You Are What You Eat

You Are What You Eat (1968) is a strange, psychedelic and convoluted film as incoherent as its hippy brethren 200 Motels (1971) and Rainbow Bridge (1972). It belongs with that small collection of movies in which more people own the soundtrack than have actually seen the film. The soundtrack is phenomenal. The bright yellow cover is as eccentric as the vinyl itself that features audio cut-ups, squealing Moog synthesizers, relentless psychedelic improvisations, lounge music, Tiny Tim oddities, and the final appearance of The Hawks before they changed their name to The Band.

The list of those involved with the film is an incredible roster of counter culture heroes and weirdos. Tiny Tim, The Electric Flag, Frank Zappa, Peter Yarrow, Paul Butterfield, Super Spade, David Crosby, Hamsa El Din, Barry McGuire, the radio personality Rosko and several others. And despite the talent involved the film is incredibly difficult to track down in any format other than a blurry, seventh-generation, chopped up version that most likely will get trapped in your VCR. I have posted the sounds of the the soundtrack LP for your listening leisure over here.

When this article first appeared, it spawned a debate about the radio deejay, or should I say deejays, Rosko. Remarkably, there were two different popular radio personalities that went by this moniker in the nineteen sixties, and both were closely linked with the counter culture. First there was the Rosko who worked for the BBC and several stations throughout Europe, had a huge following in the late sixties. Rosko was the son of the legendary Hollywood producer Joe Pasternak. His on-air personality belonged to a unique school of rock n' roll DJs that are essentially extinct. A quote from a typical late sixties broadcast had Rosko rap, "I am the Emperor ... the geeter with the heater - your leader. Your groovy host from the West coast, here to clear up your skin and mess up your mind! It'll make you feel good all over!" Emperor Rosko, like so many members of various 1960s mod scenes, doesn't look quite as hip as he once did (for the ultimate example of turning square with age take a look at sixties garage rockers Shadows of Knight in the sixties... and today). This photo of Rosko today would signal your typical morning radio jagoff rather than a man with his pulse on the underground.

The other Rosko worked for Radio WNEW New York, and made his mark as the first Black news announcer in the city. He also made history as the first Black DJ on the Los Angeles station KBLA. He lent his larynx to several LPs of the period including two interesting records released on the Flying Dutchman and Polydor labels simultaneously that addressed pressing news of the day. One titled Massacre at My Lai and the other Murder at Kent State University had Rosko reading newspaper columns about the atrocities in an ominous tone with the moody jazz music of bassist Ron Carter and flautist James Spaulding played underneath. Rosko also lent his voice to Verve's vinyl pressing of Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. Listen to selections from all of these recordings in the same place the YAWYE soundtrack is posted.

Although the debate rages on in the comments section at the bottom of this post, it still has not been confirmed which Rosko appears on the You Are What You Eat soundtrack. IMDB claims it is Emperor Rosko who appears, but this is, most likely, incorrect. Regardless, one of the Roskos narrates a satirical commercial about Nazi helmets that were popular with biker gangs at the time (or so drive-in movies would have us believe). The sequence features an interracial crowd of children smiling, laughing, and running around wearing these helmets while Rosko's deep seductive voice goes off on one of his trademark rants, "Say, babies - get in on what's happening ... It's not gonna wear out, it's not gonna be out - it's gonna be in ... be in ... Hey kids! Get uptight with your outta sight Nazi helmet today!" 

You Are What You Eat marked the feature-film debut of Tiny Tim. Some say it was what convinced Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in to book him for his television debut, however others (as can be seen in the comments section) seem to discredit this oft-repeated theory. He contributes two songs to the YAWYE soundtrack, Be My Baby and I Got You Babe. Tiny's Cher in the film was, according to the soundtrack credits, Eleanor Baruchian. The clip of this sequence can be seen here. Some claim Eleanor was Tiny's girlfriend at the time, others dispute this. She was one of the three members of the late sixties girl-group The Cake. However, on The Cake recordings her name is listed as Eleanor Barooshian. She also goes under the name Chelsea Lee, clouding the matter further. Watch footage of The Cake here. The Tiny Tim tracks Sonny Boy and Memphis can also be heard in the movie but neither appear on the LP  The album marked some of the very first Tiny Tim tracks to hit the market. The same year that the film and soundtrack came out, Tiny Tim's debut LP on Warner Reprise, God Bless Tiny Tim, entered record stores. It too featured a version of I Got You Babe, his more famous interpretation in which he performed both the baritone and falsetto roles.

Frank Zappa makes a brief appearance in the motion picture but is not featured anywhere on the soundtrack pressing - his sequences are also missing from most bootlegs of the film. The film show's Zappa and The Mothers on stage at The Fillmore, but the music dubbed over the seven minute freak-out sequence is actually by The Electric Flag. Harper's Bizarre is another group who have music in the film but not on the record.

Legendary record producer John Simon was largely responsible for the music in the film. Other than producing the soundtrack, he wrote and performed the memorable My Name is Jack for the album. Manfred Mann covered the tune the same year and Pizzicato Five did a rendition in 1997. The song's infectious tune played over and over on an electric piano is accompanied by the absurd chorus, "My name is Jack - I live in the back - of the Greta Garbo School for Wayward Boys and Girls..." Simon's name pops up regularly on the credits of late sixties Columbia albums. He was the company's most prolific rock n' roll producer working with The Cyrcle, Big Brother and The Holding Company, Blood, Sweat and Tears and countless others. Simon's music was far and few between, his producing efforts taking up most of his time. When he did record his own music, it was lauded and adored. Like everything else in the world, he remains huge in Japan. One of John Simon's most enjoyable projects was the music he arranged for a 1966 Columbia release titled The Baroque Inevitable, featuring rousing versions of contemporary rock songs performed in a baroque style. (Covering pop songs in an instrumental baroque manner was a short-lived "craze" from approximately 1966-69. Several record labels took a stab at the weird concept, presumably doing so because other labels were trying it and nobody wanted to be left out in case it turned into the next big thing. It didn't. United Artists' Bacharach Baroque and Baqorue N' Stones on Hanna-Barbera Records are just two of many interesting examples.)

John Herold and John Simon collaborated on another great song for the film, this one titled The Family Dog. Herold sings and Simon plays much of the music while Peter Yarrow provides back-up vocals. The song title was a reference to a well-known hippy commune of the same name that was responsible for throwing many notable rock concerts and psychedelic light shows in the Bay area. In the movie, Herold's tune accompanies footage of several commune members eating flowers. The Family Dog is often considered the first of the hippy communes and was certainly one of the most politically and culturally active. Much of San Francisco's rock scene revolved around the efforts of the commune. Eventually Family Dog Productions was founded with the purpose of booking bands and organizing rock concerts. They pioneered the psychedelic light shows that have become a period cliché and were also instrumental in turning Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium into the legend it's known as today. Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters were also co-ordinating events with The Family Dog on a regular basis. During the musical sequence bearing their name, we see members of the commune ride motorcycles (with their puppy mascot hanging on to a bike's handlebars) and the official candy-cane colored Family Dog VW van.

Super Spade was a wild staple of Frisco's Haight-Ashbury scene in its heyday, as a character that took pride in being an open drug dealer. Super pops up at random throughout the film. While most dealers on the strip were suffering from paranoia, Super Spade scoffed at such problems, often handing out marijuana by the handful for free and unconcerned with who knew it. A familiar catchphrase on the street became, "Hey Super, what you got for me today?" His real name was Bill Powell Jr, but it seems unlikely that he was the son of the actor who starred in MGM's Thin Man series - although wouldn't that make a good story! Just a few days after You Are What You Eat was released, Super Spade was murdered. Shot with a nine-millimetre handgun, his body was stuffed into a sleeping bag and left at the foot of the Point Reyes Lighthouse. Shocked hippies around town were convinced it was a mob hit but there was little evidence to confirm the theory. Time Magazine also stated that "[Super Spade] was murdered last year by San Francisco mobsters because he gave away free pot and LSD." Not surprisingly, no one was arrested for the crime, the death of a Black hippy drug dealer not exactly something Bay area police were likely to care much about.

The Hawks were named for their one time bandleader Ronnie Hawkins. Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks were a wildly popular rockabilly group in Toronto who had been recording for the Roulette Records label. Eventually members of the band found themselves increasingly at odds with Hawkins' messiah-like ego and the authoritarian rules he imposed on the group. After four years together, The Hawks dumped Ronnie and went off on their own. The Hawks found themselves working as session players for various musicians in the 63-66 period including folk and blues artist John P. Hammond... who would recommend the group to Bob Dylan. Dylan was looking for players that could accompany him on his first tour after "turning electric." Through Dylan, The Hawks were introduced to a wide assortment of new connections in the recording industry including Dylan's acquaintance John Simon. Simon would hire The Hawks to back up Dylan's buddy Tiny Tim on the soundtrack to YAWYE. It would be the final recording the group did before eliminating all surviving remnants of the Ronnie Hawkins days by changing their name to The Band.

You Are What You Eat was directed by Barry Feinstein who had been one of several Monterey Pop (1968) camera operators. Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary helped finance some of the movie and participates on several of the tracks. Yarrow and Feinstein became acquainted by way of Mary whom Feinstein had married. Frank Zappa fan John Trubee interviewed California hippy eccentric Carl Franzoni about the making of YAWYE and how it came to be (Zappa dedicated his tune Hungry Freaks, Daddy to Franzoni who he said, "is freaky down to his toe nails."). Franzoni states that "[Feinstein] was a strange looking guy, he was bald-headed, had a broken nose, [he had] a lot of money and [Mary] was the money. Peter, Paul and Mary gave him the money to do You Are What You Eat ... we went into a place - Greta Garbo's Home For Boys and Girls. It wasn't an acid house, it was a speed house. It had rooms and there's a vignette [Vito Paulekas] does in the lobby of this hotel and he's talking to some of these kids and they're so loaded ... and then they take us up to the roof and Peter did a song ... and the camera pans in on us and the logo for the movie is my tongue. We ...had a preview ... on Sunset Boulevard with one movie star after another, Tony Curtis came up and shook my hand, lots of people like that were there. There was a five minute ovation of clapping after the movie was shown. Steve McQueen refused to shake my hand."

