"Meet The Idiots"

The Idiots, one of the great cult bands of the 60s, have gone largely unrecognized up till now. Unlike other 60s bands such as the Monks, the Shaggs and the Seeds, the Idiots have receded from view in a dimly resolved, dark past.

Led by (I use the term loosely) singer Ralph “Big Dummy” Smidlap, the Idiots roved about Nebraska during the years 1963 to 1966 when they all gave up the ghost and retired to laughing academies.

They sounded like no one else and performed like perfect idiots. As Big Dummy snarled, moaned, wailed and made lip and finger sounds, the Idiot Rhythm section flailed, pounded and ricocheted behind him, like-well like a bunch of Idiots! The sound was both compulsive and repulsive and was reputed to have emptied many a dancehall in Nebraska of shell-shocked and frustrated music lovers.

Their only album, recorded during the last full moon before Big Dummy went to Lincoln (i.e. to the Funny Farm), gives a good sense of the amusical onslaught Dummy and the Idiots at the peak of their game. Like the liner notes say, “this is some of the shittiest rock ever recorded – no mean feat!”

Songs For Idiots, by The Idiots

1. I’m The Village Idiot
2. The Sounds of Idiocy
3. Listless Idiots on an Endless Bummer
4. Idiots of Tinsel Town
5. The Complete Idiot Fandango
6. As One Idiot to Another
7. The Big Idiot Chases a Bunny Rabbit
8. My Idiot Girlfriend
9. Do the Idiot
10. Idiots Make Wind
11. Do As an Idiot Does and Live Forever