Several VU reference sources, including Victor Bockris's Lou Reed bio and Clinton Heylin's From Velvets To Voidoids, cite a manifesto attributed to Lou Reed and Angus MacLise titled "Concerning The Rumor That Red China Cornered The Methedrine Market And Is Busy Adding Paranoia Drops To Upset The Mental Balance Of The United States." Most sources even include a sample few sentences, yet I've been utterly unable to trace this essay back to its original source.
Does anyone know where it was originally published? The sample text I've seen reads like it's from a pamphlet handed out by an uninstitutionalized schizophrenic in a public park, yet I'm very eager to digest the entirety of what these unlikely collaborators dreamt up together. Who can help?
--Sheila/Phil
Concerning The Rumor That Red China Cornered The Methedrine Market
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Re: Concerning The Rumor That Red China Cornered The Methedrine Market
I had not heard of this. But I found this page in the book Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed by Aidan Levy. I've no doubt you have seen this already. Maybe the author Aidan Levy could shed more light?


underground, overground
Re: Concerning The Rumor That Red China Cornered The Methedrine Market
Ignore
Last edited by DavidH on 04 May 2021 05:00, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Concerning The Rumor That Red China Cornered The Methedrine Market
see next message.
Last edited by DavidH on 04 May 2021 04:54, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Concerning The Rumor That Red China Cornered The Methedrine Market
Phil, it looks like the whole text of it is here:
https://archive.org/stream/popscn05/pop ... R_djvu.txt
I'm including it here, but as it was apparently scanned and used OCR to transcribe it, there are some strange formatting and typing errors (which I've tried to fix, but it should be OK. To add to the confusion, I think that text from another article, on Bob Dylan, got inserted into the middle of it, so I've tried to cut that, and only that, out. archive.org also has a few other issues, but I could not find the promised 'Happiness is a Warm Drone' article in any of those.
CONCERNING THE RUMOR THAT RED CHINA. HAS CORNERED THE METHEDRINE MARKET AND IS BUSY ADDING PARANOIA DROPS TO UPSET THE MENTAL BALANCE OF THE UNITED STATES .
(part l)
by Lou Reed & Angus Maclise
Hey, what about Indian music?
India has no war music.
O.K., how does this make it?
There is no war raga, but a stirring of the leaves.
Qj Carvel is a celestial form of Marshmellow. Donovan uses sitar and so do the Stones.
Aj A raga is wherever you were last night. It takes more than one lifetime to play accomplished sitar. Now should this be maybe an authoritative spiel on Hindu sound?
Q: -American Indians or Indian Indians!? Sitting Bull in love with the Great Black Goddess of Calcutta.
Aj U.S. powdered egg receiving Hindu Indians. Chicago Ramakrishna Detroit Chandranavdan (Ali Akbar Kahn).
Q: Is this necessarily so?
A: Is this necessary?
Western music is based on death, violence and the pursuit of PROGRESS. The scat, rout, meaningless words, MANTRAS are called seed-syllables. SEED ... Anyone with an appendectomy is a life dependent, modern man. There are 10,000 frames of mind. There is 1 mind. There are lOi). basic ragas. The root of universal music is sex. Western music is as violent as Western sex. Right hand metaldrum is the male finger frying heartsblood.
The idea of the pursued ignores questions of weather. Left hand wood bigger drum slowest female heartbeat. Whether. Or not the drone; was that psychedelic or extrasensory. There is no such thing as the Indian influence. It's freaking around riffs aloft serpentine SCALES. Reproducing a raga is like driving a Honda. Blonde. Ravi Shankar didn't stay in the Himalayas 7 yrs. What to do if you know the theory of positive and negative integers.
Is there a race problem in India? Are they hungry? Everybody I know has that look in their eye like when they've got 3 seconds left. Musicians will be reborn as Gods (God?). An answering tambourine, the mating cymble (sp.?) octorina (on the Trogg's "Wild Thing") paramecium mating through sympathizing strings and table players answering each other across huge traceless continents.
