Rock and Other Four Letter Words

Rock and Other Four Letter Words is the companion album, or "auditory extension", of a paperback book of the same name, also authored by J Marks.{{cite book |last1=Glinksy |first1=Albert |title=Switched on: Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution |date=2022 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=9780197642078 |pages=143–144 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ket5EAAAQBAJ&dq=rock+and+other+four+letter+words+marks+lebzelter&pg=PA143 |access-date=July 27, 2023 |chapter=Long Live the Moog!}} Published in 1968 by Bantam Books, with photography from Linda Eastman,{{cite journal |last1=Stanley |first1=Donald |title=New Sound Is Familiar |journal=The San Francisco Examiner |date=December 17, 1968 |page=35 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/460165505/?terms=Rock%20and%20Other%20Four%20Letter%20Words&match=1 |access-date=July 18, 2023}} the book is a stylized pop encyclopedia{{cite journal |last1=Thompson |first1=Doug |title=Pop Library Filled with Rock Books |journal=The Tribune |date=January 11, 1969 |page=4A |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/529288494/?terms=Rock%20and%20Other%20Four%20Letter%20Words&match=1 |access-date=July 18, 2023}} that compiles pictures and quotations from rock musicians interviewed by Marks,{{cite journal |last1=Yorke |first1=Ritchie |title=Youth Turns to Writing About the Rock Phase |journal=Rochester Democrat and Chronicle |date=April 20, 1969 |page=5G |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/136587976/?terms=Rock%20and%20Other%20Four%20Letter%20Words&match=1 |access-date=July 18, 2023}} alongside fold-out pages, large typography and humour, in a manner comparable to the work of Marshall McLuhan. It was one of several breakthrough 1968 books on rock and pop music authored by the first generation of writers and journalists to, according to Doug Thompson of the Tribune, "[concern] themselves with serious literary studies of the social phenomenon called pop music." Ritchie Yorke grouped Marks' book with The Poetry of Rock (compiled by Richard Goldstein and also published by Bantam), in that both exemplified the emergence of young people responding to rock music via writing and prose and creating an audience for rock books, which helped evidence how rock and pop were becoming culturally legitimized.{{refn|group=nb|In his review of the paperback, Jenkin Lloyd Jones praised Marks' rock interviews, describing them as capturing "the essence of the wonderful new age of honesty. Best of all, it's a sort of easy honesty."{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=Jenkins Lloyd |title=Outlook |journal=The Gastonia Gazette |date=March 30, 1969 |page=7 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/4340175/?terms=Rock%20and%20Other%20Four%20Letter%20Words&match=1 |access-date=July 18, 2023}}{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=Jenkins Lloyd |title=A Lot Is Learned During Effort to Narrow the Generation Gap |journal=The Park City Daily News |date=March 30, 1969 |page=34 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/661521940/?terms=Rock%20and%20Other%20Four%20Letter%20Words&match=1 |access-date=July 18, 2023}}}}

For the album, also titled Rock and Other Four Letter Words, Marks collaborated with composer and filmmaker Shipen Lebzelter, with production from John McClure of Columbia Records. As the basis for the record, Marks used his interviews with major rock bands and personalities, which he had captured with a tape recorder; the author had travelled around the world to hold these meetings, in which rapport was established. According to writer Scott G. Campbell, the tapes included "such rarely interviewed people as Donovan and George Martin, musical director of the Beatles." After returning to Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York, Marks and Lebzelter took the tapes and cut, spliced, sliced, chopped and fed them into a "hungry" Moog III synthesizer to create the album. Overall, the record incorporates outtakes from "27 hours of interviews ... with 53 rock stars". In addition to the interviews, the album includes musical contributions from "the Gregg Smith Singers, the Greater Abyssinian Baptist Choir directed by Alex Bradford and an estimated three dozen solo singers and instrumentalists." The liner notes credit "a cast of thousands, Including the voices, comments, yawns and blurbs of bunches of international rock stars and various other good people". The recording was created as a stereo LP.

