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From: andrew@grkermi.UUCP (Andrew W. Rogers)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Who is Toejam Jawallaby????
Message-ID: <685@grkermi.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 22-Oct-85 13:26:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: grkermi.685
Posted: Tue Oct 22 13:26:22 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 24-Oct-85 05:57:21 EDT
References: <1466@teddy.UUCP> <683@grkermi.UUCP>
Reply-To: andrew@grkermi.UUCP (Andrew W. Rogers)
Distribution: net
Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass.
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In article <683@grkermi.UUCP> andrew@grkermi.UUCP (Andrew W. Rogers) writes:
>In article <1466@teddy.UUCP> lkk@teddy.UUCP writes:
>>After all of this discussion touting Toejam Jawallaby... 
>>JUST WHO IS THIS GUY?  Does he solo, or is he part of a band...?
>
>Ever hear of the Masked Marauders?

Me and my big mouth!  Now I'm getting mail asking who the Masked Marauders
are!  OK, here goes...


The Masked Marauders were a hoax perpetrated by Rolling Stone back in 1969.
One of their staff writers, using the pseudonym T.M. Christian, concocted
a review of a nonexistent LP by the Masked Marauders, a "supergroup" who
supposedly consisted of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger,
et. al., and who allegedly recorded the LP "in a small studio near the site 
of the original Hudson's Bay Colony".

Needless to say, hordes of gullible, beat-crazed teens descended upon
unsuspecting record stores nationwide demanding the Masked Marauders album -
which of course did not exist.  (As I recall, the MM ruse coincided with the
"Paul Is Dead" rumors, which made it even more tantalizing!)

The story took a bizarre turn a couple weeks later when a Masked Marauders LP
*actually did* show up in the stores - with liner notes (attributed to the
same "T.M. Christian"), song titles, and label ("Deity") and matrix number
mimicking the Rolling Stone review!  It contained such gems as "Bob Dylan"
singing "Duke of Earl", a two-chord "Mick Jagger" tune called "Can't Get No
Nookie" (deemed "obscene" by the FCC), etc.  For the benefit of those who
still couldn't tell it was all a crock, the closing track contained the line
"I paid $3.98 for an album with Bob Dylan, John Lennon, et. al., and what did
I get?  THIS PIECE OF SHIT!"

It turns out that the MM album was the work of an obscure group called the
Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, who recorded it in order to see just
how much farther they could take the hoax.  I picked it up in a cutout bin
a couple years later, and will snail a copy of the liner notes upon request.

AWR