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"THE FURTHER SOMNILOQUIES OF DION MCGREGOR"
Dion McGregor was a down-on-his-luck Broadway songwriter living in NewYork City in 1960, sleeping on the couch of his friend and partnerMichael Barr, when Barr first noticed McGregor's unique propensity forspeaking his dreams aloudTorpor Vigil Industries
In the early morning hours before McGregorawoke, he would rattle off remarkably coherent narratives that were byturns surreal, disturbing and hilarious. It was not until 1961 thatBarr began to record Dion's sleeptalking, and he recorded his roommatefaithfully every morning until he moved away in 1967, amassing acollection of thousands of McGregor's so-called "somniloquies" onmountains of reel-to-reel tapes. In 1964, Barr approached a DeccaRecords executive with the idea of releasing an LP of Dion's bestdreams. In possibly the strangest major label move ever, Decca actuallyagreed, releasing not only the classic LP The Dream World of Dion McGregor (He Talks In His Sleep) ,but also a companion book with many more dreams transcribed, withaccompanying illustrations by Edward Gorey. The book and LP both soldpoorly to a largely bewildered public, and in the intervening years thecult of Dion McGregor slowly grew, and the book and record both becamecollector's items. McGregor died quietly in 1994, and then seeminglyout of nowhere, Tzadik released a sequel to the Decca album (1999's Dion McGregor Dreams Again),with more than an hour of dreams deemed to be too obscene for theoriginal LP. I assumed that was probably it, but surprisingly, TorporVigil Industries has dug deeper into the Barr tape archive to puttogether yet another hour-plus collection of somniloquies from the samebountiful source as the other two classic releases. I was apprehensiveabout this volume, thinking that most of the best dreams would havealready been used on the first two albums. I was wrong, however; the 24tracks that make up The Further Somniloquies are vintageMcGregor, full of surreal humor, oddly disturbing mental imagery, andthat same fey delivery that made the other dreams so supremely funny.Just as on the earlier recordings, the sound of NYC traffic noise canbe heard in the background throughout (Dion liked to sleep with thewindows open), and every dream ends with McGregor shrieking and wakinghimself. The man's sleeptalking talent was truly outstanding: from theopening track "Scavenger Hunt" ("A yellow robins egg...a wolf'sdream...a Welsh shoelace...a dirty napkin used by Garbo"), to thefinale of "The Wet Parade" ("Walk straight into the sea, goddamnit!Hup, two, three, four!"), McGregor's dream world is utterly bizarre,frequently hilarious and always fascinating. Along the way McGregorplays "Food Roulette" with a lazy susan of poisoned eclairs, talksabout living in a boarding house full of circus freaks, and reveals hisobsessions with mangoes and horseshoe crabs. Many of the dreams are someticulously realized and performed that I have often wondered whetheror not the whole phenomenon was really just a hoax, despite the volumesof anecdotal and medical documentation regarding McGregor's peculiarcase. Even if it is a hoax, it's an amazingly entertaining one, andthat should count for something.
In the early morning hours before McGregorawoke, he would rattle off remarkably coherent narratives that were byturns surreal, disturbing and hilarious. It was not until 1961 thatBarr began to record Dion's sleeptalking, and he recorded his roommatefaithfully every morning until he moved away in 1967, amassing acollection of thousands of McGregor's so-called "somniloquies" onmountains of reel-to-reel tapes. In 1964, Barr approached a DeccaRecords executive with the idea of releasing an LP of Dion's bestdreams. In possibly the strangest major label move ever, Decca actuallyagreed, releasing not only the classic LP The Dream World of Dion McGregor (He Talks In His Sleep) ,but also a companion book with many more dreams transcribed, withaccompanying illustrations by Edward Gorey. The book and LP both soldpoorly to a largely bewildered public, and in the intervening years thecult of Dion McGregor slowly grew, and the book and record both becamecollector's items. McGregor died quietly in 1994, and then seeminglyout of nowhere, Tzadik released a sequel to the Decca album (1999's Dion McGregor Dreams Again),with more than an hour of dreams deemed to be too obscene for theoriginal LP. I assumed that was probably it, but surprisingly, TorporVigil Industries has dug deeper into the Barr tape archive to puttogether yet another hour-plus collection of somniloquies from the samebountiful source as the other two classic releases. I was apprehensiveabout this volume, thinking that most of the best dreams would havealready been used on the first two albums. I was wrong, however; the 24tracks that make up The Further Somniloquies are vintageMcGregor, full of surreal humor, oddly disturbing mental imagery, andthat same fey delivery that made the other dreams so supremely funny.Just as on the earlier recordings, the sound of NYC traffic noise canbe heard in the background throughout (Dion liked to sleep with thewindows open), and every dream ends with McGregor shrieking and wakinghimself. The man's sleeptalking talent was truly outstanding: from theopening track "Scavenger Hunt" ("A yellow robins egg...a wolf'sdream...a Welsh shoelace...a dirty napkin used by Garbo"), to thefinale of "The Wet Parade" ("Walk straight into the sea, goddamnit!Hup, two, three, four!"), McGregor's dream world is utterly bizarre,frequently hilarious and always fascinating. Along the way McGregorplays "Food Roulette" with a lazy susan of poisoned eclairs, talksabout living in a boarding house full of circus freaks, and reveals hisobsessions with mangoes and horseshoe crabs. Many of the dreams are someticulously realized and performed that I have often wondered whetheror not the whole phenomenon was really just a hoax, despite the volumesof anecdotal and medical documentation regarding McGregor's peculiarcase. Even if it is a hoax, it's an amazingly entertaining one, andthat should count for something. samples:
