Welcome back to our little musical trip through time we like to call Rock and Roll History, where we are currently focusing on the middle of the 90's! Now we begin with a new year:

1996!!!!

Oh, it was a year full of Crap-tacular Comebacks!!! Raucous Reunions!!! And one very brutal breakup.

For now, in response to the question we posed at the end of 1995, a business partner of a very famous band said that he would kill himself if the group he worked with ever "cut their hair". And the band in question is--

Read On: ;)

Yes, it was true. An event sent shock waves all through the music world: Metallica was the band that had actually CUT THEIR HAIR on the eve of the release of their latest album! :eek2: And unbelieveably, it was also announced that the band was going to headline Lollapalooza!! The biggest alternative music festival was going to be headlined by the world's biggest metal band?? Was this a sign of the Apocalypse??

It was in fact a sign that Metallica were changing with the times. Long hair was not the norm so much any more, and the band felt that had to remain one step of the rest of the metal world (what little was left of it, in the minds of many) to remain credible. The band was no longer the same four dudes clad in frayed jeans and skull shirts, they were now grown up, and very rich. But they didn't want to appear that they had "sold out", as hard as it was for some to accept. The new album, Load, featured the band continuing on in the same vein as the "Black Album", with a few differences. For one, the Metallica logo was revamped to trim down on the trademark "wings" of the beginning letter M and ending letter A. But what was in fact that messy album cover all about? To the dismay of bassist Jason Newsted, the cover was a photo by controversial artist Andres Serrano, who had caused an uproar over a photo of a plastic Jesus figure immersed in a jar of urine. The cover was a microscope test slide of blood and other human bodily fluids that made the cover theme seem scatalogical. Newsted expressed his disgust for the cover, but as the "new kid" after almost ten years, he was outvoted in the decisions regarding the cover art. Apparently, Newsted was not being taken seriously by the rest of the band, he was still considered a "hired gun".

The songs were still very much a step away from traditional metal, in fact, it sounded more like a heavier version of classic rock--which was surprising that such output could still find an audience in the 90's.

The first hit from the album featured one of the band's favorite sounds, the "Spaghetti Western" clean guitar tone twang that was heard on "The Unforgiven". The lyrics dealt with the pain of James Hetfield losing his father to death through illness, much in the same way he lost his mother years before:

Until It Sleeps

Where do I take this pain of mine
I run but it stays right by my side

So tear me open and pour me out
There's things inside that scream and shout
And the pain still hates me
So hold me until it sleeps

Just like the curse, just like the stray
You feed it once and now it stays
Now it stays

So tear me open but beware
There's things inside without a care
And the dirt still stains me
So wash me until I'm clean

It grips you so hold me
It stains you so hold me
It hates you so hold me
It holds you so hold me
Until it sleeps

So tell me why you've chosen me
Don't want your grip
Don't want your greed
Don't want it

I'll tear me open make you gone
No more can you hurt anyone
And the fear still shakes me
So hold me, until it sleeps

It grips you so hold me
It stains you so hold me
It hates you so hold me
It holds you, holds you, holds you until it sleeps (x4)

I Don't want it want it want it want it want it
No

So tear me open but beware
There's things inside without a care
And the dirt still stains me
So wash me 'til I'm clean

I'll tear thee open make you gone
No longer will you hurt anyone
And the hate still shapes me
So hold me until it sleeps (x5)

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Load, while continuing in the same non-thrash mode as the self-titled Metallica album had, was quite different from anything they ever did. The customary heaviness was there, but they still pretty much sounded like a "commercial" heavy rock band and not necessarily "metal". In fact, it was still one of the metal-est albums out there. Fans criticized the band's direction, but Lars Ulrich pointed out that they were not going to match the success of the "black album", every album was going to be considered a "post-black album". They had to do what they felt led to do now. And coming up with a new Ride the Puppets was simply out of the question.

This next song is one of the best on the album:

Hero of the Day

Mama they try and break me

The window burns to light the way back home
A light that warms no matter where they've gone

They're off to find the hero of the day
But what if they should fall by someone's wicked way

Still the window burns
Time so slowly turns
And someone there is sighing
Keepers of the flames
Do you hear your names?
Did you hear your baby's crying?
Mama they try and break me
Still they try and break me

S'cuse me while I tend to how I feel
These things return to me that still seem real

Now deservingly this easy chair
But the rocking stopped by wheels of despair

Don't want your aid
But the fist I've made
For years, can't hold or feel
No I'm not all me
So please excuse me
While I tend to how I feel

But now the dreams and waking screams
That everlast the night
So build a wall
Behind it crawl
And hide until it's light
So can you hear your baby's crying now?

Still the window burns
Time so slowly turns
And someone there is sighing
Keepers of the flames
Can't you hear your names?
Did you hear your baby's crying?

But now the dreams and waking screams
That everlast the night
So build a wall
Behind it crawl
And hide until it's light
So can't hear your baby's crying now?

Mama they try and break me
Mama they try and break me
Mama they try and break me
Mama they try
Mama they try
Mama they try and break me
Mama they try and break me
Mama they try and break me
Mama they try
Mama they try

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

When Metallica's "Black Album" was released in the fall of 1991, it was at the tail end of the 80's metal reign on the pop charts. The Black Album not only held its own for the next year, but became the standard by which any and all significant metal albums of the 90's (which were few) were measured. The L.A. pop metal scene was pretty much wiped off the map, but aggro-metal with a social conscience still had a sizeable audience.

When it was announced that Metallica was returning from the long alternative winter, fans were ecstatic. Metallica was the last, if not only, reputable metal band out there (for those not familiar with Pantera). Newer fans were expecting an improvement on the Black Album (how do you improve on perfection?), while older fans were holding out hope that the band was returning to their 80's thrash roots. Wrong on both counts. The new album, produced again by Bob Rock, was a very good solid disk, to be sure, but not the revelation that its predecessor was.

Here is one of the heaviest songs on the album, along the lines of the black album's "Sad But True". The bass is very monstrous.

King Nothing

Wish I may
Wish I might
Have this I wish tonight
Are you satisfied?
Dig for gold
Dig for fame
You dig to make your name
Are you pacified?

All the wants you waste
All the things you've chased

Then it all crashes down
And you break your crown
And you point your finger
But there's no one around

Just want one thing
Just to play the king
But the castle's crumbled
And you're left with just a name

Where's your crown King Nothing?
Where's your crown?

Hot and cold
Bought and sold
A heart as hard as gold
Yeah! Are you satisfied?

Wish I might
Wish I may
You wish your life away
Are you pacified?

All the wants you waste
All the things you've chased

Then it all crashes down
And you break your crown
And you point your finger
But there's no one around

Just want one thing
Just to play the king
But the castle's crumbled
And you're left with just a name

Where's your crown King Nothing?
Where's your crown?

Huh!

(Spoken)
I wish I may
I wish I might
Have this wish I wish tonight
I want that star
I want it now
I want it all and I don't care how

Careful what you wish
Careful what you say
Careful what you wish
You may regret it
Careful what you wish
You just might get it

Then it all crashes down
And you break your crown
And you point your finger
But there's no one around

Just want one thing
Just to play the king
But the castle's crumbled
And you're left with just a name

Where's your crown King Nothing?
No Nothing

No you're just nothing
Where's your crown King Nothing?
No you're just nothing
Absolutely nothing

Off to never never land

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

By the time Metallica returned to the fold in the spring of 1996, the alternative scene was waning in its impact, alternative had succeeded in becoming the new mainstream, and there were few big bands since Kurt Cobain's death. Metallica's upcoming release was a very big deal to metal fans--though the announcement that they were headlining Lollapalooza was seen as the festival's final capitulation into "corporate rock", it was no longer the showcase for new, exciting alternative acts. While some insideres claimed that "after all, Metallica is the biggest alternative band" (due to their being the polar opposite to corporate Hollywood hair bands such as Motley Crue and Ratt), many had a hard time accepting Hetfield and Co. as being on the level of bands such as Jane's Addiction, Pearl Jam, or R.E.M. Was Metallica now Alternapaloozika? And oddly enough, Metallica was now even being played on....alternative radio?? :confused:

Ain't My Bitch

Outta my way
Outta my day
Outta your mind and into mine
Into no one
Into not one
Into your step but outta time

Head strong
What's wrong?
I've already heard this song before
you've arrived
But now it's time
To kiss your ass good-bye

Dragging me down
Why you around?
So useless

It ain't my fall
It ain't my call
It ain't my bitch-a

It ain't my bitch

Down on the sun
Down and no fun
Down and out where the hell ya been?
Damn it all down
Damn it unbound
Damn it all down ta hell again

Stand tall
Can't fall
Never even bend at all before
you've arrived
But now it's time
To kiss your ass good-bye

Dragging me down
Why you around?
So useless

It ain't my fall
It ain't my call
It ain't my bitch

Oh, outta my way

Outta my way
Outta my day
Outta of your mind and into mine
Into no one
Into not one
Into your step but outta of time

Head strong
What's wrong?
I've already heard this song before
you've arrived
But now it's time
To kiss your ass good-bye
And now it's time to kiss your ass good-bye (time to kiss ass)

Dragging me down
Why you around?
So useless

It ain't my fall
It ain't my call
It ain't my bitch

No way but down
Why you around?
No foolin'

It ain't my smile
It ain't my style
It ain't my bitch
No, it ain't mine

Ain't mine
Your kind
Your stepin' outta time
Ain't mine
Your kind
Your stepin' outta time

Dragging me down
Why you around?
No foolin'

It ain't my fall
It ain't my call
It ain't my, oh, bitch
you ain't mine

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

This next song is haunting, yet eerily beautiful. It is another one of the best songs on the album:

Bleeding Me

I'm diggin' my way
I'm diggin' my way to somethin'
I'm diggin' my way to somethin' better

I'm pushin' to stay
I'm pushin' to stay with something
I'm pushin' to stay with something better

I'm sowing the seeds
I'm sowing the seeds I've taken
I'm sowing the seeds I take for granted

This thorn in my side
This thorn in my side is from the tree
This thorn in my side is from the tree I've planted
It tears me and I bleed
And I bleed

Caught under wheels roll
I take the leash
I'm bleeding me
Can't stop to save my soul
I take the leash that's leading me
I'm bleeding me
I can't take it
Caught under wheels roll
Oh, the bleeding of me
Of me
The bleeding of me

Caught under wheels roll
I take the leach
I'm bleeding me
Can't stop to save my soul
I take the leash that's leading me
I'm bleeding me
I can't take it
Caught under wheels roll
Oh, the bleeding of me
Oh, the bleeding of me

I am the beast that bleeds the feast
I am the blood
I am release
Come make me pure
Bleed me a cure
I'm caught, I'm caught, I'm caught under

Caught under wheels roll
I take the leach
I'm bleeding me
Can't stop to save my soul
I take the leash that's leading me
I'm bleeding me
I can't take it
I can't take it
I can't take it
Oh, the bleeding of me

I'm diggin' my way
I'm diggin' my way to somethin'
I'm diggin' my way to something better

I'm pushin' to stay
I'm pushin' to stay with somethin'
I'm pushin' to stay with something better
With something better

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Kirk live with the ESP custom guitar featuring "spider" graphics:

Wasting My Hate

Good day, how do
And I send a smile to you
Don't waste, waste your breath
And I won't waste my hate on you

Ain't gonna waste my hate
Ain't gonna waste my hate on you
I think I'll keep it for myself

Ain't gonna give no more
Ain't got the time to help you score
I think it's time you pleased yourself
Yourself

Good day how do
And I send a smile to you

Don't waste
Waste your breath
And I won't waste my hate on you
Waste my hate on you

Think you're worthy now
Think enough to even raise the brow
And to laugh and tip that two pronged crown

I see my hands I see my feet
I feel that blood that pumps in me
Where the hell's my mind goin' now
Goin' now

Good day how do
And I send a smile to you

Don't waste
Waste your breath
And I won't waste my hate on you
Waste my hate on you
Think I'll keep it for myself

Ain't gonna waste my hate
But I'm so greedy when they say
Better to give than to recieve

Ain't gonna waste my hate
Ain't got time to waste my hate on you
I think I'll keep it all for myself
For myself

Good day how do
and I send a smile to you

Don't waste
Waste your breath
And I won't waste my hate on you
Waste my hate on you

Think I'll keep it for myself
Yeah

Hate

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

James:

This song was something new by Metallica: a bluesy shuffle with crushing guitars:

2x4

Yeah
I'm gonna make you, shake you, take you
I'm gonna be the one who breaks you
Put the screws into ya, yeah my way
Yeah, come on, come on, come and make my day
Make my day

Yeah
Got some hell to pay ya, I steal your thunder
The joy of violent movement, pulls you under
Ooh bite the bullet, well hard
Yea, but I bite harder, so go too far
Too far

Friction, fusion, retribution
I can't hear ya... talk ta me
I can't hear ya... so talk ta me
I can't hear ya are you talkin' ta me
I can't hear ya are you talkin' ta me
I can't hear ya time ta meet my lord
I can't hear ya talk ta 2 by 4

I'm gonna make you, shake you, take you
I'm gonna be that one who breaks you
Put the screws into ya, my way
Hey come on, come on, come and make my day
Make my day

Friction, fusion, retribution
I can't hear ya... talk ta me
I can't hear ya... come talk ta me
I can't hear ya are you talking ta me
I can't hear ya while your talking ta me
I can't hear ya time ta meet my lord
I can't hear ya talk ta 2 by 4

Talk ta 2 by 4
It don't take no more
Come on yeah

Come on, come on
Talk ta 2 by 4
Talk ta 2 by 4

Friction, fusion, retribution
I'm going to make you... talk ta me
I'm going to take you... so talk ta me
I can't hear ya are you talking ta me
I can't hear ya you talking ta me
I can't hear ya time ta meet my lord
I can't hear ya talk ta, talk ta 2 by 4

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock: :banana: :mango

Jason live:

Interestingly enough, Lars Ulrich switched from playing double-bass drums, a Metallica staple for years, to playing a single-bass, because, he said, he "didn't want to end up sounding 80's." :rolleyes:

Poor Twisted Me

Oh poor twisted me
Oh poor twisted me
I feast on sympathy
I chew on suffer
I chew on agony

Swallow whole the pain
Oh it's too good to be
All this misery

Is just for oh poor twisted me
Poor twisted me

Poor mistreated me
Poor mistreated me
I drown without a sea
Lungs fill with sorrow
Lungs fill with misery

Inhaling the deep dark blue
Oh woe is me
Such a burden to be
Poor mistreated me

To finally reach the shore
Survive the storm
Now you're bare and cold
The sea was warm
So warm
Your bathe your soul again
Bathe it again, and again, and again

To finally reach the shore
Survive the storm
Now you're bare and cold
The sea was warm
So warm, you bathe your soul again

Good to see my friend
Oh woe is me
Such a burden to be
Oh poor twisted me
Oh poor twisted me
Poor twisted me


Lars:

It was very strange for many to see the new Metallica. Many fans had a hard time accepting the fact that they were no longer the Metallidudes with skateboards and the whole Metal-Up-Your-Ass attitude from over twenty years ago. They had grown, matured, lived in very cosy mansions in the Bay Area. Lars had gotten into such refined activities as painting and collecting art. He was also dubbed "Stars Ulrich" because of his new "uppercrust" lifestyle. Kirk Hammett lived in a spacious home lined with classic horror movie posters all over the walls. Why was success, which they fought for so many years for, in spite of the naysayers, so hard for many fans (or ex-fans) to accept?

