In celebration of the 59th anniversary of my birth, I’m offering the gift of a free download of a recording of myself singing accompanied by Anton Szandor LaVey, entitled, with tongue-in-cheek, The Two Magi perform Stout-Hearted Men. This has never before been presented to the public. I urge you to read the notes below for context prior to listening. While my singing is barely adequate, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the powerful and unique artistry of Dr. LaVey captured in this session at his Black House in San Francisco. If you enjoy this and feel inclined to reciprocate, I have a gift list on Amazon.com. —Magus Peter H. Gilmore

The Two Magi featuring Anton Szandor LaVey and Peter H. Gilmore

THE TWO MAGI PERFORM “STOUT-HEARTED MEN” MP3 / M4A

Those who became friends with Anton LaVey were sometimes invited to vocalize when he played his array of synthesizer keyboards in that chilly kitchen at 6114 California Street. He enjoyed choosing magically evocative, oft-forgotten old songs for them based on their vocal range and personality traits, and would improvise unique and ever-evolving accompaniments—perhaps the sound of a small ensemble of tired musicians playing during the wee hours at some seedy dive or even a bombastic symphony orchestra emoting with their hearts on their sleeves under a frenzied conductor. He had a wonderful aural imagination and splendid skills towards recreating varied performance scenarios.

In SATAN TAKES A HOLIDAY, he made and released poignant recordings of this sort with Nick Bougas and Blanche Barton, capturing many different moods; I can’t recommend this CD more highly. Atmosphere, implying a back story, was crucial to LaVey’s aesthetic, rather than a perfect rendering of the notes and lyrics—he wanted a narrative quality in these joint efforts. Doktor invited both Peggy and myself to sing with him. Peggy knew a number of obscure songs by memory and could easily play his chanteuse. My college vocal studies during the late 70s to early 80s were classically oriented and my time with the NYU Choral Arts Society included stints with the Brooklyn Philharmonia under Lukas Foss and even a performance in Carnegie Hall with Eve Queler and her Opera Orchestra of New York in Massenet’s Hérodiade (which had a fun men’s chorus for the lusty Roman soldiers). So, versatile Doktor would find something I’d know and played the baritone solo beginning of the “Ode to Joy” section of the finale of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony which I sang in German. We even muddled through one of his favorites, On The Road to Mandalay. He enjoyed our renditions and decided he wanted to record with us on our next visit, so Peggy and I worked on the songs we all selected.

During that subsequent stay in The Black House, Doktor avoided playing and singing until the very last hours before we were about to leave, at a point where we had been awake for almost a full day. The song I had prepared was “Stout-Hearted Men” from the Romberg and Hammerstein operetta The New Moon, which explores concepts derived from the French Revolution. Doktor wanted to project the feeling that together we were trying to rouse our comrades after being long under siege. That certainly was true since we’d endured The Satanic Panic as colleagues defending Satanism from misrepresentation and possibly becoming outlawed.

We did three takes, each with Doktor varying his playing. I was not particularly pleased with my singing in any of the three, but he felt he had obtained the sense he wanted, of rallying the troops to turn the tide to victory. With Peggy he did three sultry songs, one take each, and one day we might let you know more about them. For years, we only played the cassette tape of this session for very close friends so that they could hear the magnificent playing of Dr. LaVey. Reverend Gene Lavergne—who counts amongst his many talents being a diligent conservator of recorded music—recently remastered that cassette for us and even took the three takes of mine and made a tolerable version. I’m sharing that with you today and ask that you please overlook my limited vocal skills to enjoy the spirit of the performance and the always extraordinary musical magic of Anton Szandor LaVey.

The lyrics are below, and I reworded the third stanza to fit with the sentiments expressed in LaVey’s “Hymn of the Satanic Empire.”

You who have dreams, if you act they will come true.

To turn your dreams to a fact, it's up to you.

If you have the soul and the spirit,

Never fear it, you'll see it through,

Hearts can inspire, other hearts with their fire,

For the strong obey when a strong man shows them the way.

Give me some men who are stout-hearted men,

Who will fight, for the right they adore.

Start me with ten who are stout-hearted men,

And I'll soon give you ten thousand more. Oh…

Shoulder to shoulder and bolder and bolder,

They grow as they go to the fore.

Then there's nothing in the world can halt or mar a plan,

When stout-hearted men can stick together man to man.

Give me some men who are stout-hearted men,

Who will fight, for the right they adore.

Give me some men who will fight like the men

Who have fought for The Devil before. Oh…

Give me some guns for the stout-hearted sons

of the ones who have won every war.

Then there's not a chance on Earth for Satan’s cause to die,

When, stout-hearted men go forth and fight them hip and thigh.