In the early 1960s, along with his
duties as cartoonist and world-traveller extraordinaire for Playboy
magazine,
Shel Silverstein was making a name
for himself as a songwriter and
hipster in the growing folk music scene.
Shel sang his own songs at clubs
like the Gate of Horn in Chicago and the
Bitter End in Greenwich Village,
while also collaborating with modern
influences on folk music like Bob
Gibson and Bob (Hamilton) Camp.
Somehow he also managed to toss
off bizarre little gems on the back of
other people's album covers. Ordinarily,
these would be called liner notes,
but with Shel's unique touch, they
really become something altogether
different. I don't know for sure
how many of these he actually penned,
but here's a few that I've been
able to dig up thus far. They run the gamut
from inscrutable to hilarious.
Enjoy:
Jean Shepherd and other Foibles (1959): Shel provides a "fictional biography" on the back of the album cover.
Gibson
& Camp Live at the Gate of Horn (1961): This album still
resonates
today, and was actually rerecorded in its entirety for a
reunion
that Gibson and Camp did in the 1990s. Shel's liner notes
are absolutely
wonderful, vividly describing the atmosphere of the
original
version of the club, which closed its doors soon after this
live concert.
Gibson himself cracked that "the liner notes outsold
the album
two to one."
High
Flying Bird (1963): This album was the 2nd solo album Judy
Henske
recorded for Elektra records, which also released Shel's first album, Hairy
Jazz. Henske is a singer who can't really be put into
any kind
of category. During her heyday, the early to mid 1960's,
she was
known for her incredible vocal power, her knack for comedy,
and her
gift with the blues. It's fully evident in this album, which
includes
the first song she ever wrote (in collaboration with Shel),
Oh,
You Engineer. The liner notes here are funny as hell, as Shel
seems
to mock her for refusing to marry him. Now, why he lists his
address
as being from Kenosha, Wisconsin, I will never know...
EDIT: I have been informed recently by Mitch Myers, Chicago-area journalist and Shel's nephew,(November 2003) that Shel's parents had a summer home in Kenosha, and Shel would visit there often over the years.
Jo Mapes
(1963): All I know is that Shel wrote the liner notes, but I haven't read
them. Mapes was a folksinger in Chicago who performed
at the
Gate of Horn and other area coffeehouses, and would have
known
Shel, Gibson/Camp, Alan Ribback, etc.
Jack
Elliot (1964): Vanguard Records. Elliot, known as Ramblin'
Jack,
is a traditional
folk singer who accompanies himself on guitar and
mouth
harp. Interesting. Shel's liner notes are very, very bizarre.