'Headless Heroes" was the subject of one of the more implausible (but true) stories of Atlantic Records history. The CIA had been 'observing' Eugene McDaniels since the 1970 "Outlaw" album where he was pictured hanging out in a cemetary with a couple of beret-wearing 'revolutionary' babes toting machine guns on the front cover. They were so incensed by the lyrical content of the title track of his follow-up "Headless Heroes" that they brought it to the attention of Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon; Nixon actually had a reel-to-reel playback in the oval office (with a transcript of the lyrics), and afterwards Spiro Agnew called Atlantic boss Ahmet Ertegun to demand the withdrawal of the album, in promotion at the time, which he did under duress. To rub salt into the wound, there was supposed to have been a 45 from the album, 'The Lord Is Back' b/w 'Tell Me Mr. President' which also got canned, the only evidence of which is the promo of 'Mr President'. Considering what had just happened It was probably just one step too far for Atlantic. Can you imagine Richard Nixon listening to this album in the White House surrounded by a bunch of suits ? Beggars belief, but goes to show just how paranoid his administration was at the height of the Vietnam war, going as far as censoring "pop' records. You'd think they had a few more important issues to address. Great album though....and as for the track "Headless Heroes" itself, McDaniels was incredibly prescient and right on the money.

Look up Wax Poetics issue 6 Fall 2003 and/or Wax Poetics Anthology Volume 2 pages 30-35. Gene Mcdaniels explains what happened to him and why he got dismissed from Atlantic records which basically ended his career. These guys had him in there scope sights after he made these albums. I would like to say the truth hurts, Rolling Stone magazine did a cover story "Outlaw or Thief" suggesting the lyrics too his first Atlantic album were not his own and he stole them. Mcdaniels got called into the office of one of the heads at Atlantic records, who said they just had a call from the White house expressing their displeasure over the contents of the albums in question.My copy came (with a transcript of the lyrics) next to the inner sleeve 12'' style single sheet paper, the inner sleeve is a standard Atlantic promotional copy of other Atlantic material.

Do you have a source for this? It'd be cool if there was proof of Nixon and Agnew listening to this and all.

A monster album that's gone onto influence a generation -- but which was barely recognized at the time! Singer Eugene McDaniels had scored big with some pop hits in the 60s under the name Gene McDaniels -- but here, he steps out in a righteous batch of offbeat funk tunes -- filled with politics, offbeat rhythms, and some very weird instrumentation. The whole thing's awash in moody, jazzy changes -- of the style that showed up often in samples by Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys, and other artists who drew keen inspiration from this record. Titles include the massive "Jagger the Dagger" -- plus "The Lord Is Back", "Lovin Man", "Headless Heroes", "Freedom Death Dance", and "Supermarket Blues".