Dick Vaughn's Moribund Music Of The '70s is a collection of recordings edited from a wealth of material broadcast on KPFA's Over the Edge radio show, hosted by Don Joyce weekly and featuring members of Negativland, as well as material recorded at a Live Negativland show just after the "U2 Scandal." The recordings are broken up into two discs, and within that contain bits and pieces of many different Over The Edge Shows.
Everything centers around one recurring character that has made many appearances on Over The Edge, that of radio personality Dick Vaughn, played by Richard Lyons. Track 1 of Disc 1 is taken from a recording that was played to live audiences during the tour that took place just after the U2 Scandal. Tracks 2 - 9 are taken from "The California Superstation" broadcast, a parody of corporate radio which had some listeners convinced KPFA had actually undergone a format change. This was also hosted by Lyons as Dick Vaughn, and performed with Negativland's typical tongue-placed-in-cheek. Tracks 10 & 11 are snippets taken from other Dick Vaughn pranks, in both cases involving other people's radio shows. Tracks 12 & 13 of Disc 1, and Tracks 1 - 6 of Disc Two are taken from the "Moribund Music Of The '70s" show, in which Dick Vaughn begins the first-ever "'70s Nostalgia" broadcast, complete with authentic 1970s radio gimmicks, commercials, and the usual Negativland sense of humor. Tracks 7 - 10 of Disc two are all taken from different shows, and feature commentary on the "Moribund" show, another classic Dick Vaughn prank, and a 15 Minute excerpt from the "Dick Is Dead" show. Finally, Tracks 11 & 12 are taken from a live Negativland performance, and includes the complete tape that opens the CD.
Originally released in 1990 by SST Records on cassette only, it was re-released in 2001 [1] by Negativland's own label, Seeland Records, as a CD. The CD version contains material not included on the original release, and also omits and rearranges some material from the original.
