BAD RAPPING OF THE MARQUIS DE SADE LINER NOTES

Lord Buckley, years after his death, speaks more clearly to more people today. People are flow fluent in his once esoteric "Language Of The Streets." His audience today is hipper and finds a place for him as an artist, where he was once thought of as a saloon comic, a hipster's hipster, a far out eccentric with a gimmick, or some writer of "Beat" poetry.

He mastered the jargon of the ghetto streets. "Negroes spoke a language of such power, purity and beauty I found it irresistible. I could not resist this magical way of speaking, nor the great power it had for good in its purity and sweetness. A power that said by hip-zig-zag-urmph, everything is understandable."

Lord Buckley used his new found language to translate the teachings of Jesus and Gandhi, humanizing holy men and, by so doing, making them all the holier.

He brought the Black street jargon into White society, delivered it in floridly theatrical readings, and breathed meaning into the truths lying unnoticed under dead languages. He did this in saloons. In this setting he stood on the stage, utterly believable in his intimacy with his subject.

On this new recording you will hear Lord Buckley set a stage with: "My Lords and My Ladies of the Royal Court, this is no longer a bar, but a modern Chapel Welcome to high mass." It seems fitting that on this new release the Marquis de Sade makes Buckley's rendering all the more believable by his enjoyment of and sympathy for the "Prince of Evil." It is not surprising that this translation of "Bad Rapping Of The Marquis de Sade" shows Lord Buckley at his funniest and best as a performer, and at his highest as a spiritually joyous being. Humor, in this translation, finds the "good" in a soul called Evil. "My Lords, My Ladies, have I told you that I love you," he said to the saloon parishioners as he ended his act. For to Lord Buckley life and people, whatever their trip, were holy. His hip renderings were sermons, laid down by Lords and Ladies of other courts in other times, for new Lords and Ladies to dig.

"Before I leave you, I would like to say to you," he would say in a near whisper, "PEOPLE are what it is all about... they are mother nature's brightest flower, her sweetest, purest, most elevating thing that ever was." He honored the parishioners of the modern chapel by being honored by their presence. He would have them dig themselves alongside the most holy and denounced, the most revered and damned of the species. "You are 'groovy' flowers in a garden where I am privileged to stand and share a few moments with you."

Lord Buckley lays down some funny scenes on the way to saying that.

John Carpenter
Los Angeles Free Press
KPFK, Los Angeles