|
|
Sick trips and red lips: the enigmatic
Gary Wilson
From out of an Endicott, New York basement in 1977
came a brilliantly insane record almost no one heard. A short run
self-released LP, Gary Wilson’s You Think You Really Know Me featured
titles like “Chromium Bitch” and the enigmatic “6.4 = Make Out.”
Copies were passed hand-to-hand and dorm room to dorm room, and it
became a strange-beyond-words underground classic. Luckily for
long-time adherents and those new to the Gary Wilson phenomenon, there
is renewed interest in his avant garde work.
You Think You Really Know Me is less ahead of its time than it exists
almost entirely outside of time. It was recorded by the then
24-year-old Wilson, almost single-handedly, on a 4-track reel-to-reel
in his father’s basement. In places it is lounge-act smooth,
reminiscent of Steely Dan with a Love Unlimited Orchestra
attitude. Still, there is simply no other recording quite like
it. Gary’s insistent garage band crooner voice evokes an obsessive
teenager in love with Linda, then Cindy, then Karen. His lyrical
universe is frozen at that anguished moment when going to the dance
and making out are life’s zeniths- all the while depression, losing
control, and self-destruction might be just around the next hazardous
turn. The album has the soundscape quality of a single work that is
meant to be heard from start to finish. Its stand-out moments are
many: key recurring phrases like “sick trip” and “Make Out!,” lyrics
like “I Wanna Lose Control for about 15 minutes,” the maniacal
repetition of “She’s a real groovy girl/And she’s got red lips,” and
the fabulous couplet “Cindy makes out just like a mink/Yeah, Cindy
makes out, she’s the missing link” are but a few. Add a collage of
sometimes disturbing sound effects and lines punctuated with his
characteristic “Ha!” and “WOOOO!,” plus punk-influenced cover art.
You’ve got the outline of the Gary Wilson mix.
After a stint in bands including Lord Fuzz – who once opened for the
1910 Fruitgum Company – and Dr. Zork and the Warts, Wilson recorded
his first album, Another Galaxy, in 1973-1974 as the leader of the
Gary Wilson Trio. The trio actually recorded with four players in all:
Chris Putrino on guitar, Gary Iacovelli on drums, Frank Roma on
saxophone, and Gary Wilson on stand-up bass and piano. The music of
the instrumental jazz project was more traditional than what has
become the Gary Wilson sound, but the stage antics had already begun
to get interesting: “I remember playing some gigs with the jazz trio
where I would wrap myself up in duct tape and connect myself to the
string bass. I remember taping the whole band together with duct tape
and trying to play.”
Going to New York City and hearing lots of avant garde jazz and
classical music deeply influenced the young Gary Wilson. Listening to
“all sorts of music” in the 70’s informed the work he was to create,
especially composer John Cage and Dion, who he mentions as his overall
favorites. Other admired musicians he mentions include Christian
Wolff, Morton Feldman, David Tudor, Herbie Hancock, Cecil Taylor,
Burton Green, and Anthony Braxton. Wilson eventually realized that
“New York City [audiences were] more receptive to [his] music” than
upstate New York listeners and he began to play at the legendary club
CBGB’s in 1976. Punk rock clubs became the most suitable for his show.
After the 1977 release of You Think You Really Know Me, Gary and his
band—by then The Blind Dates, with Gary on lead vocals and keyboards,
Butch Bottino on bass, Dave Haney on drums, and Joey Lunga on
additional vocals and keyboards—moved out to San Diego where they
played in local venues and made a few rare recordings. Gary Wilson and
the Blind Dates returned to the East Coast to play three shows at
CBGB’s once again on August 23rd-25th, 1979. The notorious band Steel
Tips opened for them on August 23rd, 1979. Mi-kel McDonnell, then a
member of Steel Tips, remembers: “My friend Jacy had given us an
advance copy of Gary’s stuff. We were all very impressed that he
recreated the album so well with The Blind Dates. The only difference
was that there was less synthesizer & more funky Farfisa organ.”
Gary’s way of starting off the show was particularly memorable. “Gary
started the night by just reciting girls’ names, which seemed to go on
forever. Then he ended the intro with repeating something like ‘All
the girls in the world are for me!’ They were definitely in a league
of their own.”
In time, it began to get more difficult to book the eccentric show. In
the early 80’s Wilson played bass with bluesmen Roy Brown and Percy
Mayfield. His current girlfriend of 23 years, Bernadette Allen, was
then a graduate student at UCSD in San Diego and they did some
experimental shows and videos together. “Every now and then The Gary
Wilson Band would play, but after a while you accept your fate and
things slow down,” Wilson recalls.
However, some did continue to carry the torch for Wilson’s music. In
1991, Cry Baby Records, a Philadelphia Record Exchange label,
re-released a vinyl edition of You Think You Really Know Me. Fans who
had been turned on to Gary but only had cassette tapes of the original
LP were able to view a red colorized version of the album’s original
black and white artwork—which includes pictures of Gary lying in a
corner entangled in what looks like tape, wire, and newspaper—for the
first time. Beck pays tribute in “Where It’s At” from his 1996 Odelay
album: “Passin' the dutchie from coast to coast/Like my man Gary
Wilson rocks the most.”
Most recently, Gary Wilson’s work has been released on Motel Records.
“A friend of Christina [Bates] and Adrian [Milan] played them a copy
of You Think You Really Know Me,” Wilson explains. “The friend was
Ross Harris who also turned Beck on to the recording.” Eventually,
Bates and Milan were able to track Wilson down through his friend
Vince Rossi. An appropriate addition to his mystique, they found him
in San Diego, where he was playing in a lounge band and working at a
24-hour adult bookstore. In April 2002, Motel released You Think You
Really Know Me for the first time on CD to much indie buzz and
acclaim. It includes great liner notes and photos, and its front cover
features the colorized Cry Baby Records version of the LP cover. The
black and white version is seen on the front of the CD booklet insert.