Later on in Trubee's swell interview, Franzoni explains how his tongue inspired The Rolling Stones. "Well, my tongue was noted in the movie You Are What You Eat, they used it as a logo. The Rolling Stones at the same time were coming out with a tongue and they didn't want to infringe on us--because The Rolling Stones are very straightforward, right on people. They always have been that way. There's no bullshit about The Rolling Stones ... they came to director Barry Feinstein and they said 'we want to use the tongue as our logo.' So they set up a meeting. I was in the screening room and they showed the movie and here's one of The Rolling Stones sitting next to me ... he says afterwards 'I think we'd like to buy this movie.' I didn't know why, I didn't understand why, but later on ... they knew that we weren't gonna give them any shit if they used the tongue, you understand? When the movie came out in New York and in LA if you went to the front of this movie theater you saw a tongue 10 feet high ... it's ... my tongue ... so in my estimation The Rolling Stones are using my tongue as their logo." Franzoni's tongue is flashed throughout the movie. At one point we see him use it like a snake as he makes out with a girl during a Tiny Tim performance. Later on we see Franzoni with a different girl, both dressed in American flag style clothing, the same kind of outfit that Abbie Hoffman was arrested for wearing in 1968. In a clearly political move, the left-wing Yippie was charged with "dishonoring the flag," and ended up serving a spell in a maximum-security prison. Today articles of clothing that are indistinguishable from those sported by Hoffman can be purchased at every Wal-Mart in America.

Chicago millionaire Michael Butler financed the rest of the project just as he had done for the musical Hair. Butler had money to burn and fancied himself an ally of the counter culture, having also financed the original Broadway production of Lenny, based on the life of Lenny Bruce. He also managed to score himself bit parts in the cult classics Electra Glide in Blue (1973) and Harry and Tonto (1974). Butler was willing to "turn on, tune in, and drop out" as long as his wealth was not affected. He had previously worked for President Kennedy as an advisor on "Indian and Middle East Affairs." The Butler family garnered their wealth from real estate and the pulp and paper industry. Butler inherited his family's money and holdings that had been a staple of the Illinois power elite for over one hundred and fifty years. Butler identified the hippy culture as a market that could be tapped; a scene where a great deal of money could be made. Despite much of the hippy aversion to such concepts, there is no denying he was right. Butler grew his hair long, started wearing beads, and adopted much of the new slang, but he was older than most in the hippy scene, held on to his private jet, continued to play polo at his local club, and held strong connections with government. Today he remains a wealthy investor, recently putting up the cash for Dracula: Opera Erotica. He is a major financial contributor to the Democrats.

The liner notes on the back cover of the YAWYE soundtrack album consist of a sprawling nonsense diatribe in fine print that not even the most patient reader can complete. "The conventional label 'movie' does not prepare you for 'YAWYE.' If what you see on film is one reality, what you hear on the sound track is another. If the two simultaneous realities contradict each other, they also free us from the slavery of our cultural clichés of experience. What emerges is a new reality, a crystalization in counterpoint, an anti-documentary that is all the more accurate. Like non-objective painting and the music of Cage or Bartok, 'YAWYE' utilizes the medium to turn you on and turn you off, and take you on a trip of changes. There is no literal plot. Whether the trip is "groovy" depends upon your taste in roller coasters. You come off the trip suddenly realizing that when you have two realities, you have no lies." This goes on for another forty odd paragraphs or so.

The comedic actress and 1970s icon, Carol Wayne, once made an appearance on a now-legendary episode of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1969. The sex symbol with the high-pitched voice showed up on a show featuring Bob Hope, Dean Martin, George Gobel, Judy Carne and Robert Wagner on the panel. The episode enjoys a degree of notoriety thanks to an incessant clip running on late night informercials for the Johnny Carson home video collection. It features Gobel's cheeky line delivered after glancing at Martin and Hope. "Did you ever feel like the whole world is a tuxedo... and you are a pair of brown shoes?" At the end of the episode Carson says to Carol Wayne, "I understand you just got married..." "Yes, on valentine's day," Carol continues, "He's a famous photographer." "Cinematographer?" Carson qualifies. "Yes, he just finished filming a movie that has been accepted by the Academy Awards called You Are What You Eat." The film's name made Dino and Bob crack up immediately at its sexual connotation. Carson quipped, "Either of you say a word and it's my job! You don't have to be here every night, I do!" "Not after tonight!" Martin exclaimed.

Contradictions abound in regards to who and what are contained in the film. This stems from very few complete prints having survived. Many have claimed that Frank Zappa, Improv maven Del Close, nor Harper's Bizarre are even in the film and that the assertions and apocryphal. Others can describe these scenes with precise detail. All three are listed in the closing credits. The film's "official" VHS release of the mid-nineties disapeared into obscurity almost immediately. That release, however, was still missing several minutes. The soundtrack LP also omits the sounds of several performances that appeared in the picture. All of these factors have contributed to speculation. The only known complete print of YAWYE has been doing the tour of the Cinematheque circuit for the past couple of years and has is housed in Berkely, California. Columbia's soundtrack LP was re-issued on CD in 1997, but only in Japan (naturally). The album remains generally elusive in North America.   

