundance of earnestness and passion. Most importantly, they betray an absence of pretense. And they're worth listening to, often outmatching all contenders for inventiveness and originality."
His book Songs in the Key of Z
: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music (2000), published by A Cappella Books, covered musical oddballs and obscure visionaries. Reviewing this testament to twisted tunesmiths, Publishers Weekly
commented:
B.J. Snowden, Shooby Taylor
("The Human Horn"), Wesley Willis
, and other musicians profiled in the book can be heard on two CDs produced and annotated by Chusid. Bill Meyer reviewed the first CD:
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, music historian, radio personality and self-described "landmark preservationist." His stated mission has been to "find things on the scrapheap of history that I know don't belong there and salvage them." Those "things" have included such previously overlooked but now-celebrated icons as composer/bandleader/electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott was an American composer, band leader, pianist, engineer, recording studio maverick, and electronic instrument inventor....
, Space Age Pop avatar Esquivel
Juan García Esquivel
Juan García Esquivel often simply known as Esquivel!, was a Mexican band leader, pianist, and composer for television and films. He is recognized today as one of the foremost exponents of a sophisticated style of largely instrumental music that combines elements of lounge music and jazz with Latin...
, illustrator/fine artist Jim Flora
Jim Flora
James "Jim" Flora , best known for his distinctive and idiosyncratic album cover art for RCA Victor and Columbia Records during the 1940s and 1950s, was also a prolific commercial illustrator from the 1940s to the 1970s and the author/illustrator of 17 popular children's books...
, various outsider music
Outsider music
Outsider music, a term coined by Irwin Chusid in the mid-1990s, are songs and compositions by musicians who are not part of the commercial music industry who write songs that ignore standard musical or lyrical conventions, either because they have no formal training or because they disagree with...
ians, and The Langley Schools Music Project
The Langley Schools Music Project
The Langley Schools Music Project is a collection of recordings of children's choruses singing pop hits by the likes of The Beach Boys, David Bowie, and Paul McCartney...
.
Since 1975, Chusid has been a DJ on free-form radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
WFMU
WFMU
WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting at 91.1 MHz FM, presenting a freeform radio format...
, where he continues to host an unpredictable and idiosyncratic weekly program. Prior to that, he worked briefly at WPKN
WPKN
WPKN is a 100% non-commercial, listener-supported† radio station broadcasting at 89.5 FM in Bridgeport, Connecticut and formerly 88.7 FM in Montauk, New York. Its volunteer programmers present a wide variety of music and public affairs programming including the syndicated weekly radio news magazine...
radio while a student at the University of Bridgeport
University of Bridgeport
The University of Bridgeport is a private, independent, non-sectarian, coeducational university located on the Long Island Sound in the South End neighborhood of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The University is fully Accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges...
. In 1988, he served as a comedy writer for author/humorist Tom Bodett
Tom Bodett
Thomas Edward "Tom" Bodett is an American author, voice actor and radio host. He is also the current spokesman for the hotel chain Motel 6, whose commercials end with the phrase, "I'm Tom Bodett for Motel 6, and we'll leave the light on for ya."-Career:...
's syndicated radio series, The End of the Road.
His journalism has appeared in Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Film Comment
Film Comment
Film Comment is an arts and culture magazine published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, of which it is the official publication. Film Comment features critical reviews and in-depth analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world...
, Mix Magazine, New York Press
New York Press
New York Press was a free alternative weekly in New York City, that was published from 1988 to 2011. During its lifetime, it was the main competitor to the Village Voice...
, Pulse
Pulse
In medicine, one's pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the heartbeat by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed against a bone, such as at the neck , at the wrist , behind the knee , on the inside of the elbow , and near the...
and other publications.
In the late 1970s, Chusid was one of the first DJs to regularly air recordings of Jandek
Jandek
Jandek is the musical project of an anonymous outsider musician who operates out of Houston, Texas. Since 1978, Jandek has self-released over 60 albums of unusual, often emotionally dissolute folk and blues songs without ever granting more than the occasional interview or providing any biographical...
, The Shaggs
The Shaggs
The Shaggs were an American all-female rock group formed in Fremont, New Hampshire in 1968. The band was composed of sisters Dorothy "Dot" Wiggin , Betty Wiggin , Helen Wiggin , and later Rachel Wiggin ....
, Lucia Pamela
Lucia Pamela
Lucia Pamela was an American musician, bandleader, and eccentric. She is remembered today largely for an album and coloring book concerning an imaginary trip to the moon....
