GETTING MORE TALE #584: Fake News
Fake news is not recent. Fake news has been around as long as there were people! Here is a list of fake news stories from the Record Store days.
- Record Store Tales Part 194: Marilyn Manson’s Ribs
In the mid 90s, many people actually believed that Marilyn Manson had his bottom ribs removed so he could bend over and blow himself.
- Record Store Tales Part 114: Albums that Don’t Exist
From the same time period, word had spread that all five Backstreet Boys released solo albums on the same day, and that “Walmart has them.”
- Record Store Tales Part 162: “Is it out in Toronto?”
Bafflingly, and for many many years, people believed that Toronto got album releases before anywhere else in Canada. As if albums were delivered by the Pony Express.
- Getting More Tale #365: SuperShadow
Levels of hoaxes so complex it’ll make your head spin. SuperShadow was a supposed Star Wars inside informant who leaked prequel plots and characters. He was a notoriously hated spreader of fake Star Wars news, but the layers of intrigue here go down to all the way to…me…who posed on MySpace as a “fake” SuperShadow, in hopes of smoking out the real one. Fake news of fake news!
- Finally my favourite – Record Store Tales Part 285: Chinese Democracy
In an interview with Slash published in the March/April 1994 issue of M.E.A.T Magazine, the guitarist claimed the next Guns N’ Roses album would be out the following summer of 1995. Heh. Won’t get fooled again?
There are of course many “fake news” stories through the history of rock and roll. “Paul is dead.” “2 Pac is alive.” “There are two Nikki Sixx’s.” “Joey Tempest is a demon.” What are your favourites?
mikeladano.com 
Toronto might have gotten albums the same time as the rest of the world, but growing up in Sudbury, you would never believe it. It was hard to find titles you wanted, hard to get titles you wanted. I was listening to less mainstream stuff and those albums were scant… and if you wanted a band’s earlier albums, you were better off going to Toronto. Sudbury was underserved that way (likely still is).
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Thank goodness for Amazon today, eh? When I was a kid, I truly never envisioned a future where I could get the album on the day of release without even leaving my house. Or get the rare import versions without having to go to Europe or Japan. Unbelievable. Now even Sudbury can get stuff on the same day as Toronto.
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Well Slash was right, as long as you add ‘give or take 13 years’!
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Indeed! Although none of his songs made it to THAT album….
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A few that come to mind:
Rod Stewart and the bar full of sailors, subliminal mesaages on records when played backwards, Keith Richards blood changes, Meg and Jack White brother and sister, Gene Simmons tongue.
To me the biggest is that Courtney Love had something to do with his death. I personally believe she did.
On a side note, there was also a rumour about former Toronto Maple Leaf, Wendel Clark. The rumour is he was living with his boyfriend, figure skater Toller Cranston.
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Wow. And people believed that Wendel story??
Keith blood changes is a good one, that’s legendary.
Undecided on Courtney. My buddy Aaron used to think she killed him. I wonder if he still thinks that, and if he’d be willing to do a guest shot on it.
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That Manson rumour was used a few times, I think. I heard the same thing about Prince before it became Manson.
As for Slash, it’s quite possible there genuinely was an album ready.
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Slash had an album ready…but it came out as It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere!
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