Jerry Rayson: The Weird Thing in Town

 

 

 

 

 

I first read about Jerry Rayson in the book Enjoy the Experience, a survey of private press LPs in the United States. Supercollector Paul Major of New York wrote about Rayson's record The Weird Thing in Town:

It's incredibly scarce, and Major's description of it naturally drove up demand, which is why Craig Moerer (RecordsByMail) wants $1500 for a copy on eBay, and Bananas Records wants $1200 for a copy on Discogs.

A few years ago Major liquidated his collection, and his copy of The Weird Thing in Town (with Jerry's handwritten note "ONLY FOR DJ - P.L.C. - JERRY" on the back) ended up at Rockaway Records in L.A., where I bought it.

Is it any good? "Good" isn't really the right adjective. In fact adjectives are not the best approach. Analyzing this record is like criticizing a swarm of bees. For this slab of outsider wax, Jerry assigned his own imprint Psychedelic Worlds Records (spelled "Physcadelic" elsewhere on the cover), and Jerry's cover essay lays out his desire to create his own musical style, "Rocbuafro", with elements of rock and African and Caribbean. It's primitive, noisy, and 100% improvised, with barely-under-control vocals over bursts of insane kinetic energy on guitar and drums. There are at least three cuts where he might be playing on top of other records.

Almost nothing is known about Jerry beyond what anyone can glean from the content of the package. Many have guessed that he was Puerto Rican and that Rayson was not his real last name. No one is certain when the album was released, with guesses ranging from 1969 to 1974. I've found no credible evidence that he's either alive or dead. Jerry included his telephone number in the cover art, a tantalizing clue that unfortunately dead-ended when a very helpful New York Public Library reference librarian advised me that the most recent NYC phone directory that's been digitized dates from 1960.

A Long Beach journalist/collector/researcher named Matvei Procak posted on Ancestry.com in 2006 asking if anyone had heard of Jerry Rayson. Rayson describes himself as a painter in his essay on the cover of the LP, and Procak's post suggests he had excavated some of his paintings. Procak is the researcher who made possible reissues of scarce folk records Ode to Quetzalcoatl by Dave Bixby and Second Coming by Harbinger, both released by Spanish label Guerssen in 2009. Unfortunately I'm unable to track down Procak, and Guerssen has lost touch with him.

The site Hippedelic lists an old sale page for a bundle of Jerry Rayson materials, including the LP, a single, a promotional photo, and a photocollaged painting, which taken together offer the only known photos of Rayson:

 

 

 

I've trawled the Internet for photos of various copies of the record, and I see four variants of the cover - black on white, black on red, black on green, and blue on white. Some are hand-colored. Some have glitter applied. There are also many examples of unpasted cover art that (presumably) Rayson collaged into art projects, trimming the four corners and then taking a black or silver circular backing and gluing the result to it, or gluing the four trims on the backing arranged in a mandala.

The assignment of tracks to track names is...problematic. Neither side of the record is banded. Side A is pretty straightforward: the jacket and the label confirm side A tracks are "My New York Woman" ("Women" on the label), "Oye Boogaloo Nena", "El Bacelon de lo Junkie", "Yo Soy de mi Patria", and "Rocbuafro with L.S.D.". This jives with the sounds you hear on side A: there are five tracks separated by silences, and though three of the songs never reference the title in the lyrics, "My New York Woman" and "El Bacelon de lo Junkie" are strong matches between title and lyrics.

Side B is definitely indexed incorrectly. The jacket and label say side B tracks are "Maybelle", "Espaco—With Space", "Do the Boogaloo", "Mama Lim Papa Limbo", and "Moyca Dance Rocbuafro"; however after listening to the lyrics it's clear that track 1 is "Espaco—With Space", track 2 is "Do the Boogaloo", track 3/4 is "Mama Lim Papa Limbo" and "Moyca Dance Rocbuafro" (which run together without silence in between, but with a clear demarcation between tracks at the 3:51 mark), and track 5 is...something. Nowhere in the lyrics of track 5 is the word "Maybelle" mentioned, but "Maybelle" is the last remaining unused track title we can assign to it, and the lyrics of three side A tracks had no relation to the title of the song either, so...I've assigned "Maybelle" as the name of the last track on side B.

There are two known singles from this album, "Oye Boogaloo Nena" b/w "Maybelle" and "My New York Woman" b/w "Do The Boogaloo". They might resolve this issue fairly quickly, but I don't have those singles. After being slightly obsessed with this album for several years I'm no longer in need of any quick solutions to its mysteries! If you do have any hard information about this artist or album, though, I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

Album audio & artwork

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.