, and R. Stevie Moore
R. Stevie Moore
Robert Steven Moore is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. In addition to having numerous albums released on labels around the world, the prolific Moore has self-released over 400 cassette and CD-R albums since 1968, as well as dozens of home videos, mostly through the R. Stevie Moore...
on the radio. In the early 1980s he programmed a weekly segment entitled The Atrocious Music Hour, which featured recordings from such non-musical celebrities as William Shatner
William Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
and Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
. This sub-genre was eventually chronicled by Rhino Records on their Golden Throats
Golden Throats
Golden Throats is Rhino Records' series of humorous compilations of critically lambasted cover versions of songs, performed mostly either by celebrities known for something other than musical talent or musicians not known for the genre from which the song they are covering comes...
series of albums, for which Chusid authored liner notes. These compilations contributed to Shatner's revived celebrity, albeit with overtones of self-parody.
Between 1997-2002 Chusid was the co-host (with Michelle Boulé) of the Incorrect Music Hour on WFMU. From 2005 to 2007 he programed 72 hours of vintage Calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
, Soca
Soca music
Soca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, through loans from the 1960s onwards from predominantly black popular music....
and Mento
Mento
Mento is a style of Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music. It has its roots in calypso and other Jamaican folk music. Mento typically features acoustic instruments, such as acoustic guitar, banjo, hand drums, and the rhumba box — a large mbira in the...
on a feature entitled Muriel's Treasure.
In 2004 Chusid curated Interesting Results for UK's Sonic Arts Network
Sonic Arts Network
Sonic Arts Network was a UK-based organisation, established in 1979, that aimed to enable both audiences and practitioners to engage with the art of sound through a programme of festivals, events, commissions and education projects...
, a CD-publication of DIY music with cut-out figures of the featured artists.
He has lived in Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...
since 1992.
Projects
Chusid is credited with the rediscovery and popularization of the "space age bachelor pad" music of Juan García EsquivelJuan García Esquivel
Juan García Esquivel often simply known as Esquivel!, was a Mexican band leader, pianist, and composer for television and films. He is recognized today as one of the foremost exponents of a sophisticated style of largely instrumental music that combines elements of lounge music and jazz with Latin...
, which helped spark the 1990s retro resurgence of exotica
Exotica
Exotica is a musical genre, named after the 1957 Martin Denny album of the same title, popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s, typically with the suburban set who came of age during World War II. The musical colloquialism, exotica, means tropical ersatz: the non-native, pseudo experience of Oceania...
and lounge music
Lounge music
Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...
. He compiled the first CD reissues of Esquivel and Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott was an American composer, band leader, pianist, engineer, recording studio maverick, and electronic instrument inventor....
, and manages the musical estates of both deceased composers/bandleaders. He has produced landmark CD reissues by The Shaggs
The Shaggs
The Shaggs were an American all-female rock group formed in Fremont, New Hampshire in 1968. The band was composed of sisters Dorothy "Dot" Wiggin , Betty Wiggin , Helen Wiggin , and later Rachel Wiggin ....
, Wendy and Bonnie
Wendy and Bonnie
Wendy and Bonnie Flower were an American singing sister duo, who recorded the album, Genesis, in 1969 for Skye Records.The album was produced by Gary McFarland...
, Judson Fountain
Judson Fountain
Judson Fountain was an amateur actor-director who recorded a series of now-legendary "radio dramas" in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which are today hailed as a foremost example of "outsider dramatic art." He has been referred to as the "Ed Wood, Jr. of Radio Drama."The radio dramas were written,...
, and Lucia Pamela
Lucia Pamela
Lucia Pamela was an American musician, bandleader, and eccentric. She is remembered today largely for an album and coloring book concerning an imaginary trip to the moon....
, while penning liner notes for dozens of releases on a multitude of labels.
In 2000, Chusid discovered two LPs of privately-pressed western Canadian schoolchildren recordings made in 1976-77 by music teacher Hans Fenger. After much legwork and ten label rejections, Chusid licensed the project to Hoboken-based Bar/None Records
Bar/None Records
Bar/None Records is an independent record label based in Hoboken, New Jersey.-Early history:Tom Prendergast started Bar/None in early 1986. Having previously worked in pirate radio and booked and promoted bands in his native Ireland, Prendergast moved to Hoboken in 1982 and started Pier Platters...
, who in October 2001 released the recordings on a CD entitled The Langley Schools Music Project
The Langley Schools Music Project
The Langley Schools Music Project is a collection of recordings of children's choruses singing pop hits by the likes of The Beach Boys, David Bowie, and Paul McCartney...
. Within one week of its release, the album went to #1 on Amazon.com. The popularity of that CD led to a VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
documentary in 2002, which sent the CD back to #2 on Amazon.com. Jack Black
Jack Black
Jack Black , is an American actor and musician, notably of Tenacious D.Jack Black may also refer to:* Jack Black , late 19th - early 20th Century author and hobo* Jack Black , drummer for 1970s UK punk band The Boys...