The House That Jack Built

Open doors so I walk inside
Close my eyes
Find my place to hide
And I shake as I take it in
Let the show begin

Open my eyes
Just to have them close again
Well on my way
But on my way to where I've been

It swallows me
As it takes me in its void
I twist away
As I give this world a nod

Open doors so I walk inside
Close my eyes
Find my place to hide
And I shake as I take it in

Let the show begin

Open my eyes
Just to have them close once again
Don't want control
As it takes me down and down and down again

Is that the moon
Or just a light that lights this dead end street?
Is that you there
Or just another demon that I meet?

The higher you are
The farther you fall
The longer the walk
The farther you crawl
My body my temple
This temple it tells
"Step into the house that Jack built"

The higher you are
The farther you fall
The longer the walk
The farther you crawl
My body my temple
This temple it tells
"Step into the house that Jack built"


Open doors as I walk inside
Swallow me so the pain subsides
And I shake as I take this in
Let the show begin

The higher you are
The farther you fall
The longer the walk
The farther you crawl
My body my temple
This temple it tells
"Step into the house that Jack built"


The higher you are
The farther you fall
The longer the walk
The farther you crawl
My body my temple
This temple it tells
"Yes I am I am I am"

Open my eyes
It swallows me
Is that you there
I twist away

Away
Away
Away

Mama Said

Mama, she has taught me well
Told me when I was young
Son, your life's an open book
Don't close it 'fore its done
The brightest flame burns quickest
Is what I heard her say
A son's heart sewed to mother
But I must find my way

Let my heart go
Let your son grow
Mama, let my heart go
Or let this heart be still

Rebel my new last name
Wild blood in my veins
Apron strings around my neck
The mark that still remains
Left home at an early age
Of what I heard was wrong
I never asked forgiveness
But what is said is done

Let my heart go
Let your son grow
Mama, let my heart go
Or let this heart be still

Never I ask of you
But never I give
But you give me your emptiness
I now take to my grave
Never I ask of you
But never I give
But you give me your emptiness
I now take to my grave
So let this heart be still

Mama, now I'm coming home
I'm not all you wished of me
A mother's love for her son
Unspoken, help me be
*Yeah*, I took your love for granted
And all the things you said to me
I need your arms to welcome me
But, a cold stone's all I see

Let my heart go
Let your son grow
Mama, let my heart go
Or let this heart be still

Let my heart go
Mama, let my heart go
You never let my heart go
So let this heart be still

Never I ask of you
But never I give
But you give me your emptiness
I now take to my grave

Never I ask of you
But never I give
But you give me your emptiness
I now take to my grave
So let this heart be still


Lars asks for fan input regarding his *new* undergarments onstage: ;) :lol:

In April 1996, the Beatles released the second of three retrospective albums of previously unreleased recordings, Anthology 2.

http://www.audiobasics.com/acatalog/Product_TheBeatles_Anthology2.jpg

The second double album (triple on vinyl) included outtakes from the Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour sessions, plus several live cuts, TV performances, a home demo, and a new song, "Real Love."

Written and recorded in demo form by John Lennon in 1979 - before the Doobie Brothers and Jody Watley ever conceived songs of the same name - the Beatles overdubbed their instruments and harmonies in 1995. First debuted on U.S. television with a music video in November 1995, it was released the following April.

Unlike "Free As A Bird," an uncompleted Lennon song the other three Beatles finished writing, "Real Love" was a finished song that was overdubbed and remixed to produce the final product. :)

Real Love - the Beatles

(Lennon)

All my little plans and schemes,
Lost like some forgotten dream.
Seems like all I really was doing
Was waiting for you.

Just like little girls and boys,
Playing with their little toys.
Seems that all we really were doing
Was waiting for love.

No need to be alone,
No need to be alone.
It's real love,
It's real.

From this moment on I know
Exactly where my life will go.
Seems that all I really was doing
Was waiting for love.

No need to be afraid,
No need to be afraid.
It's real love,
It's real.
Yes it's real love,
It's real.

Thought I'd been in love before,
But in my heart I wanted more.
Seems like all I really was doing
Was waiting for you.

No need to be alone,
No need to be alone.
It's real love,
It's real.
Yes it's real love,
Yes it's real. . . .

(REPEAT UNTIL FADE)

The Beatles's Anthology 2 included three unreleased compositions, a Booker T. and the M.G.'s-style instrumental called "12-Bar Original" (from the Rubber Soul sessions) and two songs from the Help! sessions.

One such song, "If You've Got Trouble," was given to Ringo to sing. A sloppily written song, "If You've Got Trouble" was a mean-spirited tune belittling a woman who complains about her troubles and insisting that the man's trouble's are far, far worse. Underlying the song is the idea that a woman's problems don't matter, so why bother with any of that? Ironically, the Beatles recorded it at the same time Ringo got married! :eek:

After one take, "If You've Got Trouble" was abandoned and forgotten for another three decades. "Some of those songs," Paul McCartney admitted, "we just couldn't get behind!" :lol:

If You've Got Trouble - the Beatles

(Lennon / McCartney)

If you've got trouble,
Then you've got less trouble than me.
You say you're worried,
You can't be as worried as me.
You're quite content to be bad
With all the advantage you've had over me.
Just 'cause you're troubled,
Then don't bring your troubles to me.

I don't think it's funny
When you ask for money fo things,
Especially when you're standing there
Wearing diamonds and rings.
You think I'm soft in the head
Well, try someone softer instead, pretty thing,
It's not so funny
When you know what money can bring.

(BRIDGE)
You better leave me alone,
I don't need a thing from you.
You better get yourself home,
Go and count a ring or two.

(REPEAT FIRST VERSE)

Ahh, rock on, anybody!

(REPEAT BRIDGE)

(REPRET FIRST VERSE)

Just 'cause you're troubled,
Then don't bring your troubles to me.
Just 'cause you're troubled,
Then don't bring your troubles to me.

http://www.olyringo.com/beatles/images/maureen.jpg

(Ringo with his new wife, Maureen Cox, in early 1965.)

The other outtake song from the Help! sessions was a complex ballad called "That Means A Lot." A far better song than "If You've Got Trouble," "That Means A Lot" was repeatedly recorded throughout the sessions for the Help! LP by the Beatles, who labored intensely to get it right. But the Fabs weren't satisfied with it, and so they decided to give it to someone whom they felt could do a better job with it.

That someone was P.J. Proby, an American singer living in London who was known for his unorthodox pop singing style. Although getting an original Lennon/McCartney song in 1965 was like getting manna from heaven, Proby's recording of "That Means A Lot" was not a big hit.

Yet another song Michael Jackson didn't know he owned when he bought the Lennon-McCartney song catalog. ohno:

That Means A Lot - the Beatles

(Lennon / McCartney)

A friend says that your love won't mean a lot,
And you know that your love is all you've got.
At times they go so fine,
And at times they're not.
But when she says she loves you,
That means a lot.

A friend says that a love is never true,
And you know that this could apply to you.
A touch can mean so much,
When it's all you've got.
But when she says she loves you,
That means a lot.

Love can be deep inside,
Love can be suicide.
Can't you see you can't hide
What you feel when it's real.

(REPEAT FIRST VERSE)

Can't you see, yeah,
Can't you see?
Can't you see?

http://web.telia.com/~u42210721/bild/fep3.jpg

(P.J. Proby, as he appeared on the sleeve for the extended play record release of his version of Lennon and McCartney's "That Means A Lot.")

On January 7, 1996, the American Northeast was pummeled by a ferocious, unrelenting snowstorm that dumped up to three feet of snow across the region and paralyzed the area's transportation system.

On one snowbound Amtrak train, a balding, mustachioed man picked up his acoustic guitar and treated his fellow passengers to a welcome impromptu performance. The man was none other than Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary. :)

http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/cmemo/spring03/peteryarrow.jpg

It was rather strange, that after nearly half a decade of the music scene being alternative-ized, that there would be any lingering interest in that scourge known as hair metal, or butt rock. Yet Rhino Records released a series of albums under the title Youth Gone Wild--Heavy Metal Hits of the 80's. Apparently, there were many who missed the old hits from the previous decade, and still more who were too young to remember the fun days where the hair was big, the guitar solos were fast, the women were faster, the spandex was tight and the morals were loose. There was hardly a rush to embrace the Hollywood hair scene, but there were a number of people
who had a nostalgia for the good times on Sunset Strip.

Two of the leading guitar magazines, Guitar World and Guitar For the Practicing Musician, touched on the pending revival of metal on the eve of Metallica's release. Brad Tolinski, Guitar World editor, stated in a 1996 editorial that it was wrong to think that grunge "killed heavy metal", when in fact "Grunge saved heavy metal". HUH?? :confused: How so? By giving it something more vital and substantial, more musically challenging than what had come before. He said that in the 80's, bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest were at the top of their game musically, but their lyrics were laughable with their barely-stitched-together stories of satanism and sexual misogyny, as he put it. Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil said that he was a big fan of KISS and other metal bands, but that their lyrics were "goony" and not very smart. He decided to listen to bands on college radio which had intelligent lyrical themes of politics and social issues.

Did grunge in fact, save heavy metal? Not likely. While heavy metal was a component of grunge, to say that bands with the Seattle scene "saved" what was becoming an "outdated" relic is to ignore the roots of metal and to pay no attention to the direction of alternative. If anything, the previous year showed that grunge bands were either mellowing or taking off into different musical areas alltogether. Metal is a definite musical trend which follows the end of the British electric blues scene of the late 60's and early
70's with Black Sabbath and continued toward the early 90's where the top bands were Guns and Roses and, of course, Metallica. The chief components of metal included blues-based song structures and modes, guitar virtuosity and precise riffs, among other things. Other bands tied into metal (but not exactly defined as such) like Rage Against the Machine, Tool, and Korn featured more contemporary, non-metal elements such as urban rhythms, droning and various effects, as well as non-traditional song structures. Grunge included elements of punk and psychedelia into the mix. To put it simply, grunge watered down metal from its blues-based, structured and virtuoisic roots.

And if heavy metal lyrics in the 80's were puerile and goofy for singing about "Satan", what did that say about Black Sabbath, who were enjoying a huge boost of interest in the 90's? Why were Iron Maiden and other bands "hokey" for singing about such topics?

Back to the albums below: The four disks featured such tracks as:

Disk One:

1. Rock You Like A Hurricane - Scorpions
2. Talk Dirty To Me - Poison
3. The Last In Line - Dio
4. Lay It Down - Ratt
5. Never Enough - L.A. Guns
6. Parental Guidance - Judas Priest
7. Blind In Texas - W.A.S.P.
8. Ace Of Spades - Motorhead
9. Balls To The Wall - Accept
10. Street Of Dreams - Rainbow
11. Screaming In The Night - Krokus
12. Summertime Girls (Studio Version) - Y & T
13. We're Not Gonna Take It - Twisted Sister
14. Cum On Feel The Noize - Quiet Riot

Disk Two:

1. Rock Me - Great White
2. Heaven Tonight - Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force
3. The Final Countdown - Europe
4. Over My Head - King's X
5. Goin' Crazy! - David Lee Roth
6. It's Not Love - Dokken
7. Seventeen - Winger
8. Poison Ivy - Faster Pussycat
9. Gotta Let Go - Lita Ford
10. I Want Out - Helloween
11. I'm Onto You - Hurricane
12. Edge Of A Broken Heart - Vixen
13. Dreams In The Dark - Badlands
14. Wild Thing - Sam Kinison

Disk Three:

1. Still Of The Night - Whitesnake
2. Gypsy Road - Cinderella
3. Sleeping My Day Away - D.A.D. (Disneyland After Dark)
4. Wait - White Lion
5. Someone Like You - Bang Tango
6. Say What You Will - Fastway
7. Don't Dog Me - Raging Slab
8. Get It On - Kingdom Come
9. Heavy Metal Love - Helix
10. Rock Queen - Love/Hate
11. Scared - Dangerous Toys
12. Smooth Up In Ya - Bulletboys
13. Girlschool - Britny Fox
14. Addicted To That Rush - Mr. Big

Disk Four:

1. Up All Night - Slaughter
2. New Thing - Enuff Z'nuff
3. 10,000 Lovers (In One) - TNT
4. Walkin' Shoes - Tora Tora
5. Walls Come Down - Every Mother's Nightmare
6. Naughty Naughty - Danger Danger
7. Down Boys - Warrant
8. D'Stroll - D'Molls
9. Hollywood - Junkyard
10. Heartbreak Blvd - Shotgun Messiah
11. Future World - Pretty Maids
12. Set Me Free - Heathen
13. The Calling - Leatherwolf
14. Turn Up The Radio - Autograph
15. Badlands - Metal Church
16. To Hell With The Devil - Stryper

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

And the leather, spandex, and denim-clad crotches made this the perfect stocking stuffer for anyone's older sister who still pined for Bret Michaels.

Rage Against the Machine's long awaited sophomore album Evil Empire was a bit of a disappointment to critics, perhaps because of vocalist Zach de la Rocha's aimless ranting at unspecific political targets. The music didn't seem as erth-shaking as before, as well. But this would become a formidable album for fans and rock music looking for something new. The title refers to the comment Reagan made about the Soviets in the 80's--they were the "evil empire", which drew criticism for Reagan having a cartoonish view of other nations (as the cover art indicates).

Bulls On Parade

Come wit it now!
Come wit it now!
The microphone explodes, shattering the molds
Either drop tha hits like de la O or get tha **** off tha commode
Wit tha sure shot, sure ta make tha bodies drop
Drop an don't copy yo, don't call this a co-op
Terror rains drenchin', quenchin' tha thirst of tha power dons
That five sided fist-a-gon
Tha rotten sore on tha face of mother earth gets bigger
Tha triggers cold empty ya purse

Rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells

Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed the war cannibal animal
I walk tha corner to tha rubble that used to be a library
Line up to tha mind cemetery now
What we don't know keeps tha contracts alive an movin'
They don't gotta burn tha books they just remove 'em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as tha cells
Rally round tha family, pockets full of shells

Rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells

Bulls on parade

Come wit it now!
Come wit it now!
Bulls on parade!
Bulls on parade!
Bulls on parade!
Bulls on parade!
Bulls on parade!