In the declining Moghulcourts (decadent) the vocal raga refined (developed) to such a degree that a singer singing a midnight raga at noon would bring darkness wherever the sound of his voice reached. Groups such as the Stones, Yardbirds, Beatles, et al, appropriated the style of the raga but this only meant a link and generated their own style and conception which was not Indian or A r& bio but was all to the good because they were
not Indian or Arabic and perhaps not even English.
You make your own your own before own someone's is your's owned.
Before India became civilized there were no learned tracts on the grim Chinese. There were learned tracts on several ways of saying yes. The vital lie of terminal salvation be bubbling over the edges of its cauldron, now seems very much in control. Helplessness is still the prevalent emotion was not the reason for India’s lovely obsessive classification of love and whatnot. The Dakinis wore bikinis on Fire Island. India has a 5G0 mile beach called the Coromandel Coast. The Germans were not interested in capturing it; they just wanted great paintings.
Wow.
Prostitutes were accorded great respect in the ancient India of old. The act of love was the foremost way you could get closest to god. There is no god and Mary is his mother. Schopenhauer appreciated the finer things. And a good joke ... The V.U. is the Western equivalent to the cosmic dance of Shiva. Playing as Babylon goes up in flames. Except for John Cale Nero. As though it needed an answer Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thompson requested cheaper seats for Porgy and Bess. Does the US. Army band play Beatle music^ Do Vietnamese hookers frug? Hucklebuck? How come?
I’ll tell you how come.
Hindu sounds have been sucked into Hand H like a side glance - Hey watch out for the ricochet. I hear Indian clothes will be the next thing in diskotek threads - Bell-bottom Nehru trousers with ... Fred, will you be a dear and zip my sari? ’’Saris don't have zippers." "They will when they get here.”
(part 2 will tell why ’Happiness is a warm drone.’ and what candied tongue is and a few other interesting things, watch for it next issue.)
https://archive.org/stream/popscn05/pop ... R_djvu.txt
I'm including it here, but as it was apparently scanned and used OCR to transcribe it, there are some strange formatting and typing errors (which I've tried to fix, but it should be OK. To add to the confusion, I think that text from another article, on Bob Dylan, got inserted into the middle of it, so I've tried to cut that, and only that, out. archive.org also has a few other issues, but I could not find the promised 'Happiness is a Warm Drone' article in any of those.
CONCERNING THE RUMOR THAT RED CHINA. HAS CORNERED THE METHEDRINE MARKET AND IS BUSY ADDING PARANOIA DROPS TO UPSET THE MENTAL BALANCE OF THE UNITED STATES .
(part l)
by Lou Reed & Angus Maclise
Hey, what about Indian music?
India has no war music.
O.K., how does this make it?
There is no war raga, but a stirring of the leaves.
Qj Carvel is a celestial form of Marshmellow. Donovan uses sitar and so do the Stones.
Aj A raga is wherever you were last night. It takes more than one lifetime to play accomplished sitar. Now should this be maybe an authoritative spiel on Hindu sound?
Q: -American Indians or Indian Indians!? Sitting Bull in love with the Great Black Goddess of Calcutta.
Aj U.S. powdered egg receiving Hindu Indians. Chicago Ramakrishna Detroit Chandranavdan (Ali Akbar Kahn).
Q: Is this necessarily so?
A: Is this necessary?
Western music is based on death, violence and the pursuit of PROGRESS. The scat, rout, meaningless words, MANTRAS are called seed-syllables. SEED ... Anyone with an appendectomy is a life dependent, modern man. There are 10,000 frames of mind. There is 1 mind. There are lOi). basic ragas. The root of universal music is sex. Western music is as violent as Western sex. Right hand metaldrum is the male finger frying heartsblood.
The idea of the pursued ignores questions of weather. Left hand wood bigger drum slowest female heartbeat. Whether. Or not the drone; was that psychedelic or extrasensory. There is no such thing as the Indian influence. It's freaking around riffs aloft serpentine SCALES. Reproducing a raga is like driving a Honda. Blonde. Ravi Shankar didn't stay in the Himalayas 7 yrs. What to do if you know the theory of positive and negative integers.
