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Old Music Tuesdays: Pearls Before Swine

by Bob Boilen

It was a random pull from my LP collection that has me writing about a much overlooked band from the '60s and '70s, Pearls Before Swine.
It's been reported that this record, One Nation Underground sold 100,000 copies; a fact that I have trouble believing. They were good, but not popular.

This was a band capable of gentle psychedelic folk music and then Farfisa organ driven angst. Tom Rapp was the main songwriter for the band and the only singer I know of to sing such deeply heartfelt tunes with a pronounced lisp. The poetry was so good that it never mattered.

This is the opening track from their 1967 debut. I've always thought Another Time was a song about escaping death; I've recently read an article that said it was about a car crash in which Tom Rapp walked away from.

The link between poetry and popular music is inextricable. With so many lousy lyricists it is easy to forget this.

Rapp does remind me of some of our quieter 21st century musical poets. Damien Rice would be one and Sam Beam another, maybe also Devendra Banhart.

Find some music by Tom Rapp and Pearls Before Swine. Let me know if there is a wordsmith these days that is as poignant.
I know there are, and I'd love to add to the list.

You can hear a story about Tom Rapp's life as a civil rights lawyer and his more recent music by going here.

2:23 PM ET | 01-22-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

Arcade Fire meet Hieronymus Bosch...never thought I'd say that sober.

Sent by anon | 3:47 AM ET | 01-23-2008

EVERY TIME I listen to NPR or read your blog i end up spending money on itunes.

Which, even though I am a poor college kid, ROCKS and I can't think of a better way to spend all that dough I don't have.

So thanks Bob Boilen, for giving my consumerist tendencies positive direction.

Sent by M | 1:33 PM ET | 01-25-2008

i wonder if stephan pastis would like this music ?

Sent by dre | 1:34 PM ET | 01-25-2008

THERE WAS A NEW PEARLS BEFORE SWINE RELEASE TITLED "RADIO PEARLS" ON ESP,
WHICH WAS A LIVE 1971 CONCERT FROM WBAI STUDIOS. HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO FIND. E-MAILED ESP...NO RESPONSE. WAS IT EVER RELEASED? I ATTENDED THIS SHOW.

The Pearls Before Swine site has been down.
I don't know about this recording. There is some live recordings mentioned on the Wiki. Lucky you for having seen the band. I have a vague memory of seeing Tom Rapp at the Cellar Door in Washington, but it could be just a dream
Bob Boilen

Sent by GEORGE KOTZAS | 3:41 PM ET | 01-25-2008

Also on the album is that song 'Miss Morse' {"...This may strike you oddily, but I want you bodily;...'] with the
'Dit-dit-da-dit
dit dit da
da dit da dit
da dit da'
chorus, which spells, (in Morse Code) as I ascertained from a blushing sailor [mixed company]on an island cruise, what you might think it does!

Sent by George | 5:02 AM ET | 01-26-2008

A Band To Call My Own?????

A long time ago, in a city far far away, (I live in Hong Kong now, so New York City does seem far far away), my best friend and I went to CBGB to see a band called Orchestra Luna. We had been playing and playing and playing their LP for many months. And WOW, we had such a great time at that show. And of course returned home to replay and replay the LP again and again. A few years ago, I found a Japanese Label CD of it, and of course paid the 30 or so dollars it was going for on Amazon. And now, I play the CD over and over and over!! What ever happened to them??????? Oh, and by the way, Orchestra Luna opened for a band we had never heard of, yet, called The Talking Heads!!!!! That night will live with me till I die!!!!! Ahhhhh, Sweet Doris Dreams, Back In the Boy Scout camp!!!

Joe

Sent by Joe Hoffman | 5:11 AM ET | 01-26-2008

Love the folk/pysch genre and would love P.B.S., but the lisp kills me. Saw them open for Carly Simon at some college in NJ.

Sent by CB in NJ | 4:48 AM ET | 01-30-2008

John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats. Pure poetry.

Sent by moraine | 12:07 PM ET | 02-05-2008

As for the "Radio Pearls" album: I was the producer of that album, and long time friend of Tom Rapp, as well as administrator of his official archives. It was not officially released, due to a legal issue with a party who claimed rights to the original source material. It was a radio program, recorded in studio, so there was no audience present. This party is asking for a large amount of money to relinquish said rights, and frankly, I don't have it. Sometime in the future, that title may be released on our own label, as I am no longer affiliated with ESP-Disk. We also have a live concert album from the same era, "Live Pearls", which I hope to release as soon as I have the funds to pay for manufacturing. Truth be told, I had a stroke last Summer and am in financial trouble. No releases are forthcoming from WildCat Records until I can get my personal situation straightened out. The WildCat/Pearls Before Swine Web site should be back up in the next couple of weeks with updated news.

Sent by Joe Phillips - WildCat Recording USA | 3:12 PM ET | 04-10-2008

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