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

That year, Rage caused a controversy in an appearance on the April 13 episode ofSaturday Night Live when they draped inverted American flags on their amps in protest against the show's host, financial magazine editor-in-chief Steve Forbes, the very rich son of multimillionaire Malcolm Forbes. Also president of Forbes, Inc., Steve Forbes was also a major capitalist and arch-conservative who would later enter politics and attempt a run for the presidency. He became one of the signers of the Project for the New American Century, a very influential organization which would have a deep effect in later years on American foreign policy. No doubt the man's beliefs and practices clashed deeply with those of the more radical socialist RATM. The stage crew took down the flags, and the band was allowed to play only one song. So much for cutting edge humor and commentary from SNL. ohno:

The band was accused often of "selling out" for allowing their albums to be sold in corporate record stores as well as being on a corporate label (Sony), flying in the face of their socialist principles, but, as guitarist Tom Morello explained:
"A lot of labels contacted us, and lots of them just didn't seem to understand what we wanted to do. They kept talking about the message of the music as a gimmick. They were interested in us just because there was a buzz... They saw us as the latest local rock band to be hyped. But Epic agreed to everything we asked--and they've followed through... we never saw a conflict as long as we maintained creative control. When you live in a capitalistic society, the currency of the dissemination of information goes through capitalistic channels. Would (MIT linguistics professor and left-of- center social and political critic) Noam Chomsky object to his works being sold at Barnes & Noble? No, because that's where people buy their books. We're not interested in preaching to just the converted. It's great to play abandoned squats run by anarchists, but it's also great to be able to reach people with a revolutionary message, people from Granada Hills to Stuttgart. "


Down Rodeo

Yeah I'm rollin' down Rodeo wit a shotgun
These people ain't seen a brown skin man
Since their grandparents bought one

So now I'm rollin' down Rodeo wit a shotgun
These people ain't seen a brown skin man
Since their grandparents bought one

So now I'm rollin' down Rodeo wit a shotgun

Bangin' this bolo tight on this solo flight can't fight alone
Funk tha track my verbs fly like tha family stone
Tha pen devils set that stage for tha war at home
Locked wit out a wage ya standin' in tha drop zone
The clockers born starin' at an empty plate
Momma's torn hands cover her sunken face
We hungry but them belly full
The structure is set ya neva change it with a ballot pull
In tha ruins there's a network for tha toxic rock
School yard ta precinct, suburb ta project block
Bosses broke south for new flesh and a factory floor
The remains left chained to the powder war

Can't waste a day when the night brings a hearse
So make a move and plead the fifth 'cause ya can't plead the first
Can't waste a day when the night brings a hearse
So now I'm rollin' down Rodeo wit a shotgun
These people ain't seen a brown skin man
Since their grandparents bought one

Yes I'm rollin' down Rodeo wit a shotgun
These people ain't seen a brown skin man
Since their grandparents bought one

So now I'm rollin' down Rodeo wit a shotgun

Bare witness to tha sickest shot while suckas get romantic
They ain't gonna send us campin' like they did my man Fred Hampton
Still we lampin' still clockin' dirt for our sweat
A ballots dead so a bullet's what I get
A thousand years they had tha tools
We should be takin' 'em
**** tha G-ride I want the machines that are makin' em
Our target straight wit a room full of armed pawn to
Off tha kings out tha west side at dawn

Can't waste a day when the night brings a hearse
Make a move and plead the fifth 'cause ya can't plead the first
Can't waste a day when the night brings a hearse
So now I'm rollin' down Rodeo wit a shotgun
These people ain't seen a brown skin man
Since their grandparents bought one

Yeah I'm rollin' down Rodeo wit a shotgun
These people ain't seen a brown skin man
Since their grandparents bought one

Yeah I'm rollin' down Rodeo wit a shotgun

The rungs torn from the ladder can't reach the tumour
One god, one market, one truth, one consumer

Just a quiet peaceful dance!
Just a quiet peaceful dance!
Just a quiet peaceful dance!
Just a quiet peaceful dance!
Just a quiet peaceful dance for the things we'll never have
Just a quiet peaceful dance for the things we don't have

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

People of the Sun

Yeah people come up

Yeah, we better turn tha bass up on this one
Check it, since 1516 mayans attacked and overseen
Now crawl amidst the ruins of this empty dream
Wit their borders and boots on top of us
Pullin' knobs on the floor of their toxic metropolis
But how you gonna get what you need ta get?
Tha gut eaters, blood drenched get offensive like Tet
Tha fifth sun sets get back reclaim
Tha spirit of Cuahtemoc alive an untamed
Now face tha funk now blastin' out ya speaker, on tha one Maya, Mexica
That vulture came ta try and steal ya name
But now you got a gun, yeah this is for the people of the sun

It's comin' back around again!
This is for the people of the sun!
It's comin' back around again! Uh!

It's comin' back around again!
This is for the people of the sun!
It's comin' back around again! Uh!

Yeah, neva forget that tha wip snapped ya back
Ya spine cracked for tobacco, oh I'm the Marlboro man, uh
Our past blastin' on through the verses
Brigades of taxi cabs rollin' Broadway like hearses
Troops strippin' zoots, shots of red mist,
Sailors blood on tha deck, come sista resist
From tha era of terror check this photo lens,
Now tha city of angels does the ethnic cleanse
Uh, heads bobbin' to tha funk out ya speaker, on tha one Maya, Mexica
That vulture came to try and steal ya name
But now you found a gun, you're history, this is for the people of the sun

It's comin' back around again!
This is for the people of the sun!
It's comin' back around again! Yeah!

It's comin' back around again!
This is for the people of the sun!
It's comin' back around again!

It's comin' back around again!
This is for the people of the sun!
It's comin' back around again!

It's comin' back around again!
This is for the people of the sun!
It's comin' back around!
Of the sun

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Revolver

His spit is worth more than her work
Pass the purse to the pugilists
He's a prizefighter
And he bought rings and he owns kin
And now he's swingin'
And now he's the champion
Hey revolver, don't mothers make good fathers?
Revolver!
Hey revolver, don't mothers make good fathers?
Revolver

A spotless domain
Hides festering hopes she's certain there's more
Pictures of fields without fences
A spotless domain
Hides festering hopes she's certain there's more
Pictures of fields without fences
Her body numbs as he approaches the door
As he approaches the door
As he approaches the door
As he approaches the door
As he approaches
Hey revolver, don't mothers make good fathers?
Revolver!
Hey revolver, don't mothers make good fathers?
Revolver!
Hey revolver, don't mothers make good fathers?
Revolver!
Hey revolver, don't mothers make good fathers?
Revolver!

Yeah!
Hey revolver, don't mothers make good fathers?
Revolver!
Hey revolver, don't mothers make good fathers?
Revolver!
Revolver!
Revolver!
Revolver!
Revolver

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Rage had definitely made the most potent combination of rap, rock, and funk in music. In the following song, the band lays much blame at institutions as the church for promoting oppression of people of color with its appealing to mass subservience and complacency. It may have been mentioned earlier that Zach de la Rocha's father had a nervous breakdown when Zach was younger, which resulted in his father embracing a fundamentalist, practically cultic form of religious "conversion". His father destroyed his own art paintings and forced Zach to stay in a closet and fast without food for long periods of time. It was a very traumatic time for the future lead singer. The paintings were a source of Chicano identity for his father, but the destruction of them at the time of his conversion was a very symbolic renunciation of his ethnic heritage. Was this what this religion was teaching him? This event had a profound impact on Zach.

Vietnow

Turn on tha radio, nah f*** it turn it off
Fear is your only god on the radio
Nah f*** it, turn it off
Turn it off, turn on tha radio, nah f*** it turn it off
Fear is your only god on the radio
Nah f*** it, your saviour's my guillotine, crosses and kerosene

Merge on tha networks, slangin' nerve gas
Up jump tha boogie then bang, let 'em hang
While tha paraniod try ta stuff tha void
Let's capture this AM mayhem
Undressed, and blessed by tha Lord
Tha power pendulum swings by tha umbilical cord
Shock around tha clock, from noon 'til noon
Men grabbin' they mics, and stuff 'em into tha womb
Terror's tha product ya push
Well I'm a truth addict, oh **** I gotta headrush
Sheep tremble an here come tha votes
Thrown from tha throat, new cages an scapegoats
Undressed and blessed by tha Lord
Tha same devil that ran around Managua wit a sword
Check out tha new style that Ollie found
I tune in wit a bullet ta shut down tha devil sound
Shut down tha devil sound
Tha program of Vietnow
Shut down tha devil sound

Turn on the radio, nah f*** it turn it off
Fear is your only god on the radio
Nah f*** it, turn it off
Turn it off, turn on the radio, nah f*** it turn it off
Fear is your only god on the radio
Nah f*** it, your saviour's my guillotine, crosses and kerosene

Flex tha cerebellum, fire, uh!
Somebody gotta shell 'em
These evil angels lists, hittin' tha AM playlist
Paid ta say this
That one inhuman, illegal, single woman
Tha one wit out a room
The transmissions wippin' our backs
Yeah, comin' down like bats from Stacy Coon
Terror's tha product ya push
Well I'm a truth addict, oh s*** I gotta headrush
Tha sheep tremble an here come tha votes
Thrown from tha throat, new cages and scapegoats
One caution tha mics a detonator unwound
Ta shut down tha devil sound
Shut down tha devil sound
Check tha heads bow in vietnow
Shut down tha devil sound

Is all tha world jails and churches?
Is all tha world jails and churches?
Is all tha world jails and churches?
Is all tha world jails and churches?
Is all tha world jails and churches?

Radio, nah f*** it, turn it off
Fear is your only god on tha radio
Nah f*** it, turn it off
Turn it off, turn on tha radio, nah f*** it turn it off
Fear is your only god on tha radio
Nah f*** it, your saviour's my guillotine, crosses and kerosene

Fear is your, fear is your, fear is your only god
Fear is your, fear is your, fear is your only god
Fear is your, fear is your, fear is your only god
Fear is your, fear is your, fear is your only god

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Snakecharmer

Satellites and, pair of mirrors and, and a man without a home
With a horse, and a rider, and a clever, cunning killer
Silent in error and vocal in spotlights
Lying always sucking on a bottle of, that sweet, indulgent fluid
Oh greed oh yes oh greed oh yes!
Oh greed oh yes
Yeah!
Yeah!
Yeah!
Yeah!
Your friendship is a fog
That disappears when the wind redirects
You!
Yes you!

Father's expectations, soul soaked in, spit and urine
And you gotta make it where?
To a sanctuary that's a fragile American hell
An empty dream
A selfish, horrific vision
Passed on like the deadliest of viruses
Crushing you and your naive profession
Have no illusions boy
Vomit all ideals and serve
Sleep and wake and serve
And don't just think just wake and serve
Yeah!
Yeah! (Left channel - 26 years in this stage
Yeah! you're 26 years in this stage)
Yeah!
Your friendship is a fog
That disappears when the wind redirects
You! Interested in you, interested in you
Interested in you, interested in you...

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Zach de la Rocha live:

http://www.whatevermagazine.com/4/rage1.jpeg
http://www.whatevermagazine.com/4/rage2.jpeg
http://www.whatevermagazine.com/4/rage3.jpeg

In 1996, Tom Morello was fortunate enough to conduct an interview with an author whose books lined the shelves of the Rage tour bus, MIT linguistics professor and outspoken political critic Noam Chomsky. As a Harvard graduate, Morello was no slouch when it came to intellectual matters which dealt with politics and social issues. To read the transcript of the phone interview with Morello's mentor is to get an idea of the nature of the machine his band rages against:



Tom Morello: Hello, Noam? Hi and welcome to Radio Free Los Angeles. Thanks so much for being on the show. I want you to know that you are probably the, ah, Noam Chomsky books are the ones most prominently featured on the rage tour bus. So it is a privilege.

Noam Chomsky: So I've heard. Glad to hear that.

TM: First question is, in this election year, I thought we would talk a little bit about democracy. One of the unquestionable ideas that were force fed from our first days in school is that we do live in a democracy. In your opinion, in what sense is our society democratic?

NC: Well, I should say that if that is true an awful lot people don't believe it. A Gallup poll for years has been regularly asking people who they think the government works for, and it has usually been running about 50% saying "the few and the special interests, not the people." Last year it went up to 82%.

TM: Wow

NC: So that's what at least the public thinks about it.

TM: Wow

NC: As to whether it's a democracy, I don't think that there is a simple answer to that. Democracy has lots of different dimensions. I mean, basically the question is to what extent do the people have a meaningful way of developing and articulating their own ideas and putting them forward in the political arena and controlling decisions. That's the general question. Now if you look at the United States, well, in some respects that's true but in many respects it just isn't true at all.

So for example in the political arena, first of all there is one huge segment of social and economic life which is simply excluded from public control, in law and in principle, and it's the most important part. It has to do with what's produced and how its distributed, and so on and so forth. That's all in the hands of what amount to huge private tyrannies, of which are about as totalitarian in character as any institutions that humans have so far concocted. Mostly their only accountability to the public is through quite limited regulatory mechanisms -- I mean the whole corporate system. And they have extraordinary power over not only what happens in the workplace but the nature of our lives, and, given their resources, over the political system. And you can't say that they control the media, because they are the media. That's an enormous, a huge sector of life that is out of public influence and control in a manner which would have absolutely appalled someone like, say, Thomas Jefferson, who already condemned the very early stages of it that he saw and said that they would bring an end to democracy and restore the worst kind of aristocratic rule.

So that's one sector. Well, what about the public arena, the technically public arena, the government? There the fact is that in practice there happens to be at the higher levels very little way, right now at least, for the public to influence anything that goes on. As you move down to the lower levels, when you get to say your local community, the school board and so on, then there is much more of an opportunity. Incidentally at the intermediate levels, say the state level, although you would think superficially that the public could influence things more, the opposite is the case. The reason is that at the state level business power is far more dominant. Even a middle size business can have huge influence over state governments by, for example, such measures as threatening to move across the border whereas only the bigger guys can control the federal government. That's part of the reason why there is such pressure on the far right, the so called "conservatives," to devolve power from the federal to the state level which they know they could control a lot more easily.

When you get to the federal government, we've been sold a line you know for 50 years of intense corporate propaganda that the government is the enemy -- there cannot be a government that's buy for and of the people. Well in practice the description is not inaccurate. The government is to a large extent the enemy, but the reason is that its so largely under the control of the private tyrannies that are excluded from, sort of off in the corner somewhere you know, you're not suppose to see them. But the reason for the anti-government propaganda is obvious enough. The purpose is to remove decision making from the public arena where the public does, in principle, and sometimes even in practice have ways to participate in it and take part in it, and shift it over to the private arena where it is totally out of control.

TM: Right

NC: So when you ask about the government, it's a complicated story. Potentially the instruments and mechanisms are there by which the public could, if organized and controlling resources and so on, could play a significant, in fact dominant role in what happens. But in practice it doesn't work. So like in the current election, you know, there's two moderate republicans running -- well almost, but pretty hard to distinguish.

TM: Right, and so that's why the majority of eligible voters just stays home on election day.

NC: Yeah. In fact, even the things like say the, I read recently that even the measures to increase voters registration are mostly drawing in wealthier people. Poorer people apparently just don't see any point. In fact the primaries were kind of interesting in that regard. There was only one candidacy contested, although there was a huge amount of money spent, way more than before. But people just stayed away. I mean Dole won, in I think it was around 20 primaries which put him over the top and in that fifth about one million people voted for him. In one state New Hampshire, participation reached 25% and the other states I think it was below 10%, 10% or below.

TM: Wow. Well another unquestionable idea is that people are naturally competitive, and that therefore, capitalism is the only proper way to organize society. Do you agree?