Is there a race problem in India? Are they hungry? Everybody I know has that look in their eye like when they've got 3 seconds left. Musicians will be reborn as Gods (God?). An answering tambourine, the mating cymble (sp.?) octorina (on the Trogg's "Wild Thing") paramecium mating through sympathizing strings and table players answering each other across huge traceless continents.
In the declining Moghulcourts (decadent) the vocal raga refined (developed) to such a degree that a singer singing a midnight raga at noon would bring darkness wherever the sound of his voice reached. Groups such as the Stones, Yardbirds, Beatles, et al, appropriated the style of the raga but this only meant a link and generated their own style and conception which was not Indian or A r& bio but was all to the good because they were
not Indian or Arabic and perhaps not even English.
You make your own your own before own someone's is your's owned.
Before India became civilized there were no learned tracts on the grim Chinese. There were learned tracts on several ways of saying yes. The vital lie of terminal salvation be bubbling over the edges of its cauldron, now seems very much in control. Helplessness is still the prevalent emotion was not the reason for India’s lovely obsessive classification of love and whatnot. The Dakinis wore bikinis on Fire Island. India has a 5G0 mile beach called the Coromandel Coast. The Germans were not interested in capturing it; they just wanted great paintings.
Wow.
Prostitutes were accorded great respect in the ancient India of old. The act of love was the foremost way you could get closest to god. There is no god and Mary is his mother. Schopenhauer appreciated the finer things. And a good joke ... The V.U. is the Western equivalent to the cosmic dance of Shiva. Playing as Babylon goes up in flames. Except for John Cale Nero. As though it needed an answer Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thompson requested cheaper seats for Porgy and Bess. Does the US. Army band play Beatle music^ Do Vietnamese hookers frug? Hucklebuck? How come?
I’ll tell you how come.
Hindu sounds have been sucked into Hand H like a side glance - Hey watch out for the ricochet. I hear Indian clothes will be the next thing in diskotek threads - Bell-bottom Nehru trousers with ... Fred, will you be a dear and zip my sari? ’’Saris don't have zippers." "They will when they get here.”
(part 2 will tell why ’Happiness is a warm drone.’ and what candied tongue is and a few other interesting things, watch for it next issue.)
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Re: Concerning The Rumor That Red China Cornered The Methedrine Market
David. Brilliant find. I dont know whether you noticed, but clicking 'other formats' gets you the magazine scan.DavidH wrote: ↑04 May 2021 04:51 Phil, it looks like the whole text of it is here:
https://archive.org/stream/popscn05/pop ... R_djvu.txt
I'm including it here, but as it was apparently scanned and used OCR to transcribe it, there are some strange formatting and typing errors
https://archive.org/details/popscn05/page/n31/mode/2up
Some VU and Nico on previous page, too
https://archive.org/details/popscn05/page/n29/mode/2up
underground, overground
Re: Concerning The Rumor That Red China Cornered The Methedrine Market
Yes, great find.
Interesting that the version that Levy quotes refers to "our group" whereas the Pop See Cul version says "the V.U.". Maybe they updated it later? Or maybe Levy made the change to fit the idea that it was written to promote The Warlocks? Hmmmm...
Interesting that the version that Levy quotes refers to "our group" whereas the Pop See Cul version says "the V.U.". Maybe they updated it later? Or maybe Levy made the change to fit the idea that it was written to promote The Warlocks? Hmmmm...
8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
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Re: Concerning The Rumor That Red China Cornered The Methedrine Market
Excellent. Thanks so much!
