The Masked Marauders

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The Masked Marauders was a record album released on the Warner Bros. Reprise/Deity label in the fall of 1969. The recording captured a purported "super session" of the era’s leading rock and roll musicians, including Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. None of the artists were mentioned on the album’s cover, supposedly because of contractual agreements with their recording companies, but an advance review in Rolling Stone magazine on October 18, 1969, disclosed the stellar lineup. By the time the album reached record shops, it was virtually a legend.

In actuality, The Masked Marauders was part of a hoax concocted by Rolling Stone editor Greil Marcus. Under the pseudonym T.M. Christian (a reference to Terry Southern’s novel The Magic Christian), Marcus and record reviewer Bruce Miroff collaborated on a tongue-in-cheek review of a fictitious double bootleg album. The review was intended to parody the “supergroup” trend then taking place (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Blind Faith and Led Zeppelin) and was also inspired by Great White Wonder, a double album of unreleased Dylan recordings often credited as the first bootleg.

Many readers, however, took the review seriously, despite its obvious jokes:

"Produced by Al Kooper, the album was recorded with impeccable secrecy in a small town near the site of the original Hudson Bay Colony in Canada."

"The LP opens with an eighteen-minute version of 'Season of the Witch' (lead vocal by Dylan, on which he does a superb imitation of early Donovan). The cut is highlighted by an amazing jam between bass and piano, both played by Paul McCartney."

"Dylan shines on Side Three, displaying his new deep bass voice, with 'Duke of Earl.'"

"Paul showcases his favorite song, 'Mammy,' and while his performance is virtually indistinguishable from Eddie Fisher's version, it is still very powerful, evocative, and indeed, stunning. And they say a white boy can’t sing the blues!"

"It can truly be said that this album is more than a way of life; it is life."

Inquiries began pouring into Rolling Stone regarding the album’s availability, not only from fans and retailers, but also reportedly from the artists' managers, Allen Klein (Beatles and Rolling Stones) and Albert Grossman (Dylan). The response sparked part two of the put-on: the album itself. Marcus and Rolling Stone editor Langdon Winner recruited the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, a Berkeley, California, group which had put out an album the previous year on Vanguard Records. The group initially recorded three of the songs cited in the review: the Nashville Skyline-inspired instrumental "Cow Pie," Jagger doing "I Can’t Get No Nookie" (deemed "an instant classic" in the review), and Dylan’s "Duke of Earl."

After the songs aired on San Francisco and Los Angeles radio stations — from tapes Marcus supplied — the pranksters began looking for a major label to produce an album. Several recording companies expressed an interest, but Warner Bros. won the production rights, offering a $15,000 advance plus its considerable promotional power. In November 1969, Warner released The Masked Marauders as a single LP on its newly-created Deity label. The album, which sold more than 100,000 copies, spent twelve weeks on the Billboard charts, peaking at 114.

Tipping off buyers to the joke (albeit after they had purchased the album), Warner inserted the Rolling Stone review as well as a San Francisco Chronicle column by critic Ralph J. Gleason, a co-founder of Rolling Stone. Gleason found it incredible anyone believed the review and declared the gag a "delightful bit of instant mythology." The closing track, "Saturday Night at the Cow Palace," also made clear the album was all in fun. The track featured a riotous monologue by a record buyer so indignant at being taken in by the hoax that he vows, "When I get through with those people at Deity Records, I’ll have them walking out of the building in barrels." The album’s liner notes, penned by "T.M. Christian," also offered its share of clues, most notably the line:

"In a world of sham, the Masked Marauders, bless their hearts, are the genuine article."

Rolling Stone, meanwhile, exposed the deception in an article, after publisher Jann Wenner grew tired of the affair.

In 2003, Rhino Records, under its Handmade label, remastered the album, releasing a numbered edition of 2,000 copies under the title The Masked Marauders - The Complete Deity Recordings. The lineup of songs is the same as on the original LP, except for bonus tracks of the monaural single, "I Can’t Get No Nookie" b/w "Cow Pie." The title of the re-issue posed yet another joke: the album was Deity’s only recording. As one of its contributions to the spoof, Warner created Deity under the company’s Reprise subsidiary to match the name of the non-existent record company credited in the Rolling Stone review.