Rock and Other Four Letter Words is described by author Amanda Sewell as "an album of free jazz and psychedelic music mixed with audio clips of rock musicians",{{cite book |last1=Sewell |first1=Amanda |title=Wendy Carlos: A Biography |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0190053468 |page=50 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I9bODwAAQBAJ&dq=Rock+and+Other+Four+Letter+Words+marks+lebzelter&pg=PA50 |access-date=July 19, 2023 |chapter=Switched-on Bach and Undesired Fame (1968-69)}} while writer Thom Holmes calls it a rock album that comprises a collage, mixing free jazz and psychedelia with "snippets of rock notables".{{cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=Thom |title=Electronic and Experimental Music: Technology, Music, and Culture |date=2008 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |location=Milton Park, Oxfordshire |isbn=9781135906177 |page=219 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q0uTAgAAQBAJ&dq=Rock+and+Other+Four+Letter+Words+marks+lebzelter&pg=PA219 |access-date=July 19, 2023 |chapter=The Voltage-Based Synthesizer}} Albert Glinsky calls it an "aural grab bag", combining snippets from Marks' rock interviews with "excerpted recordings of rock bands, the Gregg Smith Singers, the Greater Abyssinian Baptist Choir, and electronic sounds", further deeming the tracks to be "generally chaotic sound collages". Among the interviewed rock musicians whose voices are heard are Ginger Baker, Brian Wilson, Tim Buckley, Jefferson Airplane, Pete Townshend, Janis Joplin, Judy Collins, John Sebastian, Phil Everly, Dave Clark, Jimmy Page and producer Mickey Most, with the musicians' personalities highlighted.

The album has also been described as a work of avant-garde, and electronic,{{cite journal |last1=Goberman |first1=Andy |title=J Marks: Into Everything |journal=Record World |date=July 26, 1969 |page=47 |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-Record-World-IDX/IDX/60s/69/RW-1969-07-26-OCR-Page-0043.pdf#search=%22j%20marks%20rock%20and%20other%20four%20letter%20words%22 |access-date=July 27, 2023}} or "electronic, rock-oriented" music.{{cite journal |last1=Robinson |first1=Barry |title=Marks in Many Fields |journal=The Courier-Post |date=June 21, 1969 |page=47 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/181641033/?terms=Rock%20and%20Other%20Four%20Letter%20Words&match=1 |access-date=July 18, 2023}}{{cite journal |title=National Group Is Seeking Sexual Freedom |journal=The Rockland County Journal News |date=May 20, 1969 |page=7 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/164371091/?terms=Rock%20and%20Other%20Four%20Letter%20Words&match=1 |access-date=18 July 2023}} The original musical content is heavy and highly eclectic; according to critic Charles McKinney, it ranges from "gospel to protest to zook sounds to electronic efforts". Music critic Oregano Rathbone highlights the record's Moog work, atonal experimentation with musique concrète and tape manipulation,{{cite web |last1=Rathbone |first1=Oregano |title=Rock And Other Four Letter Words / J Marks & Shipen Lebzelter |url=https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/album/rock-and-other-four-letter-words |website=Record Collector |access-date=July 27, 2023 |date=September 10, 2012}} while David F. Wagner compared the album's combination of 'salon rock' ("both orchestrated and choral") with Marks' interview outtakes to the Mothers of Invention, likening it to what the group "might come up with if they were asked to dedicate an entire album to plugging a book by Frank Zappa." Delaware County Daily Times deemed the recording to be "based on the standard 32 bar rock melody, arranged in sequences which build to crescendi."{{cite journal |title=Teens are Reading and Listening to... |journal=Delaware County Daily Times |date=December 27, 1968 |page=8 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/23801033/?terms=Rock%20and%20Other%20Four%20Letter%20Words%20album&match=1 |access-date=July 18, 2023}}

"Other Four Letter Words", with its chorus of four-letter words, is built around eerie whispering which segues into a deluge of soundbites from artists including Wilson and Townshend, treated with "heavy, hallucinogenic echo." "Essence of Its Own" was described by McKinney as "pop-based electronic weirdness" reminiscent of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The title, a quotation from Frederic Henry Hedge, is repeated throughout the track, such that it becomes a "narcotic mantra". "Baked Beans" is a joke song with an uplifting gospel chorus that segues into the spiritual "Down by the Riverside", while "They're Through" is a protest number denouncing The Establishment; according to Wagner, it can be interpreted as "a revolutionary call to arms or a parody of same". "Eine Kleine Hayakwa" was described by Rathbone as "a paroxysm of stuttering, stitched into a collage – and painstakingly transcribed on the sleeve". One part of the track is an abstraction of Marks' discussions with Everly and Felix Pappalardi. Wagner says that the song, coupled with the following "Do You Understand What I'm Trying to Say?", make for "a terse statement on communication". Sung by Carol Miller and Hilda Harris, the lyrics of "Poop for Sopranos and Orchestras" were arbitrarily chosen from various sportscasts.