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Re: Concerning The Rumor That Red China Cornered The Methedrine Market
Guessing they were pretty much high all the time back then
Re: Concerning The Rumor That Red China Cornered The Methedrine Market
Thanks for that. With the original text, I was able to correct a few mistakes I or the transcriber had made. Hopefully this is 100% accurate ( to the original article that is, not to grammar or logiciaredatsun wrote: ↑04 May 2021 12:31 David. Brilliant find. I dont know whether you noticed, but clicking 'other formats' gets you the magazine scan.
https://archive.org/details/popscn05/page/n31/mode/2up
Some VU and Nico on previous page, too
https://archive.org/details/popscn05/page/n29/mode/2up

by Lou Reed & Angus Maclise
Hey, what about Indian music?
India has no war music.
O.K., how does this make it?
There is no war raga, but a stirring of the leaves.
Q: Carvel is a celestial form of Marshmellow. Donovan uses sitar and so do the Stones.
A: A raga is wherever you were last night. It takes more than one lifetime to play accomplished sitar. Now should this be maybe an authoritative spiel on Hindu sound?
Q: American Indians or Indian Indians!? Sitting Bull in love with the Great Black Goddess of Calcutta.
A: U.S. powdered egg receiving Hindu Indians. Chicago Ramakrishna Detroit Chandranavdan (Ali Akbar Kahn).
Q: Is this necessarily so?
A: Is this necessary?
Western music is based on death, violence and the pursuit of PROGRESS. The scat, rout, meaningless words, MANTRAS are called seed-syllables. SEED ... Anyone with an appendectomy is a life dependent, modern man. There are 10,000 frames of mind. There is 1 mind. There are 104 basic ragas. The root of universal music is sex. Western music is as violent as Western sex. Right hand metaldrum is the male finger frying heartsblood. The idea of the pursued ignores questions of weather. Left hand wood bigger drum slowest female heartbeat. Whether. Or not the drone; was that psychedelic or extrasensory. There is no such thing as the Indian influence. It's freaking around riffs aloft serpentine SCALES. Reproducing a raga is like driving a Honda. Blonde. Ravi Shankar didn't stay in the Himalayas 7 yrs. What to do if you know the theory of positive and negative integers.
Is there a race problem in India? Are they hungry? Everybody I know has that look in their eye like when they've got 3 seconds left. Musicians will be reborn as Gods (God?). An answering tambourine, the mating cymble (sp.?) octorina (on the Trogg's "Wild Thing") paramecium mating through sympathizing strings and table players answering each other across huge traceless continents.
In the declining Moghulcourts (decadent) the vocal raga refined (developed) to such a degree that a singer singing a midnight raga at noon would bring darkness wherever the sound of his voice reached. Groups such as the Stones, Yardbirds, Beatles, et al, appropriated the style of the raga but this only meant a link and generated their own style and conception which was not Indian or Arabic but was all to the good because they were
not Indian or Arabic and perhaps not even English.
You make your own your own before own someone's is your's owned.
Before India became civilized there were no learned tracts on the grim Chinese. There were learned tracts on several ways of saying yes. The vital lie of terminal salvation was not the reason for India's lovely obsessive classification of love and whanot. The Dakinis wore bikinis on Fire Island. India has a 5G0 mile beach called the Coromandel Coast. The Germans were not interested in capturing it; they just wanted great paintings.
Wow.
Prostitutes were accorded great respect in the ancient India of old. The act of love was the foremost way you could get closest to god. There is no god and Mary is his mother. Schopenhauer appreciated the finer things. And a good joke ... The V.U. is the Western equivalent to the cosmic dance of Shiva. Playing as Babylon goes up in flames. Except for John Cale Nero. As though it needed an answer Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thompson requested cheaper seats for Porgy and Bess. Does the US. Army band play Beatle music? Do Vietnamese hookers frug? Hucklebuck? How come?
I’ll tell you how come.
Hindu sounds have been sucked into Hand R like a sideglance - Hey watch out for the rocochet. I hear Indian clothes will be the next thing in diskotek threads - Bell-bottom Nehru trousers with, Fred, will you be a dear and zip my sari? ’’Saris don't have zippers." "They will when they get here.”
(part 2 will tell why ’Happiness is a warm drone.’ and what candied tongue is and a few other interesting things, watch for it next issue.)