 |
Gin and Innuendoes (SST 323) - May 1996 |
1)
Drywood Town (info • Real
Audio)
2) Sleep (info • Real
Audio)
3) It's Not That Way (info • Real
Audio)
4) Sirens (info • MP3)
5) Don't Make No Sound (info • Real
Audio)
6) Song - Unordinary Substance (info • MP3)
7) Guls
8) 7-21 (info • MP3)
9) You Won't Win (info • MP3)
10) Let There Be Naz
11) Withdrawal (info • MP3)
12) Blessed (info • MP3)
13) The Time is Gone (info • Real
Audio)
14) Look For Me (info • MP3)
15) Slug (info)
16) The Time is Gone (reprise) (info)
...
How terribly sad - the last (no pun intended) of my song histories. Hmmm, clearly, we'd better start making some new albums!
Of course, I've promised to add a making of/marketing of/destruction of set of notes for each album, so...
After that, we'll be delving into ANCIENT past, i.e. early '70's, and possibly even MP3-ing some of that stuff. If I can find any of it.
Anyway, the "Gin" album.
Awakening was our follow-up to SST album #1 Confession. Awakening bombed. Miserably. SST, saints that they are, were nevertheless ready for another Last record.
I wasn't.
The '89 tour had left me somewhat disillusioned, and restless. We did one or two gigs when we got home, and then I took a year off.
Of course, I wasn't idle during 1990 - I put together an outfit with brothers Mike & Dave, and Dave's wife Kristi Callan (were they married then? Can't remember). I saw it as initially an acoustic singing aggregation that might develop into a lovely psychedelic little electric outfit. We practiced a lot, worked out lots of songs.
And played twice.
Ah well, there didn't seem to be much of a buzz for what we were attempting (although if we'd done it a year & a half later, who knows...), and I was looking for something else by the end of the year.
At which point I had new songs suited for The Last, and within a week in December I'd gotten impromptu calls from SST and all the Last members. It was a sign. It was time to get back together, and do the Magnus Opus, the SST album that would finally do -
Well, I don't know what it was supposed to do, but it didn't.
Brother Dave hooked me up with producer extraordinaire Earle Mankey, and we began recording in mid-'91. Realizing that we could have any 2 of "do it fast, cheap, or good", we opted for "cheap" (had no choice) and "good" (somewhat obviously).
"Fast" was therefore thrown out the window, and we continued recording in spurts, subject to Earle's studio schedule and my school schedule.
Which meant that we didn't finish till 1994.
Now, by that time I'd experienced yet another epiphany or two, and we actually ditched a couple of tracks to make room for some brand new ones.
Then Ed Urlik came in on bass after the thing was done, and we ended up getting caught up in a strange renegotiation phase with SST that put the release of the disc on hold from fall '94 till early '96.
"Gin"
came out, and sank without a trace. It's one of my favorite Last albums.
I don't even think it's available, except perhaps at the SST site (see
our links page).
Doesn't matter - even as I began to sink into my withdrawal from the world we recorded, in early '97, the three songs we've had up on this site for a while, and as you know I am now reemerging into the world, and am writing songs as we speak.
Maybe we shoulda gone with Fast and Cheap, and gotten the thing out in early '92...
—Joe Nolte
Are you going to Drywood Town when the
leaves are turning brown? All along the outskirts of the city that
I knew Are you going to Drywood Town when the leaves
are turning brown? This must be the season, it must be the time
of year All along the outskirts you can hear the
lion’s roar Are you going to Drywood Town when the leaves
are turning brown? |
What do you mean, Neil Young influenced? I've never heard the guy!
Ok, it's true. An obvious Neil rip-off. I do like the song, though, and the lyrics clearly owe more than a bit to Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower". I was almost asleep one night when this came to me, and I realized I could simply close my eyes and forget about it. Literally. I knew that if I didn't get up and write the thing down I'd lose it forever.
Obviously, I got up, as the thing exists.
Thematically it's your typical post-apocalypse vision.
—Joe
Nolte
I'll sing you a song but you never can
tell She asked me no questions, she told me no
lies I asked for champagne and she gave me advice
So go to your stranger who softly does creep
|
Another song for K1 (remember Awakening?). This, as you have already observed, was written at the same time as Awakening, but being an electric song had no chance of being included on that album. We also did the 3rd K1 song for "Gin", whose title has changed so many times I can't recall which version I currently use, but scrapped it for "It's Not That Way" and some others. It will return someday.
Anyway, fun little song, inspired by real events (a welcome change of pace), and, as with other songs from this era, I'm not sure myself what some of the words mean. I only know they're true...
—Joe Nolte
What do you do when you find The One? I don't believe I could get like this I didn't mean it to be like this I didn't mean to fall for you I know I should be satisfied to occasionally
hang out by your side I know we're friends but there's something
else There is so much that I could say For I would rather stay your friend - and
just your friend One good thing when you find The One For I will never kiss your lips No one's fault it's not that way |
Totally true story. Never fall in love with a lesbian.
Written for "J", as are 2 others on this disc, and a few more yet to be recorded.
Mostly written in a car while negotiating packed freeways, and finished just in time to play for friends at a rather strange Van Nuys party.
Grim and strange time for me, but ultimately it, more than SST or any previous situations encountered since 1980, was the thing that finally returned me to myself, that conjured Old Joe up out of wherever the hell he'd been hiding.
And he's still here, writing to you now.
—Joe Nolte
In my head, sirens are
screaming out your name again In my head, the wheels are turning backwards,
groaning in my head |
Mike wrote it, I didn't. I'll talk more about this in the "how did we record the song and why" section, but the lyrics are probably self-explanatory, at least until Mike finally contributes his long overdue submissions and enlightens us all.
—Joe Nolte
The few times I was in love, I always used to think that the object of my affection was going to meet with a ghastly end... car crash or something along that line. It still haunts me to this day and I guess writing this song was just my own way of dealing with this psychosis. Everytime I would be waiting for my new love to come over, and I'd hear a siren outside, I'd be absolutely positive that siren was for them... it put a lot of pre-mature gray hairs on my head! Silly!
—Mike Nolte
Now is the time to prepare your feast I am a martyr - I am Everyman Don't make no sound Now is the time to review your lore How many poets do they gas this time Don't make no sound Now is the hour you were waiting for I am a butcher - I am Everyman Don't make no sound |
As you may have discerned from the date, this is indeed a Gulf War song. Thanks to recent events, it's as topical as ever. Based on T.S. Eliot's The Second Coming.
What strange beast now shambles off to Bethlehem to be born?
—Joe Nolte
Listening to a song Now in the silent air At a movie I see ... Tie up that boy, you see he's You said you loved him, but you There's nothing to subdue, you You said you loved him, but you Unordinary substance He don't need no team |
Song
Had a friend named Larry Matthews, who wrote the lyrics. I still need to track him down, if he's still alive. He could then get his share of the royalties - oh wait, there aren't any!
He basically had lyrics sitting around, and I whipped up some appropriate music, and thus one of the few songs I wrote in '75 was born.
Unordinary Substance
I was getting ready, that summer, to do a 4 track demo of the aforementioned "Song," when I chanced on some Mike lyrics. Inspired, I came up with the music for "Substance" in about five minutes. Rather than worry about recording two demos, I simply put them together for expediency's sake.
It worked well enough to leave them joined together for the next 16 years, at which point we finally recorded them, pretty much in the style we would've at the time, with the exception of the ebow I play, which did not exist in 1977.
Thematically a look at Mike's Mental Hospital years.
—Joe Nolte
I wrote the lyrics, Joe wrote the music. I remember when I wrote the lyrics, I showed them to some co-worker's boyfriend who was a musician himself. He slammed the entire song from beginning to end... actually making notes next to each line on how it could be drastically improved.
Thank God I never changed them and gave them to Joe instead. He wrote a wonderful melody to it and it remains my all-time favorite! I only regret we never perform it live. it's one of those songs that was meant to be "performed"!
As far as what inspired me to write the song, MENTAL INSTITUTION!
Need I say more?
—Mike Nolte
There are no words that could describe
The day we met, do you recall And then that night I opened up my eyes Where have you been? When I did dwell |
Another J song thrown in at the last minute - 7/21 being her birthday. This was the first song I wrote for her.
—Joe Nolte
One o'clock two o'clock where have you
been I used to think you were different with me
And if you get the call to let me in In a year or two when I've had time to think
So one o'clock two o'clock where did you
go |
Larry submitted this to us back in '87 when he joined, but though I liked the song I thought his lyrics ("just call me up I'll be right there") were a little too obvious and happy. Still, I wanted to do it at some point.
Finally, as we were about to get together to rehearse songs for "Gin", I came upon the grim, country-goes-to-hell in a trailer lyrics that we ended up using.
Not about a specific girl, but I dearly hope every girl who broke my heart assumes it's about her...
—Joe Nolte
I open the window and close my eyes I look to the day, the day just before I used to dance and I used to sing For I wake in the morning, I see no sun Yes and why do the walls just stare back
at me I look to the left, the right, and I stay
I close the window, I tear out my eyes |
The 3rd J song. It was a Saturday morning, and I realized that I needed to either write a song or kill myself. I chose the former, as self evidenced by the fact that:
A.
it exists.
B. I'm still here.
Grim and true, true and grim. Don't go there.
—Joe Nolte
Lord preserve us, Lord don't let 'em hurt
us Lord contain us, Lord don't judge our failure
|
Lord preserve us. The Irish in Mike gone mad. He'll have to tell you more about it. He did a lovely job with this, the backing vocals are all his, made up on the spot, in fact, and I'll elaborate on this in the "making of" section.
—Joe Nolte
I wrote this song as my way of railing against people who get in the way of people who are generally sincere about finding their purpose in life and getting shit for their searching from these so-called "born again" religious fanatics.
You see, I knew from the age of five that God wasn't looking for converts who congregated in churches every Sunday... I knew He saw through that whole game that was being played. I knew He wasn't a big fan of organized religion and I knew He was looking for the simple man/woman who just tried to do what was right and not make any airs about it. Hence the lyrics "we always try to do our best with what You've given us... we're blessed".
I wrote the arrangements Brian Wilson style and sang it Neil Young style.
Interesting combination, huh?
—Mike Nolte
The time is gone, the time is gone They're weighing baggage at the door When every thing is said and done Some people need the hammer sound The time is gone, the time is gone Watch as everybody runs |
"Time" was written for the Joe-Mike-Dave-Kristi aggregation, and was created as a tongue in cheek look at aging. I was not getting any younger, and decided to mock the few pangs of mortality I'd begun feeling.
So, lyrically just a joke song, mostly, but musically I liked it, and wrote it with the vocal interplay in mind that we were somehow able to pull off. And, as you know, Joe Mike Dave & Kristi did indeed do the vocals for it.
—Joe Nolte
You were alone and in the rain Your friends and mine are laying odds You were so scared that I would say it Do you believe the things they told you?
And now I'm blind and I can't see |
The latest of the H songs to be recorded. You remember H - Confession would never have existed without her!
Anyway, she did indeed have a car that would tend to Not Start.
Not much to say, the story's true, and self explanatory. I liked the idea, musically, of mixing Power Pop and Woodstock motifs. Flipside had someone review "Gin" when it came out, and he didn't like it. He did, however, understand what I was trying to do. I'd found my love for the '68-'71 rock era rekindled, and was moving toward attempting some kind of unholy synthesis. The reviewer remarked that "Gin" as an album sounded like what would have happened if the hippie era had evolved gradually and naturally into the punk thing, rather than the violent revolution that ensued instead. He went on to say that such a fusion wasn't his bag. Fair enough. He's still the only one who figured it out.
I do hope Flipside returns...
Anyway, this song is probably the definitive example of all that. It's equal parts vintage Who and Dead.
Sick, ain't I?
—Joe Nolte
Well, Luke spontaneously came up with this mutation of the "Sleep" riff, and we ended up jamming on it for way too long. Its subsequent inclusion was, of course, a given.
Great riff, Luke.
—Joe Nolte
What do you do when you find the one I had a dream and I had none The time is gone, the time is gone Time |
Yeah, so "Time" was, lyrically lightweight. Initially, anyway.
When we did the initial backing tracks in '91, we did this little reprise as well. I knew I wanted it for musical reasons, but hadn't a clue as to what lyrics I'd use.
So - back to J. I was about to go record overdubs at Earle Mankey's, when I learned that she (J) had just been diagnosed with an incurable, deadly illness.
Hoo boy - I wrote the lyrics in 10 minutes, recorded them within the hour. The reprise to the joke song had become all too real, and every word is heart felt. And was recorded that very day.
I won't recover from that, nor should I. Some things happen that simply change you. You can't quite get over them, or bury them. They simply change you. It's life.
All this would have been my ultimate traumatic life experience if the "Take Care of Her" scenario hadn't happened a year later.
And you wonder why I stayed a hermit for so long...
Final album done now. More magic to come, and if you don't come to us, we'll get to you.
Somehow...
Especially D.C.
—Joe Nolte