Comments

[John L]

I thought the Geeter with the heater was Jerry Blather, the guy that Rex uses a looped segment of with the eeps and other vocalizations on it?

I love the album. Some favorite moments going on only the listings here. I always listened to my brother's copy:
Teenage Fair (Teenage Nazi Helmet Commercial) by Rosko is brilliant!
Moments of Soft Persuasion- Peter Yarrow
The Family Dog - John Herald (I think Herold is a typo. John Herald was a Woodstock fixture. Probably still is. Did bluegrass after this.)
The Nude Dance is by Hamsa El Din? I'll have to go back and listen to it!
My Name Is Jack - John Simon
The Wabe!
Don't Remind Me Now of Time - Peter Yarrow

Cheers,

John L

[Michael]

It's reasons like this that I look forward to your posts every week. Really, really great stuff.

[Bartleby]

O.K. who can name the 19th century philosopher who coined the phrase "You are what you eat." Hints: sort of a positivist, critical of religion and more famous for what another philosopher had to say about him than for his own writings.

[John L]

I cheated and looked it up on the internet.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/you%20are%20what%20you%20eat.html
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin? I've never heard of him but I guess you could call him a philosopher. Did you mean Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach? He seems to fit into the philosopher mold better. I haven't heard of him either but then being a philosophy major almost 30 years ago has taken its toll.

Cheers,

Lipwak

PS I should have written Jerry Blavet, not Blather. And what still mystifies me is that nothing in Rosko's history mentions his NYC DJ days. I can't remember which "underground" FM stations he was on in the 60s/70s but I do remember him being on BAI in the 80s for a little while.

I was very surprised to see that Rosko is white, not black and that he was so raucous. I always thought of his as ultimate mellow. It then follows that it is less surprising that he is also Jewish given some other Jewish chameleons like Ramblin' Jack Elliott and others in the music biz.

[Krys O.]

Emporer Rosko is not the same as Rosko from the old WNEW days.

[illlich]

this confused me at first, the Emperor Rosko is not the same as the NY area radio DJ known as Rosko, who did voice-overs (including a radio ad for the 3rd Velvet Underground LP), was on some of the Mystic Moods Orchestra LPs, and who later made a mildly hilarious album of spoken word "poetry" over 80's smooth jazz, called "Private Moments." A voice as distinctive as Ken Nordine or Alexander Scourby.

[bartelby]

Yeah, it's Ludwig Feurbach of Marx's Theses on Feurbach fame

[woid]

I do believe you've mixed up your Roskos.

I'm 99.9% sure that the Rosko on "You Are What You Eat" isn't Emperor Rosko but the WNEW-FM DJ, whose original name was William Roscoe Mercer.

I'm ancient enough to have seen the movie in its first run, and to have heard the soundtrack played endlessly on WNEW-FM, by Rosko along with his colleagues, Scott Muni, Allison Steele, and Jonathan Schwartz.

Rosko was one of the first NY progressive DJs, brought in by Scott Muni when he was hired to turn WOR-FM into a rock station in 1967. In one of those miserable radio coups, the staff was forced out (to make a long story short), and both Rosko and Scottso ended up on WNEW-FM, where they remained for the next few years. They were among the real pioneers of the late, lamented flowering of free-form, progressive radio.

Bill Mercer passed away in 2000. I'm taking the liberty of pasting in his NY Times obit, from their archives. (If this violates any blog guidelines, please delete...)

William Mercer, 73, D.J. Known as Rosko, Is Dead
By JON PARELES
Published: August 6, 2000

William Roscoe Mercer, known for decades to New York radio listeners simply as Rosko, died on Tuesday. He was 73 and lived in New York.

The cause was cancer, according to his daughter Valerie J. Mercer.

Mr. Mercer was the first black news announcer on WINS in New York and, as Rosko, the first black disc jockey on KBLA in Los Angeles. He went on to become a pioneer of free-form FM radio in New York City. On WOR-FM in 1966 and on WNEW-FM from 1967 to 1970, his calm, husky voice with its hint of Southern drawl and his wide-ranging programming made him an authoritative companion amid the musical ferment of the late 1960's.

He delved into rock, soul, folk and jazz; he read poetry and conversed with his unseen listeners in almost fatherly monologues. In one set during the late 1960's, he recited antiwar poetry by Yevgeny Yevtushenko to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing the Lord's Prayer, then played Richie Havens's antiwar song ''Handsome Johnny'' as a lead-in to a news report about bombing in Vietnam.

Mr. Mercer was born on May 25, 1927, in New York City and attended a Catholic boarding school in Pennsylvania as a charity student. His first jobs were as a government clerk and then a men's-room attendant at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, N.J. He began his radio career as a jazz disc jockey at WHAT in Chester, Pa., moved to WDAS in Philadelphia, and then to WBLS in New York, playing jazz in live broadcasts from Palm Cafe in Manhattan. He played rhythm-and-blues on WNJR in Secaucus, N.J., in the late 1950's, but after refusing to cross a picket line at the station during an effort to create a union for disc jockeys, he was blacklisted for six months.

