Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down

by Ishmael Reed

  Well I don’t know—you see we have no leaders holy men or gurus either so I’d have to ask the rest of the troupe.

  Loop, Zozo and the Juggler said yes by nodding their heads. The Bear jumped up and down in his chains.

  Delighted, the children escorted the small circus group to the outskirts of Yellow Back Radio where they pitched the tents, bedded down the weary horses and oxen and made preparations for the show.

  Three horsemen—the Banker, the Marshal and the Doctor—decided to pay a little visit to Drag Gibson’s ranch. They had to wait because Drag was at his usual hobby, embracing his property.

  A green mustang had been led out of its stall. It served as a symbol for his streams of fish, his herds, his fruit so large they weighed down the mountains, black gold and diamonds which lay in untapped fields, and his barnyard overflowing with robust and erotic fowl.

  Holding their Stetsons in their hands the delegation looked on as Drag prepared to kiss his holdings. The ranch hands dragged the animal from his compartment towards the front of the Big Black House where Drag bent over and french kissed the animal between his teeth, licking the slaver from around the horse’s gums.

  This was one lonely horse. The male horses avoided him because they thought him stuck-up and the females because they thought that since green he was a queer horse. See, he had turned green from old nightmares.

  After the ceremony the unfortunate critter was led back to his stall, a hoof covering his eye.

  Drag removed a tube from his pocket and applied it to his lips. He then led the men to a table set up in front of the House. Four bottles of whiskey were placed on the table by Drag’s faithful Chinese servant, who picked a stray louse from Drag’s fur coat only to put it down the cattleman’s back. Drag smiled and twitched a bit, slapping his back until his hand found the bullseye. Killing the pest, he and the servant exchanged grins.

  Bewildered, the men glanced at each other.

  What brings you here? I told you to come only if you were ready for business. Sign the town and your property over to me so that my quest for power will be satisfied. If you do that I’ll have my men go in there and wipe them menaces out.

  We decided to give in, Drag. Why, we’re losing money each day the children hold the town and we have to be around our wives all the time and they call us stupid jerks, buster lamebrain and unpolite things like that. It’s a bargain, Drag. What do we do now?

  Now you’re talking business Doc. Sign this stiffycate which gives me what I asked for and I’ll have them scamps out of your hair in no time.

  Drag brought forth an official looking document from inside his robe, to which the Banker, Marshal and Doctor affixed their signatures.

  It’s a good thing we got the people to see it your way, the Banker said, wiping the sweat on his forehead with a crimson handkerchief. Some reinforcements were arriving today. They were in some wagons that was painted real weird and we hanged and shot one who was dressed like a clown. We thought they might be heathens from up North, you dig?

  You mulish goofies, that was the circus I ordered to divert the kids so’s we could ambush them. Any damned fool knows kids like circuses.

  Drag we’re confused and nervous. Just today four boxes of drexol were stolen from our already dwindling supply of goods. That’s why we didn’t think when we killed that man. The old people are wandering around the camp bumping into each other they’re so tightened up. All day people are saying hey stupid idiot watch where you’re going. It’s a mad house.

  And the Preacher Rev. Boyd, he’s in the dumps in a strong and serious way this time. You know how hard he tried with the kids and the town’s heathen, how he’d smoke hookahs with them brats and get stoned with Chief Showcase the only surviving injun and that volume of hip pastorale poetry he’s putting together, Stomp Me O Lord. He thought that Protestantism would survive at least another month and he’s tearing up the Red-Eye and writing more of them poems trying to keep up with the times. Drag you know how out of focus things are around here. After all Drag it’s your world completely now.

  How can you be so confident your men can take care of them varmits Drag? It takes a trail boss a dozen or so cowboys and a wrangler to get the herd North. You can’t have many cowpokes left behind. Don’t get me wrong I’m not afraid for myself cause I rode with Doc Holiday and the Dalton Boys before I went peace officer—I have handled a whole slew of punks passing through the hopper in my day…why if I hadn’t been up the creek at the Law Enforcement Conference it wouldn’t have happened anyway.

  You always seem to be at some convention when the town needs you Marshal, Drag said, looking into a hand mirror and with a neckerchief wiping the smudges of mascara that showed above his batting lashes.

  Drag, the women folk, well you know how women are, what strange creatures they be during menopause. They’re against us wiping out the kids. That’s one of the reasons we didn’t cast lots quicker to give you the hand over of Yellow Back Radio, so that you could adjust all the knobs and turn to whatever station you wished. Anyway we tried to get Big Lizzy to talk to them but they don’t recognize her as one of their own.

  Pshaw, don’t worry about the women Doc, Drag Gibson said, bringing his old fat and ugly frame to its feet. Start appeasing them and pretty soon they’ll be trying to run the whole show like that kook back in Wichita who campaigned to cut out likker. Now quit your whining and get back to camp and see after them townsfolk. Leave the job up to me.

  The dignitaries rose and tumbled down the hill. The Banker rolled over a couple of times as Drag stood jerking his shoulders and with one finger in his ear as pellet after pellet flew over the Marshal’s, Banker’s and Doctor’s heads. He relaxed, drank a glass of rotgut and gave the appearance of a statesman by returning to his book The Life of Catherine the Great. As soon as the delegation disappeared, he slammed the book shut and called his boys.