NC: Look around you. In a family for example, if the parents are hungry do they steal food from the children? They would if they were competitive. In most social groupings that are even semi-sane people support each other and are sympathetic and helpful and care about other people and so on. Those are normal human emotions. It takes plenty of training to drive those feelings out of peoples heads, and they show up all over the place.

It's true that you can say the humans are competitive, but humans are anything you like. Humans are mass murderers, humans are courageous and honorable and magnificent in many of the things that they do. The whole spectrum is there. Particular institutions and modes of education and so on bring out one or another characteristic of people. There has been a tremendous effort, its been going on for a couple of hundred years now, to try to emphasize particular traits, mainly, the sort of, "Look out for Number One" trait. Well that's sort of hidden there in all of us. I'm sure under certain circumstances it would probably come out along with others. But that's the tendency in human character that is enormously supported and amplified by institutional structures, by the propaganda system, by education, by the entertainment industry, by everything. So sure, people are naturally competitive, and they're naturally cooperative and eager to give up what they have for the benefit of others.

TM: The way that we make a living, by receiving wages for work, we rent ourselves in order to survive. It used to be known as wage slavery, where people line up to beg to enrich this boss or that boss. Why do people accept this and submit to it?

NC: That hasn't been easy. Its kind of interesting to read the working class press in the 19th century, the mid-19th century, which was very substantial in size I should say. It's kind of like the scale of the commercial press in those days. And it was organized by ordinary people. I mean, artisans, what they called "factory girls," young women off the farms who were working in the textile industry around where I lived and so on. There are definite themes that run through it and one of them is strong opposition to wage slavery which they didn't regard as any different from chattel slavery. In fact, after the civil war, there were bitter complaints about the fact, look we fought down slavery and now we are being driven into another form of slavery.

The idea that people should have to, uh, it was just taken for granted that, in their words, that "those who work in the mills should own them." If we have to labor at the command of others, we have lost our freedom -- the freedoms we have fought for in the American revolution and that they thought that they were fighting for in the civil war. We've lost them. In fact, they also bitterly opposed, to get back to your earlier comment, what they called "the new spirit of the age" back in 1850, we "gain wealth forgetting all but self." Back then that was the new spirit of the age which they considered an utterly degrading doctrine that no honorable person would accept.

I should add that this was also a very standard theme of the real classical liberal works that were suppose to revere, like Adam Smith the others. The idea that people should subordinate themselves to the command of others was regarded as highly offensive and it has taken well you know a long long time to get that out of people heads. Right into this century, it was quite broadly felt and articulated for example by Americans leading social philosopher, John Dewy who comes right out of the mainstream, that unless the working people control their own institutions they are simply tools, there not people. And I don't think that understanding is very far below the surface. It could come out very quickly.

TM: You've noted that 82% of the population regard our economic system as inherently unfair. Is the gap between rich and poor increasing now and why?

NC: It is definitely increasing. There is no questions about that. Inequality has been increasing steadily. It declined a bit from the second World War up until the early 70's. Since then it has been increasing -- its now back to the level of before the Great Depression. It has not been a period of much growth since around the last twenty years. But there has been some and it is very highly concentrated in the wealthier sectors. Profits, incidentally, have been going through the roof. I mean the business press can't even find adjectives any more to express how marvelous things are. They have run out of stupendous and dazzling and are looking for some new ones. For the general population, things are at best stagnant, and for most people actually are declining. Around 1980, the United States was, among the industrial countries, it had one of the higher levels of inequality but it wasn't off the spectrum. Now its way beyond any other country. Any other industrial country. In fact, in a city like New York its about the level of Guatemala which is about the worst state in the world in equality.

TM: Right.

NC: So sure that is increasing, there is no question about it, people are well aware of it. People are aware that they are working longer and with much less security and for lower wages and with rather dim prospects. That's an unmistakable feature of American life. No one doubts it. The peoples attitudes of what should be done are interesting. I mean for example, Business Week just ran a poll which frightened them very much. They found that 95% of the population, which is just an incredible figure for a poll, you just don't get that on anything, 95% of the population thought that corporations had a responsibility to reduce profits because of the needs of their own work force and their communities. Its kind of interesting -- that's a striking figure -- it is interesting to compare that with a general understanding of working people in say, you know, the textile industries in Massachusetts 150 years ago. They were not asking for the autocrats to be more benevolent the way people are asking now. They were saying that they just have no right to be there at all. Not please treat your subjects more kindly, but that you have no right to rule. That's a big decline in sensibility but its still dramatic that almost the entire population condemns the practice of business enriching itself.

TM: One of the more provocative statements of yours that I have read is that if the standards of the Nuremberg Trials were applied, then every post World War II American president would have been hanged as a war criminal. Take us briefly through the war crimes committed by each president.

NC: I've done that in print a couple of times. Well, with Truman you could start with, shortly after he entered office there was the bombing of Hiroshima, which maybe one could give an argument for -- well, I don't think so -- but it is almost impossible to give an argument for the bombing of Nagasaki. That was mostly just trying out a new weapon to see if it would work. Then there was an utterly gratuitous bombing, a one thousand plane raid at the end of the war -- right in fact after Japan surrendered -- called the "finale," the grand finale. Then comes, for example, the support for the brutal counter-insurgency campaign in Greece, which killed about 150,000 people to basically restore Nazi collaborators and demolish the resistance. And then we could go on from there.

Eisenhower. The Eisenhower administration, the Truman and Eisenhower administration, the bombings -- whatever you think about the Korean War, and there is a pretty complicated story when you really look at it, but nevertheless the bombings in North Korea in 1951 and 1952 was just an outright war crime. You can read in the Air Force history about how in the Eisenhower years they had nothing left to bomb, everything was flat, so they just bomb dams, which they exalt how wonderful it was to see the water flooding down and killing people and wiping out the crops and so on. Well people were hanged for that, for less than that. They were hanged for opening dikes in Nuremberg. And then again we can proceed with what happened in Guatemala and elsewhere where it was a terrible crime in the Eisenhower years.

Kennedy is not even worth discussing. The invasion in South Vietnam -- Kennedy attacked South Vietnam, outright. In 1961-1962 he sent Air Force to start bombing villages, authorized napalm. Also laid the basis for the huge wave of repression that spread over Latin America with the installation of Neo-Nazi gangsters that were always supported directly by the United States. That went on and in fact picked up under Johnson.

In the Nixon years, for example, the bombing of inner Cambodia in 1973 was a monstrous crime. It was just massacring peasants in inner Cambodia. It isn't much reported here because nobody paid attention, but it was quite a part in helping create the basis for the Khmer Rouge. Well, the CIA estimate is that 600,000 people were killed in the course of those US actions, either directed or actually carried out by the United States.

In the Carter years there were major crimes, for example the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, which happened to start under Ford and led to the nearest thing to genocide since the holocaust, maybe 1/3 or 1/4 of the population has been slaughtered. That was using 90% US arms. In the Carter years, when the Indonesians were actually running out of arms in their attack on this country, Carter actually increased the flow of arms in 1978, which was the worst peak of the slaughter. Carter was backing Somoza and his national guard, openly and with direct military and diplomatic support at a time when they had killed about 40,000 people in the terror of the last days of their regime. Again, that's a sample.

Going on to the Reagan years, its not even a question. In fact the US was condemned by the World Court during the Reagan years for its "unlawful use of force," meaning aggression in Nicaragua. In Central America alone, maybe 200,000 people or so were slaughtered in a very brutal fashion by US run programs. In southern Africa about 1.5 million people were killed and over $60 billion of damage were done according to the UN commission which reviewed it later from 1980 to 1988. That's from South African atrocities that the US was directly supporting. Then, again we could go on. Well Bush, we've already talked about him, but the invasion of Panama for example was simply outright aggression. It was condemned internationally -- the US was able to veto the security counsel condemnations, that doesn't change the fact that they were there.

When we move on to the Clinton years, one of his first acts within a few months was to send missiles to bomb Baghdad. Well, he didn't kill a huge amount of people, only I think 8 or so. But there was absolutely no pretext, there wasn't even a pretext. I mean it was to show what a tough guy he is. In fact the pretext was so ludicrous, it's embarrassing to repeat it. The pretext was that this was self defense against armed attack, because two months earlier there had been a failed attempt by someone who might or might not have been Iraqi, no one knew at the time, to kill Bush or something like that. I mean, it's just ridiculous. About half of military aid and training to Latin America under Clinton was going to Columbia, which has absolutely the worst human rights record in the hemisphere, killing thousands of people in a horrifying fashion. These are all crimes. I don't think it's hard to set up a bill of indictment if somebody wants to.

TM: You've also written that our education system is a system of indoctrination designed to induce obedience and passivity. Explain how this works.

NC: I think we all know that from our own experiences. Starting with kindergarten and first grade, the main requirement is that you do what you're told. For example if you object, if people don't, if they use their independence, if they question what they're told what to do, if they try to think for themselves and suggest that something else ought to be done, they usually get into trouble pretty quickly. It's not uniform, but try it out on your history teacher in high school, saying "I think that's a dumb assignment, I'd rather do something else." There isn't much, uh, its a rare teacher who will give even an opportunity to discuss that option. And that goes on through college and career and so on.

There is kind of a filtering for obedience and subordination and various penalties for independence. Now, it's not that we should have chaos and people should do anything they feel like and shouldn't pay any attention to the circumstances in which your fellow students and teachers have to exist. Of course you should, but that's quite different from imposed obedience. The kind of mechanical character of a good deal of education, which is not only unnecessary but even harmful, also contributes to that. In fact, it is kind of striking when you go on to, well say take where I teach at MIT, which is a science university. There it happens to be quite different, and the reason is because you can't do science that way. You have to encourage students to challenge, they're expected to, they're expected to be independent, they're expected to say "Look, I don't think that's right, we should do it a different way" and so on. Otherwise there won't be any science. But that's unusual.

TM: Having a poor self image seems to be far more common in today's society. Is that a misconception, and if not, why is modern society breeding insecurities?

NC: Well the society is definitely breeding insecurities, but that's perfectly objective. It doesn't have anything to do with self image. For example, take the rise of temporary workers, what's called "increasing the flexibility of the labor market." Well, that breeds insecurity. As workers lose the rights that they won after a long struggle, including, one of those rights that they are losing is the right to go to sleep at night and know you're going to have a job tomorrow. Well, that definitely breeds insecurity for a perfectly objective reason. Nothing about self image.

Some of the fastest growing American corporations are the ones that, as they put in the business press, sell workers. So Man Power Incorporated is just booming. And the reason for the turn to temporary workers is perfectly straight forward. They can be treated just as goods, as material goods. If you want to throw them out, you throw them out. You don't want to pay them benefits, you don't pay them benefits. Outsourcing has the same character. One of the major reasons for outsourcing by big corporations is that they don't have contractual arrangements with the labor force in the places that, say, make door handles or whatever it may be. They're tools of production brought in when they're needed, thrown out when they're not wanted. The decline of real wages and the increasing of working hours has exactly the same effect. There are many things happening in the whole society that breed insecurity for perfectly clear objective reasons. I don't think it has much to do with self image.

TM: Explain the two concepts of "manufacturing consent" and "necessary illusions."

NC: Actually both of those are terms that we, my colleague Ed Herman and I, we didn't invent them. Manufacturing consent comes from Walter Lippman, the Dean of American Journalism and one of the most highly respected public intellectuals of the 20th century. The other, necessary illusions, that comes from Reinhold Niebuhr who was the guru of the Kennedy intellectuals and George Kent and others, again highly respected. Both of them said that manufacturing consent, in Lippman's case, and imposing necessary illusions is the central feature of a democratic society. The "responsible men," as they called them, the small elite that has the talent and the ability -- the major talent being to know how to serve people with real power, but they didn't say that -- but those who enter their category of skilled responsible intellectuals, they have the duty of making sure that the stupid and ignorant masses stay out of their way. They are "ignorant and meddlesome outsiders" as Walter Lippman put it. They don't have the intelligence or ability to care for or run their own affairs, and we're only doing them a favor if we control them, and since we can't do it by force then we have to do it by imposing beliefs. This is a very widely held doctrine. Incidentally these are not reactionary people. There are sort of on the center to left. And I should add that Marxism/Leninism has exactly the same view. The Vanguard party of Lenin very much acts on the same doctrine. The people are just too stupid to be able to run their own affairs and we're smart enough so we'll run it for them. And they better do what we say or else.

TM: How does the mass media play in this?

NC: The mass media are simply part of the corporate system and their goal is roughly that of what you read in the manuals of the public relations industry, which is very frank about it. We have a very class conscious business community. The leaders of the public relations industry, which is the aspect of big business that is concerned with manufacturing consent, they talk quite openly about the need to "control the public mind," to "fight the everlasting battle for the minds of men," who have to be "indoctrinated with the capitalist story."

The leading manual of the public relations industry was written back in the 1920's, incidentally by a good Roosevelt/Kennedy liberal, highly respected in Cambridge where he lived. The book opens by saying something like this, that the conscious and intelligent manipulation of the attitudes and behavior of the masses is the central task of the democratic system and we, the business classes, the responsible men, we have to do it. Well the mass media are just being imbued with that conception. Not just the mass media, the entertainment industry, the schools and everyone else. That's a leading and understandable doctrine on the part of the elite sector, and they do it in various ways.

Now how it works out is complex. For example, in the media, say, there is an internal contradiction, several internal contradictions, as in schools and universities which lead to some degree of complexity. So the contradiction is the clearest, you see it very clearly in the business press, directly. They must present a tolerably realistic picture of the world to their audience because those people have a big stake, they run the world and they make decisions and the decisions they make matter for their own interests, so they better have some understanding of what is going on. And the same is true in the media generally in different ways and to a different extent. And the same is true in the schools and universities. That is not consistent with manufacturing consent, so there is an internal contradiction. And aside from that there after all are people with just plain professional integrity and honesty who want to try and do with what they can. So there is plenty of internal contradictions. But if you try to look at the overall performance, the degree of subordination to power and authority I think is pretty remarkable. We see dramatic examples of that everywhere we look.

Take, say, the primaries. Maybe the most dramatic part of the primaries, apart from the fact that nobody showed up, was the change in the way the media were presenting the problems of the country in, say December 1995 and January 1996, right after the primaries started. So at the end of 1995, it's even hard to remember, the top issue in the world was balancing the budget. The government was closing down every couple of days, both political parties had it as a priority, you read everywhere that Americans voted for a balance budget, you have to do it, so on and so forth. Well by January and February that was over. No more talk about balancing the budget. The candiates weren't talking about it, the press wasn't talking about it.

What happened? Well what happened is that they had to face the public. The public was, contrary to what was being said, the public was opposed, strongly opposed to budget balancing on any realistic assumption. When you looked at the cuts that would have to be made they were strongly opposed. Now the press sort of knew that but was all suppressed, up until the point when you suddenly had to face the public. When the politicians dropped it like a hot potato the first candidate to drop out was Phil Graham, the one representative of the Congressional Republicans who supposedly won by a great landslide. He disappeared instantly. And not just the deficit, the whole set of proposals disappeared. Well of course, the proposals were still being implemented in the background, but quietly. But that changed from the top priority in the country to something we dare not even talk about. It's very illustrative of the way the information system works. When you have to face people you have problems. When you could just order them around you can put it a different way. And we could go on with case after case.

