I guess Richard Lyons gets the Eric Carr Couldn't You Have Waited Another Week To Die Award, for dying on the same day as someone more famous than him, this week. And if you think that's in poor taste, you're probably not familiar with Negativland's Helter Stupid album (or at least side one of said album, which was inspired by a media prank that a lot of people probably thought was in poor taste).
If you don't know Negativland's music (and I imagine some of you won't), they're a great sort of satirical avant garde group from the San Francisco Bay Area. Their first album came out in the very early 80's, I believe when most of the band members at the time were in high school. The album that turned me onto them, and which I still think was their best, Escape From Noise, came out in 1987. I can only say you have to hear this album to believe it (and the entire thing is on Youtube, if you want to look for it), no description I could give Negativland's work could possibly describe it. But it's basically a mix of audio collage (using actual real life magnetic tape manipulation, the only equipment that could do this stuff back in 1987 digitally was beyond the band's budget, I'm sure), a few actual songs (typically with satirical lyrics of one sort or a variety) and what can only do be described as dadaist/surrealist/absurdist spoken word segments (one of my favorites being a piece where one of the band members tells of audio interference ruining your adult entertainment cable TV experience...the piece is called The Playboy Channel if you want to hear it). They also had their own long running radio show on KPFA, called Over The Edge, which has been on the air for more than 30 years, and has generated several albums of bizarre content.
If you think the entertainment industry is having a rough time in the last 6 or so months, consider what Negativland and their fans (me included) have been going through. This is the third person associated with the group to pass away in the last 18 or so months. First, Ian Allen, was in the group during the early and mid 80's passed away. Than, Don Joyce, the main responsible for the tape collage aspect of their work (and the nominal "host" or what-have-you of Over The Edge) passed away last summer. And now Richard Lyons, aka Pastor Dick, aka Dick Goodbody (Pastor Dick and Dick Goodbody being a couple characters who appear on some of the Over The Edge broadcasts and albums).
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