Bostworld

Just in time for America’s Independence Day, another great collection of “Love Workshop” recordings have fallen into my lap! My Mystery Benefactor had but one request: in exchange for a copy of his collection, I must agree to post it here, thus hopefully freeing him from ever having to make another copy again! I’ve pursued a similar strategy with rare Meat Puppets recordings over at Bostworld’s sister blog, and I’ve found it to be a winner. So I was happy to oblige.


This is the third time someone’s crawled out of the woodwork with programs to share. Thanks to them (and myself), “Love Workshop” fans finally have a place to rekindle their memories. As reader Alan, who sent me his copy of “Frog Night,” put it:

I remember a couple of shows that I once had on tape, but they are long gone. One was called “This is your wretched Life” where an Ethiopian –Azumbu was his name, was told about his life, and he had to guess the identity of significant people in his life based on their stories. One “participant” related how they thought they found some food, but it was only dirt. Another told how the wind came along and blew the dirt away and then they didn’t have anything to sit on, and finally, how they ate someone’s shoulder. Gruesome stuff! Another show featured a family who was lost in a strange neighborhood and there weren’t any Circle K’s and they didn’t have any snacks, so they had to eat the baby. The last one I remember was called, “The Bensons: America’s favorite migrant working family”. They basically ate meals from a sewer pipe… I would never have thought anyone else would remember these guys, but I’m glad I was wrong.

Alan wllll be happy to learn that while “This Is Your Wretched Life” is still in the wind, the other segments he remembers are present and accounted for. There’s also a 4th Grade class presentation called “We Remember Kent State,” and a not as gruesome but equally delightful visit by Verne and Craig to a local bar, where they cheerfully abuse a waitress. They heap on plenty of abuse on everyone throughout these programs: minorities, women, children, animals, gays, lesbians, consumers, sports fans, and of course, their employers. But perhaps my favorite routine is their simple assurance that what we’re listening to is “brand new material.”

The recordings themselves are far from brand new, however, and sound in fact like they’ve seen a little abuse themselves. Carelessly archived, hastily edited and probably even injudiciously noise-reduced, these poor old shows are suffering a final indignity: compression into the popular MP3 format. So take the audio quality under advisement.

If you’re an acquaintance of my Mystery Benefactor, sent here for the goods, I bid you welcome. While you’re waiting to complete your download, take a little time to discover some of our other Phoenix-centric content. We’ve got old menus and newspapers, and even a great album by one of Phoenix’s top disco bar bands from the late 70s. More importantly, you’ll find lots more “Love Workshop!”


Download “The Best Of Love Workshop” Part One

Download “The Best Of Love Workshop” Part Two

Learn more about “Love Workshop”