TM: In the last 10 years there have been some frenzied attempts to censor certain kinds of music and certain artists. Do you think that within the realm of entertainment that there are things which are threatening to the system of domination and the veil of disinformation?

NC: There is, well, I should say that I don't know much about this part of the world. But there can be no question that part of the revival of independence and dissidence and breaking of constraints, much of which was extremely healthy, which took place in the 1960's, was very closely tied to the developments in the music world, and that frightened people. Elites want to put things back in control and order.

TM: What sort of society do you envision as one that would not be based on exploitation or domination and how would we get there from here?

NC: I don't really understand the question. It's kind of interesting. I'm asked that question constantly in sort of privileged circles. I'm never asked it when I go to talk to poor people. Or say either here or abroad. They tell me what they're doing. Maybe they ask for a comment, but they don't ask how they do it. How you do it is very straightforward: you go out and do it. If you want a more free and democratic society, you go out and do it. Take just our own, or at least my own lifetime, maybe you're too young. Say the last 30-40 years there have been big changes in the country. The civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, the sharp critique and breakdown of illegitimate authority in all sorts of domains which took place since the 60's, the environmental movements, the feminist movement, the solidarity movements in the 80's -- all of these things changed the society a lot. Well how did they do it? Well they just did it. People get together, they organize, they pressure, they try to learn, they try to help others to learn. That's the way things change. That's why we don't live under feudalism and slavery. That's why we have by comparative standards a very free society in the United States, with a lot of opportunities and options and very limited capacity on part of the state for force control. Well that's been gained by struggle.

People are now fighting to preserve workers rights and Social Security and medical support and some sort of health program and so on. People are now fighting to preserve these things. Well they were not there not long ago. They were achieved by plenty of popular struggle and there are no limits to this. There's no reason why corporate tyranny -- which is a fairly recent development, its institutional form is from the early part of this century -- there's no reason why that form of tyranny should not be dismantled just as other kinds of totalitarianism were dismantled. Fascism and Stalinism for example. And there are no particular limits to this.

Any kind of illegitimate authority that exists, whatever it may be, from interpersonal relations up to huge states and transnational corporations, every such form of authority has to demonstrate legitimacy. They have the burden of proof, and we should understand that usually, very often, almost always that burden can't be met. When it can't be met, it should simply be dismantled. And that's the way to move more towards a free and just democratic society. I don't think there's any sphere of life where these questions don't arise. There's different answers in different places and that depends on the circumstances, but the mechanisms are always the same. It's engagement, education, organizing, pressure, building new institutions. Those are the ways. In a country like ours they're much more available then in a place like Haiti or Columbia where you might get murdered for it. It won't happen here. But it's the same mechanism.

TM: I'll ask you just a quick question, and I'll let you get on to your summer vacation.

NC: [Laughs] Back to work I'm afraid.

TM: It seems in some of the things that I've read that the institutions of the IMF and the World Bank are kind of "the man behind the curtain." What are they and should we be worried about them?

NC: Well, we should be worried about them, but they're not so much "the man behind the curtain" as the agency that is carrying out certain actions. These international financial institutions which were set up after the end of the second World War have changed their functions over the years, but in effect they are essentially the agency of the major transnationals and the great powers. So what's called the G7, the seven big states, and the big transnational corporations which are on the scale of states and the financial institutions and so on, they are trying to organize a certain kind of world. The agency for carrying out those plans to a significant extent, not totally, is the World Bank and the IMF.

Sure we should be worried of the kind of world that they are trying to create and hence about the institutions by which they are doing it. And also about something very crucial about the nature of all these institutions, they are basically unaccountable. In order to know about what the IMF is doing, even, you would have to dedicate an awful a lot of energy and effort to put into it. You have to be a specialist. For most people that's hopeless -- you can barely know about their existence, let alone what they are doing, even when it's public, which it often isn't. And they are making decisions which have an enormous impact on people. Well that itself is illegitimate. So any unaccountable exercise of power is in itself illegitimate. If you look further at what they are doing I think there is good reason to be concerned about it, but they are not acting on their own. They express what in fact is called in the literature the "Washington consensus" and it's the "Washington consensus" because it's forged in Washington, which is not only the home of the World Bank and the IMF for the most part, but also of the world's most powerful state and the representatives of the major sectors of corporate power which either congregate there or send their representatives there. It's not called the "Washington consensus" for no reason.

TM: Are you a fan of any particular kind of music, and can we play a request for you?

NC: If I told you what my tastes where, it would shock you.

TM: Oh no, you go right ahead. Shock me.

NC: Almost nothing. I am very much restricted to things in my childhood or before. Far before.

TM: Our CD catalog is pretty large, try me.

NC: I wouldn't even know what to say. Beethovens Late Quartets.

TM: Anything in R&B or pop music. Anything that rings a bell?

NC: I am so ignorant, it isn't even worth asking me. I sort of knew something when my kids were around, but that's a lot of years ago.

TM: Well, Noam, thank you so much for being on the show and have a great summer.

Korn returned with their second album, Life Is Peachy, which featured another dose of their angsty, twisted groove-metal, or NU-metal, as their sound was being called ("new urban metal). The sound that was being influenced by the popularity of rap was quickly becoming the defining metal of the 90's, though metal purists were having none of it. The album was too jarring, unstructured, and simply having no musical connection to traditional metal to be considered among the legends of metal. But Korn seemed intent on re-inventing and re-defining metal, it had the heavy guitars, albeit seven-string ones, and the band seemed to have a huge audience. Many messed-up kids could relate to the musical catharsis on the album. "Not very musical?? Who cares!! FLRGHLAAAALLLLLCCCCHHHHHFLPTHHHHH!!!!!!!" :crazy:

A.D.I.D.A.S.

Honestly, somehow it always seems that I'm dreaming of
something I can never be
It dosen't bother me, 'cause I will always be that pimp I see
in all of my fantasies

I don't know your f:censored:g name.
So what? Let's. . .

Screwin' may be the only way that I can truly be free
from my f:censored:d up reality
so I dream and stroke it harder, 'cause its so fun to see my
face staring back at me

I don't know your f:censored:g name.
So what? Let's f:censored:.

All Day I Dream About Sex
All Day I Dream About f:censored:in'

[chorus]

Chi

Pain!
Buried so far away
Enter my life of nothing

Sick of the same ol' thing,
so I dig a hole, bury, pain!
Sick of the same ol' thing,
so I dig a hole, bury, pain!

I am so high, always
Burying my life so slowly

[chorus]

It opens my mind to feelings
Can't face bottom without something

[chorus]

It opens my mind to feelings
Can't face bottom without something

[chorus]

We enter in my bed
Feeling like I'm God
With the world around me
Can't you feel this pain!
reaming through my heart!
screaming through my veins!
nothing I can kill!
screaming a lie! I! Am!
Can't you feel my eyes out
Can't you take my heart. . . away
To heart
Good-bye

[chorus]

Lost

Why can't I decide, why my feelings I hide?
Always screwing with my mind, that thorn in my spine
Oh sure, it feels fine, wasting all our time
In the back of my mind, a thorn in my spine

Wait! to see it before my eyes
Why! do I run away?

Looking all the time at your face so blind
Feeling uptight, always the same fight
Hey man now decide, go ahead take your time
Kissing all the time, that thorn in my spine

Wait! You can only see one side
Why?! Play yourself out 'dat way?
Why?! You and me always hang
Wait! Weren't you were my friends?

The pain in which I could not feel!!!

Hey man look inside, now you need your own life
Remember me guy? That thorn in your spine
Waiting all the time, I'm doing mighty fine
Remember me guy? That thorn in your spine

[chorus]

Some songs on the album, such as "Good God" and "Mr.Rogers", dealt with lead singer Jonathan Davis' rape and mistreatment when he was younger. As dark and morbid as many of the songs were, one can see the source of his pain and rage.

No Place to Hide

HaHaHa!

I see your faces and I do not understand why
Each time I dream you standin there, right by my side
Why do you make me, you take my pride
and in my eyes you kinda rape me, inside

I have no place to run and hide
I have no place to hide which I like

Some look at the time, I looked back into my life
You want to touch me to see what's in my eyes
Why do you make me remember all the hate all its shame
Don't you hate me, sometimes?

[chorus]

I got no place to run, so don't come follow me
I don't know where to run, so don't make fun of me

. . .which I like. . .

[chorus]

The album pretty much appealed to a lot of dysfunctional young people, not only due to its edginess, angst, profanity, and sexual themes, but for the fact that it was one album that connected more with the rap genre than most other albums at the time, as is evident on the song "Wicked", which featured guest vocals from another band growing in popularity then, DefTones.
But does it really sound like they were "keepin' it real"? :rolleyes:

Wicked

Yo Chuck, we got runnin mixes in da headphones. . .
Wicked!!!!

Ha Ha 1. .2. .3 and I come with the wicked style
and you know that I'm from the wicked crew, you act like you knew
But I got everybody jumping to the voodoo
You kickin wicked rhymes, picket signs, while me and my mob got
a t
Drop then I'll slay ya, bang, bang, birthday for the A-hole
Ready to Buck! Buck! Buck! but it's a must to Duck! Duck! Duck!
Before I bust ya!
Looking for the one that did it
You want my vote, no your never gonna get it
Cause I'm the one with the tight mad skills
And I won't choke like the Buffalo Bills, Sittin at the pad just chillin
Larry Parker just got 2 million, Oh what a ****ing feeling
That ****** done past me the peel, and I slam dunk it like Shaquille
Wicked, Wreckin
Baby, I'll rock that test tube baby, take it. . .

'Cause I get Wicked! I told them not to keep on their fire
Yes I Wicked! I told them not to keep on their fire
Yes I Wicked! I told them not to keep on their fire
But know I'm in your face, so you'll keep on your fire

Don't say nothing just listen
Got me, got me a plan to break Tyson out of prison
You going my way you get served
Still got a deuce then I bunny hop the curb
Nappy head, nappy chest, nappy chin, never seen with a happy grin
Gotta fat frown cause I'm down, so take a look around
All you see is big black boots, step in, use my steel toe as a weapon
And it's awfully quiet, you want to live with this ******, to with
From here to New York I get them skins, and I ain't talking about p
Your sly, you pig, dig
Listen from the flow from a soul fro'ed caucasion
Ah, who didn't know I was as funky as Wilson Picket
but ya talkin. . .

[chorus]

People wanna know how come I get a gat
and I'm sitting at the window like Malcolm
Ready to bring that noise and kinda trigger happy like Ghetto
Blaster
December 29th was power to the people, ya'll might just see a
sequence
'Cause police got equal, hey, A horse is a pig that dosen't fly straight
I'm doin Daryl Gates but it's Willie Williams, I'm doin with the pil
I'm threw with the pig, so I think the job is dead, get out. . .

[chorus]

So now the connection was complete: the breach was crossed, metal was now squarely in the province of its biggest competitor, rap, hip-hop, and all things urban. It was not too long that the transformation would be complete, metal was now co-opted for what passed for "black" culture, replete with gangstah-isms, baggy pants, stocking caps, hip ebonics lingo made fashionable among white kids, the spit and swagger, and anti-social disposition. Many metal fans began to ask, was nu-metal just heavy music with an urban groove, or rap with guitars? :confused:

With Korn, another cross-pollination took place: They were the band that took the adolescent pain of white suburban America (a la Nirvana and Pearl Jam) and combined it with the lurid, violent themes of gangsta-rap. Their music was heavy, but in a different sense than how metal was traditionally accepted. It was not music that was very easily digestible at all.

And to think they came straight outta Bakersfield, the country/western capitol of the West Coast. ohno:

Deftones were a band that was often compared to Korn when they came out roughly a year before Korn's sophomore release. They were also an improvement over Crayonbox as one of the more popular releases on Madonna's Maverick Records (see, Madonna was not all about cashing in on grunge, but on nu-metal as well. :D ) Fronted by lead singer Chino Moreno and guitarist Stephen Carpenter, the band was adept at stripping metal down to its basic riffing roots and infusing with a lot of thick, angry energy. While the urban feel was there, what was particularly striking about their music was that for once, metal (or what passed for it) was not dependent on guitar solos or any attempts at virtuosity. Bold, hard chords were in, all that 80's frivolity was out. Their debut album was Adrenaline.

Besides, no one could play shred metal anyway. This message seemed to click with a lot of budding young guitar players than was necessary. ohno:

Bored

Hear me spit on you, wither I
Remold into gold and bury I from sun

Reborn left to sigh, recure maybe I'll
Be born and simplify the way I lie before

I get bored
I get bored
I get bored
I'm bored

Repent by you and trust to figure out
I burn that gift to you doll and let it shine before

I get bored
I get bored
I get bored
A wish for the real one

Pissed and confinded, before me on I
And we will come clean, it gets worse, it's more

Get bored
I get bored
I get bored
A wish for the real one

Get bored
Get bored
Get bored
A wish for the real one

:guitar: :guitar:

More of their brand of "sneaker metal", as it was called at the time, featured blistering tracks such as "7 Words" which condemned police brutality. The new rawness and rage was all the deal in 90's metal, which made all the stuff like Slayer and Priest pale in comparison. After all, who had time to learn a guitar solo or write about dragons and demons when the po-po's were blasting their cap guns at you?

7 Words

I'll never be the same, breaking decency
Don't be tree trunk, don't fall on my living roots
I've been humming too many words
Got a weak self esteem
That's been stomped away from every single dream
But it's something else, that brought us feaze
Keep it all inside, until we feel we can't unleash
I think that you made it up
I think that your mind is gone
I think you shouldn't glorified - Now your wrong!

Suck (12x)
They f:censored: with my head
Suck (10x)
Suck it...bitch!!!

You and me are here alone
Face flat along the edge of the glass
But I'm not here to preach, I'm just sick of thugs
My parents made me strong to look up that glass
So why should I try, act like I'm a little pissed off
With all that **** that needs to stay back in the shell
Your **** ass made it up
Ah, your f:censored:ing mind was gone
Should've never glorified - Now your right!

Suck (12x)
They f;censored: with my head
Suck (10x)
Suck it...bitch!!!

Because you don't know me, shut up you don't know me
Squeal like a pig when you big ****in', big ****in'
Aappe!!!

Well I'll tell you about my smoke stack
What's coming back jack we'll turn back
Curse for in their words, Tell them that you ****ing heard
I mean, they know that's what's coming, n:censored:
I thinking 'bout something naughty, and won't tell anybody
So thinking of me by now but you go grab it
I'd like to think, for who I down this s***, I belong where they be
'Cause we can not get back those lives
We exist to cease - understand
God hates blacks shades and all the players
Mr. P.I.G. cause I f***in' see
Sure already done crushed, all of my brothers dignity
And to the jury, can't be no turns on my skin looks colored
Does that mean I'm burnt?
'Cause your f*** ass made it up,
Your f***in' mind was gone
Should've never glorified - Wrong!

Suck! (12x)
They f:censored: with my head
Suck! (10x)
Suck you bitch!
Bye!