File:Karlheinz Stockhausen (1980).jpg (1980), whom the album is dedicated to]]

Released in December 1968,{{cite magazine |title=New Album Releases for December |magazine=Billboard |date=December 14, 1968 |volume=80 |issue=50 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_kQEAAAAMBAJ&dq=Rock+and+Other+Four+Letter+Words+marks+lebzelter&pg=PA12 |access-date=July 19, 2023}} Rock and Other Four Letter Words appeared on Columbia Masterworks, an imprint of Columbia Records that, according to Rathbone, "merely added an intimidating veneer of high-mindedness" to the album, thus compounding "the avant-garde felony". The artwork features an arrangement of text, described by Glinsky as comprising "mostly hip snark or impenetrable jumbles of interview outtakes." For instance, Judy Collins is quoted as commenting "Ta'a-nita'nit Exi-fit's-if' it's-of-ahah-if' it's-ah-", and Marks responds with "Yeahof' of' of' of'." The album is dedicated to Karlheinz Stockhausen, "who destroyed our ears so we could hear." Wagner criticised Marks for using Stockhausen's name to promote the album.

The album was one of three simultaneously released to launch Columbia's "Bach to Rock" campaign, alongside Wendy Carlos' Moog project Switched-On Bach and Terry Riley's minimalist work In C. The campaign sought to link rock with the music of composer Johann Sebastian Bach, with the angle that progressive rock was "taking the classics out of the concert hall and bringing them to the rock generation."{{refn|group=nb|According to Riley, the three albums were intended "to capture the imagination of the young audience".{{cite book |last1=Potter |first1=Keith |title=Four Musical Minimalists |date=2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0521015014 |page=133 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sc61Gy3r8HAC&dq=%22rock+and+other+four+letter+words%22+album&pg=PA386 |access-date=July 31, 2023 |chapter=Terry Riley}}}} The three records were announced in Billboard, and on December 4, Columbia Masterworks hosted a release party for them at their 30th Street Studio in Manhattan. Described as a "total environment program", the event included Marks' performance of a theatre work with his troupe;{{cite journal |title=Moog Music |journal=Cash Box |date=December 21, 1968 |page=46 |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-Cash-Box-IDX/60s/1968/CB-1968-12-21-OCR-Page-0044.pdf#search=%22j%20marks%20rock%20and%20other%20four%20letter%20words%22 |access-date=July 27, 2023 |quote=A total environment program was presented to guests at Columbia's 30th Street studio in NYC. The program included a performance of a "theater piece" by J Marks, the artist responsible for the "Rock And Other Four Letter Words" album, and his troupe. Marks also wrote the Bantam book of the same title.}} he wore attached amulets down his exposed chest. To promote the campaign, Masterworks distributed a 12-page underground-style newspaper to Columbia's distribution staff, key radio stations and trade and consumer press.{{cite journal |title=Columbia Creates Own Press for 'Bach/Rock' |journal=Cash Box |date=December 7, 1968 |page=38 |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-Cash-Box-IDX/60s/1968/CB-1968-12-07-OCR-Page-0038.pdf#search=%22j%20marks%20rock%20and%20other%20four%20letter%20words%22 |access-date=July 27, 2023}}

Of the three albums, Rock and Other Four Letter Words was expected to achieve the biggest commercial success, but it sold very poorly.{{cite book |last1=Pinch |first1=Trevor |last2=Trocco |first2=Frank |title=Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer |date=2002 |publisher=9780674042162 |location=Harvard |isbn=0674016173 |page=131 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CoUs2SSvG4EC&dq=%22rock+and+other+four+letter+words%22&pg=PT147 |access-date=July 31, 2023 |chapter=Switched-On Bach |quote=Rock and Other Four Letter Words vanished without a trace}} According to Robert Moog, Rock merely sold "a few thousand records", whereas In C sold several tens of thousand copies and Switched-On Bach sold over a million copies. He described Marks' effort as an "abysmal record" and criticised Columbia for undervaluing Switched-On Bach with the joint release campaign. Although Marks' LP sold poorly in the United States, it was more successful in Europe and also received fan mail from Stockhausen and Zappa. In 1969, it was reported that some of Marks' interview tapes would form the basis of a radio program; hosted by Marks, it was for the ABC-FM radio network and also named Rock and Other Four Letter Words. As of late 1968, a film based on part of the album had also reached the preparation stage. In 2012, the album was re-released in the United Kingdom as an LP by Paradigm Discs.

