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Gleaning
through Mont's two books & several of his other writings, as well
as articles from the time period, a conflicting picture of this
woman emerges. First impressions would be that she was sort of a
Spinal Tap character not much different from the meddling
girlfriend who practically dismantled the band by taking over the
management reigns (in "This is Spinal Tap" the
movie). True, Analie
did control certain aspects of Mont's business dealings in the
industry, & true, she was resented by most of the other band
members for her meddling . And, true, she was somewhat the new-age
girl with her meta-physical beliefs which brought about the 'Really Bad Mood Neck Rings'.
These were a terrible financial
failure for the fledgling HotMoCo manufacturing company.
Analie
unfortunately does fit the classic Yoko-Ono profile. But certainly
some good must have come from their relationship. According to
writings from the final days (during the recording of 'Expulsive Anality' in Macon in '77), Hot gave Analie retro-active
publishing rights as a full co-writer on some of his best
material. These songs included 'Mont-tana' from the
Mont Rushmore album & 'Wolf Wagon Boogie' from the
"Fuel" album as well as several other beloved tunes. This
enraged & alienated the band members who never received any
writing credit on any albums. Some critics
blame Analie for the disappearance of Mont in 1977 & point to
the uncredited songwriting mentioned in Mont's writings as a
catalyst. But no one close remembers a rift in the relationship at
the time of the disappearance.
One positive would be her opposition to the 'Combat Tea
Set' product from HotMoCo, which turned out to be nothing but a
horrible legal mess. (The slogan for the exploding teaset was "Even in the heat of battle, one should
always be civilized"!! Analie was
actually very active in politics just as Mont was. She shared
his conservative values for the nation regardless of her
new-age-sea-salt personal beliefs. As Mont's ultra-conservative
books were released, liberalism was flourishing in America. He had
no Limbaugh or Boortz to rally support
for his cause at that lonely time period. As a lone wolf
wagon, Mont was surely seen as a threat to the 'powers that
be' … and, consequently, so was Analie. So... once
again we come to the late summer of 1977. Not exactly a major
cultural milestone, but definitely the
'end of an era' for many loyal fans & followers of Hot Moth. Analie vanished from the public view even more
completely than Mont
himself. Although a few of the products of the HotMoCo (including
Analie's 'Really Bad Mood Neck Rings') continued to be unsuccessfully
marketed by the company until 1980, most radar screens throughout
the world went blank on that fateful day in August
1977. There are
reputed to be several important writings from Analie (as well as
the rumored prophetic dream manuscripts of Mont) which may in time
emerge from the ruins of the fire-ravaged Georgia recording
studio where the last known glimpses of both Monti & Analie were.
We can only hope that these writings will clear up more of the
questions.
-D.J. Bradley
(D.J Frank Bradley is a radio disk jockey on
WRST: The WRST FM.)
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