:guitar: :guitar:

Nosebleed

No means no lie now find out what you get, you're no good
You'll sit around and throw a f***in' fit
We are here onto you
You're so far, you're f***ing gone

You won't get to me 'til you cover me
I don't need this s*** 'til you cover me

No means no lie now find out what you get, it's so good
You'll sit around and throw a f:censored:in' fit
We are here onto you
Give me more, you f:censored:ing liar

You won't get to me 'til you cover me
I don't need this s*** 'til you cover me

We are here - Mother - in your fear with you
We could be perfect in your world I know

But I will come
I will come
and I will come
Go

I will come
I will come
and I will
come

I will come
I will come
I will come
I will come

Disappear
Disappear
Disappear
Disappear

You won't get to me till you cover me
I don't need this **** f:censored:in' liar

:guitar: :guitar:

Engine No. 9

This ain't no m:censored:kin stick up
Just pick the stick up and watch it roll real close
Rolling out my hand till it cracks to that ****ing dome
Living of the curb that peels you from the curb
I lick the rest off do you dig, many in 93
Been making fools 'bout round, bumping around me
You'll want to run straight from underground
At the best walk the live from the verb
On the beats I won't see your ****in whore
Peers I flow, and mother she
Won't drain herself and won't be caught to live
All live in a big world inside just because
My life is unrise wipe
The lyrical did did

Get straight quickley
Been making fools 'bout round, bumping round me
You'll want to see from underground
When no one else walks the live from the verb
Now come in and see you f:censored:in whore

Peers I flow and mother she
Won't drain herself and won't be caught to live
She did what, she did what, she did what
Just because my life is unrise wipe
The Lyrical did did
Wipe
Did
Last one wipe
Lyrical did

Begin in me because
My psycho wipe
What lyrical did
Stop the :censored:in' wipe
The lyrical did
Big into the wipe
Wipe
Did

:guitar: :guitar:

In the fall of that year, Tool released the hugely successful Aenima, an album which took a few years before seeing the light of day due to legal problems involving their former record label not allowing them to switch to a new one. But it was worth the wait, the band had developed such an anticipation by fans, the suspense was incredible. The album opened with one of their more popular tracks, "Stinkfist", which MTV renamed "Track No. #1" due to alleged "obscene" connotations involving sexual practices. They were allowed to keep the original name for the video when fans began to request it repeatedly. The album cover featured a clever 3-D image which showed a volley of eyes rushing toward the center of the picture.

Perhaps the song title was a take on Frank Zappa's classic, "Stinkfoot"? ;) :lol:

The song opens with Adam Jones' guitar making a surreal "boinking" sound almost like bouncing cartoon sound effects, one of the most familiar intro's of 90's rock:

Stinkfist

Something has to change.
Un-deniable dilemma.
Boredom's not a burden
Anyone should bear.

Constant over stimu-lation numbs me
but I would not want
You any other way.

Cause,
It's not enough.
I need more.
Nothing seems to satisfy.
I said,
I don't want it.
I just need it.
To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

Finger deep within the borderline.
Show me that you love me and that we belong together.
Relax, turn around and take my hand.

I can help you change
Tired moments into pleasure.
Say the word and we'll be
Well upon our way.

Blend and balance
Pain and comfort
Deep within you
Till you will not want me any other way.

But,
It's not enough.
I need more.
Nothing seems to satisfy.
I said,
I don't want it.
I just need it.
To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

Knuckle deep inside the borderline.
This may hurt a little but it's something you'll get used to.
Relax. Slip away.

Something kinda sad about
the way that things have come to be.
Desensitized to everything.
What became of subtlety?

How can this mean anything to me
If I really don't feel anything at all?

I'll keep digging till
I feel something.

Elbow deep inside the borderline.
Show me that you love me and that we belong together.
Shoulder deep within the borderline.
Relax. Turn around and take my hand.

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

This is one of the best songs on the album, however, it takes a while for the music to kick in, but the groove later on is intense:

Eulogy

He had alot to say.
He had alot of nothing to say.
We'll miss him.
We'll miss him.

He had alot to say.
He had alot of nothing to say.
We'll miss him.
We're gonna miss him
We're gonna miss him

So long.
We wish you well.
You told us how you weren't afraid to die.
Well then, so long.
Don't cry.
Or feel too down.
Not all martyrs see divinity.
But at least you tried.

Standing above the crowd,
He had a voice that was strong and loud.
We'll miss him.
We'll miss him.

Ranting and pointing his finger
At everything but his heart.
We'll miss him.
We'll miss him.
We're gonna miss him.
We're gonna miss him.

No way to recall
What it was that you had said to me,
Like I care at all.

But you were so loud.
You sure could yell.
You took a stand on every little thing
And so loud.

"I'm too smart when you're invisible by the bone and the symbol on you. So he bashes his skull through the window while over looking the sea. Twilight amber ego. We were amused by this"

Standing above the crowd,
He had a voice that was strong and loud and I
Swallowed his facade cuz I'm so
Eager to identify with
Someone above the ground,
Someone who seemed to feel the same,
Someone prepared to lead the way, with
Someone who would die for me.

Will you? Will you now?
Would you die for me?
Don't you f:censored:in lie.

Don't you step out of line.
Don't you step out of line.
Don't you step out of line.
Don't you f:censored:in lie.

You've claimed all this time that you would die for me.
Why then are you so surprised when you hear your own
eulogy?

He had alot to say.
He had alot of nothing to say.
He had alot to say.
He had alot of nothing to say.

Come down.
Get off your f:censored:in cross.
We need the f:censored:in space to nail the next fool martyr.

To ascend you must die.
You must be crucified
For our sins and our lies.
Goodbye!!!

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

A vertical view of Tool onstage at Lollapalooza in '97:

Another one of the more popular songs on the album:

H.

What's coming through is alive.
What's holding up is a mirror.
But what's singing songs is a snake
Looking to turn my piss to wine.

They're both totally void of hate,
But killing me just the same.

The snake behind me hisses
What my damage could have been.
My blood before me begs me
Open up my heart again.

And I feel this coming over like a storm again.
Considerately.

Venomous voice, tempts me,
Drains me, bleeds me,
Leaves me cracked and empty.
Drags me down like some sweet gravity.

The snake behind me hisses
What my damage could have been.
My blood before me begs me
Open up my heart again.

And I feel this coming over like a storm again now.
And I feel this coming over like a storm again now.

I am too connected to you
Slip away, fade away.
Days away I still feel you
Touching me, changing me,

Considerately killing me.
Considerately killing me.
Considerately killing me.

Without the skin here,
Beneath the storm.
Under these tears now,
The walls came down.

And the snake is drowned and
As I look in his eyes,
My fear begins to fade
Recalling all of those times.

I could have cried then.
I should have cried then.

And as the walls come down and
As I look in your eyes
My fear begins to fade
Recalling all of the times
I have died
and will die.
It's all right.
(I don't mind)
I don't mind.
I don't mind.
I don't mind.

I am too connected to you
Slip away, fade away.
Days away I still feel you
Touching me, changing me,

Considerately killing me.
Considerately killing me and
Considerately killing me.

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Guitarist Adam Jones with new bassist Justin Chancellor:

Forty-six and 2

My shadow's

Shedding skin and
I've been picking
Scabs again.
I'm down
Digging through
My old muscles
Looking for a clue.

I've been crawling on my belly
Clearing out what could've been.
I've been wallowing in my own confused
And insecure delusions
For a piece to cross me over
Or a word to guide me in.
I wanna feel the changes coming down.
I wanna know what I've been hiding in

My shadow.
Change is coming through my shadow.
My shadow's shedding skin
I've been picking
My scabs again.

I've been crawling on my belly
Clearing out what could've been.
I've been wallowing in my own chaotic
And insecure delusions.

I wanna feel the change consume me,
Feel the outside turning in.
I wanna feel the metamorphosis and
Cleansing I've endured within

My shadow
Change is coming.
Now is my time.
Listen to my muscle memory.
Contemplate what I've been clinging to.
Forty-six and two ahead of me.

I choose to live and to
Grow, take and give and to
Move, learn and love and to
Cry, kill and die and to
Be paranoid and to
Lie, hate and fear and to
Do what it takes to move through.

I choose to live and to
Lie, kill and give and to
Die, learn and love and to
Do what it takes to step through.

See my shadow changing,
Stretching up and over me.
Soften this old armor.
Hoping I can clear the way
By stepping through my shadow,
Coming out the other side.
Step into the shadow.
Forty six and two are just ahead of me.


Maynard Keenan live:

Tool was certainly a band to court controversy. In 1994, when the song "Prison Sex" was released as a single and video, the Canadian branch of the organization MuchMusic (now called FUSE) criticized it as being too graphic, the video directed by guitarist Adam Jones (the video with the skeleton figure too graphic? Did we miss something? :confused: ). The song and video were about band was symbolic of Keenan's childhood rape, but the band was unable to explain about the theme of the video with the organization.

Another incident occured when the band (unknowingly) were invited to play before The Church of Scientology's Celebrity Center in 1993. During the set, once they learned of the nature of their audience, Keenan began baah-ing like a brainless sheep at the crowd! :sheep: Not a fan of religion, especially one considered controlling, cult-like, and manipulative, Keenan and the band made it clear what he thought of the whole lot. (No word if Tom Cruise was in attendence. ;) )

One song on Aenima not posted here is worth noting: "Hooker With a Penis", which comments on Keenan's irritation with the L.A. music industry and the reaction of a sel-righteous "fan" who accused the band of "selling out" by switching to a major label. Keenan pointed out to the fan that he was arrogant, and yes, he did sell out by signing any record deal with anyone in the first place, and that the fan was a hypocrite because he actually bought Tool's albums! Now who was the real sell-out?

The title track spewed Keenan's distaste for L.A.:

Aenima

Some say the end is near.
Some say we'll see armageddon soon.
I certainly hope we will.
I sure could use a vacation from this

Bull**** three ring circus sideshow of
Freaks

Here in this hopeless ****ing hole we call LA
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away.
Any ****ing time. Any ****ing day.
Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona bay.

Fret for your figure and
Fret for your latte and
Fret for your hairpiece and
Fret for your lawsuit and
Fret for your prozac and
Fret for your pilot and
Fret for your contract and
Fret for your car.

It's a
Bull**** three ring circus sideshow of
Freaks

Here in this hopeless ****ing hole we call LA
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away.
Any ****ing time. Any ****ing day.
Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona bay.

Some say a comet will fall from the sky.
Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves.
Followed by faultlines that cannot sit still.
Followed by millions of dumbfounded dip****s.

Some say the end is near.
Some say we'll see armageddon soon.
I certainly hope we will cuz
I sure could use a vacation from this

Silly ****, stupid ****...

One great big festering neon distraction,
I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied.

Learn to swim.

Mom's gonna fix it all soon.
Mom's comin' round to put it back the way it ought to be.

Learn to swim.

**** L Ron Hubbard and
**** all his clones.
**** all those gun-toting
Hip gangster wannabes.

Learn to swim.

**** retro anything.
**** your tattoos.
**** all you junkies and
**** your short memory.

Learn to swim.

**** smiley glad-hands
With hidden agendas.
**** these dysfunctional,
Insecure actresses.

Learn to swim.

Cuz I'm praying for rain
And I'm praying for tidal waves
I wanna see the ground give way.
I wanna watch it all go down.
Mom please flush it all away.
I wanna watch it go right in and down.
I wanna watch it go right in.
Watch you flush it all away.

Time to bring it down again.
Don't just call me pessimist.
Try and read between the lines.

I can't imagine why you wouldn't
Welcome any change, my friend.

I wanna see it all come down.
suck it down.
flush it down.

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

It was hoped that Pantera's follow up to their #1 album on the Billboard charts, Far Beyond Driven, would be as equally successful. But their 1996 album, The Great Southern Trendkill, was a commercial disappointment.
The reason being that it was the other ascendants and usurpers to the metal throne, the nu-metal bands like Korn, emo-screamo's like Deftones, and all things urban. Bands that had very little connection to the long hallowed tradition of metal. But Pantera wore their thrash and classic metal influences proudly. They were not about to change just because the metal scene was changing into Mallternative Nation.

The title said it all: Forget about trends, forget about fads! Dimebag Darrell said in a 1996 Guitar World cover story that music fans and guitarists should trendkill!! Get real, play solos, get intense, don't wallow in rap crap in order to be relevant! Stick to your guns, people will respect you for not changing to please the ignorant masses!! Dime understood that at that time, metal was not at the top as it was some years before. Did he care that MTV was not touching their videos? Hell no!! "MTV ain't gonna make or break Pantera," he said. Not that the exalted musical dreck station was about music, let alone metal anyway, with all the fashion and game shows and that ilk. Dime was just happy just to crack open a cold one and crank up a time-honored classic like Judas Priest's British Steel album, he could find inspiration to no end in that one.

The main track of the new album was "Drag the Waters", about searching for the truth from liars and shady dishonest types. It was a very sinister riff with cool cowbell:

Drag the Waters

A smack on the wrists is the words from the mouth
of the outsiders, lawyers, police
A small price to pay for the dope and the guns
and the rape, it should all be O.K.
Your father is rich, he's the judge, he's the man,
he's the God that got your sentence reduced
But in the back of his mind, he well knows what
he'd find if he looked a little deeper in you - in you

Drag the waters some more
Like never before

Sweet is the slice and the lips - you're gonna have that woman -
she is your favorite lay
Promised you (swore) that no one had been there,
and she was going to keep it that way
Let it move in, you got thin, and got high, and
your money went and so did your friends
But she's by your side, and her smile cannot hide
the premonition of the beckoning end - the end

Drag the waters some more
Like never before

In with it, out with it

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

One of the songs was the first in a two-part song series which featured Dimebag playing brooding acoustic guitar in the track's entirety, a little something different for the band. But this served as a gentle, contrasting opener for the sonic onslaught that would follow. The lyrics were grim and haunting:

Suicide Note Pt. 1

Cheap cocaine, a dry inhale, the pills that kill and take the pain away
Diet of life, shelter without, the face that cannot see inside yours and mine

[Pre]
When I'm hiding, when I need it,
it lets me breathe,
for our handle on this life, I don't believe
this time

[Chorus]
Would you look at me now?
Can you tell I'm a man?
With these scars on my wrists
To prove I'll try again
Try to die again, try to live through this night
Try to die again.....

Forever fooling, free and using,sliding down the slide that breaks a will
Mothers angel, getting smarter, how smart are you to regress unfulfilled?
It's a damn shame, but who's to blame?

[Pre]
[Chorus]

The second part of the song series went into full-on intensity, almost a difficult track to swallow. Many of the tracks were performed in that vein. Noise, intensity, yet controlled, perfectly metal.

Suicide Note Pt. 2

Out of my mind,
gun up to the mouth
No pretension, execution, live and learn , rape and turn
Fret not family,
nor pre-judged army
This is for me,
and me only, cowards only
Try it

[Chorus]
Don't you try to die, like me
It's livid and it's lies and makes graves
Graves descending down

It's not worth the time to try, to replenish a rotting life
I'll end the problem, facing nothing, f*** you off, f*** you all
Tortured history, addict of misery, this exposes me
for weakness is a magnet - watch me do it

[Chorus]

Why would you help anyone who doesn't want it,
doesn't need it, doesn't want your s*** advice
when a mind's made up to go ahead and die?
What's done is done and gone, so why cry?