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In a contemporary review for The Indianapolis News, Charles McKinney wrote that Rock and Other Four Letter Words uses "the very sounds" of pop culture to create "a kind of music, or language, or environment, however one wishes to categorize it." He noted the controversial nature of many of the interview excerpts and praised the record as "a fascinating, integrated conglomerate of words, coughs, sniffs, serious asides, howls, put downs, sighs and songs."{{cite journal |last1=McKinney |first1=Charles |title=Electronic Bach's for Turned-On Generation |journal=The Indianapolis News |date=January 16, 1969 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/312206274/?terms=Rock%20and%20Other%20Four%20Letter%20Words&match=1 |access-date=July 18, 2023}} In an article for The Arizona Republic, Scott G. Campbell called it "one of the most unusual and original record albums of the year." He wrote that it was unlike any album he had heard before and advised readers to "get a chance to listen to it", regardless of whether they decide to purchase a copy. He quoted Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane to conclude that pop music was innovating new ideas.{{cite journal |last1=Campbell |first1=Scott G. |title=The Underground Sound |journal=The Arizona Republic |date=December 22, 1968 |page=4-N |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20231087/?terms=Rock%20and%20Other%20Four%20Letter%20Words&match=1 |access-date=July 18, 2023}}

Record World described the album as a "rock novelty" and an intriguing attempt to "create an impressionistic portrait of the sounds, musical and otherwise, of the time."{{cite journal |title=Album Reviews: Pick Hits |journal=Record World |date=November 30, 1968 |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-Record-World-IDX/IDX/60s/68/Record-World-1968-11-30-OCR-Page-0012.pdf#search=%22j%20marks%20rock%20and%20other%20four%20letter%20words%22 |access-date=July 27, 2023}} In their review, Billboard wrote: "If you're tuned in to the electronics, the narrative and the other hallucinatory gimmicks, it could provide unusual and interesting fare." They further praised the engineering work and contended that the album could receive heavy airplay on underground radio stations.{{cite magazine |title=Billboard Album Reviews |magazine=Billboard |date=November 23, 1968 |volume=80 |issue=47 |page=53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vQoEAAAAMBAJ&dq=Rock+and+Other+Four+Letter+Words+marks+lebzelter+new+album+releases+for+december&pg=PA53 |access-date=July 19, 2023}} In The Post-Crescent, David F. Wagner wrote that the record is boring at worst and "quite amusing" at best, deeming it to be "most enjoyable when heard in small sections at several sittings."{{cite journal |last1=Wagner |first1=David F. |title=Rock: Four-Letter Word |journal=The Post-Crescent |date=December 1, 1968 |page=S4 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/290857965/?terms=Rock%20and%20Other%20Four%20Letter%20Words&match=1 |access-date=July 18, 2023}} Reviewing the Paradigm Discs reissue for Record Collector, Oregano Rathbone wrote that the original release was, until the mid-1970s, an album that "everyone seemed to have heard of" but very few people had actually heard, and even fewer enjoyed. He added that the magazine "love" the album, naming it "an early masterpiece of tape manipulation, Moog scribbles and musique concrète atonality." Though noting that the album is often compared to Zappa's Lumpy Gravy (1968), he added its "closer cousin" is We're Only in It for the Money (also 1968).

All songs written by J Marks except where noted.

1. "Other Four Letter Words" (Marks, Shipen Lebzelter) – 6:24
2. "Essence of Its Own" – 5:44
3. "It's True" (Gustav Marks) – 3:17
4. "Greatest Hits – Love Your Navel" (Marks, Lebzelter) – 2:24
5. "In the Middle of Nothing" (Lebzelter) – 4:12
6. "Baked Beans" (Marks, Lebzelter) – 3:38

7. "They're Through" – 5:54
8. "Today" – 1:26
9. "Eine Kleine Hayakawa" (Marks, Lebzelter) – 1:25
10. "Do You Understand What I'm Trying to Say?" (Lebzelter) – 3:19
11. "Trouble" – 2:18
12. "Poop for Sopranos and Orchestra" (Marks, Lebzelter) –7:57
13. "This is the Word" (Marks; words by Woody Guthrie) – 1:43