  Get in here cowpokes, we’re in business.

  Skinny McCullough the foreman followed by some cowhands rushed onto the lawn and surrounded their boss. Chinaboy! Chinaboy! Bring me that there package.

  The Chinese servant rushed into the scene with his arms weighed down with a bundle.

  O.K. men, Drag said, this is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for. They signed the town over to me, the chumps, haw haw.

  He opened the package and placed its contents on the table.

  This is a brand new revolving cylinder. It has eight chambers. A murderer’s dream with a rapid firing breech-loading firearm.

  The cowpokes’ eyes lit up and foam began to form around their lips.

  It was invented by a nice gent lecturer named Dr. Coult of New York London and Calcutta. Just bought it from Royal Flush Gooseman, the shrewd, cunning and wicked fur trapper, the one who sold them injuns those defected flintlocks allowing us to wipe them out.

  The kids are down there with a circus I booked under a pseudonym. I been watching them through my long glass. Now get busy and before you know it Drag Gibson will be the big name in Yellow Back Radio then Video Junction then va-va-voom on to the East, heh heh heh.

  The cowpokes from Drag Gibson’s Purple Bar-B drank some two-bits-a-throw from a common horn and armed with their shiny new weapons headed towards the outskirts of Yellow Back Radio on their nefarious mission.

  The Dancing Bear, the Juggler, Loop and Zozo entertained the children far into the night. The Dancing Bear did acrobatic feats with great deftness, Loop his loco lariat tricks, and Zozo read the children’s palms and told their fortunes.

  Finally Jake the Barker gathered them near the fire to tell of the Seven Cities of Cibola, magnificent legendary American paradise where tranquilized and smiling machines gladly did all of the work so that man could be free to dream. A paradise whose streets were paved with opals from Idaho, sapphire from Montana, turquoise and silver from the great Southwest:

  In the early half of the sixteenth century about 1528 an expedition which included the black slave Estevancio landed at Tampa Bay. H
e and his companions were lost trapped and enslaved by Indians. Other expeditions also vanished mysteriously. Legend has it that the city can only be found by those of innocent motives, the young without yellow fever in their eyes.

  Stupid historians who are hired by the cattlemen to promote reason, law and order—toad men who adore facts—say that such an anarchotechnological paradise where robots feed information into inanimate steer and mechanical fowl where machines do everything from dig irrigation ditches to mine the food of the sea help old ladies across the street and nurture infants is as real as a green horse’s nightmare. Shucks I’ve always been a fool, eros appeals more to me than logos. I’m just silly enough to strike out for it tomorrow as soon as the circus splits up.

  A place without gurus monarchs leaders cops tax collectors jails matriarchs patriarchs and all the other galoots who in cahoots have made the earth a pile of human bones under the feet of wolves.

  Why don’t we all go, the children shrieked.

  Wait a minute, Jake said, we don’t have enough supplies for the trip. It lies somewhere far to the south.

  That’s no task, supplies, one of the children said.

  After huddling together they all started into the town, leaving the troupe behind. Finally having had a loot-in on the Hat and Boot store, the Feed store and the Bank they returned with enough supplies to make the long journey.

  I guess I can’t argue against that, Jake said turning to Loop, Zozo and the Juggler. Welcome to my expedition into the unknown.

  The children reveled and danced around.

  When they finished storing provisions into the wagons the entire party went to sleep. The next morning there would be much work to do. The troupe bedded down in their wagons and the children slept beneath warm buffalo robes.

  Loop Garoo was dreaming of bringing down the stars with his tail when all at once he smelled smoke. He awoke to find horsemen surrounding the circle. The children began to scream and some of their clothes caught fire from torches the bandits had tossed into the area. Rapid gunfire started up and the children fell upon each other and ran about in circles as they tried to break the seizure’s grip. Zozo Labrique looked out of her wagon and was shot between the eyes. She dropped to the ground next to the wagon. The pitiful moans of the children could be heard above the din of hoofbeats and gunfire as one by one they were picked off by horsemen who fired with amazing accuracy. The Juggler was firing two rifles and before catching a bullet in his throat was able to down two of the horsemen.

  Loop crawled to the place where Zozo lay dying. Blood trickled from her nose and mouth.

  Zozo let me see if I can get you inside your wagon.

  Flee boy, save yourself, I’m done for, the woman murmured pressing something into his hand. It’s a mad dog’s tooth it’ll bring you connaissance and don’t forget the gris gris, the mojo, the wangols old Zozo taught you and when you need more power play poker with the dead. But Zozo I’ll try to get you a horse, Loop began—but with a start the woman slumped in his arms.

  The grizzly Bear had escaped from the cage and was mangling two horsemen. This allowed an opening in the circle which two children raced through, hanging from the sides of horses. Loop did likewise but so as to divert the men from the children rode in a different direction, towards the desert.