[Chorus]

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :guitar:

As indicated in the lyrics, Pantera seemed to often draw a sort of far-right element to their concerts and fan base, as well as touch on similar ideology in their themes. Pantera may not have been racist or anti-Semitic, they said, but the same could not be said of their fans. For the record, a photo exists of Dimebag drawing a Star of David onto the shaven scalp of Scott Ian of Anthrax, who is Jewish, with a marking pen. As a joke, Ian playfully scribbled his own cartoon onto Dime.

The photo below shows Phil Anselmo with a tattoo of some sort on his head. Was Phil a skinhead or have those leanings?

13 Steps to Nowhere

Whores
Your windows boarded up,
Your private lives exposed
The talk shows pump it up,
Lab rats diseased for show

We're doomed to use the slang,
Outbreak of drug roulette
A church burned to the ground,
Not even noticed yet

13 Steps (To Nowhere)

Whores

A backwards swastika,
The black skin riddled in lead
A Nazi Gangster Jew,
It beats a dog that's dead

It's in to use the slang,
Outbreak of gun roulette
The cross slants to the side,
Will prove the damnedest yet

13 Steps - Leads to nowhere

The backlash dislocates,
An untimely reign of death
The wolf poked with the stick,
Awaits with cancerous breath

(Leads to nowhere)

Outsiders still suppose,
There's Holy streets to roam
The truth should not surprise,
Your homes were built on lies

13 Steps

The next song features some of the godliest, most majestic riffs in all of rock,
sheer power and beautiful doom. Dimebag's guitar playing is absolutely phenomenal on this song:

Floods

A dead issue,
don't wrestle with it,
deaf ears are sleeping
A guilty bliss,
so inviting (let me in),

nailed to the cross
I feel you, relate to you, accuse you
Wash away us all,
take us with the floods
Then throughout the night, they were raped and executed
Cold hearted world

Your language unheard of,
the vast sound of tuning out
The rash of negativity
is seen one sid edly,

burn away the day
The nervous, the drifting, the heaving
Wash away us all, take us with the floods
Then throughout the day mankind played with grenades
Cold hearted world
And at night they might bait the pentagram
Extinguishing the sun
Wash away man, take him with the floods

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

The Confederate flag on Dime's Washburn indicates his Southern roots:

Here is the title track which tears the phony jump-on-the-bandwagon scene a new one:

The Great Southern Trendkill

It's wearing on my mind,
I'm speaking all my doubts aloud
You rob a dead mans grave,
Then flaunt it like you did create

If I hit bottom and everythings gone
In the great Mississippi, please drown me and run

It's digging time again,
you're nurturing the weakest trend

Those with the heart and the brain to get past this
Can spot a pathetic without even asking

F:censored: your magazine,
and f:censored the long dead plastic scene
Pierce a new hole,
if Hell was "in" you'd give your soul

THE GREAT SOUTHERN TRENDKILL
That's right,
THE GREAT SOUTHERN TRENDKILL

Buy it at a store,
from MTV to on the floor
You look just like a star,
it's proof you don't know who you are

If I hit bottom and everythings gone
In the great Mississippi, please drown me and run

It's bulls:censored: time again,
you'll save the world within your trend

Those with the heart and the brain to get past this
Can spot a pathetic without even asking

Politically relieved,
you're product sold and well received
The right words spoken gold,
if I was God you'd sell your soul to...

THE GREAT SOUTHERN TRENDKILL
That's right,
THE GREAT SOUTHERN TRENDKILL

White Zombie came back with another dazzling assortment of their shock trash culture anthems on their followup album Astro-Creep 2000, released in late 1995. The album was a bit more danceable than most things which passed for metal (but contained no rap). Some songs even contained samples of porn movies for that added touch of decadence. The band even went on a summer tour with Pantera, and according to reports, White Zombie stole the show, perhaps for the monster-movie sleaze image kitch factor. Plus you could dance to it!

Electric Head Part 1 (The Agony)

We all go down for the sacrificial moment
Crucifixion nails stain the bed of the holy.
Space thing blues diamond studded - sugar coated
Well, I am hell a miracle overloading

[Chorus:]
Turn me on yeah
Electric head - all over
Turn me on yeah
Electric head - all over

We all go down for the God of the moment
Super demon seed running wild and below and
Head trip news turn a trick to the flow and
Sugarland Express what you know and
Get inside get in there
Evil in your eyes baby I don't care
Get inside get in there
See the flesh falling everywhere

[Chorus]

Get inside get in there
Evil in your eyes baby I don't care
Get inside get in there
See the flesh falling everywhere

[Chorus]

We all go down for a piece of the moment
Watch another burn to the death to the core
And the roadshow thrills pack the freaks and the phonies
Sing: now is now, yeah! All I ever wanted

[Chorus]

After more than a quarter century with Genesis, Phil Collins decided to quit the group and pursue his solo career full time. Why not? He'd recorded five hit solo albums, he'd toured successfully on his own, and he'd gotten fellows like Eric Clapton to appear on his records. It seemed appropriate at this juncture for Collins to take the plunge.

Then he released Dance Into the Light in 1996.

http://www.tprice.net/disco/collins/dance.jpg

Collins's sixth solo album, which featured a cover of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" - :eek: - was a wet noodle on the pop charts, only going gold. Maybe it was because Collins didn't put a closeup photo of his face on the cover this time? More liely, it was because his sound hadn't changed and tastes did. See how much grunge changed popular music? :lol:

Meanwhile, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks were continuing as Genesis, putting together a new album with - heavens to Betsy! - a new lead singer. Would Collins's departure prove to be a costly mistake? Or would the next Genesis album suck just as much? We'll get to that in 1997. :D

Electric Head Part 2 (The Ecstasy)

Strip down core violate and paralyze
Flood my soul a coffee dreg - supersize
Slung low like a whore - yeah
Devil want some more - yeah
Cupid bought a gun - he gonna blow the ****er

Yeah - I want it
Yeah - I need it
Yeah - I love it
Yeah - Electric Head
In your head
In your head - in you!

Breakneck speed get a violent spinal crack'n
Back down to the chrome and feel the death wish
attack'n
Hupcaps on your eyes -yeah
Cannot sympathize - yeah
A fistful of hair and a splinter in the mind

Yeah - I want it
Yeah - I need it
Yeah - I love it
Yeah - Electric Head
In your head
In your head - in you!

Too far gone see the freak apologize
Flood my soul a coffee dreg - supersize
Slung low like a whore - yeah
Devil want some more - yeah
Cupid bought a gun - he gonna blow the ****er

Yeah - I want it
Yeah - I need it
Yeah - I love it
Yeah - Electric Head
In your head
In your head - in you!

:rock: :guitar: :banana: :mango:

The next danceable track takes its title from the sci-fi cult classic film Blade Runner, about life-like androids called Replicants:

More Human Than Human

Yeah I am the astro-
Creep a demolition
Style hell american
Freak yeah - I am the
Crawling dead - a
Phantom in a box
Shadow in your
Head say acid
Suicide freedom
Of the blast read
The :censored:er lies yeah -
Scratch off the -
Broken skin - tear
Into my heart make
Me do it again yeah
yeah

More Human Than Human (6 times)

Yeah I am the jigsaw
Man I turn the
World around
With a skeleton hand say -
I am electric head a cannibal galore a
Television said
Yeah do not victimize
Read the mother
F:censored:r-psychoholic lies yeah -
Into a psychic war I
Tear my soul
Apart and I
Eat it some more yeah
Yeah

More Human Than Human (6x)

I am the ripper
Man a locomotion
Mind love american
Style yeah I am
The nexus one I
Want more life
F:censored:r I ain't
Done - yeah

More Human Than Human (8x)

:rock: :guitar: :banana: :mango:

Sean Yseault live:

:cool:

Naturally with a band like White Zombie, many people in the country took their theatrical schtick a little too seriously. Because of the sex and horror references in their music, graphics and stage show, many thought they were a "Satanic" metal band. Their concerts were banned in many parts of the country, and their lyrics were censored at many fine Wal-mart outlets. For the song below, they had to assure the spoken Latin part had no "objectionable words", but the band explained it was movie dialogue from a priest's heresy trial spoken in Latin.

Super-charger Heaven

(look I know the supernatural is something that isn’t supposed to happen, but it does happen...)

Jesus lived his life in a cheap hotel on the edge of route 66, yeah!
He lived a dark and twisted life and he came right back just to do it again!
Eye for and eye and a tooth for the truth - I ain’t never seen a demon warp deal’n
A ring-a-ding rhythm or jukebox racket - my mind can’t clutch the feeling, yeah!

Devilman - devilman, calling devilman running my head, yeah!
Devilman - devilman, calling devilman running my head, yeah!

Hell hounds leap at the cowardly kings and carry souls across the river Styx, yeah!
They see no evil and feel no pain, sucking juice from a fallen angel!
I dreamed I was a super nova f:censored:er nitro-burning and fuel injection!
Feed the godz a strychnine soul - a mother:censored:r of invention!

(Woman moaning in porn flick SFX)
YEAH!!!!!!!!!!
Devilman - devilman, calling devilman running my head, yeah!
Devilman - devilman, calling devilman running my head, yeah!

(Latin utterances in statements of heresy trial spoken)
(it is not heresy, and I will not recant!)

Yeah, inbreed the witches and worship the dogs - deformed and f:censored:’n lazy!
Damn yourself and choke on my name I’d love to love ya baby!
Deadringer rats swinging in the trees - immaculate conception
Bury me an angel, god, I need some inspiration! yeah!

(woman moans again SFX)
YEAH!!!!!!!!!

Devilman - devilman, calling devilman running my head, yeah!
Devilman - devilman, calling devilman running my head, yeah!

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Rob Zombie won an Emmy for directing the video for "More Human than Human". He also got to appear with his idol Alice Cooper in an episode of "The X Files", which was a dream come true.

I Zombie

I Zombie cancer raging
I Zombie fascinating
I Zombie crucify
I Zombie do not die

Astro : 2000

I Zombie kill machine
I Zombie never seen
I Zombie never you
I Zombie coming through

Astro : 2000

I Zombie duplicating
I Zombie eliminating
I Zombie :censored:ing you
I Zombie never through

Astro : 2000

Guitarist J.:

A White Zombie T-shirt. Get yers today!!!!! :rock:

If you want another cool name of a song from this album, try "El Phantasmo and the Chicken Run Blast-o-Rama". :cool:

Grease Paint and Monkey Brains

Death is on the Midway
Gambling with souls
Roulette on the wire
Ace is in the hole
I sink beneath the feeling
Moon is in my hands
A crooked wheel of Twenty-One
I just don't understand - NO!
Laugh - Yeah - Drown and Laugh
Your life is over

If God is the dealer
why do we never win?
A bloody mix of silk and mud
that starts all over again
NO - Laugh - Yeah -
Drown and Laugh -
Your life is over!!
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Clowns - they scare
The children
Roll around the
The ring - The
Animals they
Wanna kill
Anyone - Anything
Laugh - Yeah
Drown and
Laugh -
Your life is over!!


http://members.tripod.com/sc_supernatural/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/whitezombie.jpg

Also that year, White Zombie released a remix of some of Astro-Creep's tracks for a disk that has the greatest album cover in all of the history of recorded music: the album Supersexy Swingin' Sounds, which featured a pinup model from a 60's girlie magazine. :grineyes: The album was remixed by some of the industry's best dj's and showed that rock and metal albums could feature good dance tracks and that remixes did not have to suck, as many had in the past.

Did anyone REALLY buy it for the music? ;)

:guitar: :banana: :mango:

One of the biggest shows on television at that time was 'The X Files', which featured David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as two FBI agents who investigated claims of the paranormal and cases involving aliens and other strange occurrences. Duchovny's character Fox Mulder was a "believer" in extra-terrestrials, who became a devoted inquirer after the mysterious abduction of his younger sister when he was a boy. Anderson's character Dana Scully, the scientific "agnostic" assisted him, and while she did not share in his otherworldly beliefs, solved many cases with him.

The thread through the story was a secret conspiracy within the government to join forces with a sinister group of alien intelligences who planned to take over the world. Mulder's search for his sister was directly tied in with uncovering this conspiracy. He found many obstacles and opposition from such shadowy figures as "The Cigarette Smoking Man", a double agent who sought to thwart his efforts. Generally the head of the FBI bureau tolerated Mulder's pursuit of the truth (hence the episode's opening caption "The Truth is out there") but when push came to a shove, often times Mulder was shut down temporarily when he closed on various parts of the puzzle.

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully:

Fox Mulder's Poster:

David Duchovny:

William B. Davis as the Cigarette Smoking Man:

Shock waves rocked the music world again when that summer, it was announced that KISS would be reuniting with their former members: Ace Frehley and Peter Criss were returning to the fold! :eek: The reunion was supposedly brought together when KISS, with current members Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer, were joined onstage at an MTV Unplugged episode with Ace and Peter for an acoustic version of "Rock and Roll All Night". The event was light-hearted and chummy, but it spelled darker things for the non-original members. Soon it became official, the classic lineup was getting back together and Kulick and Singer, who had put so many years together with the band, were put on hold indefinitely. They soon found that they were officially let go. :(

The reason for the reunion was actually for more practical reasons: No one would book KISS for tours. Instead, KISS Conventions were held all across the country where fans could examine KISS memorabilia and even win a signed ESP guitar from Bruce. But they were losing money, which was not good news for Gene Simmons, one of rock's Diamond Jims, so the only way to keep the cash flow rolling was simple: Bring back the band in its classic lineup. Now fans not even born during the band's 70's heyday could enjoy them with their parents--who might have even had their young'uns conceived in the back seat of dad's Chevy while cranking up "Love Gun" or "Beth".

Unfortunately, the reunion was not a one-for-all, all-for-one proposition. Knowing of the problems that led to Ace and Peter's exit from the band some years before (involving money and egos), Gene and Paul, the head members of the band chose to put Ace and Peter on a salary. Experience told Gene and Paul that the two raucous upstarts of the band were not the most responsible with their bucks, so the money was split 20-80 between the head characters, Gene and Paul taking the 80% and Ace and Peter taking the 20% of the earnings. Paul explained that Gene and himself were the drivers, and Ace and Peter were the passengers. Ace and Peter were not very happy about the arrangement, but they should have felt fortunate that they were receiving the biggest exposure, for a second time, in their careers. Besides, the money they were receiving was still very lucrative. Shows and merchandise were selling out like hash-filled hotcakes.

The band chose to return to their Love Gun-era costumes:

Description of the KISS Reunion concerts 1996-1997:

KISS finally announced a reunion tour in April 1996, something KISS fans had been waiting for a very long time! The tour started in June 1996, and for that KISS had gathered the largest show they had ever toured with!
The stage (seen in picture 1) was not too impressive at first sight, just a bunch of amplifiers, a great amount of lights, a video wall and a new logo. But once the show got underway it would reveal how impressive it actually was.

