EXUMA S/T "Fire" LP

$

25

On the first album of Exuma (called Exuma, but subtitled "Fire") you hear a wolf's howl, acoustic guitar, bongos and bells.   Then a gravelly voice sings:

"I came down on a lightning bolt
Nine months in my Mama's belly.
When I was born, the midwife scream and shout,
I had fire crystals coming out of my mouth.
I'm Exuma, I'm the Obeah Man!"

The lyrics get even more colorful after this, if you can believe it.  He makes mention of walking with Charon (the ferryman at the River Styx) and Hector Hippolyte (artist and Voodoo priest).  The backing vocals are dolorous and chant-like; there are bird calls and the whole affair ends with a sonic boom.

Then, the SECOND song starts up!

This was 1970.  The Guess Who were angering certain people with their song, "American Woman", which some took to be anti-patriotic, so one can only gather what the reaction to this album would have engendered among the same factions.One track, "Séance in the Sixth Fret," is exactly that; a séance.  While "Black Mass" by Lucifer (Mort Garson) has a simulation of a séance on it, the listener can become detached, as the album is played entirely on synthesizer.  This doesn't feel simulated (there is musical backing, but the words are prose, not poetry), even if no dead people spoke to anyone involved with the record.  He calls out the names of three deceased people and there are sound effects; not quite a field recording, nor does it have the feel of an Andy Hardy musical in which Mickey Rooney turns to Judy Garland, and says "Hey, let's put on a séance!"

The illustrations on the album are also rather odd.  An anguished face on the cover, the foldout picture features two white, silhouetted profiles looking in opposite directions, reminiscent of the Greek God Janus, with two wings behind it. The back cover features a butterfly, whose wings feature two sets of eyes, one set eerily reminiscent of the eyes of the anguished face on
the front cover!

There are no photos of his accompanists, named the "Junk Band."  The personnel is semi-shrouded in pseudonym (not unlike Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica album or, for that matter, Dr. John's Gumbo album):

Backup vocals are credited to Mildred Vaney (later in Cut Glass) and Frankie Gearing (credited on the album as the Mama Loi's), who was in the Steinways and later joined Quiet Elegance, which featured Martha Reeves' sister, Lois.   The now-eerily credited "Princess Diana" was Diana Claudia Bunea, who was seeing Wyld at the time and Sally O'Brien who was dating Exuma.

While looking through several albums, the most interesting bit of information uncovered was that the man credited as "Spy Boy" Thielhelm, "Peppy, the Spy Boy" and "Peppy Theilhelm " turned out to be none other than Peppy Castro, lead vocalist of the Blues Magoos!

How did THIS happen?  Well, Castro and Exuma were labelmates and also shared management.  Imagine tales of Bahamian folklore and what Castro described as the "tribal" nature of recording. (Castro also had played both Berger and Woof in Hair, which was called "The American Tribal Love Rock Musical").  Castro was glad to participate in a project unfettered. "I didn't have any of the stresses of a typical rock band; I just showed up and did it."
 

Some of the lyrics are quite dramatic and chilling:

"A spider crawled across my face,
Spreading it's web on the human race…
Mama Loi, Papa Loi
I see fire in the dead man's eye"
  - "Mama Loi, Papa Loi"
 

"You won't go to Heaven,
You won't go to Hell,
You'll remain in your graves,
With the stench and the smell."
O Dambala, come Dambala.
 - "Dambala"

In short, by the end of the album, you might well be convinced that Exuma is, shall we say, DEAD serious about Voodoo.  Dr. John was a persona; Exuma seemed oddly real, possibly due to lack of clear photographs, possibly the dolorous and haunting vocals and sparse instrumentation.  Exuma was indeed well-versed in Bahamian folklore and even carried around various herbal remedies.

This album garnered some attention, but didn't sell horribly well.  It must have made something of a splash as his song "You Don't Know What's Going On" was used for the film Joe.  This may have also been a ploy by Mercury, since it was they who issued the soundtrack album.