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1) No Love (info • MP3)
2) Assembly Line (info • MP3)
3) You (info • Real Audio)
4) Somebody New (info • Real Audio)
5) Garden Grow (info • Real Audio)
6) Your Wings (info • MP3)
7) Book of Life (info • MP3)
8) Dreaming (info • MP3)
9) Tired (info • MP3)
10) Awakening (info • MP3)
11) She Loves You (info • MP3)
12) Baby Its You (info • Real Audio)

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During the tumultuous 2 week recording sessions for Confession, Bill Stevenson kept rhapsodizing on how cool it would be to really have the time to do it right, to double vocals all over the place and produce a Last masterpiece.

We decided that the follow-up album would be just that.

Awakening was recorded in two brief spurts - first in the fall of '88, after which All had to go tour, and then in Spring of '89. We spent our time, did lots of doubled vocals as Bill had wanted, and in the process lost all sense of accounting for studio time. SST thought we (Bill) had it under control, and Bill and I each assumed the other was keeping track.

The result was that we ended up inadvertently creating the most expensive album SST ever put out. It sold less than Confession, and is largely responsible for the severe label cutbacks that destroyed our 1989 tour.

It's also, arguably, not as good as what we'd been able to pull off in two weeks with Confession a year before.

There's a lesson in there, somewhere.

I was, however, able to get Vitus Mataré and David Nolte back to lay down some tracks. It improved the album, was fun to do, and effectively gave the lie to any complaints that this lineup of The Last was less than authentic.

—Joe Nolte

I'd just gotten back into songwriting in '84 & '85, brothers Mike & Dave had returned (too late) to save the band, and this thing came out of that era. Musically, it's an obvious Doors homage. Lyrically, it is officially about nothing - I was happily married at the time, and hence had to confine myself to writing "made up" songs. In retrospect, it may have been a bit of prescience, since said marriage did indeed end nine years later (though the ex & I remain friends). Not sure...

—Joe Nolte

Yet another Work song. My reasons for returning again and again to this theme are, I assume, obvious. I have been (and continue to be) stuck in the 9-5 rut for most of my life, slaving away for a buck or two and sacrificing valuable time which would be far better used writing songs, or at least sleeping in.

You write what you feel (ideally), so - another stupid diatribe against the millstone workaday torture that almost all of us endure.

Interesting post release note: some time later (probably early '92) I got a phone message from someone who said he was with SubPop. He left a number, mentioning a possibly financially beneficial proposition, and ended by singing "Assembly Line".

Unfortunately, the number was bogus, and a call to SubPop revealed no such person.

I wonder to this day who the hell it was, and if this was missed opportunity #876...

—Joe Nolte

Another song for H. The chorus came out of the same '85 song whose verses ended up in "Going Gone". The verses were musically concocted immediately after the 1987 Mardi Gras party that made me realize I needed to become a musician again.

Lyrically, the song had to wait till I discovered H, which was four or five months down the road at that point.

The bulk of the lyrics had been written by mid-88 - this was the final H song, the grim realization that it was all for naught and that only shadows lay ahead for each of us. We had indeed already done the backing tracks in fall '88, but the lyrics were still not quite there.
Then I went up to Arrowhead with some friends, and something about the climate triggered something, and I woke up one morning and feverishly wrote the lyrics that ended up in the song. I like them.

Now outside night is falling, see them dancing in the rain,
They dream the only dream that's left - to die before they go insane -
It's all pre-ordained - and they call to You...

Yeah, I like them a lot.

—Joe Nolte

A Mike song. As soon as I heard his demo I wished Vitus were still with us, as I immediately heard flutes.

Well, we were able to get Vitus to come in and do that flute thing. I'd written a part, he came in, read it, and just did it (improvising a bit, of course).

So, Mike, care to elaborate?

—Joe Nolte

This was also written on accordion. I was living with a couple of girls in Playa Del Rey at the time. The song was written about falling in love and all the usual horrors that come in the same package. And not being able to express it for fear of rejection. And knowing the whole time my object of affection wasn't in love with me, not in the slightest. And knowing the whole time I wouldn't be able to handle it, hence the words "you'll never be ready to face the lonely nights awaiting you..."

I asked Vitus to play flute on it and was floored with the outcome (thank you Vitus!)... Joe wrote his parts out for him (thank you Joe!) and I think it made the song! This will always be one of my favorites that I wrote (my favorite Last songs being Joe's songs, of course).

—Mike Nolte

Another H song. (I wonder if she's online? I wonder if she ever heard this album? I wonder if she's even alive...)

Having been spurned for the millionth time, I asked her "What the hell do I have to do?" (I should point out that this was entirely a psychodrama, as nothing actual ever resulted - as much as anything, I believe, this little scenario was an attempt to revive some genuine feeling, some fleeting residual reincarnation of the Old Joe. By '95 Old Joe had returned with a vengeance, is writing these words now, and is about to emerge from self-inflicted retirement.)

She answered, "I dunno, maybe if you wrote another song..."

Hence this one.

It started as a ballad, and one of the only songs to originate on piano rather than guitar.
And yes, that's me playing piano on the record - "Leo", as well as being my father's name, is my real first name.

And if you think the crazy lead guitar in the final verse is in any way an homage to "Volunteers" era Jefferson Airplane, you would be absolutely right.

—Joe Nolte

A Mike song again. I trust he will tell us what it means at some point.

We had a lot of fun recording this, though during said recording we were having a discussion on a matter of tuning, and at one point the hired engineer we were using turned to me and asked "Do you have perfect pitch?"

Now, I can get pretty damn close to a D above middle C without thinking about it, and I'd indeed started to answer him seriously when I finally realized he'd only asked that to make a disparaging point.

He quickly became our ex-engineer.

I wonder if Bill Stevenson blames me for the subsequent cost overruns...

Anyway, lots of fun, and the instrumental bit I contributed is indeed an homage to "Carry On" by Badfinger.

—Joe Nolte

This was written from what I perceived to be my brother Joe's point of view of me and how I was "wasting my life away" (I never told him this). This was what I thought I would say to me if I was him... "I got one thing to say to you... you're a fool".

My answer to Joe's classic song "The Other Side" (which he wrote from what he believed to be me and my brother Dave's perspective about him... "For years you've been running my life as if I were a slave controlled by your word").

Your Wings never turned out to be one of my favorites, though and it was always hell on our substitute drummer, Tim Edmunson... we played it live every night on our 4 week tour of the USA! (his dislike at playing this song live might have had something to do with the fact that my keyboard started out the rhythm of the song, and Tim had to come in and match the beat I set up... and you know me... always chugging down a six pack before we go on... not very conducive to keeping time rhythmically).

This song was also composed on the accordion!

—Mike Nolte

How did Mike get so many songs on this album?

This was his attempt to write a fast song - he's been plagued throughout his life by a keen knack for ballads, and a decided inability to write uptempo numbers.

Not one of my all time favorite Mike songs, but a whole lot of people cite this as one of the best songs on the album.

So what do I know...

Feel free to elaborate, Mike!

—Joe Nolte

Also written on accordion, this song is really just about being frustrated with life in general... it was my way of dealing with the horrors of living in an empty materialistic world filled with empty materialistic idiots! Hah! A fun song to record!

—Mike Nolte

Same time period as "No Love", and indeed this and "No Love" were performed by the Nolte Brothers, which is what we called The Last in early fall '85 after Vitus had bailed and Hunter had stopped returning my calls. Someday David will forgive me for making him sing...

Although yet another "fake" song, the material here is non-specific enough to lend itself to such an approach, and it sorta worked.

Musically I was fairly pleased with this one.

I know, I'm not giving a lot of fresh insight on this - but what do you expect? As late as 1985, I was still writing fake songs, songs manipulated into existence, songs not impelled by some personal emotional crisis.

There's simply not that much to say about a song such as this.

—Joe Nolte

Yet another song for H. This was written at the same time I concocted "Going Gone" and "Dancing". This was the angry, Joe-pretends-to-give-up-but-is-obviously-just-trying-to-get-a-reaction song.'

I was listening to a lot of Motorhead at the time.

—Joe Nolte

Ah yeah - this turned out pretty good. As you can see by the date, I basically recorded this right after it was written. All them weird electric guitars were created and played by brother David. That sliding descending note thing is him actually detuning his guitar!

I always put this first on tapes I give to people who've never heard our music.

This was written for K1. It worked.

—Joe Nolte

Well, the idea of covering this seemed good at the time. We'd done killer versions at various practices, but it didn't quite come together for this recording. Still my favorite Beatle song, and by extension one of my favorite all time songs.

Had to try - and in truth a recent re-listen convinces me it's not quite as bad as I'd believed.
Still, this was crammed in to a last minute chaotic flurry of activity wherein we were struggling to finish the album before the upcoming All tour, and - well, it could have been a lot better. Oh well.

—Joe Nolte

Same holds true for this one (if you're reading this description as part of the SST Acoustic comp, refer to "She Loves You" on the Awakening album - otherwise you have no idea what I'm talking about).

A good idea, results again far less than they could have been.

Again, oh well - it's ancient history.

Great song, anyway. Don't say nothin' bad about my Bacharach.

—Joe Nolte