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2LP
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MR 364LP
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2022 restock. Munster Records present Launch Pad Favorites, an anthology of the brilliant and unique five-decade career of The Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Unhinged whooping, hooting and hollering rock'n'roll genius of the kind that helps you get through life. Featuring his best known songs plus rarities, this is the first ever vinyl compilation of The Ledge's work from 1968 to the present day. "When it comes to pop music, artistic originality always seems to be in chronically short supply, but for avant-sick noise phenomena the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, it's an endlessly available resource. Since his unforgettable 1968 introduction with 'Paralyzed', the Cowboy's unhinged whoop and screech, hit & run brand of bugle limned cacophony has not only astonished, it has also reached into the pop mainstream, from his early appearance on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1968) to David Bowies's 2002 cover of 'I Took A Trip (On A Gemini Spaceship)'. Working with a longtime band of accompanists that include Dead Kennedy's bassist Klaus Flouride, trio'd with Joey Myers on drums and Jay Rosen on guitar, The Ledge continues to rocket through his own musical galaxy." -- Jonny Whiteside. "One day I turned on the radio, and heard this wild and unhinged voice blasting through the airwaves. It stopped me in my tracks. The singer was telling me that he was standing in a trashcan thinking about me, and from that moment on my life would never be the same. I found that every song Ledge sang delivered the same amount of happiness I felt upon that first discovery, and it is my belief that a person cannot fight a smile if they will just let him into their heart." -- DJ "Shyboy" Tim Lind, KMSU Radio, 89.7 FM, Mankato, Minnesota. "First hearing, then seeing in performance, then meeting, then playing with and over the years getting to know and be friends with 'The Ledge' has been one of the most rewarding parts of my life. His sense of humor is funnier than I think even he knows. His abandon on stage is equaled by none. He can be ornery, but in his heart is one of the most open people I've ever met once he lets you in. This collection of his best known songs as well as some rarities is a must have for any collector of strange and funny, and in its way profoundly immediate music." -- Klaus Flouride (Dead Kennedys).
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7"
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MR 7298EP
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To celebrate Launch Pad Favorites, Munster Records present this 7" featuring The Legendary Stardust Cowboy's unforgettable 1968 debut, "Paralyzed", backed with non-compilation track "Down In The Wrecking Yard", from 1969. The record comes sleeved in a special Ledge themed company bag designed by Olaf Jens.
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CD
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EM 1061CD
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Killer presentation of the earliest recordings of this Texas hero, including all 4 of his singles for the Mercury label, cut in the late '60s. Also including unreleased tracks and the 1984 album, Rock-it To Stardum. Typically great EM Records booklet with old photos and lyrics, etc. It might be the weirdest piece of music ever committed to tape in Fort Worth. On "Paralyzed," an explosion of madness recorded at Sound City Studios on Camp Bowie Boulevard in 1968, the Legendary Stardust Cowboy thrashes away at a single guitar chord over a rudimentary two-beat, tunelessly bellowing indecipherable lyrics and whooping like an Indian in an old Western movie. In the middle of the song, there's a drum solo that sounds like someone dropping trash cans down a flight of stairs, followed by a blatting bugle. The pandemonium starts up again only to subside, like the end of an epileptic seizure. Hearing the song for the first time is disorienting, to say the least. Its impact is both hilarious and primal. Norman Carl Odam is an unlikely musical hero. That's the name the Lege's parents gave him when he was born, in Lubbock in 1947. But since high school, he's called himself the Legendary Stardust Cowboy. He has an extremely limited vocal range, has trouble singing in time, and can barely play his instruments. Yet, some surprising people like him. Chameleon-like British rocker David Bowie based his Ziggy Stardust character on the Lege after receiving a copy of "Paralyzed" from Mercury Records upon signing with the label in 1968. Bowie even covered Odam's song "I Took a Trip (On A Gemini Spaceship)" on his 2002 Heathen CD. Joe Ely, who grew up with Odam in Lubbock, has said that his old friend "might be the greatest jazz musician ever to come out of West Texas." Ely's claim sounds preposterous, but it's still indicative of a degree of bewildered admiration. As for Norman Odam, these days he works as a night watchman in a Santa Clara bank. His current band -- bassist Klaus Fluoride (formerly of San Francisco punk originators, the Dead Kennedys), guitarist Jay Rosen, and Meyers -- works regularly around the Bay Area and even played a show in France with punk-era figures Alan Vega, Lydia Lunch, and Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Odam's been featured in Songs in the Key of Z, Irwin Chusid's book on "outsider" music, and Lubbock Lights, a documentary about his homeboys the Flatlanders.
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