The Masked Marauders

"In an era saturated with pretense, the Masked Marauders stood out as the real thing." After the late-’60s wave of “supergroup hype” surrounding Blind Faith, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stone published a satirical review of a nonexistent album credited to the Masked Marauders—a fictitious ensemble supposedly featuring John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, and Bob Dylan, with Al Kooper at the controls. Months afterward an actual Masked Marauders LP materialized and ignited widespread debate. The record had not been made by those celebrated figures; its closing track openly declared the deception. Tongue-in-cheek liner notes reinforced the ruse with the line: “Leading experts now estimate that the music business is currently 90% hype and 10% bullsh*t. The Masked Marauders, bless their hearts, have gone far beyond that. Their music needs no hype. It transcends the very essence of the bullsh*t for which the public pays millions each year.” The project and its surrounding mythology soon slipped into obscurity, though scattered tracks later surfaced on bootlegs billed as unreleased Beatles, Stones, or Dylan material.