's 2003 hit film School of Rock
School of Rock
School of Rock, also called The School of Rock, is a 2003 American musical comedy film directed by Richard Linklater, written by Mike White, and starring Jack Black...
was admittedly inspired by the Langley CD. In 2005, the story rights to the project were acquired by an undisclosed Hollywood film writer/director, who hopes to bring the story to the big screen. In a dismissive review of the album, former Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
referred to Chusid as "a tedious ideologue with a hustle."
In 2002, Chusid produced an album by the New York based septet The Raymond Scott Orchestrette. That same year he produced the first solo sessions of former Suddenly, Tammy!
Suddenly, Tammy!
Suddenly, Tammy! was an indie pop band from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Notable for its guitarless, piano-centric lineup, the band released a self-titled album in 1993 on spinART Records and a second album, We Get There When We Do on Warner Bros. Records in 1995...
singer/songwriter Beth Sorrentino
Beth Sorrentino
Beth Sorrentino is an American pianist and singer-songwriter from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.-Suddenly, Tammy!:In the early 1990s, Sorrentino, her brother Jay , and high school friend Ken Heitmueller formed the music trio Suddenly, Tammy!...
.
Chusid chronicled the forgotten work of innovative record cover artist/commercial illustrator Jim Flora
Jim Flora
James "Jim" Flora , best known for his distinctive and idiosyncratic album cover art for RCA Victor and Columbia Records during the 1940s and 1950s, was also a prolific commercial illustrator from the 1940s to the 1970s and the author/illustrator of 17 popular children's books...
(1914-1998) in his colorful 180-page trade paperback, The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora (Fantagraphics, 2004). A follow-up, The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora, co-authored with (former KFAI
KFAI
KFAI is a community radio station in Minnesota. The station broadcasts a wide variety of music, and also airs programming catering to many of the diverse ethnic groups of the region...
radio host) Barbara Economon, was published by Fantagraphics in February 2007. The latter book unveiled Flora's bizarre and rarely seen paintings, woodcuts, sketches, and early works. A third anthology, The Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora, was published in July 2009.
In May 2009, Chusid (and printmaker Barbara Economon) teamed up with Drew Friedman to produce an exclusive line of limited edition fine art prints
Giclée
Giclée , is a neologism coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne for fine art digital prints made on ink-jet printers. The name originally applied to fine art prints created on IRIS printers in a process invented in the late 1980s but has since come to mean any high quality ink-jet print and is...
of the noted illustrator
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
's works at DrewFriedman.net.
Outsider Music
In a 1996 Pulse magazine article, Chusid coined the term "outsider musicOutsider music
Outsider music, a term coined by Irwin Chusid in the mid-1990s, are songs and compositions by musicians who are not part of the commercial music industry who write songs that ignore standard musical or lyrical conventions, either because they have no formal training or because they disagree with...
", which he defines as "crackpot and visionary music, where all trails lead essentially one place: over the edge." Chusid has drawn a distinction—too often lost on deadline-beset journalists—between the terms "incorrect music" (as used on his WFMU radio program) and "outsider music," which he insists are not synonymous and overlap only slightly. Chusid has explained that Incorrect Music was a radio concept, which included all manner of musical "wrongness," often by people who should have known better, or whose sincerity was questionable. Outsider musicians, on the other hand, he defines as "artists who are often termed 'bad' or 'inept' by listeners who judge them by the standards of mainstream popular music. Yet despite dodgy rhythms and a lack of conventional tunefulness, these often self-taught artists radiate an abundance of earnestness and passion. Most importantly, they betray an absence of pretense. And they're worth listening to, often outmatching all contenders for inventiveness and originality."
His book Songs in the Key of Z
Songs in the Key of Z
Songs in the Key of Z is the title of a book and two compilation albums written and compiled by Irwin Chusid. The book and albums explore the field of what Chusid coined as "outsider music"...
: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music (2000), published by A Cappella Books, covered musical oddballs and obscure visionaries. Reviewing this testament to twisted tunesmiths, Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
commented:
- He profiles 20 darlings of dissonance. Several of them -- including Tiny TimTiny Tim (musician)Tiny Tim , , born in Manhattan, was an American singer and ukulele player. He was most famous for his rendition of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" sung in a distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice.-Rise to fame:Born to Lebanese parents in 1932, Khaury displayed musical talent at a very young age...
, Captain BeefheartCaptain BeefheartDon Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
and Pink FloydPink FloydPink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
's former acid troubadour Syd BarrettSyd BarrettSyd Barrett , born Roger Keith Barrett, was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and painter, best remembered as a founding member of the band Pink Floyd. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter during the band's psychedelic years, providing major musical and stylistic...
-- have made a few compilation bangs, but the great majority have enjoyed mere dog-like whimpers of success. Take Eilert PilarmEilert PilarmEilert Dahlberg , who uses the stage name Eilert Pilarm is a Swedish Elvis impersonator.He gained fame when he performed on Morgonpasset in 1992....