He became the first black announcer for WINS, and was then hired as a disc jockey by KDIA in Oakland, Calif. Radio station KGFJ in Los Angeles sought to hire him away, leading to a precedent-setting lawsuit that changed the way disc-jockey contracts were written. For a time in the early 1960's, Rosko was heard live on KGFJ and on tape in Oakland six nights a week; he spent the seventh in Oakland, live on KDIA. Then he was hired by KBLA, playing rock and rhythm-and-blues at a formerly all-white station.

He returned to New York to work at WBLS. In 1966, the Federal Communications Commission required radio stations to broadcast separate content on AM and FM stations, and rock music beyond the Top 40 rushed to fill the new air time. The disc jockeys Murray the K and Scott Muni, along with Rosko, moved to WOR-FM to introduce a new style, with disc jockeys freely choosing the music and speaking conversationally to listeners.

But in October 1967, WOR-FM decided to change to a restrictive format. On his last show, without warning the station's management, Rosko spoke for five minutes about why he was resigning, saying, ''When are we going to learn that controlling something does not take it out of the minds of people?'' and declaring, ''In no way can I feel that I can continue my radio career by being dishonest with you.'' He added that he would rather return to being a men's-room attendant.

But within the month, he was hired for an evening shift by WNEW-FM, which picked up WOR-FM's format; soon afterward, WNEW-FM also hired Mr. Muni. Rosko stayed at WNEW until 1970, then moved to France for five years; there, he worked for the Voice of America. He returned to the United States and was heard during the 1980's on the dance-music station WKTU in New York; he also did voice-over work for commercials. Most recently, his voice was heard in announcements for CBS Sports. In 1992, when he learned he had cancer, he refused chemotherapy, turning instead to alternative medicine.

He is survived by his wife, Joanna; five children from three previous marriages, Valerie, William, David, Scott and Melissa Mercer; a sister, Bernice Reid; and two grandchildren.

[Krull]

You seem to have gotten a little carried away on your editing of the blog comments. Not sure if it was purposeful, but my comments directly below Bartleby's first post (had been two identical posts) were dropped. I had reposted link to youtube Tiny Tim post (my mistake) with some additional comments.

[Listener Kliph]

Woid,

I haven't found any information about the New York Rosko being involved with Your Are What You Eat. I have found information (starting at IMDB) that the Rosko who became big overseas was the one involved with the film. Of course, I might still be wrong, but I haven't found any information stating otherwise yet. I'll have to keep looking for the absolute confirmation, but I imagine you're correct, especially since I seem to have got my Roskos confused in regards to the Murder at Kent State and Massacre at My Lai LPs - who would've thunk two deep voiced radio DJs from the sixties named Rosko!? Godammit.

Krull,

I don't know what happened, your comment may have been deleted by accident while trying to remove a double post. Please leave your comments again. Sorry!

[Krull]

Thanks for the response and the very informative blog entry. Mine added nothing really, just curious about what happened to it.

[JUhrich]

You Are What You Eat was edited by Howard Alk who worked with Bob Dylan on Eat the Document and Renaldo and Clara. Alk also made Murder of Fred Hampton, American Revolution II, and edited the Cry of Jazz. Thanks for the post.

[JudasKFoxglove]

Fantastic and much-deserved article on You Are What You Eat! Watching it now is like rummaging through a time capsule of the 60s.

A few comments…

1. Eleanor Barooshian was not Tiny Tim's girlfriend at the time and never was! But she did perform I Got You Babe with Tiny on a regular basis at Steve Paul's The Scene club in NYC. And that's where Peter Yarrow first saw the number and decided to include it in the film. (It was not shot at The Scene though.)

2. Another member of The Cake – Barbara Morillo – also appeared in a few scenes of YAWYE. She is seen dancing in the street, right after the girl blows a gum bubble that breaks over her face. And is also later seen playing in a fountain in NYC. She also took part in a press junket with Peter Yarrow to help promote the film.

3. Tiny Tim's first screen appearance was actually several years earlier. He was in Jack Smith's 1963 film Normal Love. He also made a cameo in the pilot episode of Ironside (in 1967).

4. Tiny was actually taken to audition for Laugh-In by Richard Perry, the producer of God Bless Tiny Tim, at the end of 1967/early 1968, before YAWYE had even been released. I'm not exactly sure of the date that YAWYE premiered but it was almost certainly after Tiny had already become a household name – hence the decision to make him the 'star' of the film and use his name and image so prominently in its marketing.

[Michael Powers]

200 Motels. I haven't seen that one anywhere since it was new, I don't believe. You wouldn't know it from the trailer but that movie had the most realistic-seeming hallucinogen sequence ever recorded on film; too bad Preminger didn't do something more similar with Gleason and Groucho for the acid scene in "Skidoo."

As for Tiny Tim, in the 70s he was the nemesis of every guy who elected to wear long hair since every middle-aged crone could gleefully refer to you as "Tiny Tim," and would--continuously (we would've preferred "Thor"). He was a heinous one-man blight on popular culture.

[Phil X. Milstein]

some further notes on YAWYE:

The Rosko of You Are What You Eat is indeed the NYC Rosko, aka Bill Mercer. I don’t know about the My Lai documentary album, but his is definitely the voice on the Murder At Kent State album (reading Pete Hamill's text), as well as the promo 45 for the third VU album (“How do you feel? You don’t really know how you feel, because you haven’t heard the new Velvet Underground yet.”)