Adapted from the liner notes of Rock and Other Four Letter Words.{{cite AV media notes| title = Rock and Other Four Letter Words| others= Marks and Lebzelter| year = 1968| type = liner| publisher = Columbia Masterworks}}

• J Marks – creator, Moog III synth, rock riff ("Other Four Letter Words"), vocals ("Greatest Hits – Love Your Navel", "Today", "Do You Understand What I'm Trying to Say?"), soloist ("Greatest Hits – Love Your Navel", "Today", "Do You Understand What I'm Trying to Say?")
• Shipen Lebzelter – creator, Moog III synth, vocals ("Essence of Its Own", "Greatest Hits – Love Your Navel", "Do You Understand What I'm Trying to Say?"), soloist ("Essence of Its Own", "Greatest Hits – Love Your Navel", "Do You Understand What I'm Trying to Say?")
• Gerri Kuczynski – vocals ("Other Four Letter Words"), soloist ("Other Four Letter Words")
• William Graf – vocals ("Other Four Letter Words"), soloist ("Other Four Letter Words")
• Carol Miller – alto vocals, vocals ("It's True", "Greatest Hits – Love Your Navel", "Today", "Do You Understand What I'm Trying to Say?", "Poop for Sopranos and Orchestra"), soloist ("It's True", "Greatest Hits – Love Your Navel", "Today", "Do You Understand What I'm Trying to Say?", "Poop for Sopranos and Orchestra")
• Hilda Harris – soprano vocals, vocals ("It's True", "Greatest Hits – Love Your Navel", "Today", "Do You Understand What I'm Trying to Say?", "Poop for Sopranos and Orchestra"), soloist ("It's True", "Greatest Hits – Love Your Navel", "Today", "Do You Understand What I'm Trying to Say?", "Poop for Sopranos and Orchestra")
• Mickey Most – vocals ("Baked Beans"), soloist ("Baked Beans")
• Janet Graham – vocals ("They're Through"), soloist ("They're Through")
• Alex Bradford – director ("Baked Beans"), gospel piano ("Baked Beans"), baritone vocals ("Baked Beans"), vocals ("Trouble"), soloist ("Trouble")
• Bruce A. Johnson – bass guitar
• Alan Silva – cello, contractor
• Greater Abyssinian Baptist Choir – choir ("Baked Beans")
• The Gregg Smith Singers – chorus ("Other Four Letter Words", "Essence of Its Own", "In the Middle of Nothing", "They're Through", "Eine Kleine Hayakawa", "This Is the Word")
• Gregg Smith – conductor ("Other Four Letter Words", "Essence of Its Own", "In the Middle of Nothing", "They're Through", "Eine Kleine Hayakawa", "This Is the Word")
• Cecil Garrett – gospel drums
• Nick Gefron – drums, leader
• Art Kendy – engineer
• Fred Plaut – engineer
• Glen Kolotkin – engineer
• Larry Packer – electric fiddle
• Clarence Drayton – gospel guitar
• Jake Jacobs – lead guitar
• Alberta Bradford – gospel organ
• Burton Greene – organ, piano, celeste
• Andrew Cyrille – percussion
• Laurence Cook – percussion
• Warren Smith – percussion
• Blaine Farris – piano, organ, celeste
• John McClure – producer
• Gerard Hayes – reeds
• Martin Atler – reeds
• William Draper – reeds
• Jonathan Sachs – rhythm guitar
• Michael Berdardi – rhythm guitar
• Bob Walker – rhythm guitar
• Roswell Rudd – trombone
• Jimmy Owens – trumpet
• Michael Ripley – trumpet
• Steve Furtado – trumpet

{{reflist|group=nb}}

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Category:1968 debut albums

Category:Columbia Records albums

Category:Electronic albums by American artists

Category:Rock albums by American artists

Category:Sound collage albums

Category:Free jazz albums

Category:Psychedelic music albums by American artists

Category:Experimental music albums by American artists

Category:Musique concrète albums

Category:Progressive rock albums by American artists

Category:1968 collaborative albums

Category:Albums recorded at CBS 30th Street Studio

Category:Brian Wilson

Category:Jefferson Airplane

Category:Pete Townshend

Category:Janis Joplin

Category:Jimmy Page

Category:Works about rock music