And did I mention they're filthy! Certainly one quality the 1964 LP didn't have that the 1999 CD has to spare is lewd, bizarre sex narratives. Even if you only hear this album once, the sometimes bitchy, sometimes ultra-vulnerable ramblings of this subconscious poet will haunt you forever. Dion's voice, with its fey presence, eerie inflections and tense, occasionally fear-soaked delivery is not something you'll soon forget. Quite simply, this is one of the most bizarre, compelling, frightening things you'll ever hear.
Sadly, McGregor no longer sleeps among us, but in this lovingly packaged and annotated CD, he lives (and dreams) on. McGregor's voice is something of a cross between Rex Reed's and William Burroughs's he takes on the roles of a deranged tour guide in "A City So Nice," a beleaguered pollster in "The Survey," a tattoo artist working on a woman's tongue in "Tattoo" and a Freudian analyst in "Little Willie Song." Strangest of all is "16 Tickets to Schenectady," which finds McGregor referring to himself in the third person, admonishing a visitor "not to wake him up - we don't want to lose another tape!" and then abruptly switching to a dream in which he and the rest of the Dorothy Lamour fan club attempt to catch a train to Schenectady in hopes of meeting their idol.Īs one might expect, there are dozens of lines of subconscious delirium (such as "don't break the mailman" and "do turkeys have tits?"), and there's a salacious bent to the monologues missing (censored, that is) from the original LP. The results are by turns hilarious, baffling, nutty and terrifying. Both died quick commercial deaths, and our hero was all but forgotten (aside from penning one hit for Barbra Streisand).Īs fate would have it, however, both acclaimed musician John Zorn and underground music archivist extraordinaire Phil Milstein are fans of the original album, and the two conspired to release this follow-up, culled from Barr's hundreds of hours of original tapes. In January 1964, just a month before the Beatles (whom Decca passed on) conquered America, The Dream World of Dion McGregor was released, and the book version followed that spring. Barr set about recording his roomie nightly and managed to peddle the results to both Decca Records and Random House Books. Barr soon discovered McGregor's uncanny habit of narrating his dreams aloud in his sleep - not just muttering incoherently, but clearly speaking fully formed, five- to ten-minute-long crazed monologues. Is this the ultimate home recording? Back in the magical early '60s, an odd couple of aspiring songwriters, Dion McGregor and Mike Barr, shared an apartment on the Upper East Side.
Dion McGregor Dreams Again: Press Clippings
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