1973: the sexual revolution was on, streaking was taking college campuses by storm, and Deep Throat was edging pornography ever closer to the mainstream. Against this backdrop, a talented New York band with the unlikely moniker of Pool-Pah teamed up with up-and-coming singer-songwriter, musician, and arranger Rupert Holmes to write and record an unforgettably far-out soundtrack blending rock, psychedelia, jazz, prog, pop, and electronica. It had to be heard to be believed…and far too few heard it. The soundtrack was to an X-rated film initially called Forbidden Under Censorship of the King (Get it? Think acronym) which was quickly retitled The Flasher. The movie even inspired a first-of-its-kind theatrical concert at New York’s Beacon Theatre, but when the brass at Paramount Pictures affiliate Greene Bottle Records got wind of the fact that Pool-Pah’s debut album was, in fact, the soundtrack to a porno, promotion stopped and the album disappeared. Rupert Holmes, of course, went on to score the final No. 1 hit of the 1970s and one of the first of the 1980s with his timeless “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” and forge careers as a best-selling mystery novelist and Tony Award-winning playwright and songwriter. Over time, the cult reputation of Pool-Pah’s The Flasher grew. Grammy winner Beck famously featured The Flasher in a 2001 Vanity Fair feature (“A Superfly version of electronic music for plants”) while the Holmes-penned groove “Sour Soul” became a favorite sample of hip-hop artists including Wiz Khalifa, Curren$y, and Big Sean on “O.T.T.R.” in 2011. Now, in time for its 50th anniversary, Real Gone Music and Second Disc Records are proud to expose The Flasher in its first-ever reissue in any format. This incredible soundtrack–recalling The Beatles and The Bee Gees one minute, and Shaft and Superfly the next–returns to black with white swirl “night sky” vinyl as sourced from the pristine original tapes housed in the Universal vault. The LP features a four-page insert with rare photos and brand-new liner notes by The Second Disc’s Joe Marchese drawing on interviews with Pool-Pah–lead singer Lenie Colacino, bassist/trumpeter Bruce Handelman, guitarist/saxophonist Seth Handelman, guitarist Billye Arrington–and Rupert Holmes. If you like spacey synths, heavy guitars, funky rhythms, and just-plain-great songs and vocals (piña coladas don’t hurt, either!), come with us and escape. The ultra-rare soundtrack to The Flasher is no longer forbidden.
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