Shut Up, Little Man! - The Audio Misadventures of Peter and Raymond (1993)

Peter J. Haskett and Raymond Huffman were two elderly alcoholic war veterans living in a tenement house in the Lower Haight district of San Francisco. They brutally fought late into the night, every night much to the chagrin and amusement of their neighbors Eddie Lee Sausage and Mitchell D who lived next door in the "Pepto Bismol Palace" (so named because of the bright pink paint) at 237 Steiner st. Lee and Mitchell started recording their neighbors' violent arguments and distributing the tapes amongst friends. They even sometimes goaded Ray and Peter with prank telephone calls.

Like Daddy's Curses, the tapes were passed around in underground tape trading circles eventually becoming the legendary recordings they are today. The recordings found fame far beyond San Francisco. Lee reports that "I went to see (New York City-based) John Zorn, one of my favorite jazz composers, performing with his experimental game-playing ensemble, Cobra. The keyboard player had sampled Shut Up Little Man, and thus, throughout the evening -- amidst the saxophone squawks and grinding guitar breaks -- there would be sampled little blasts of: 'Shut your fuckin' mouth!' or 'I want to kill!'" The band DEVO also had a side project, "The Wipeouters" and on their only album there is a track titled "Shut Up, Little Man" using many samples of Ray and Peter. Some "indie" filmmaker even made a movie about them.



Lee and Mitchel recorded over 20 hours of Peter and Raymond's fights releasing them in 7 volumes you can get here.

I present the first volume for your listening pleasure here.