[The Geeter with the Heater was Philadelphia DJ (and former American Bandstand dancer) Jerry Blavat.)

Speaking of the Velvet Underground, Tiny Tim’s scenes for YAWYE were shot at the Dom, the Polish community meeting hall located at 23 St. Mark’s Place (“dom” being Polish for home, as per the Latin root that turns up in English as domicile, domestic, etc.) that Paul Morrissey discovered in spring 1966 and used as the site for Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable. While the VU were on tour that summer Albert Grossman swooped in and undercut Morrissey’s lease on the place, turning it into the rock club Balloon Farm (named ostensibly after a line from some unreleased Dylan song). The VU returned to find they no longer had a home base in their own city, and it was partly in “punishment” for that that (apart from a couple of one-off gigs at a venue named the Gymnasium) they refused to play in the city again until their summer 1970 stand at Max’s Kansas City.

But at time of the YAWYE filming Grossman was in control of the site, and as Peter Yarrow was one of his management clients either loaned or rented (my bet is on the latter) it to him for shooting the Tiny Tim scenes. Grossman also supplied the Hawks/Band, who were of course his clients as well.

According to Chelsea Lee (nee Eleanor Barooshian, incorrectly spelled “Baruchian” in YAWYE credits), the Band played live as she and Tiny recorded their songs, yet for some reason are not seen in the film. Granted the tight close-up on her and Tiny as they sing “I Got You Babe” (with the contralto Eleanor taking the male role, and Tiny doing Cher’s) is very effective (as is Tiny’s solo number of “Be My Baby,” where crowd scenes of screaming, weeping teenies from one of the Beatles’ Shea Stadium concerts are cut in as if they were screaming and weeping for him), and the musicians were unknown at the time, yet I find it frustrating to watch this sequence now, knowing they were there (and not even being particularly a Band fan) but not seeing them. Also present, according to Chelsea, were her Cake-mates Barbara Morillo and Jeanette Jacobs, although I believe they were merely observers. (As noted above Barbara does make a couple of brief appearances elsewhere in the film.)

Chelsea also notes that as Tiny had never sung with a band before (let alone THE Band), he didn’t quite grasp how that interplay should work, and so required over 30 takes just to get down IGYB, this in an unheated studio on a freezing winter’s day. Adding to everyone else’s misery, when he needed to take a leak, instead of using the local facilities he traveled uptown to use the familiar can at his parents’ apartment in Washington Heights.

The YAWYE soundtrack album is one that especially benefits from the transition to CD, as the songs, John Simon’s sparkling incidental music, and the spoken and other audio clips from the film make for a terrific modular album, sounding as great under random sequences as it does under its original one. As excruciating as most of the movie is to watch, the companion album is equally wonderful to hear.

[Andreas Jacobs]

Anybody knows more about Hamsa El Din's performance on oud :

# The Family Dog
By John Simon. John Herald (vocal), John Simon (piano, back-up vocal), Peter Yarrow (back-up vocal), Bill Crow (bass), Bill Lavorgna (drums), Unknown (guitar), Unknown (guitar).

# The Nude Dance
By Hamsa El Din. Hamsa El Din (uood)

# My Name Is Jack
By John Simon. John Simon (vocal, Wurlitzer piano), Paul Griffin (Wurlitzer piano solo), Bill Crow (bass), Bill Lavorgna (drums), All stuffs in A&R Studio (back-up vocals), Unknown (guitar).

regarding the info on the band's site (http://theband.hiof.no/albums/you_are_what_you_eat.html) he was in between track 6 and 8

Cheers Andreas

[Martin Brooks]

There is absolutely no question in my mind that the Rosko on the LP is Bill Mercer, of WOR-FM (1966-67), WNEW-FM (1967-1971), WKTU and other stations in New York, but his voice does sound a little speeded up on the sample, which perhaps the producers did for timing reasons. (And perhaps that's why there's some question as to which Rosko it was).

There is definitely some live album of that era that has "the other Rosko", Emperor Rosko, doing the introductions, but I can't seem to find it. I thought it might have been Aretha in Paris, but I just checked the jacket and there's no such credit.

Phil wrote: "but his is definitely the voice on the Murder At Kent State album (reading Pete Hamill's text),"

Yes and Rosko used to read this on the air on WNEW-FM often (although I don't know if he was reading live or playing the album). Pete Fornatale, of WFUV, recently dedicated a show to the 40th anniversary of WNEW-FM and replayed that segment. You can probably find that show on the WFUV.org archive.

