The-what-would-have-been-if-what-is-hadn't-happened.
November 30, 2010 11:30 PM Subscribe
Still hyped by his local press as a "neglected rock-and-roll genius" Ralph F. Gean is an old rockabilly guy who almost "made it" back in the early 1960s… but didn’t… and then sort of did after all.
Along the way he became a Mormon, got into trouble with the Feds, and lived on the streets; all the while making weird music that nobody paid any attention to. Rediscovered in the ‘90s by the likes of Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys), Boyd Rice (Non), Eric Allen (Apples In Stereo) and others, Ralph briefly made something of a forty-years-too-late comeback, and released a double-disc retrospective which garnered him enough attention to get him profiled and interviewed a few years ago on Canada's "Collective Voice Radio Programme," and then later onto Al Gore’s Current TV, crooning a tune about how Barack Obama will ruin the country. Now in his late sixties, Ralph is still playing live solo shows around Denver, Colorado, and occasionally guest-deejays with college kids on Boulder radio station 11.90, with surreally amusing results.
Along the way he became a Mormon, got into trouble with the Feds, and lived on the streets; all the while making weird music that nobody paid any attention to. Rediscovered in the ‘90s by the likes of Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys), Boyd Rice (Non), Eric Allen (Apples In Stereo) and others, Ralph briefly made something of a forty-years-too-late comeback, and released a double-disc retrospective which garnered him enough attention to get him profiled and interviewed a few years ago on Canada's "Collective Voice Radio Programme," and then later onto Al Gore’s Current TV, crooning a tune about how Barack Obama will ruin the country. Now in his late sixties, Ralph is still playing live solo shows around Denver, Colorado, and occasionally guest-deejays with college kids on Boulder radio station 11.90, with surreally amusing results.
One tiny nitpicking not-quite-even-a-correction - "surreally amusing" looks to be him on KGNU, which is the community station (you know, hippies, Amy Goodman, Alan Watts rebroadcasts, a reggae show, people talking about wildlife) as opposed to 1190, which is the college station (you know, more esoteric than anybody).
Anyhow, real nice post. I'll be revisiting this in the morning when I have headphones to listen on.
posted by brennen at 12:15 AM on December 1, 2010
Anyhow, real nice post. I'll be revisiting this in the morning when I have headphones to listen on.
posted by brennen at 12:15 AM on December 1, 2010
I'm feeling good about this!
posted by a non e mouse at 1:09 AM on December 1, 2010
posted by a non e mouse at 1:09 AM on December 1, 2010
brennen - oops! I switched the links to the .MP3s just before posting and flubbed the description on that one in the process.
posted by slumberfiend at 1:40 PM on December 1, 2010
posted by slumberfiend at 1:40 PM on December 1, 2010
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posted by SmileyChewtrain at 11:56 PM on November 30, 2010