  Bullet after bullet zitted above his head. When the burning scene of children and carny freaks was almost out of his sight he looked back. His friends the Juggler, a dancing bear, the fast talking Barker and Zozo Labrique were trapped in a deadly circle. Their figurines were beginning to melt.

  II. The Loop Garoo Kid Comes Back Mad

  In Bath County, Kentucky in 1876, several tons of dried beef fell from the sky. How did this mass of meat get up into the sky—and how specifically dried beef?

  from “The Day It Rained Cows”

  Ronald J. Willis,

  East Village Other, March 1st, 1968

  Roy Rogers’ movie double’s name was Whitey Christensen.

  from New York Journal American

  Col. 5, May 4, 1948

  Loop Garoo had to shoot his hoss. He hated to do it but under the circumstances it turned out to be the wisest thing he could do. The horse was a snafu anyway. One of Drag Gibson’s gunmen had wounded the animal in the leg.

  You ever see a horse shot in the movies? So that gives you an idea of the fluke of luck Loop was reeling in on this queer fish of a day. First his fun burned down and now a lame horse. All around as far as one could see—desert. A hot mean and bitchy desert with a naturally formed misanthropic mood seemed to be saying well Loop good buddy, how you want it dished up, scorpion bite, rattlesnake, order anything you see, it seemed to be whispering in the voice of the rude hash slinger of the rockbottom dives of our lives.

  Loop, weak and spent, dozed off, his arms stretched out in front of him. In the distance large birds with buzzard coupons could be seen lining up for mess.

  He awoke to find himself surrounded by horsemen. The leader of this shabby crew—well they appeared shabby but closer inspection revealed bell bottom denims of a custom-made variety and fancy shirts which must have cost a pretty penny. The scarfs they wore about their necks were of an extravagantly rich material.

  If it isn’t the alienated individualist stuck out here in the desert, the leader of these grim horsemen said.

  It was Bo Shmo and the neo-social realist gang. They rode to this spot from their hideout in the hills. Bo Shmo leaned in his saddle and scowled at Loop, whom he considered a deliberate attempt to be obscure. A buffoon an outsider and frequenter of sideshows.

  Bo Shmo was dynamic and charismatic as they say. He made a big reputation in the thirties, not having much originality, by learning to play Hoagland Howard Carmichael’s “Buttermilk Sky” backwards. He banged the piano and even introduced some novel variations such as sliding his rump across the black and whites for that certain affect.

  People went for it. It was in all the newspapers. He traveled from coast to coast exhibiting his ass and everything was fine until the real Hoagland Howard Carmichael (the real one) showed up and went for Bo Shmo’s goat. He called him a lowdown patent thief and railed him out of town. You would think that finding themselves duped, the imposter’s fans would demand his hide. Not so, Americans love being conned if you can do it in a style that is both grand and entertaining. Consider P. T. Barnum’s success, Semple McPherson and other notables. A guy who rigs aluminum prices can get himself introduced by Georgie Jessel at 100 dollars a plate but stealing a can of beer can get you iced.

  So sympathetic Americans sent funds to Bo Shmo which he used to build one huge neo-social realist Institution in the Mountains. Wagon trains of neo-social realist composers writers and painters could be seen winding up its path.

  Hey Bo, one of his sidekicks spoke up. We’d better blast this guy right off the way I look at it. Nobody will miss him since he went out with that carnival. If he makes it across the desert he might land a typewriter and do a book on his trials. He’ll corner the misery market and pound out one of those Christian confessionals to which we are so much endeared. Then where will we be. How will we buy all these campy cowboy suits…

  Shut up, Bo said slapping the man in the face with his prospector’s cap. The other horsemen remained mute. Bo Shmo did all their thinking for them. Their job was merely to fold their arms and look mean at the hoedowns or rather the shakedowns. You see Bo Shmo was a real collectivist. Worked hard at it. Fifty toothbrushes cluttered his bathroom and when he walked down the street it seemed a dozen centipedes headed your way. He woke up in the morning with crowds and went to bed with a mob. The man loved company. It seemed that he wore people under his coat although none of them would pull it for him. He resembled Harpo Marx at times, you know, the scene where Harpo has shoplifted a market and stuffed all the smoked hams under an oversized coat. He looked like that.

  The trouble with you Loop is that you’re too abstract, the part time autocrat monarchist and guru finally said. Crazy da
da nigger that’s what you are. You are given to fantasy and are off in matters of detail. Far out esoteric bullshit is where you’re at. Why in those suffering books that I write about my old neighborhood and how hard it was every gumdrop machine is in place while your work is a blur and a doodle. I’ll bet you can’t create the difference between a German and a redskin.

  What’s your beef with me Bo Shmo, what if I write circuses? No one says a novel has to be one thing. It can be anything it wants to be, a vaudeville show, the six o’clock news, the mumblings of wild men saddled by demons.

  All art must be for the end of liberating the masses. A landscape is only good when it shows the oppressor hanging from a tree.

  Right on! Right on, Bo, the henchmen chorused.

  Did you receive that in a vision or was it revealed to you?

  Look out now Loop don’t get quippy with me, I’ll have one of my men take you off. We can’t afford the luxury of individualism gumming up our rustling. We blast those who don’t agree with us.