[Lisa and John (episode 22) DeViL XxX]

Dr. julian /if you want to kill someone. you would feed him this.
Dr. julian /horrible, all right reap box , and you must be exhaust. You just destroying your body, which of this would you like? I can give you the whole list, blood pressure, cholesterol, heart diseases, heart attack. when I look at this table half of the surgeries in U.K will be emptied out . if the people switched this rubbish food. You put three cubes in one cup of tee!
Lisa /not keeping wise of putting sugar.
Dr. julian /so it’s maybe more then that?
Lisa /I put 5 to 6 sugar cubes in one cup.
Dr. julian /6 cubes in one cup of tee !? it’s drug attic, it’s sugar attic, there is no difference really ,but the sugar is legal do you hate your self that’s much, you want to destroy your body this seriously ?
Lisa / at the moment we tired to cook and make our lunch to the next day. it’s never ended circle.
Reader / Oh dear even their fate is donuts shape. but what the diet doing to their health. First up a quick look at John tongue and Dr. julian has his diagnosis
Dr. julian /this different cutes all adumbrates to that John have lost vitamin B.
Dr. julian/ the healthy tongue should not have any crack in the middle. it should be completely free of cracks.
Reader /Lisa next and her examination is a real eye open in her.
Dr. julian/ Lisa people can be sure when they put their eyelids down and if they very very wild pink or white and their Iron deficiency .it should be nice pink, I think you have anemia, did you have a heavy period lately?
Lisa /I do. Yes
Dr. julian/are you period always heavy ?
Lisa /yes indeed.
Dr. julian/you need you eat foods that’s with high iron like vegetables, lettuce, with dark green food ,not just red meat iron from, can you please show me you tongue
Dr. julian/ ohh ,you get all these cracks Lisa!? I believe that you have a zinc deficiency,
Let me look at your fingernails, let me see of there is a sign of zinc deficiency let me see here, here you get a white spot.
Reader /and after that quick test , Dr. julian deliver her opinion .
Dr. julian/ I believe that’s Lisa sterility and you have a hard time in your period,
Dr. julian/ am I right ?
Lisa/ yes.
Reader/ is she ever wrong ? Dr. julian suggests Lisa to lose weight to help increase to get pregnant, research shows that’s 1 in 5 women are obese.
Obese women 60% less chance of pregnancy .obesity can lead to:
Irregular periods.
Ovulation problems.
Disturb uterus lining.
Embryo implantation fails.
So Lisa must lose some weight , if she wants more chance to get pregnant.
Dr. julian/ did you know that your stomach did’ have any teethes ?
John / I know that, but …. !
Dr. julian/ so what do you expects your stomach will do with a whole piece of food ?
John / I don’t know what to say.
Dr. julian/ your stomach Lisa is better then John, so you’re breaking down all the rubbish food
Reader/ Perfect , how the (Drake’s) will effects with the new diet?
Dr. julian/there are a little food that you must not have, what is the food that you don’t like ?
John/ everything that you put in that list.
Reader/ And will John will ever learned to love Dr. julian/ list? Crashing the scales that joint 256 Kg, John and Lisa drakes fast food diet have let them Fad un fit, Lisa wants kids but been a obese can half her chance to having a Baby, for prove that they eating badly Dr. julian sent blood sample of Lisa and John to the laboratory to analyze them, the result….. Later.
But, first she must take them away of all fast food, and but then in a diet that she thinks that will help them to lose weight.
Something Like: peppers, courgettes, tomatoes, sweet potatoes
Salmon , cod , lemons , trout , tofu , leeks , dill ,plums.
It’s all 8 weeks plan.
Dr. julian/ will then what you think ?
Lisa/ that’s little improving.
Dr. julian/ where is your excited? Come on this is very different, this is the kind of food that’s going to bust your elements ,eating this way let you save more money then you spend now,
Lisa/ it’s a lot of green’s for John, it’s take time to used to it.
Dr. julian/I think the mean problem John that you never had a healthy meal,
John/that’s my way to chose the easy way.
Reader/but, not any more, say goodbye John to all Junk food
And welcome (fish kebab) a dieter dream
Dr. julian/ salon,tona and lemon, Delicious and high with (Fatty Acids), which, burns Fats guys.
John/ I love lemon, lemon with a fish lovely.
Lisa/ ammm
Reader/ Lisa sugar snacks will be swat natural food.
Dr. julian/ it’s not sweeter with sugar, I used rice milk, which has sweet taste. it give the body more energy. it’s fills you with great power, but not the way like crazy energy that in (Red bull)
Dr. julian/did you like it? yeah?
Lisa/ ammh, yeah
John/ I didn’t dislike it.
Dr. julian/ that’s is a good start John.
Reader/ John energy drinks has swat for green food and Beans which booth has Zinc to supply John with energy.
Dr. julian/ I brought brown beans, Haricot Beans, and green beans. Great source of Dietary Fiber, clean you out inside.
Reader/ hmmm, all ready they exchanging glasses,
Dr. julian devise tow months of menus to keep them in the traffic.
They will start eating: great libido boosters, walnuts ,strawberries , fish, avocados, mean wild back to the laboratory another old fiend Doctor. Sanj btale has bad news for John.
Dr.Sanj/ he is got vitamin B deficiency it’s mean he feels very tired and change the moon all the time. He is also has deficiency of zinc which effects enzymes he got, Lisa test results, she is have lower zinc and zinc is very important not only to keep us healthy but’s it’s helping us with the (B.M.T)
Dr. julian/ Lisa has zinc deficiency as well as John, I think Lisa can found a hard time to join our diet, if she want’s children she must try the diet.
Dr. julian/ has sent to the (drakes) healthy food stuff, but in week one trying to work out.
Lisa/ it’s organic beans, any idea ?
Reader/not only she have to get her head and her mouth to work it out and also Dr. Julian enfolder menu.
Lisa/ Soup for breakfast !
Reader/ As (yummy) as (mock).
Lisa/John don’t like vegetables and green food.
Reader/John will say it’s……. let us see.
Lisa/ I don’t feel that’s John will eat it.
Reader/but John must to keep in open mind if he is not going to be hungry. today’s breakfast (Porge) made of (kinwoa) and water.
John/I don’t believe that.
Lisa/if you don’t want to eat dear it’s okay you will not eat anything today it’s only this.
Reader/ (kinowa) contains zinc and it’s in every supermarket.
John/you don’t expect me you eat this?umm it’s like paper glue, that’s just gross
Reader/I don’t think that’s in option in Dr. Julian diet ,John refuse to eat that’s food in the the doctor menu, not Surprising
John/ I found a hard time to work at 1 or 2 in the midnight, when I need that energy. and I need wakening up and go to work,
Reader/something Lisa know very well. John has used to drink (red bull) after (red bull) which full of sugar and Dr. Julian worried about John maybe he will leave the diet and go back .
Dr. Julian/your sugar drink it’s like 112 cup of coffee,
John/oh.Gosh all this in my body. it’s shocking.
Dr. Julian/ you know what? I think you should drink all these 112 cups right now to give you the energy that you want !.
Would you do it?
John/ NO.
Dr. Julian/ you get to help him Lisa.
Lisa/I will. I will not let him drink this stuff again
Reader/caffeine have no value of energy the body don’t need it. At any function ,more then 10 caffeine it’s drinks a day, it’s increased risk of : high blood pressure , panic attacks, severe headaches , heart attack, three weeks in Lisa having a healthy BBQ with salon and vegetables, but John’s still not a happy eater so Dr. julian back to put him in the trace again.
Dr. Julian/ what is the food that you don’t like?
John/everything that you put in the list, I just don’t like it.
Dr. Julian/ so you can eat beans ,meat, vegetables, green things, eggs bread, so what you missing ?
John/fish and chicken is fine.
Lisa/ am going very well with whole the menu, I missed tee with sugar but it’s okay.
Dr. Julian/ it’s great, that’s this far, I want a promise that you will be open mind.
John/I don’t need to give a promise, I will continue.
Reader/ in the week five Dr. Julian/ helps them with joint step it’s appears that’s it’s working Lisa will burn 600 cals in one hour in house working.
Reader/ tow months passed and she want home to see them after the healthy life style. How is the now Lisa looking today?
She did never feel better, she lost 13Kg.John also dropt 13Kg of his weight and he is looks Great.

