A lost media discussion board that sticks closer to the original vision of /r/lostmedia. >Lost media is media that is believed to have been forgotten or no longer exists in any format. - Wikipedia
One of the most interesting part of Mr. Herman's career was prior to the Tim Burton film. In efforts to promote his stage show and career, Groundings comedian Paul Reubens took his character from college campus events, to comedy clubs and to talk shows. At some point in 1983, Reubens recorded a single in character as Pee-Wee Herman. Parts of the track can be heard in this segment from "Andy Warhol's TV" (Series 2, Madison Square Network, 1983).
The track is mentioned in the Pee-Wee Press Newsletter Vol 3 and an April 1984 Playboy Magazine.
Efforts to locate the track have been bleak. I contacted the bassist Tony Marsico via facebook DMs and was told at one point he had a cassette of it, that is long gone. Not really sure where else to contact at this point. Other involved names would be lead designer Gary Panter or composer Jay Cotton (stage name Jay Condom).
Pee-Wee Herman also did a rap for the 12" extended club mix of Jimmy Salvemini's (1985 winner of Star Search) debut single "Roll It." It is mentioned on the liner notes of the LP, tho when I asked in the YouTube comments Salvemini said it never left the master tapes and was never pressed.
What about Reubens' friends and early costars? When he died it seemed like everyone knew him and had something nice to say. Lots of 80s names to run through.
Some standard lost media stuff, check radio stations and show biz people of the era. Any major Pee-wee collectors?
The track seems to run about 1:05 on the Warhol broadcast. Mostly intelligible. Cool song, it would be nice to hear in full. I wonder how much longer it was, probably not longer than 3 minutes.
surprisingly, there isn't an all inclusive Pee-Wee fansite, I tried for awhile looking at various web 1.0 sites on the internet archive and mostly found sites about the theater scandal and about Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Most interesting reads I've found in vintage newspaper and magazine articles, some of the memoir shit was nice. The upcoming Safdie brother produced HBO Documentary will maybe bring more info to light, otherwise most articles and write ups focus on his career Big Adventure and onwards. At one point I had a link to a blog of a collector with a ton of pee-wee memoribilla but most of it is unarchived wordpress.
This would be me just thinking out loud
Would contacting Dr Dememto be of any help ? It sounds like a song he may have played if he played it he may still have it. Or perhaps one of his fan groups ?