DO IT NOW FOUNDATION Realistic Drug Experience PSYCH LP

$

160

WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS…

The Do It Now Foundation "A REALISTIC DRUG EXPERIENCE"

Original 1972 LP on the Do It Now label, DIN302

Cover:  VG++, some discoloration at edges

Vinyl:  Super clean, plays EXCELLENT.

Comes WITH ORIGINAL LETTER!  VERY RARE!

Making anti-drug PSAs in the late 60’s must have been a real thankless job.  The Do It Now Foundation issued a series of ‘em, appealing in what they considered a “hip” way by hiring some of the counterculture’s biggest voices – Frank Zappa, Grace Slick, Roger McGuinn, Peter Tork – all people who surely must’ve dabbled themselves, and maybe that’s the point.  I mean, take one look at the career paths of Roger McGuinn and Peter Tork by 1970, and you might swear off drugs too. 

This very, VERY RARE double album is an audio masterpiece of anti-drug public service, never preachy or condescending.  Instead, it relies on an endless audio collage of pot and drug users’ stoned conversations, hippies rapping with each other, only occasionally making sense, interspersed with tobacco ads, prescription drug ads, and some of those original 30 and 60 second PSAs from their radio campaign.  Oh, and I almost forgot to mention – some KILLER acid psychedelic songs, presented in their entirety, all dealing in one way or another with the topic at hand (drugs).

 For example, Side 1 features the Byrds “Artificial Energy”, along with Frank Zappa’s public service announcement, a true classic.  Over a bed of sped-up chipmunk voices, Frank deadpans “Do not use speed.  Here’s why…it’s gonna mess up your heart, mess up your liver, your kidneys, rot out your mind.  In general, this drug will make you just like your mother and father.”  Now THAT had to scare more teens than a dozen showings of “Reefer Madness”. 

But as priceless as Side 1 is, Side 2 is even better, featuring a (supposedly) candid conversation between three young hippies (2 guys, 1 girl), discussing the way society perceives drugs and the way they use them.  They meander for a while, deftly sidestepping meaningful thoughts, until the girl reaches a sudden, surprising epiphany.  And it goes like this:

GUY 1: “Don’t eat plastic foods, care for your body, loving it…I think THAT gets the gold star for the best high.  But it’s hard to do.  Hard to do for me.”

GUY 2:  “Nobody’s rapping about the pleasant times.”

GUY 1:  “WHAT pleasant times?”

GUY 2:  “Like getting very stoned and sitting around the table, and there’s this beautiful food orgy and the interaction that’s all part of that high, that STONE.”

GUY 1: “Oh, cuz I look at that as ‘Oh wow, those drug-crazed hippies…’”

GUY 2 (excitedly): “Yeah, but that’s because we LIVE it!  We live it and we’re close to it.”

GIRL:  “Like the three of us sitting here too.”

GUY 2:  “Having a stoned rap.”

GIRL:  “Expressing ourselves to each other and I don’t think we all know exactly what we’re telling each other.” 

(They all laugh, because she’s right)

This is followed by an odd acoustic version of “The Pusher”, probably the original by Hoyt Axton, and then we’re off to Album 2. 

Now so far, Do It Now’s used humor to make their point, and we’ve even eavesdropped on a trio of future acid casualties.  Now Side 3 brings the hammer down HARD, right away.  With Jimi Hendrix’s death.  The ultimate ending point for all serious speed freaks.  The audio collage begins with several news reports – my favorite one is a masterpiece of the seamless segueway:  “Jimi Hendrix...his albums sold in the millions…he should have been a millionaire.  It is not known whether he saved his money.  But it IS known that he is DEAD!”  Another reporter shows his hipness quota by simply stating “the Experience is over.”  Good thing this album was released before the ugly demise of Jim Morrison.  Or Elvis, for that matter. 

A strange Country Joe and the Fish type singalong song follows, but the real freakout musical bit comes near the end, the most psychedelic CHURCH hymnal you’ll EVER hear!  Someone recites all the synonyms for marijuana…”Hashish…henna…hemp…cannibis…cannibis sativa…ganja…” over top a church choir that is actually…unbelievably…SINGING “Mar…ee…ju…ah…nah…ah!”  And it sounds like a REAL church choir too!  Just think of how many confused teens started going to church on Sunday after hearing this turned-on congregation perform, and then got all bummed out when they didn’t hear the Marijuana Recital.

Thankfully, the Foundation backs off a bit on the final side, and rewards patient hippies who’ve made it this far with an album side that features TWO KILLER psychedelic ACID JAMS!  Now WHY you’d include 2 killer songs obviously replicating the psychedelic drug experience on an anti-drug album…well, that escapes me entirely…but I’m sure glad they did!  The first one sounds like the kind of demented lysergic head trips that Circus 2000 was good for…massive wah wah guitar overload, crazed female vocals, and so much phasing and distortion that the whole song seems to shimmer, vibrate and pulsate with an alternate state of reality.  It’s actually the US band GENESIS (whose Mercury album IN THE BEGINNING only HINTED at this kind of madness) with a non-LP song called “The Long Road.”  Fittingly, it’s got anti-drug lyrics – something about a “man of good fortune” who becomes a slave to the evil needle and now lives in the gutter.  And his tragic tale is bathed in more wah wah pedal FX than a hundred of the hallucinations he probably had living it.  It’s a KILLER tune – pure FIVE-STAR psychedelia – and the highlight of the album for the lucky few who’ve heard it.

