National Lampoon June 1973

National Lampoon

June 1973

June, 1973, and atop the singles charts is Paul McCartney and Wings, with 'My Love.'

The June issue of the National Lampoon has the theme of 'violence.' This is one of the year's better issues: some good stuff in its pages.

 

This is the golden era of album oriented rock, and the advertising reflects this. A couple of memorable album releases: Houses of the Holy, and the 'red' and 'blue' Beatles compilations (when, in 1978, I bought my very first LPs, these two were the ones). 

Todd Rundgren and Johnny Winter also get the full-page ad treatment.....

 

The Lampoon's stage show, Lemmings, enjoys critical praise, and releases an LP. Two years later, Lemmings would morph into Saturday Night Live.

 

Chris Rush (the stage name of Christopher John Mistretta, 1946 - 2018) is rather obscure now, but back in the early 1970s he was successful enough as a comedian to get his own LP released. You can find tracks from First Rush on YouTube. The bits are a bit dated (who under the age of 60 is familiar with the book 'The Naked Ape' ?), so I can't see modern audiences responding to the material........

Bob Guccione and Penthouse get themselves a full-page ad, too........!

The comic book satire, 'Kit and Kaboodle,' takes brilliant aim at the inherently brutal nature of 'funny animal' comics and cartoons. 

The Lampoon's 'house' cartoonist Charles Rodriguez provides 'Hemophunnies.' For some reason the magazine prints the blood in a shade of pink ?!

  

 

The Lampoon satirizes gun culture with Gun Lust, a magazine parody.

And.......let's not overlook the 'Foto Funnies' and the chance for boobies ! That's right, while back in '73 most newsstands, and five-and-dime stores, and pharmacies, had their 'adult' magazines wrapped in plastic or paper, the Lampoon usually was not, meaning enterprising adolescents could sneak a look inside, and be rewarded.......... 

Chris Miller's short story, 'Is it Still 'Playing' Post Office' features a novice mail deliverer who encounters some strange goings-on, in the affluent neighborhood of Sylvan Estates.

Let's close our trip back in time 53 years ago with some cartoons from Gahan Wilson and Vaughn Bode and Jeff Jones. As always, Jones's 'Idyll' is weird and obtuse. Hurry up and get that sex change operation already, Jeffy !

 

 

And so we say 'farewell' to that long-ago year 1973 AD, when 75 cents could buy you an issue of the National Lampoon......... 

America: Original Album Series

If you're a Baby Boomer, then you grew up with the music of the band 'America,' and their brand of mellow folk-rock. From 1972, with 'A Horse with No Name,' until 1982 and 'You Can Do Magic,' they were a staple of top 40 radio.

 

First released by Rhino Records in 2012, America: Original Album Series is a boxed set of CDs representing the band's first five albums: A Horse with No Name (1972), Homecoming (1972), Hat Trick (1973), Holiday (1974), and Hearts (1975). Available from your usual online retailers for under $20, this is a very affordable way to access all the band's bigger hits (only 'Today's the Day' (1976) and 'You Can Do Magic' do not appear here).

I'm not an Audio Snob, so I can't go into detail on the sound qualities of these CDs, but to my ears, they sound fine. America was a stripped-down group in the early years, and their folk sound can be thin and strained at times, so not having a 'high-fi' reproduction quality maybe doesn't matter all that much ?

As far as overlooked gems, well, I've discovered a few: 'California Revisited,' a Dan Peek from Homecoming, is a solid folk-rock tune that probably would've done well as a single. But truth be told, many tracks on these five albums are rather underwhelming; more like demos pressed into service, than fully-fleshed tunes.
 

In any event, Baby Boomers wanting an affordable package of seminal folk-rock rock songs will want a copy of this Original Album Series. And younger folks interested in 70s 'mellow' classic rock sounds (like they hear on the Sirius XM channel 'The Bridge') may want to take a look as well.

Book Review: The Texts of Festival by Mick Farren

Book Review: 'The Texts of Festival' by Mick Farren

5 / 5 Stars

'The Texts of Festival' first was published in 1973; this Avon Books paperback edition was issued in November, 1975, with the cover artist uncredited.

 

This was the first published novel for Farren (1943 - 2013) and reflects his background as a rock musician.

