Marilyn Records

MARILYN RECORDS

The entire recorded output of the Unknowns was released on a Marilyn Records CD in 1994 called Bruce Joyner and the Unknowns (though I was able to order it much more recently).

(June 2011)

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The album I have by Thomas Anderson, Moon Going Down was released on Marilyn Records; the label predates Patrick Boissel’s better known, Bomp! Records-affiliated Alive Records.

(November 2012)

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Greg Shaw died too young in 2004, but his legacy lives on to this day. Greg Shaw and his wife Suzy Shaw eventually divorced, but she and her current husband Patrick Boissel continue to operate Bomp! Records. Boissel is actually the founder of their most active label, Alive Records and previously operated Marilyn Records in the 1990’s. Bomp! Records celebrates its 40th anniversary next year and advertises itself as the oldest independent record company in the nation.

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(Third album by the UARB for November 2012, Thomas Anderson, released on October 30, 1995 on Marilyn Records)

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(Retrospective album by the UARB for June 2011, the Unknowns, released in 1994 on Marilyn Records)

(May 2013)

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The two songs that introduced me to Phil Gammage were on a sampler album entitled The Electric Radio Sampler Music Test (1993). The album is probably intended to be played inside record stores as an inducement to purchase albums on sale by the label who released it, Marilyn Records. It doesn’t look like much, but there is some great music on this little CD.

Marilyn Records was a European label that was founded by French musician Patrick Boissel in the mid-1980’s. After a number of French and Spanish releases, Marilyn began handling the sort of musicians and bands that gravitate to Bomp! Records. Suzy Shaw of Bomp! Records met Boissel at a record convention, and Marilyn Records became their distributor in Europe. One result was a great compilation album that I have of previous Bomp! Records releases called From L.A. with Love (1992) that features the Plimsouls, the Flamin’ Groovies, Stiv Bators, Jeff Dahl, the Stooges, and the Zeros.

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Here follows a reprint of the Trouser Press Record Guide (4th Edition) listing for the SourMash family of bands. Though slightly garbled, it presents a fairly accurate overview of our thing in the 1980’s.

Steve G.

PHIL GAMMAGE

Night Train (Fr. New Rose) 1990

Kneel to the Rising Sun (Fr. New Rose) 1991

20th Anniv. Reissue (2011)

Cry of the City (Marilyn) 1993

Lowlife Street (Fr. Last Call 1999

Motel Songs (SourMash USA) 2002

(March 2015)

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My introduction to SS-20 was on From L.A. with Love (1992) – probably the best compilation album of previous releases on Bomp! Records – which came out on Patrick Boissel’s label Marilyn Records. The song is actually by SS-20 and Sky Saxon and is a remake of the landmark Steppenwolf song “Born to be Wild”. This number certainly falls into the category of songs whose original version seemingly could hardly be improved upon. The most obvious change in the SS-20 version of “Born to be Wild” are the vocals (including many new lyrics) that are shared by Sky Saxon and Madeline Ridley, but the arrangement of the song has also been innovatively changed. If I had to choose, believe it or not, I would probably say that this is now my favorite rendition of “Born to be Wild”. However, most of the songs that SS-20 covers are not so prominent as this one.

(December 2017)

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I also recently picked up Thomas Anderson’s The Moon in Transit, another amazing album. Only heard that one once so far. The name is similar to that of the first album of his that I got, the Marilyn Records album Moon Going Down. When I put up the “Flashback” on Thomas Anderson five years ago, I could not find any songs at all on YouTube; I had to settle for listing lyrics instead. There are lots of his songs on YouTube now. Also, Thomas Anderson is one of the few UARB’s and UARA’s that has a Wikipedia article currently. (Another time, I ordered two more albums by a Thomas Anderson, not knowing whether it was the right guy or not. One of them, Is This Love? turned out to be a different Thomas Anderson, and I assumed that was true of the other CD as well. However, I discovered last month that the other one, Heaven is another great record by the right Thomas Anderson, so that’s four albums of his that I have now!)

(Year 10 Review)