365 Days #17 - The Dope King's Last Stand (mp3s)
MP3:
1 The Dope King's Last Stand - Side 1 (25:14)
2 The Dope King's Last Stand - Side 2 (23:05)
Drugs, Violence, Patriotism, Comedy... The whole ball of wax wrapped up in a package aimed at kids. Found this record in the late 1990s at a Seattle thrift store (most likely the goodwill if memory serves me right). When I found it I was familiar with "Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay" having had it on vinyl for years but this one I had never seen at the time, and still it is a bit harder to find (but now download and thrill to the exciting story and lessons contained within!)
The record sports an all star cast featuring the talents of President Jimmy Carter, Lily Tomlin, Arlo Guthrie, Pat Boone, Jayne Kennedy, The Great Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, Billie Jean King, Hoyt Axton, Rosey Sheldon, Frank Sinatra, Arthur Morrison, Karen Hall, , Yolanda King, Paul Hampton, and Muhammad Ali (see previous BOTB post "Putting the Ham in MuHAMmad: The Greatest at his Worst" by Kliph Nesteroff).
- Contributed by: Otis Fodder
Images: Front Cover, Back Cover
Media: 12" LP
Album: The Dope King's Last Stand
Label: Cornucopia
Credits: An Arthur B. Morrision and Michael A. LaManna Production
Date: 1977
"The Dope King's Last Stand" was the title of the B-side to The Beastie Boys "So What'cha Want" 12-inch.
Never knew they snagged the title from this album (!!!)
Aside from the political and other topical humor of albums such as this one you've posted, albums featuring the voices of popular impersonators of the time (such as Rich Little, David Frye, Vaughn Meader, Frank Gorshin) were quite the rage throughout the 1960s and 70s.
Funny that impersonators as a whole have dropped in popularity in the past 25 years. Thanks for this rare album - Dennis.
Beastie Boys
a) So What'cha Want
b) The Dope King's Last Stand
12-inch, Capitol Records (1992)
catalog # CR-077771584718
Posted by: Dennis T | January 17, 2007 at 01:27 AM
this is the type of album they used to sell at our local car stereo dealer for $1.49 -stuck in the MISC section behind the Fleetwood Mac, Steve Miller, ans Bob Welch LPs / thanks again 365'ers
Posted by: bemer | January 17, 2007 at 03:02 AM
back then, LPs like this were a rack jobbers bread and butter.Slightly underneath K-TEL releases on the album foodchain.
I recognize Frank Sinatra but who are Rosey Sheldon and Yolanda King?
Posted by: Zee Ptolemny | January 17, 2007 at 10:29 AM
Yolanda King is the daughter of Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King.
IMdb link
Posted by: Krys O. | January 17, 2007 at 11:00 AM
maybe Rosey Sheldon is related to Frank Sheldon, trumpeter on the old Jack Paar Show. he did music for the kid show School House Rock
Posted by: secret007girl | January 17, 2007 at 01:28 PM
you must be thinking of Doc Severinsen from The Tonight Show
Posted by: Jason | January 17, 2007 at 02:23 PM
I've been waiting to hear this for years, ever since I saw a teaser for it on the back of "Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay". Exept then it was being billed as (I think) "Ali and His Gang vs. the Old Dope Peddler". A great "lost" project out there somewhere...
Posted by: ResidentClinton | January 18, 2007 at 04:14 AM
I think actually he's thinking of comedian/trumpet player JACK Sheldon who led the band on the Merv Griffin Show. He also put out an interesting hard to find comedy LP on Capitol called "Oooo But It's Good! The Weird, Wigged Out World of Jack Sheldon"
Posted by: Listener Kliph Nesteroff | January 19, 2007 at 12:36 AM
Wait wait wait... Blue tells them that he lives two blocks south of North street -- near the boys' club house -- but Donnie tells Muhammad Ali to meet them at 2056 North Street, Apartment 2S. Someone's been gettin' into the dope.
Posted by: Cornslaw Industries | January 25, 2007 at 11:09 AM
Whoa. Even thinking about cataloguing the number of levels on which this thing is profoundly messed up makes my head spin... so incredibly poorly put together and confusing, especially given the, erm, star power. What the hell is going on half the time? The random music cues and the unexplained British chick are especially jarring, and what's up with the *grammar*?
Posted by: Bluegreen Anemone | January 26, 2007 at 05:00 PM
Never before has an album so driven me to drugs. I'm with Bluegreen Anemone. That the HELL was going on? Man, can I get that hour of my life back and erase that sound quilt project from my brain? Maybe if I shoot this junk, then it will all make sense.
Posted by: Katya Oddio | February 22, 2007 at 04:14 PM
Ok, I feel I need to chime in here being a child in the 70's and not only owning this album, but also listening to it over and over and over again. This was almost a perfect companion peice to my copy of The Wozard Of Iz that I would also play so often that I still have almost every note memorized to this day.
Oddly enough at some point in my childhood both this and my Wozard album disappeared at the same time. Was it just a kid losing his records? Parents who were worried that perhaps these two psychelic albums were a little much for me? Or did that vanish into their own world from which they came?
So I eventually found a copy of The Wozard Of Iz on eBay and 60 dollars later was in moog bliss again. It wasn't until a couple days ago that I found this here.
What can be said about this record that wouldn't put me in the insane asylum? This is an album that uses psychedilia to sell the idea of getting kids off drugs.
The celebrities on this album are real. The non-celebrities on this album, I can't really say for sure. Characters pop in and out of the story like termites with Lily Tomlin's almost worried narration along with the constantly changing desperate music seemingly trying to see how many listeners they can drive mad before the end of the album. We hear The Ballad Of Bobby Blue, not once - but twice. The same song on the same record two times. There are a LOT of awkward pauses from almost any character throughout the album, especially towards the end. Jimmy Carter most likely recorded his part by speaking into a microphone stored in an aluminum mailbox. Muhammad Ali may have required that his microphone be protected by a boxing glove which may explain why he's so quiet here.
And the children... Oh, the children. Are we even sure they were children? They sound more like lesser demons from the lesser hell of Brooklyn circa 1970s.
And I swear that Pat Boone din't even know what was going on when he was recording this. That 5 second or so pause he makes towards the end of the album... Wow.
An odd thing, listening to this thing...(the irony of that is not lost on me) Even though I hadn't heard this since the 70's...I actually almost anticipated every word. I had it THAT memorized. That icky curious feeling that I wasn't really supposed to be listening to this was there too.
Hey, maybe it worked. I never did any drugs, drank, or smoked. Maybe, I'm just weird enough that I don't need to... Or just maybe...MAYBE...this album had something to do with it? Let's hope not. That's a very frightening thought.
One thing about these MP3s... the Eyewitness News clip about cocaine is funny, but it wasn't a part of this album...and for some reason it plays TWICE...just like that song. Is that Otis messing with us?
Thanks for posting this Otis!
yr no-fi pal,
Chris Beyond
editor, no-fi "magazine"
Posted by: Chris Beyond | August 30, 2007 at 06:01 PM
Howdy Chris! Nope. The Cocaine News Clip is on the record (twice!). This has me thinking that there may be another version out there. In reality it's too much to think about that there could be two copies. This album is wacked enough.
Wozard and this LP growing up? Damn. The closest i get is having Zoom and The Bugaloos (and that's not even close). So is that really Nancy Sinatra on Wozard?
Great write up on the record.
Cheers Chris!
Otis
Posted by: 365 | September 04, 2007 at 10:33 AM