Audiophiles laud You Think You Really Know Me for its high recording
quality, especially for a home recording. A few articles on Wilson’s
work have appeared in The Absolute Sound. In Stereophile Magazine
(December 2002), all three pressings of You Think You Really Know Me
were used as a reference for testing high end stereo equipment
alongside classic artists’ work like Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, Jeff
Beck's Guitar Shop, Grandmaster Flash's The Message, and John Cage’s
Third Construction:
…it was very easy to hear that the 1991 reissue (Cry Baby BH03)
flawlessly replicated the natural, extended tonal balance of the
vocals and instruments on the original 1977 release (Gary Wilson
GW001). Furthermore, it was clear that the mastering of the 2002
reissue (Motel MRLP007) had boosted the bass a few dB, and that the
midrange was now richer and more holographic, along with some
compression in highly modulated high-frequency passages compared to
the earlier pressings. In January 2003, Motel released Forgotten Lovers, a collection of his
works recorded from 1973 to 1979, including tracks from Another Galaxy
by The Gary Wilson Trio. Wilson’s personal favorite tracks on the new
CD are “Chrome Lover” and the title track, “Forgotten Lovers.”
So far, being on stage again at select performances after the
re-release of You Think You Really Know Me has been a good experience
for Wilson. “In the old days, the audience would get mad at my band,”
he remembers. “They would yell at us and throw things at
us.” Performing for audiences unused to shows involving flour,
chocolate milk, and duct tape coupled with a bizarre indefinable
sound, there were times the band even needed a police escort from the
clubs. “Now it seems the audience, for the most part, likes what I
do,” says Wilson.
Andy Gesner, owner of Hip Video Promo and leader of the grassroots
musical collective, Artist Amplification, is a devoted Gary Wilson
fan. He had the opportunity to see a show during Wilson’s 2-night
appearance at Joe’s Pub in New York City. “The room was electric,”
Gesner said about the May 18th, 2002 show. “It was surreal. It was
like if Captain Beefheart came back and played one show… an artist you
thought you’d never get to see.” He was thrilled to meet the artist
he’d listened to and wondered about for so many years. Hoping there
would be more performances in the future, he asked Wilson, “Are you
going to be playing anymore?” Wilson just smiled and said, “Not
tonight.” Gesner characterized Wilson’s odd appearance. “He was a
small, fragile man covered in white powder and lipstick. I could
analyze what it all means, but I’m not sure if that’s something I’m
willing to do,” he laughed. Unlike Wilson’s early performances,
instead of throwing things, many in the enthusiastic audience sang
along with every word.
Gary Wilson acknowledges that many of his songs are about tortured
relationships. He recognizes both happiness and loss as
influences. “Most of my songs come from traumatic or happy things that
have happened to me. The death of my mother when I was 19 was very
hard on me.”
“All the songs I write are about real girls I have dated,” he
continues. “Cindy, Linda, Karen… Some I dated longer, some only a one
night stand… always looking for love.” After so many years, he still
feels a connection to the old tunes. “I still feel these songs from
the past and the feelings…weigh heavy on me and reflect in my current
state of being.” He’s “just a bit older and more mature,” he reports.
Perhaps the pain in his past points him in the direction of his simple
and nonviolent life philosophy. “I try to get through life with a
minimum of stress and believe in the golden rule ‘do onto others as
you want done to you.’ I become angry when I see people sport fishing
and hunting. When did it become acceptable to enjoy killing fish and
animals? When I see people fishing on TV, it drives me crazy. These
people enjoy holding the fish up as it struggles for its last breath.
Horrible.”
Wilson often listens to classical music these days. However, he
recently bought an eight-channel recorder, so he “listens to [him]self
the most.” This is good news. Not one to stray too far from a theme, a
new CD called Mary Had Brown Hair has seen limited independent release
with a wider label release pending. “I always try to stay true to what
Gary Wilson is all about and what I should sound like,” he says. “I
write many songs, and they have to pass my expectations to make it to
my list.”
One song that has long perplexed fans is “6.4=Make Out.” For those who
have for years pondered the age-old question of why on earth 6.4
should equal Make Out and have had nary a hope for an answer, your
wait is over. In part, Wilson simply liked the way “6.4=Make Out"
sounded and looked in printed form. But now for the whole truth: “In
the early days I had read that certain beers had 6.4 percent
alcohol. Also that the average size of an erect penis was 6.4 inches.”
The Word according to Gary. Ah, the stuff that make out parties are
made of.
- Robin Renée, july 17, 2003 (revised september 14, 2004)
Sources:
◦ Gesner, Andy, phone interview, July 17, 2003
◦
McDonnell, Mi-kel, phone interview, July 17, 2003
◦
Milan, Adrian and Bates, Christina, liner notes, You
Think You Really Know Me (Motel Records, April 2002)
◦
Milan, Adrian, liner notes, Forgotten Lovers (Motel
Records, January 2003)
◦
Reina, Robert J., “Clearaudio
Virtuoso Wood MM phono cartridge”, December 2002
◦
Webster, Jacy, phone interview, January 2003
◦
Wilson, Gary, e-mail interview, January 2003
Robin
Renée is a singer/songwriter and freelance writer whose current CD
release is All Six Senses. Her essays have appeared in That
Takes Ovaries! - Bold Females and their Brazen Acts (Random House)
and Blessed Bi Spirit: Bisexual People of Faith (Continuum
Press).
Her website is
www.robinrenee.com.
Gary Wilson links
◦
More
columns/articles/reviews
◦
Gary
Wilson CD review |