[Les Cordoza]

My brother Tony and i are in this movie in several scenes....in the "Family Dog" sequence he's hanging upside down in tree in Golden Gate Park smoking a ciggarette in the minutes prior to this scene we see a colorfull van cruising along somewhere in southern calif only to arrive in GGPark the editing in this movie gives me sea sickness to watch it Tiny Tim was the furthest thing from any self respecting hippie that anyone can imagine the clips of him singing cutting away to Beatles audience in Candlestick park concert as if the screaming girls are screaming for HIM is just so stupid there was one occasion that Peter Yarrow jammed with my brother and I in our attic room at the Gretta Garbo and yes there was a lot of speed there every drug was there nobody paid any rent there we we all squatters in this hotel that was slated for teardown in the "urban renewal"of 1966 anyway I digress that jam session was filmed wish I knew where THAT footage ended Peter was on acoustic guitar me on electric and my brother on harmonica we acompanied Peter on a song called
"St.James Infirmary" at the time he mentioned it was his FIRST TIME jamming with electric instrument players on PPM's next album that song appeared with Mike Bloomfeild on electric guitar and Paul Butterfeild on harmonica the movie is SOOO BAD the freaky guy with the long toungue appears in every scene on one hand I'm embaresed to say I was in that movie 'cos it sucks so bad yet how many other people can say they were in a movie with Ringo, Paul McCartney , David Crosby and had more screen time than they did LOL well I can .. pains me cos this thing just stinks so bad I cant bear to show it to anyone
it literally makes me ill to watch it any other Greta Garbo survivors out there ? well bye for now I still play music you can find me on the net e 4 now Les Cordoza

[Jim]

Not sure if there was a reposting, but I downloaded the audio a year or two ago and it turned out to be a flawed file.

[Mind Developing]

There is absolutely no question in my mind that the Rosko on the LP is Bill Mercer, of WOR-FM (1966-67), WNEW-FM (1967-1971), WKTU and other stations in New York, but his voice does sound a little speeded up on the sample, which perhaps the producers did for timing reasons

Wow

[Chris Gray]

i saw this sodomite in sodom with the doors i think at bernard college auditorium 1968nyes sodomite was at its height during the psychacelic sixties i do remember hearing rosko in my friends crash pad in the east village there was even a band called east village dog food then lothar and the hand people wild insane yes i remember for i was an ardent fan of the fillmore east for its ephemeral hist. hallelujah but tiny tim was a gross out and in person u might go on a bummer!i recall one nite seeing that viking character hearing him say put all junkies on a slow boat to china!!

[Buy sell]

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