Hauntology: 1969

It seems that as history progresses the world is moving ever closer to a reality predicted by Philip K. Dick. Here he gives us a foreshadowing of the emergence of the idea of hauntology:

But why hadn't the TV set reverted instead to formless metals and plastics? Those, after all, were its constituents; it had been constructed out of them, not out of an earlier radio. Perhaps this weirdly verified a discarded ancient philosophy, that of Plato's ideal objects, the universals which, in each class, were real. The form TV set had been a template imposed as a successor to other templates, like the procession of frames in a movie sequence. Prior forms, he reflected, must carry on an invisible, residual life in every object. The past is latent, is submerged, but still there, capable of rising to the surface once the later imprinting unfortunately — and against ordinary experience — vanished. The man contains — not the boy — but earlier men, he thought. History began a long time ago.

Philip K. Dick - Ubik, 1969.

Dreams of Faraway Vinyl

Flipping through the vinyl bin of the local Salvation Army store is not archaeology. The looters have already been here before me. This is not science. I am a Zabbal pawing through that which society has cast off. No, this is not science, but it is a slice of cultural and economic history. Not only does this exercise provide an insight into what people once bought, Herb Alpert and 101 Strings LPs in their hundreds and thousands, but a snapshot of what is valued today. If there's any demand for it nowadays it will most likely not be found in this bin. The gems are glaringly obvious by their absence. The rare exception to the rule, whenever actually found, is the jewel in the midden.

You could create a map of sonic culture this way, going from country to country, junk store to junk store, cataloging the offerings in the dollar, pound, or euro bins. Batches of Vaughn Meader turn into Heino or Rolf Harris as you move from country to country. And, at least in my imagination, as you reached the thrift stores of China (for such things do exist in the China of my mind) you would likely find bin after bin of propaganda-jacketed vinyl from decades past. 

On January 28, 1967, Billboard magazine reported:

Red China Chairman Mao Tze-tung has cut a record. "Red China's millions are being urged to Sing Along With Mao," reports Edward Keilan, a correspondent with Copley News Service. "Things being what they are in Red China," Keilan said, "the platter is bound to 'sell' more than a million."

Online auction lists show that during the 60s and 70s China produced a sizable number of discs, LPs of political speeches and EPs of screeching choirs of schoolchildren singing hymns to the State, often as embodied by Chairman Mao. Do these relics of a lost past now sit dust-covered in the record bins of Nanjing and Chengdu? Or are they suppressed, long ago relegated to the incinerator or landfill? Or have Western collectors simply snapped them up for their camp value?

Lachrimae Antiquae Stockhausen

Moodily, General Buckman opened the third drawer of the large desk and placed a tape-reel in the small transport he kept there. Dowland aires for four voices...he stood listening to one which he enjoyed very much, among all the songs in Dowland's lute books.

For now left and forlorn
I sit, I sigh, I weep, I faint, I die
In deadly pain and endless misery.




The first man, Buckman mused, to write a piece of abstract music. He removed the tape, put in the lute one, and stood listening to the Lachrimae Antiquae Pavan. From this, he said to himself, came, at last, the Beethoven final quartets. And everything else. Except for Wagner. He detested Wagner. Wagner and those like him, such as Berlioz, had set music back three centuries. Until Karlheinz Stockhausen in his Gesang der Jünglinge had once more brought music up to date.


Philip K. Dick - Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, 1974.

Slaves and Masters

Reel to reel tape duplicator, 1967.

Classical Music From a Future Past

The hooting was replaced this time by a recording of Arkezian's Ad Astra, opus 61 in C major. It was the controversial London Symphony version with the 14-cycle 'scare' notes buried in the timpani.

-Robert Heinlein, Double Star, 1956

Alvin Lucier: Music on a Long Thin Wire

And, by the way, there have been some tests lately, there's a recording called "An Eighty-Foot Wire" or  "Music By a Long Thin Wire"–I thought this was a joke recording. It's an eighty-foot wire, they strung an eighty-foot wire out and they played a single tone through it and then they recorded it, but the eighty-foot wire did a single oscillation. The oscillation never varies. The oscillation [is] absolutely steady, the pulsations fed through the wire. And they recorded four LP sides, that wire creates the most incredibly beautiful sounds you've ever heard. And it doubled back, the sound[s] would come back and overlay each other, and there will be intervals of exquisite beauty. This is just an eighty-foot wire.

-Philip K. Dick, January 10, 1982.

Alvin Lucier: Music on a Long Thin Wire

Conceived in 1977.

Released on Lovely Music Ltd. VR1011-12 (double LP) in 1980.

Ghost Story (Circle of Fear)

Sony has recently announced the release of the early 70s supernatural TV series Ghost Story (later changed to Circle of Fear), for May 1, 2012. Produced by master of exploitation William Castle, the show was basically a rip off of the superior Rod Serling's Night Gallery, with Sebastian Cabot playing Serling's role as figurative cryptkeeper. Even the theme music to the series was composed by Billy Goldenberg who had done the music for the pilot episode of Night Gallery.

The show will probably only be a curiosity to most modern viewers, a period piece, but it did feature some A-list talent. Actors such as Helen Hayes, Gena Rowlands, Patricial Neal, and Janet Leigh show up in episodes and there are also early appearances by Jody Foster and Martin Sheen. For those in search of lighter 70s pop culure icons, both Leif Garrett and Susan Dey appear in the episode "Doorway to Death".  The series also recruited some quality writing talent such as Robert Bloch, Harlan Ellison, and D. C. Fontana, known for her work on the original Star Trek series.

Sony is releasing this set of DVDs as "manufacture on demand", a brilliant idea to keep overhead costs down while still offering offbeat content to those of us who might be interested in owning it. Now available for pre-order on Amazon.