The Al and George Story

Al & George were a Toronto-based musical comedy duo formed by George Westerholm and Al Rae (later known as Lara Rae), whose offbeat blend of absurdist humour, original songs, and satirical performance made them a distinctive presence on the city’s alternative comedy and underground music circuit in the 1980s. Emerging from the same broader creative environment that produced acts like Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet and The Kids in the Hall, the duo developed a cult following through live shows that mixed sketch-like concepts with deliberately eccentric pop and spoken-word material.

Their only known standalone release, The Al and George Story (1989), remains the principal recorded document of their work. Issued as a seven-track EP, the record functions as both parody and pseudo-retrospective, presenting an invented mythology of the duo’s “career” through mock-biographical liner notes, fabricated studio lore, and knowingly absurd track annotations. The result is less a conventional comedy album than a carefully constructed conceptual artifact, one that captures the peculiar intelligence and deadpan sensibility that defined Al & George’s live act.

The record also connects directly to Toronto’s independent music underground. Tracks 1 and 2, ‘Route 601’ and ‘Brain Operation,’ feature Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet as the backing band. Other contributors included Ted Husband and John Lynass, while production was credited to Anthony Mancini and Al & George, with engineering by Andi Charal.

Although Al & George never built a large commercial discography, their reputation endured through their association with Canada’s alternative comedy boom and through the later accomplishments of both members. George Westerholm went on to a long and varied career as a musician, writer, and comedian, while Al Rae became one of the most respected figures in Canadian comedy before later transitioning and becoming known as Lara Rae. In retrospect, The Al and George Story stands as a rare surviving artifact from a moment when Toronto’s underground comedy and independent music scenes overlapped in unusually inventive ways.
-Robert Williston

Musicians

Tracks 1 and 2
Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet: guitar, bass, drums
Al and George: vocals and guitar

Track 3
Ted Husband: keyboards, bass
John Lynass: drums
Al and George: vocals and guitar

Track 4
Ted Husband: string arrangements, keyboards, bass
Al and George: vocals

Track 5
George: keyboards
Al: vocal

Track 6
Ted Husband: bass
George: vocal and guitar

Track 7
Al: vocal

Production
Produced by Anthony Mancini and Al and George
Engineered by Andi Charal

Front cover photo by Keith Penner from the phonetic German production of ‘The Beggar, the Soldier, and the Buns.’
Back cover photo by Christina Garland: a young team, 1931, photographed outside the Slavyanski Bazaar

Liner notes
AI and George’s career spanned an incredible fifteen years and one octave. Assembled here for the first time is their entire catalogue on this specially priced EP cat. no. 80-1B (Cassette cat. no. 80-1BC 8-Track 80-B8). This traces their career from the early Netherlands sessions, through their subsequent experiments with strings and orchestra, and on to their separate solo efforts before Al’s untimely death in 1989 during what would have been their reunion album AL & GEORGE ARE BACK!, a tribute to J.S. Bach on found instruments. That album, never completed and with an advance order of 100,000 copies, was cut short when the door from a 1972 Mercury Meteor fell on Al’s head at a Düsseldorf auto scrapyard in West Germany.

As the punk scene raged in Toronto in 1975/76, Al & George went to The Netherlands to record these early tracks and get their blood cleaned. ROUTE 601 was inspired as George rode the famous Finch Ave. bus in North York. BRAIN OPERATION inspired by Al when a speck of dust on a CAISCAN touched off a comedy of errors.

Track 3 SPIDERMAN Recorded 1980
After being bought out by Zippo cola in 1980, ASH Records took inventory and discovered that in their three year relationship with Al & George, Al & George had netted the company exactly $4.37. New company president, Robert K. Bland, issued an ultimatum to the boys: It was time for a hit single. George was completely against the whole idea, but Al was able to convince him that the revenue from it could be used to fund their ballet. The session completed, George promptly threw up and Al tendered a cash advance of $10,000.

Track 4 SHE’S NOT AROUND ANYMORE Recorded July 1982, Toronto
By this time Al & George had stopped touring altogether and were a studio based unit. This song was written by George, but it was Al who insisted on having a string arrangement, prompting the first of many clashes that would eventually split the team in 1985.

Track 5 ordering... Recorded 1985.
Astonishingly, only three days after Al & George’s official split, Al released the critically and commercially well received triple album EMERGENCY AMBIENCE.
“...it just came out.”
Al, Toronto Star 1985.

Track 6 SONG FOR AN INANIMATE OBJECT Recorded 1988.
It would be three years and four record companies before George would release his AMERICA BY FLASHLIGHT album. Recorded in a Greenwich Village loft, it was a critical and commercial disaster.
“...to say I’m a poet is to say Jesus was a carpenter.”
George, Spin Magazine 1988.

Track 7 This never before available radio broadcast transmitted from an unspecified co-ordinate in 1987, was the first the public heard from Al since his mysterious disappearance from the music scene in 1986. Despite the voluminous demand for both record and live appearance Al had become more introspective and reclusive since EMERGENCY AMBIENCE. This transmission picked up and recorded by Ham radio operator ZL41AB in New Zealand and speaks for itself.

After Al’s attempt at world domination failed, he spent a year in the shower until George approached him with the prospect of a reunion album and a towel. Following Al’s death however, George destroyed all the masters and it is as tribute to these lost tracks that the producers have left a few blank grooves at the end of this record. George can be currently heard as the voice of He-man on Saturday morning cartoons.

Notes
Track 1 ‘Route 601’ recorded January 1977, Utrecht, Netherlands
Track 2 ‘Brain Operation’ mixed in Nassau, Bahamas
Originally released on ASH Records

Track 3 ‘Spiderman’ recorded 1980

Track 4 ‘She’s Not Around Anymore’ recorded July 1982, Toronto, Ontario

Track 5 ‘ordering...’ recorded 1985

Track 6 ‘Song for an Inanimate Object’ recorded 1988

Track 7 previously unreleased radio broadcast transmitted from an unspecified co-ordinate in 1987, picked up and recorded by ham radio operator ZL41AB in New Zealand