The Worst 45 RPM Record In History?

Image: The World's Worst Records

"Could You Would You" The Planets (1958) WARNING: INDUCES VOMITING AND EXTREME DEPRESSION. SEE DISCLAIMER BELOW...

Upon playing this YouTube link, you agree to not hold History's Dumpster or me personally liable for any and all damage, mental and physical or to property, including brain hemorrhaging, gnawing off limbs and extreme pain and suffering which may occur when hearing this song... 

I once thought I finally heard every godawful song the human imagination could create. This time however, I have found something so bad, I actually barfed for five minutes. I couldn't even make it past the first minute. I slammed down several anti-depressant pills. Just so I can type this.

Please don't take this lightly. You're reading this from a man who once had to write a review for the entire six CD Yoko Ono box set Onobox. I can take a lot. That was hell. But the entire Onobox was actually quite refreshing compared to this two and a half minute record. This one record nearly pushed me over the edge.

This record does not belong in any collection. It belongs in a sealed EPA drum and buried forever in a lead covered concrete box at Hanford, WA.

        PLAY AT YOUR OWN RISK.  

World War II Mickey Mouse Gas Masks

On December 7th, 1941, Japanese pilots dropped a bomb on the Pearl Harbor military base, which is one of the main reasons that drove the United States into World War II. After this incident, many Americans feared that the Axis would attack their soil.

To protect its population, the government distributed gas masks to the state of Hawaii. Unfortunately, there were only adult-sized masks. Children had trouble wearing the large gas masks and many were terrified of the safety device’s look.

As a solution, gas masks were created and issued shaped as Mickey Mouse. The masks were designed in mind so that children would wear them at all times and carry them as a game.

That was the intention anyway. Personally these things look scarier than the regular gas masks.

Fortunately, the 1000 Mickey masks that were made never had to be used.

Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock-N-Roll

Back in the '60s and early '70s, in a tiny kingdom in Southeast Asia very few Americans had ever known of and rarely even heard the name of up to then, a rock 'n roll revolution was happening.

Cambodia was a pretty Westernized nation at the time and it's capitol, Phnom Penh was surprisingly modern and trendsetting compared to most of Asia during those years. Many rock and roll bands were formed during the Vietnam war, taking rock and roll music that was brought to Cambodia by American soldiers stationed there and blending it with traditional Cambodian music to create probably one of the most unique sub-genres of '60s rock ever heard, one that could have easily held it's own along with the American and British rock that influenced it, even in if it was sung mostly in Cambodian.

But the kingdom became destabilized with the Vietnam war raging at it's border. The Khmer Rouge and it's leader Pol Pot had taken over Cambodia in 1975 and began the most bloody genocide and torture the world had ever seen since Hitler's Germany. Over two million Cambodians, one third of it's ENTIRE population were slaughtered in what became infamously known as The Killing Fields.

Virtually all musicians, artists and intellectuals were sent to work in forced labor camps, many were worked, starved or in the case of many women, also beaten and raped to death. Many people merely in possession of these Cambodian artist's records or tapes were killed or sent to camps to suffer the same fates and the records/tapes were destroyed. Very few original studio master tapes survived. However, a handful of songs have survived on 2nd or 3rd generation cassette tapes and vinyl discs that were smuggled out of Cambodia or hidden, from which came a few compilations released in the '90s, one which I found in 1998 and my own interest in this lost music began.

There is a forthcoming movie that chronicles this lost era just before the Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia called Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock & Roll.

Here is the trailer for it:

 
Here's one of the biggest Cambodian rock hits.  "I'm 16" Ros Sereysothea

The movie has been in production for nearly seven years, but it is due in 2013. Check it out....It's an eye opener into rock n' roll's most tragic mystery....

Website: http://www.dtifcambodia.com

UPDATE: 1/11/14  - Don't Think I've Forgotten premiered in Phnom Penh. It's US release is still unknown. But here's a recent article about the film and some of the artists:

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/7days/long-awaited-film-tells-tale-cambodia%E2%80%99s-musical-%E2%80%98golden-age%E2%80%99 

UPDATE: 3/8/15 - The movie is currently being screened at selected film festivals across America. It's unclear if there will ever be a Netflix showing or Blu-Ray or DVD release of the film.