 

'Texts' is set in a near-future, post-apocalyptic UK (the eponymous, ramshackle city of Festival presumably once was London). Technology is at a 19th century level, save for some decaying amplifiers and record players whose public playing of the 'texts' (i.e., LPs) from such classic rock artists as the Doors and Bob Dylan serve a quasi-religious purpose in the cultural life of Festival.

 

In the novel's opening pages we are introduced to a number of characters, some of whom come to rather abrupt endings in terms of life expectancy. Farren uses these passages to emphasize that in this post-apocalyptic UK, life is nasty, brutal, and short. 

 

The main premise of 'Texts' is that a large force of raiders has been assembled through the machinations of one Iggy, a meth addict gifted with a touch of military genius. Iggy has persuaded Oltha, the leader of the Tribals, to join forces with Iggy's band of methheads, and attack Festival. Iggy is industrious in gathering firearms, including automatic rifles, no small task in the wasteland. With this firepower, and the liberal use of meth, Iggy is confident of success. For their part, Oltha and the Tribals are looking forward to a booty of liquor and women.

 

Joe Starkweather, an older man of considerable standing in Festival due to his role in leading the people to victory in past wars against wasteland factions, gets word of the raider army. He tries to gather the communities of Festival into a joint defense, but the Merchant Quarter refuses to donate their considerable stores of arms and ammunition to any communal effort. Further complicating Starkweather's efforts is the ruler of Festival, a dissipated sybarite named Valentine. In his drug-fueled egomania, Valentine believes he alone is best qualified to lead the defense of the city, leaving Starkweather with no choice but to plan for expediencies.

 

As the raider army sets off on its march to conquest, sides will be drawn, desperate plans put into motion, and the survival of the city dependent on a brutal, no-quarter combat between the raiders, and Joe Starkweather, Frankie Lee, Mac the Smith, Harry Krishna, Claudette, and the rest of Festival's defenders......

 

At 174 pages in length, 'Texts' delivers a stripped-down narrative, with little space for the authorial indulgences of most New Wave Era sci-fi. Indeed, the novel reads more as a Western than sci-fi. There are plentiful scenes of action and violence, with the latter content quite explicit by the standards of early 70s sci-fi. Farren is good at composing his fight sequences, and the final confrontation between the raiders and the city is suspenseful, while keeping the reader uncertain as to the outcome. 

 

In closing, 'The Texts of Festival' belongs to that sub-genre of post-apocalyptic, wasteland-centered sci-fi that began with 'Damnation Alley' (1969) and continued with Charles W. Runyon's 'Pig World' (1971), and Suzy McKee Charnas's 'Walk to the End of the World' (1974). With these novels it shares a downbeat, nihilistic tenor that paved the way for the gleefully transgressive attitudes of contemporary properties like the Fallout video games. 

 

I'm comfortable with giving 'Texts' a Five Star Rating, but readers are directed to the 'Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations' blog for a different opinion of the novel's worthiness.

Penthouse June 1976

Penthouse

June, 1976

June, 1976, and the top 40 chart reveals the impact of disco, with some classic boogie-oogie tunes present on the chart. Also appearing is 'Shannon,' by Sha Na Na band member Henry Gross. A song about Beach Boys member Carl Wilson's dog, Gross's falsetto, in an era before Auto-tune, is amazing.

The latest issue of Penthouse magazine is on the stands, and it contains an advertisement for 'Calcutta Cloth,' a brand of leisure suits designed for summer weather. If nowadays they made these, and in a neutral color (as opposed to peach and canary yellow), I might buy them. Whether I would wear them in public, is uncertain....
 

There are some good articles in this issue. Anthony Pearson's 'A Conspiracy of Silence' examines the destruction of the U.S. spy ship Liberty at the hands of the Israelis in June, 1967. Lyndon Baines Johnson, the President at that time, suppressed reporting about the attack in order to avoid turning American opinion against Israel in the Seven Day War.

During the Seventies and Eighties East Asian religious organizations set up shop, with some success, in the USA. One of these was the 'Unification Church,' founded by the North Korean-born reverend Sung Myung Moon. By the mid-70s the antics of the so-called 'Moonies' were gathering attention, such as this article by Michael Pousner, which portrays the cult in something of a negative light.