Side 4 ends with another great song, this time the raw-throated Steppenwolf biker rock sounds of Canned Heat’s “Amphetamine Annie”, again driving home the point that “speed kills” (it’s right there in the lyrics this time).  And see how far we’ve come from the beginning?  “Speed kills” is a much more sobering finality and realization than Frank Zappa’s claim that it’ll “make you just like your mother and father” back on Side 1.  It’s almost as if the Do It Now Foundation realizes that, if you’re still listening by Side 4, you’re still not getting the message, and now it’s time to bring out the heavy guns. 

Sure, FOUR sides of this stuff is a heavy trip indeed, guaranteed to put Pammie on a major bummer.  An hour-and-a-half audio collage of anti-drug information, like “Revolution 9” gone cold turkey.  But there’s nothing else like it – a mix of hallucinogen warnings interspersed with hallucinogenic music.  Beyond that, there’s the more down-to-earth matter of just how RARE this thing is.  Even the Do It Now Foundation’s website doesn’t acknowledge its existence (the much more common “First Vibrations” LP is described in detail, however).  Over my twenty years of collecting, I’ve only seen this album offered for sale TWICE – the first time, I admired it but couldn’t afford it – the second time, I bought it. 

Moreover, just who was this album intended for?  With no cover but a stamp that reads “A REALISTIC DRUG EDUCATION ALBUM”  (now THERE’S a catchy title!), a completely plain white gatefold jacket, and no song info on the labels except for the Foundation’s mailing address, it doesn’t seem at all likely this was ever intended for sale.  Was it sent to radio stations?  To news departments?  To ex-junkies fresh out of rehab?  Who knows?  Its purpose, as well as much of its content, seems to be forever shrouded in a haze of hallucinogenic smoke.  The ultimate audio trip ironically turns out to be a warning against itself.  

READ MORE ABOUT THIS RARE ALBUM HERE:  http://members.tripod.com/lysergia_2/LamaReviews/lamaDoItNow2LP.htm 

 TO HEAR SOUNDCLIPS FROM THIS ALBUM, PLEASE VISIT MY HOMEPAGE AT WWW.KATHLEENTURNEROVERDRIVE.WIKISPACES.COM - YOU CAN ALSO HEAR SOUND CLIPS FROM ALL THE ALBUMS I HAVE UP FOR AUCTION ON THIS PAGE TOO.

The less exciting stuff

Media mail shipping with delivery confirmation starts at $5.00 in the US, with each additional record only $1 additional shipping.  Air mail shipping to Canada starts at $10 US, each additional record $2 shipping.  Air mail shipping everywhere else in the world starts at $16 US, with each additional record only $3 shipping.  I accept payments through Paypal, or you can send checks and money orders made out in US dollars.  Items paid by check are held 14 days for the check to clear.

I try to grade as best as I can, and I list as many blemishes/imperfections I can find (writing, ringwear, scuff marks, etc.) – Also, please note that I DO listen to these albums – I may not listen to every track, but my grades are based on LISTENING, not just looking at it, since chances are you’ll be listening to the record you buy, not just looking at it.  Most of the albums I sell are the ones I’ve enjoyed for years – and I treat my records with kid gloves.  But sounds speak louder than words, so check out the sound clips below – they’re from the actual record you’re bidding on. 

SHIPPING AND PACKAGING

Listen, I buy a bunch of records too (when I’m not getting outbid at the last second, which is more often than not) – and I know what it’s like to get a rare, one-of-a-kind album packaged dangerously in a flimsy bubblewrap package.  I hate that too.  So rest assured, I ALWAYS package albums with stiff cardboard reinforcements, same for 45s.  And yes, the records are removed from the sleeves (for albums).  I ship out once a week, every Friday, because I have a regular day job.  But I’d be willing to give that up if you’d all be so kind as to bid my items up to stupidly high amounts. 

And finally, I include delivery confirmation on all shipments inside the US.  This is my proof of shipment, and also helps us to track your package if it doesn’t arrive when it should.  I will email you within 2 days of shipment and give you the confirmation number at that time.  Insurance is always optional, but for larger orders, it’s highly recommended.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a cost-effective way of tracking parcels to foreign countries yet, and shipping times vary depending on your country’s postal system.  Italy in particular seems to be really bad at delivering packages quickly, or delivering packages at all, now that you mention it.  I will always email you when your package ships, but once it’s on its way, please don’t ask me when it will arrive because I don’t know.  If the world’s postal systems can ever agree on a universal tracking system that’s affordable, I’ll be the first to use it.

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN…

I will always leave positive feedback for successful transactions, and would appreciate the same in return.  All I ask of you is the following – please pay for your items within 14 days of the close of auction.  Compared to other sellers, that’s a generous amount of time, so if you don’t pay within 2 weeks, then I have to assume something’s wrong.  You’ll get an Ebay payment reminder at that point, and possibly a decapitated horse head in your bed.  If, after 30 days, you still haven’t forked up the cash, I’ll relist the item and yell at you if I ever see you in town.