the mothers of invention: weasels ripped my flesh
flash back from "man's life" of 1956


(scan & clips: douglas michel)

doug michael: i have a magazine from 1956. the cover story is "weasels ripped my flesh"
ever see it?  want a jgp?

vladimir sovetov: yes of course!!!

doug michael: vladimir, this is not the best scan in the world but it gets the point across.

 

douglas michael: the index in the magazine reads:

"WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH,  mike kamens

the little animals chewed away at him piece by piece

the story is that of a connecticut duck farmer. after losing 90 ducks in two nights, he stakes out the duck house and encounters 12 weasels. his first shotgun blast hits his kerosene lantern creating an inferno in the duck house."

here is an excerpt:

"time after time i'd drop to the river bank and roll over trying to smother them, but they'd squirm out from under, their fetid breath full in my lungs, feinting like boxers for a new attack. i caught a weasel under his throat and dropped the picthfork and held onto his neck with both hands, squeezing until the narrow mouth popped open and the tongue slid between the bloody mouth. i squeezed until the body went limp, then turned and heaved it fully into the fire. "

the writing style is that of 1950's pulp fiction. the magazine itself is part of the "men's sweat" genre. they are usually printed very cheaply on poor paper. i am amazed (but pleased) that this copy made it through the last fourty five years.

 

info from neon park:

neon park was working as a poster artist with the family dog, a san francisco design group, when he got a call from frank zappa asking him to come down to los angeles. zappa had seen the drawings park had done for a group called dancing food and wanted him to paint the jacket for the next mothers of invention record. at their meeting, zappa showed park a magazine cover. "it was one of those men's magazines like *saga*," says park.

"the cover story was *weasels ripped my flesh* and it was the adventure of a guy, naked to the waist, who was in water. the water was swarming with weasels, and they were all kind of climbing on him and biting him. so frank said, `this is it. what can you do that's worse than this?' and the rest is history."

Here's an ad out of the Saturday Evening Post. The issue date is October 3, 1953.