, the Swedish Elvis; Joe MeekJoe MeekRobert George "Joe" Meek was a pioneering English record producer and songwriter....
, who produced the 1962 instrumental hit 'Telstar' before committing suicideSuicideSuicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
; and The ShaggsThe ShaggsThe Shaggs were an American all-female rock group formed in Fremont, New Hampshire in 1968. The band was composed of sisters Dorothy "Dot" Wiggin , Betty Wiggin , Helen Wiggin , and later Rachel Wiggin ....
, three sheltered sisters from Fremont, N.H., who recorded the 'aboriginal rock' masterpiece 'Philosophy of the World'. Careful not to ridicule his more eccentrically volatile subjects (e.g., Wesley WillisWesley WillisWesley Willis was a musician and artist from Chicago. A diagnosed chronic schizophrenic, he gained an enormous cult following in the 1990s after releasing several hundred songs of simple but unique music, with emphasis on his humorous, bizarre, and frequently obscene lyrics...
and Daniel JohnstonDaniel JohnstonDaniel Dale Johnston is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and artist. Johnston was the subject of the 2006 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. He currently lives in Waller, Texas....
), Chusid narrates each musician's vital statistics and career with rhythm and respectful compilation wit. The book also includes brief profiles of numerous lesser-known outsider musicians, including ArcesiaArcesiaJohn Anthony Arcesi was an American singer of Jazz and Popular songs.-Early life:Born John Anthony Arcesi in Sayre, Pennsylvania on February 11, 1917. John's father Antonio Arcesi,, and his mother, Maria Marchinne, were born in Sezze, Italy...
, Bingo GazingoBingo GazingoMurray Wachs, better known as Bingo Gazingo , was an elderly poet and former postal worker from New York City. Two versions, each also titled Bingo Gazingo, have been released of the only single-artist album ever released by WFMU -- the first on cassette, the second on CD...
, and Y. BhekhirstY. BhekhirstY. Bhekhirst is an outsider musician based in New Hyde Park, New York. Although not much is known about him, his sole known record, Hot in the Airport, released in 1986 and re-released in 1994 on New Hyde Park-based label HDG Records, is prized by some outsider music collectors for its decidedly...
.
B.J. Snowden, Shooby Taylor
Shooby Taylor
William "Shooby" Taylor is famous for scat singing over various records, including the Ink Spots, the Harmonicats and Cristy Lane in a baritone voice...
("The Human Horn"), Wesley Willis
Wesley Willis
Wesley Willis was a musician and artist from Chicago. A diagnosed chronic schizophrenic, he gained an enormous cult following in the 1990s after releasing several hundred songs of simple but unique music, with emphasis on his humorous, bizarre, and frequently obscene lyrics...
, and other musicians profiled in the book can be heard on two CDs produced and annotated by Chusid. Bill Meyer reviewed the first CD:
- This collection is a compilation companion to Irwin Chusid's book of the same name. It celebrates outsider music, music "so wrong it's right," and if you're drawn to sounds that make you wonder just what the musician was thinking, this collection is for you. The compilation is enthusiastically, if not always respectfully, annotated by Chusid. His selections range from the output of blissfully un-self-aware but basically functional individuals to the certifiably insane. Among the former are Lucia Pamela, an Ethel Merman sound-alike who contributes an infectiously enthusiastic celebration of "Walking on the Moon," and Congress-Woman Malinda Jackson Parker, a late Liberian lawmaker whose "Cousin Mosquito #1" cautioned against contracting insect-borne disease. The latter includes compilation Daniel Johnson, whose "Walking the Cow" weds a sublime melody to puzzling lyrics and a toy keyboard arrangement, and Wesley Willis, who pays tribute to Chicago's "Rock 'n' Roll McDonald's." Some of the artists are quite famous (Tiny Tim), some anonymous (the unknown writer and performers of song-poem "Virgin Child of the Universe")--they're united by their blithe certitude that the world needed to hear their unlikely but singular creations.
External links
- Archives of Incorrect Music radio show
- WFMU: Irwin Chusid
- RaymondScott.com content by Irwin Chusid and Jeff Winner
- http://www.jimflora.com/ Jim Flora Gallery
- http://www.keyofz.com/ Songs in the Key of Z - outsider music project
- AIGA interview with Irwin Chusid about the Jim Flora Archives
- Chronicle about the Langley Schools Music Project recordings
- Irwin Chusid's Shooby Taylor Journal
- Interview with Irwin Chusid, "Psalms in the Key of Z," MungBeing.com
- Interview with Irwin Chusid, "The Outsiders," Baltimore City Paper, 2001
- Interview with Irwin Chusid by Coury Turczyn, PopCult Magazine, 2005