The Dream World of Dion McGregor + Shut Up, Little Man!

Two Three! artefacts of the audio verite craze. I uploaded them some half a year ago, but could not get around to writing the annotation.

Dion McGregor was a homeless gay bohemian from NY. He wanted to be a songwriter for Broadway musicals, and while waiting for his big break in show business, he couch-surfed with his friends, lovers, and acquaintances. One of his hosts was fascinated with Dion's habit of talking in his sleep and attempted to document it. This LP compiles several recordings of Dion McGregor narrating his dreams. This isn't just mumblemumble, though - these are clearly articulated stories with dialog and all. A few of them border on nightmares and often end with the speaker waking up with a muffled scream. You can hear New York street noises in the background, as he slept by an open window.
This record came out in 1964, and was accompanied by a book of transcriptions with illustrations by Edward Gorey (who also did the cover art for the record). Two more recordings came out recently, containing the stories which were deemed inappropriate for publication in 1960s.

The Dream World of Dion McGregor (He Talks In His Sleep) Also, more material on a Tzadik release Dion McGregor Dreams Again
REUP 2/19/14: both albums together on zippyshare
A nice article on him, here.


Shut Up, Little Man! is a collection of recordings made in the late 80s by Eddie Lee and Mitchell - two guys living in a cheap apartment in SF. Their next-door neighbours were Peter and Raymond - a pair of violent psychotics, who spent their time either passed out in drunken stupor, or verbally (and sometimes physically) abusing each other. After receiving a death threat from Raymond, Eddie Lee and Mitchell decided they have to record their neighbours' conversations - just in case. Gradually, they became fascinated with Peter and Raymond's drunken rants; the tapes were passed around among their friends as an audio joke. The recordings grew in popularity and were commercially released on CD in 1992; after that, they became a true underground in-joke, with a comic book, a theater production, and a short movie based on them; the lines like "Shut your fuckin' mouth!" or "I want to kill!" were extensively sampled on many musical recordings.

Peter and Raymond - Shut Up, Little Man!
REUP: On mediafire