March 30, 2022 – Theme Week Day 3

We’re halfway through our theme week on 5 of the Greatest Pranks in History. Today’s prank comes from the pages of Rolling Stone. In October 1969, the magazine published a tongue-in-cheek review of a fake bootleg album supposedly by a supergroup made up of Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, George Harrison, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney.
The spoof was the brainchild of Rolling Stone editor Greil Marcus, who was apparently fed up with the supergroup trend at the time. The review was full of references that should have tipped readers off that it was a joke. The review raved about Dylan’s new “deep bass voice”, the 18-minute cover songs, and an extended jam between bass guitar and piano – both played by Paul McCartney!
However, many people took it seriously. Questions about the album’s availability poured into Rolling Stone, from fans, retailers and even the artists’ managers. So they decided to take the joke a step further, and release an actual album. They recruited a local Berkeley, California band to record it, complete with imitations of the voices of the famous singers supposedly involved. The songs began getting radio play, so they decided to look for a record label to produce the album. Warner Bros. ultimately gave them a $15,000 advance and the The Masked Marauders album was released in November 1969. It went on to sell over 100,000 copies, and it spend 12 weeks on the Billboard chart, topping out at number 114.
Each album sleeve included the Rolling Stone review along with the liner notes. In 2001, the album was remastered and released with a limited number of copies. Strangely enough, Bob Dylan and George Harrison did wind up playing together in the supergroup The Traveling Wilbury’s (along with Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynn). Learn more here.