The Interview is with Vincent Bugliosi (1934 - 2015) who gained fame for prosecuting the Manson Family for the 1969 Tate - LaBianca murders. Bugliosi's greatest talent was in self-promotion........

The fiction piece in this June issue is a neat little tale, set in the USA of 1997, titled 'The Technician.' Author Michael Rogers posits a near-future America where Christian fundamentalists are the major political power. The first-person narrator is a drug dealer who makes a mistake..........a mistake with hazardous consequences. This is the kind of story that would be a little too edgy for Omni (which would debut two years later).

A portfolio is devoted to Chelsea Eriksen, a young lady with 'long blonde hair' and 'ice blue eyes,' and a 'free and easy California spirit.' The photos capture the California sensibility of the 1970s - an era now become myth - and the accompanying Earth Tone aesthetic. Quite a package, if you ask me........

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so we say farewell to June of '76, fifty years ago, when life was a little less complicated and colored in beige, brown, and gold.

How it was, 47 years ago

 

The mass-market paperback edition of Norman Spinrad's 'A World Between' was published in the Fall of 1979, so that may be around when this photograph was taken 

Book Review: Legion from the Shadows by Karl Edward Wagner

Book Review: 'Legion from the Shadows' by Karl Edward Wagner

3 / 5 Stars

'Legion from the Shadows' (253 pp.) was published by Zebra Books in April, 1976, and features cover artwork by Jeff Jones.

 

I remember picking up this book in that Spring of '76, and thinking it was OK........how does it hold up when re-read some fifty years later ?

 

'Legion' is a sequel of sorts to the Robert E. Howard short story 'Worms of the Earth,' first published in Weird Tales in the fall of 1932, and subsequently reprinted in the Zebra Books compilation of Bran Mak Morn tales, 'Worms of the Earth' (1975). 

As with 'Worms of the Earth,' 'Legion' is set in Caledonia (i.e., Scotland), circa 208 A.D. Although the events of 'Worms' have led to a setback for Roman plans to bring more of the northern British Isles under their control, Lucius Alfenus Senecio, the governor of Britain, is intent on renewing the effort. As 'Legion' opens, a Roman outpost has been established in the highlands, and Bran Mak Morn, the king of the Picts, has gathered a force of several thousand barbarians to lay siege to the outpost. 

 

As Mak Morn prepares for the assault on the outpost, a scout comes running with astonishing news: the entire Roman garrison has been eliminated, and the outpost destroyed. Bran finds disturbing evidence that his allies from 'Worms,' the so-called serpent-folk of the tunnels and burrows that lie beneath the earth, have struck out at the unsuspecting Romans.

 

Mak Morn learns that the witch-woman Atla, and the Roman legate Claudius Nero, have raised an army in the labyrinthian depths. They have a proposal for Mak Morn: an alliance of the Picts and the subterraneans, for the purpose of driving the Romans back into permanent shelter behind Hadrian's Wall. 

 

While Mak Morn has little love for the Romans, the idea of an alliance with Atla and Nero is poisoned by the latter's decision to hold Mak Morn's sister Morgain as hostage. Mak Morn embarks on a hazardous quest to traverse the underground empire of the serpent-folk, find and free Morgain, and return her to the Pictish fortress of Baal-Dor. Whether he wants it or not, Mak Morn will have the aid of the mysterious warrior-woman Liuba. But as Mak Morn is to discover, two warriors against the entirety of the Worms of the Earth makes for poor odds.........  

'Legion' is a workmanlike effort from author Wagner, who deploys the sort of pulpish sword-and-sorcery prose style in wide use in the 1970s. Readers should have a thesaurus handy for 'rubrous,' 'actinian,' 'cantrips,' 'acclivities,' 'lancinations,' and 'boskage.'

 

Most of the narrative takes place within the tunnels and burrows of the subterraneans, which handicaps the plot: our hero spends most of his time stumbling around in the dark, reacting to various forays perpetrated by Nero and Atla. Since Bran Mak Morn is even dumber than Conan, it's often a matter of some well-timed intervention by other parties that saves him from death (or at the least, mutilation).

 

The closing chapter of the novel restores some badly-needed action and import to the plot, but coming after too many interminable sequences that should have, and could have, been trimmed from 'Legion,' it fails to raise the novel above a middling, Three Star Rating. This novel mainly is for Karl Edward Wagner completists.