In the early '60s, seemingly anyone with an acoustic guitar was trying to launch a career as a folksinger, but
Robbie Robison didn't take the ordinary route.
Robison, sporting dark red hair and a beard that looked a bit more sinister than the typical beatnik, penned dark-humored folk parodies that often dealt with monsters and ghouls, and sometimes featured risque humor (well, risque by 1964 standards). Calling himself
Robbie the Werewolf,
Robison developed a small but devoted following after landing regular gigs at the Waleback Inn, a coffeehouse in Los Angeles. One night,
Robison brought in a recording engineer to commit his show to tape, and he had the results pressed into a limited-edition LP titled
At the Waleback (this being the era when comedy albums were often making their way to the upper reaches of the charts). The album eventually gained a cult following among record collectors and fans of curious private-pressed music, especially after
Jello Biafra namechecked it in the book Incredibly Strange Music, Vol. 2. (For a while, original pressings of the album were fetching as much as $500.)
At the Waleback isn't as funny as one might hope, but this is truly a one-of-a-kind item, and as weird as you would expect.
Robison was clearly beholden to the "sick humor" movement of the '50s, and he sings his tales of blood-sucking beasts, hygienically challenged bums, and unneeded censorship with a frothing gusto. As a guitarist,
Robison is rudimentary at best, but as a parody of a monster-obsessed folk musician, he gets over, and even if he's not much of a comedian, his performance is strong enough that you're likely to be drawn in even if you're not sure if he's especially good. Anyone who thinks a folksinging blood-drinking werewolf sounds like a great idea is probably going to enjoy
At the Waleback, though they probably shouldn't count on too many repeat listens. (
Robison later went on to join the psychedelic band
Clear Light, proving once again that an awful lot of coffeehouse folkies were secret rockers looking for a way inside the music biz.) ~ Mark Deming
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