Helter Stupid

Helter Stupid is Negativland's fifth studio album, released in 1989. It was Negativland's third concept album, focusing on the hoax that band member Richard Lyons started, which claimed that the Negativland song "Christianity Is Stupid" inspired David Brom to murder his family with an axe.

For the song of the same name, see Helter Stupid (song).
Helter Stupid
Studio album by
Negativland
Released1989
Recorded1988–1989
GenreExperimental
Length47:26
LabelSST (252)
ProducerNegativland
Negativland chronology
Escape from Noise
(1987)		 Helter Stupid
(1989)		 Free
(1993)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic
Blender

Structure

The first half of the album is composed of the tracks "Prologue" and "Helter Stupid". The two together form an extended piece lasting over 22 minutes. The concept, and some of the sampled material, came from a San Francisco television news program that was taken in by a media hoax perpetrated by Negativland while promoting its previous album, Escape from Noise. Other samples used included those from Rev. Estus Pirkle (further samples from the same sermon used in "Christianity Is Stupid"), an interview with Charles Manson, and what was the band's most brazenly unauthorized sample to date: "Helter Skelter" by The Beatles.

Parts of the "Perfect Cut" tracks on Side 2 draw from samples of "The Winning Score", a 1977 presentation by TM Century, producers of radio jingles and imaging.

In 2000, the band Chumbawamba, in reply to the EP The ABCs of Anarchism, used this album as one of their main sampling sources of WYSIWYG.

Track listing
  1. "Prologue"
  2. "Helter Stupid"
  3. "The Perfect Cut (Canned Music)"
  4. "The Perfect Cut (Rooty Poops)"
  5. "The Perfect Cut (Good As Gold)"
  6. "The Perfect Cut (Piece of Meat)"
  7. "The Perfect Cut (White Rabbit And A Dog Named Gidget)"
  8. "The Perfect Cut (11 Minutes)"
  9. "The Perfect Cut (48 Hours)"

Personnel

Musical Samples
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