This Kind of Feeling (MP3)
Slavedriver (MP3)
We're In Control (MP3)
(Line (Germany)) - 1979

All these songs appear on the Bomp CD reissue of "LA Explosion"
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...

This Kind of Feeling (Joe Nolte, Jan 14, 1977)

Listen to me baby I got something on my mind
Shoulda told you long ago, I guess I was too blind
Please come closer-don't tell me it's to late 'cause
Oh-oh – It looks like I'm in love with you

I wanna dance with you and I wanna hold you tight
Every hour of the day, girl, I want you by my side
I'll be true till the day I die so
Oh-oh – Say you love me too

This kind of feeling would always descend
On somebody else
And now it's got me too
I don't know what to do

How can I explain the way
I feel today
Tell me what to say
To make you believe in my hour of need
I'm feeling blue
I can only turn to you

But before you say a word here's something you should know
If you don't feel a thing for me and wanna tell me so
Just walk away and I'll understand 'cause
Oh-oh – I'd rather see you free than sad with me
....

I wanted to write an ersatz Beatle song - in the period spanning late Summer '76 to late Spring '77 I was obsessed with recreating various 60's motifs, little knowing how such a brief obsession would mark me nor the influence it would arguably have - so I thought, if one wants to really sound like someone, one should aspire not to sound like them, but rather to sound like whoever they were trying to sound like. So I imagined myself as a young John or Paul trying to rip off the Everly Brothers, and came up with this. It's not about anyone, as far as I can remember.

—Joe Nolte
...
Slavedriver (Joe Nolte, February 1978)

I got no time for you time
I got no time
I got no time for you, Mr. Slavedriver

You shout out your directions from the back of a coach
You look just like a shriveled, overgrown cockroach
You always act the same
And if you had your way
I'd work the hardest and you'd get the most

A fraction of your loot would pay my yearly wage
You ruin lives as easy as I turn a page
I hate your mocking bray
I hear it every day
I've got about as much compassion for the Bubonic Plague

Go away, Mr. Slavedriver
Don't want no more Slavedriver
...

Basically a tongue in cheek homage to all bosses. I started out pissed off against my current boss, but was unable to keep the song serious, for obvious reasons. There is an obvious "oh shit" just before the instrumental, so it was rather bizarre when KROQ started playing the thing in the fall of '79. Wow, swear words on the radio.

This was evidently a favorite of the early fledgling O.C. punk rock kids, who used to chant it while skateboarding.

—Joe Nolte
...
We're In Control (Vitus Mataré, Spring 1978)

There's a killer in the room and he's looking at you
Hands in his pockets, he's got nothing to do
He'll stare, smile, nod, and walk away
Let the penguin fly some other day (let us pray)

Stay by yourself, it's safer than alone
Don't open the door, never answer the phone
Touch the air, don't follow tracks
See the light when you peer through cracks (we live in shacks)

We're in control, there's nothing you can do
We'll scare the pants off of fools like you
We can't tell the time of day
So we see the world in a different way (such a different way)

It's raining in your bed, it's raining just outside
It's cold in the pit, you've no place to hide
Feel the warmth of your comrades
Shot dead in the head in Stalingrad (that's too bad)

We're in control, it's all over for you
We see nothing wrong with the things we do
We can't even tie our shoes
But we look real neat when we break the news (we make the news)

There's nothing wrong with the things we say
We don't mean a word but that's okay
Break the stone from which you're carved
You'll eat our trash if we keep you starved (we'll keep you starved)

You haven't got a friend, your luck will never end
Thank the almighty for what we send
You don't know if he's one of us
You'll never know so get on the bus (get on the bus)
...

Vitus wrote this – one of his first. As best as I can figure, it really is about the oppressive Brezhnev regime. One of my favorite Vitus melodies ever. His original demo is probably better than the recorded version, but if we put his demo on this site he would almost certainly kill us.

This showed up on Bomp's Waves compilation in April '79, was released as a 12 inch in Germany by Line records, and is now on the Bomp CD reissue of L.A. Explosion.

—Joe Nolte
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