As anyone who’s ever defecated in a hippie’s apartment can tell you, Dr. Emanuel Bronner didn’t just create a line of organic soaps famed for their “18-in-1” uses and minty-fresh genital scalding. Dr. Bronner also created an entire religious ideology he dubbed the “All-One-God-Faith,” compiling his beliefs about humanity’s universal oneness into a book, The Moral ABC, giving spontaneous public lectures on same, and, most effectively, emblazoning every label of his products with copies of his 30,000-plus-word, exclamation-point-pockmarked manifesto for mankind’s salvation. Bronner’s moral philosophy—born out of his grief over losing both his parents in the Holocaust, influenced by the teachings of Jesus and Jewish sages, Thomas Paine, and Rudyard Kipling alike, and the reason why he was forcibly institutionalized in 1947 and given electroshock treatments—was thus delivered unto everyone, particularly those with no readily available magazines.
Now Dr. Bronner’s teachings will reach an all-new captive audience in the form of an album, Sisters & Brothers, which collects 16 tracks of spoken-word recordings Bronner made between 1970 and 1995, two years before his death. On Jan 25, the record will be made available on Bandcamp, as well as released in a vinyl edition limited to just 1,000 copies, one of which—much like Dr. Bronner’s soap—you will buy and then just sort of forget about, coming across it occasionally while cleaning out your shelves.
For those of you in San Diego (or are willing to trade your co-op shift so you can hitch a ride), Dr. Bronner’s is throwing a Sisters & Brothers listening party on release day at the Music Box. In addition to listening to Bronner’s speeches, the company’s current CEO and president—and Bronner’s grandsons—David and Michael Bronner will also give their own speeches. And there will be yet more speeches, with intermittent music playing, from Jill Sobule, famed for the ’90s hit “I Kissed A Girl;” local Latin funk group B-Side Players; devoted Bronner acolytes Iron Sage Wood; Rafi El; and the MC5’s Wayne Kramer, whose nonprofit Jail Guitar Doors will receive all of the album’s proceeds. So you see, Dr. Bronner’s record already has two incredible uses—three, if you count using it to kill ants and aphids.
[via Pitchfork]