The show was more or less the best from all previous shows, done in the usual over-the-top KISS manner, and the amount of fireworks used in the show had been increased enormously. But let's take the show step by step: The show actually started even before the band was on the stage. During the final sound check (which would be The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" blasted from the speakers), a large black curtain would be lowered to hide the stage. An enormous KISS logo was printed on the curtain, but that was only revealed when the stage lights was turned on behind it.
Then the house lights would be dimmed, and the familiar humming sound (first introduced on the 1985-86 Asylum Tour) would come from the speakers. This would continue for a time, while purple search lights were going around the arena!
Then for the first time since the Crazy Nights Tour, the much missed "You wanted the best, you got the best" introduction was heard. After the introduction KISS played a few bars of Deuce still hidden by the curtain, which would drop with a loud explosion... and there they were: Peter, Paul, Gene and Ace in full make-up and costumes.
At first the stage looked very bare... this was because the main part of the amplifier wall was lying down at the beginning of the show. During the opening of King Of The Night Time World, the amplifiers would be pushed up in up-right position, and suddenly the stage looked more complete.
The first thing most fans noticed however was the new logo. This was brighter than any other logo's KISS had ever used, and could run many different light patterns (as seen in picture 2).

The show would follow the usual patterns... in Firehouse the stage fills with smoke, sirens wails, emergency lights flashed, and Gene walked out with a torch and blew fire.
This was often followed by Shock Me, in which Ace had his solo.
He played the solo like he had in the '70's, and used the effects introduced on the Dynasty Tour in 1979: first he played on the smoking guitar, which would then be hanged from a hook, and "fly" into the lightning truss. The Ace would come out with the rocket firing guitar (picture 3), and shoot rockets hitting the stage lights, where they would explode. During the tour another effect was added to this part of the show: after Ace sends the last rocket into the lighting rig, the explosion would rip a light off, which would fall a few feet before hanging dangling from a wire. Awesome effect, because it looked real!

Later Gene would do his famous bass solo... he would appear on the left side of the stage, bathed in sickly green lights. Thunder would be heard from the speakers, while Gene started to strike the strings of his bass.
Then Gene would spit the fake blood in his mouth, and "fly" into the lightning rig (picture 4). This was an effect also used in the Dynasty show in 1979.
Standing on a platform high above the crowd (circled in on picture 5), Gene would sing God Of Thunder, before being lowered down, just before Peter's drumsolo.
As you can also see in picture 5, the lightning rig held the main part of the pyrotechnics effects. In this case the flamethrowers.

Set list:
(First US leg):

1. Deuce
2. King Of The Night Time World
3. Do You Love Me
4. Calling Dr. Love
5. Cold Gin
6. I Stole Your Love
7. Shout It Out Loud
8. Watchin´ You
9. Firehouse
10. Shock Me (incl. guitar solo)
11. Strutter
12. Rock Bottom
13. God Of Thunder (incl. bass- and drum solos)
14. New York Groove
15. Love Gun
16. 100.000 Years
17. Black Diamond

Encores:
18. Detroit Rock City
19. Beth
20. Rock And Roll All Nite


Other songs occasionally played:
Nothin' to lose


Set list
(Europe '96)

1. Deuce
2. King Of The Night Time World
3. Do You Love Me
4. Calling Dr. Love
5. Cold Gin
6. Watchin´ You
7. Firehouse
8. I Stole Your Love
9. Shock Me (incl. guitar solo)
10. Let Me Go, Rock ´n Roll
11. Shout It Out Loud
12. I Was Made For Lovin´ You
13. C’mon And Love Me
14. God Of Thunder (incl. bass- and drum solos)
15. New York Groove
16. Love Gun
17. 100.000 Years
18. Black Diamond

Encores:
19. Detroit Rock City
20. Beth
21. Rock And Roll Nite


Set list
(Lost Cities Tour/Europe '97)

1. Deuce
2. King Of The Night Time World
3. Let Me Go, Rock ’n Roll
4. Do You Love Me
5. Firehouse
6. Watchin’ You
7. Shock Me (incl. guitar solo)
8. Calling Dr. Love
9. Shout It Out Loud
10. Love Gun
11. Cold Gin
12. I Was Made For Lovin’ You
13. God Of Thunder (incl. bass- and drum solos)
14. New York Groove
15. 100.000 Years
16. Black Diamond

Encores:
17. Detroit Rock City
18. Beth
19. Rock And Roll All Nite

Other songs occasionally played:
2.000 Man, Shandi and Christine Sixteen

More description of the concert (written by a third party):

During most of the show, whenever the band needed an explosion (during songs like I Stole Your Love, and I Was Made For Lovin' You) some kind of pyroeffect would correspond with this from the top of the lightning rig.
The flamethrowers used on this tour was not like those used in the '70's. Those were gasburners, while these were chemical based flash pots.

These were also used on the stage during 100.000 Years... as you can see from picture 6, these weren't quite as impressive looking as the originals, but they created a great effect nonetheless!!

Just like all other good things, even a KISS show must come to an end, and with KISS it ended with a bang!
The Reunion shows would usually end with Black Diamond. This started with Paul playing a short solo, bathed in purple light, and a mirror ball hanging over him flashing thin light beams all over the arena.
The song ends almost like it's heard on Alive! with tons of explosions. While this goes on, Gene, Paul and Ace were hovering above the crowd on two cherry pickers. This was the '90's version of the Love Gun effect, where hydraulic lifts would hoist the three members high above the stage also during this song (picture 7). However, the cherry pickers were cheaper, and more useful... the lightning crew also used them.
And no KISS show with the four original members would be complete without Peter's drumkit rising high above the stage and of course it did (picture 8).
As you can see, two golden cats was revealed as the drumkit started to "fly".
What you can't see, is that the cats had flashing green eyes.

KISS added a few effects during the tour. The most significant addition was Paul's flying stunt, which was introduced during the Lost Cities tour in March-April '97. The flying stunt was something Paul had tried to do in many years... as far as I remember they had talked about it, as early as in 1979.
But finally they worked the stunt out (as seen in picture 9). Paul would introduce Love Gun, and ask the audience if they wanted him to come out there (I wonder what he would have done, if the answer had been a resounding "NO"? But, off course, it never was!).
Paul's transporter would then arrive on stage (there were two versions of the stunt; one for indoor arena's, and one for outdoor venues... the one shown in picture 9 is the indoor version), and then Paul would "fly" over the crowd to a platform out in the arena (for stadium shows he would land on the mixing tower).
Here he would sing Love Gun before traveling back to the stage where he would "shoot" with his guitar into the lightning rig, while a large amount of pyro's would go off!

Something entirely new introduced on this tour was the inflatables (picture 10). These were supposedly very hard to make stand up, and couldn't be used whenever the weather was bad. Sometimes they were standing inside the arena's (beside the stage, which they did at the first show in Detroit's Tiger Stadium), but mostly they were standing outside the stadiums (funnily enough not at any of the three shows I saw!).
There are two more things I want to mention about the Reunion tour, two one-off instances...
First there was the show in Atlanta, GA., USA on October 1st, 1996.
On this night they dropped balloons over the audience, in addition to the usual confetti, as you can see here on picture 11.
The reason behind the balloons are unknown, but as the two shows in Atlanta was filmed for a possible live video, that was maybe to make things look better for the people watching at home! The home video never materialized, but the segment with the balloons was part of the "Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve" TV show (which could also be the reason behind the decision behind the use of the balloons).


Last thing I want to bring up about the Reunion tour is the April 5th 1997 show in Columbus, OH., USA. Peter had been complaining about pain in his arms, probably due to a long tour and an aging body.
Anyway, Peter wasn't able to lift his arms on April 5th, and KISS had to make a hasty decision: cancel the show or replace Peter?
As the doors had already been opened, it was decided to put Peter's drumtech Eddie Kanon into Peter's costume and make-up and have him perform instead. The show went on, and Paul announced the change after King Of The Night Time World. Afterwards the internet was buzzing with rumors, but in general most fans at the show seemed happy that the band played instead of canceling the show.
A bootleg video of the show has since emerged, which reveals that while Eddie's drumming was a bit off at some points, he did a very admirable job (picture 12)!

During most of the show, whenever the band needed an explosion (during songs like I Stole Your Love, and I Was Made For Lovin' You) some kind of pyroeffect would correspond with this from the top of the lightning rig.
The flamethrowers used on this tour was not like those used in the '70's. Those were gasburners, while these were chemical based flash pots.

These were also used on the stage during 100.000 Years... as you can see from picture 6, these weren't quite as impressive looking as the originals, but they created a great effect nonetheless!!

Just like all other good things, even a KISS show must come to an end, and with KISS it ended with a bang!
The Reunion shows would usually end with Black Diamond. This started with Paul playing a short solo, bathed in purple light, and a mirror ball hanging over him flashing thin light beams all over the arena.
The song ends almost like it's heard on Alive! with tons of explosions. While this goes on, Gene, Paul and Ace were hovering above the crowd on two cherry pickers. This was the '90's version of the Love Gun effect, where hydraulic lifts would hoist the three members high above the stage also during this song (picture 7). However, the cherry pickers were cheaper, and more useful... the lightning crew also used them.
And no KISS show with the four original members would be complete without Peter's drumkit rising high above the stage and of course it did (picture 8).
As you can see, two golden cats was revealed as the drumkit started to "fly".
What you can't see, is that the cats had flashing green eyes.

KISS added a few effects during the tour. The most significant addition was Paul's flying stunt, which was introduced during the Lost Cities tour in March-April '97. The flying stunt was something Paul had tried to do in many years... as far as I remember they had talked about it, as early as in 1979.
But finally they worked the stunt out (as seen in picture 9). Paul would introduce Love Gun, and ask the audience if they wanted him to come out there (I wonder what he would have done, if the answer had been a resounding "NO"? But, off course, it never was!).
Paul's transporter would then arrive on stage (there were two versions of the stunt; one for indoor arena's, and one for outdoor venues... the one shown in picture 9 is the indoor version), and then Paul would "fly" over the crowd to a platform out in the arena (for stadium shows he would land on the mixing tower).
Here he would sing Love Gun before traveling back to the stage where he would "shoot" with his guitar into the lightning rig, while a large amount of pyro's would go off!

Something entirely new introduced on this tour was the inflatables (picture 10). These were supposedly very hard to make stand up, and couldn't be used whenever the weather was bad. Sometimes they were standing inside the arena's (beside the stage, which they did at the first show in Detroit's Tiger Stadium), but mostly they were standing outside the stadiums (funnily enough not at any of the three shows I saw!).
There are two more things I want to mention about the Reunion tour, two one-off instances...
First there was the show in Atlanta, GA., USA on October 1st, 1996.
On this night they dropped balloons over the audience, in addition to the usual confetti, as you can see here on picture 11.
The reason behind the balloons are unknown, but as the two shows in Atlanta was filmed for a possible live video, that was maybe to make things look better for the people watching at home! The home video never materialized, but the segment with the balloons was part of the "Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve" TV show (which could also be the reason behind the decision behind the use of the balloons).


Last thing I want to bring up about the Reunion tour is the April 5th 1997 show in Columbus, OH., USA. Peter had been complaining about pain in his arms, probably due to a long tour and an aging body.
Anyway, Peter wasn't able to lift his arms on April 5th, and KISS had to make a hasty decision: cancel the show or replace Peter?
As the doors had already been opened, it was decided to put Peter's drumtech Eddie Kanon into Peter's costume and make-up and have him perform instead. The show went on, and Paul announced the change after King Of The Night Time World. Afterwards the internet was buzzing with rumors, but in general most fans at the show seemed happy that the band played instead of canceling the show.
A bootleg video of the show has since emerged, which reveals that while Eddie's drumming was a bit off at some points, he did a very admirable job (picture 12)!

The previous article mentioned that drummer Peter Criss was having problems doing the tour due to physical ailments such as aging. It was reported that he was even suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome--but inside reports said that he was actually suffering from the dissatisfaction of being paid what he felt he was worth...He went MIA from a few shows while his drum tech slapped on the cat clown makeup and took his place on the drum riser for the shows. Fans could tell the difference, and Paul Stanley admitted onstage that Criss' drum tech was filling his spot. The fans applauded, and the concert went on without a hitch. The band had a long discussion with Peter, which he agreed to, and soon the group's resident Catman was back in the catbird (drum) seat. :drummer:

Before the original members of Kiss reunited in 1996, they tried reuniting under their original persona and name. . . .


PSYCHIC TOMATO!!!!!!

:lol:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/community/carnival/carnival_gallery/images/carnival_people1.jpg

(Psychic Tomato, ready to take on St. Cloud, Minnesota, again.)

Yes, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, and Strom Thurmond (the former and future Ace Frehley) had once again put on the clown suits to play the kindergarten music they really loved, and not that stoo-pid heavy metal stuff. In December 1995, they returned to the legendary club where they honed their dubious musical skills, the Benihana of Tokyo in St. Cloud, Minnesota. (Too bad it had become a Sambo's and was now a burned-out hulk of a building.) So they rented the local VFW hall there and rehearsed for half an hour (rentals were expensive) performing their legendary tunes, "Sponge Cake," "Pie In the Face," "Ode to a Cucumber," and the haunting "Gimme Back My Muffins." Plus, they debuted two new Tomato songs, "Washabubu" and "I Like My Pants."

They then put on a show in Fargo, North Dakota, where Debra Messing, whose fifth birthday party they performed at, attended. Everything was going groovy, until, once again, Neil Bogert stepped in. He told Psychic Tomato that if they were going to reunite at all, it would have to be as Kiss, because no one other than Debra Messing would care. This was astonishing, as Neil Bogert had been dead for fourteen years. Plus, he promised to haunt them if they didn't listen to him! :eek:

(As of 1996, there was still no word on the whereabouts of their original manager, Freddy DeMint, but it had been rumored that he was working as a living statue of Buddha in Omaha. :confused: )

http://www.moviestarsmovies.com/Images/DebraMessing.jpg

(Debra Messing, president of the Psychic Tomato fan club - in fact, she is the Psychic Tomato fan club! :rofl: )

P.S. If you believed everything I said in that last post, you're crazier than I am! :lol:

That summer I got to see the Reunion concert when it made its way through the Pacific Northwest, in Tacoma, WA. at the Tacoma Dome, and while the show wasn't a total sellout, it had a huge number in attendance. Not only were there annoying anti-rock street preachers preaching hellfire and brimstone for people going to such a satanic event (they seemed to show up only certain rock shows, but not for country or pop... :rolleyes: ), there were TONS of gorgeous women dressed to the nines (or should I say, to the 4 1/2's!! :grineyes: ) and a Gene Simmons impersonator!! The tall inflatable KISS standup figures were there as well.

The show was opened by industrial alternative band Stabbing Westward, who were pretty good. One quarter of the Dome was closed off for a KISS merchandise section, but the rest of the place was packed. And when the P.A. played "Won't Get Fooled Again", you knew it was time!! The lights went down and the band came on in their full glory, playing "Deuce" and "King of the Night Time World". Before launching into "Cold Gin", Paul gave a little warning about people partying too hearty, "we want to see you here again next time, so be careful out there!" It may not have been "rock and roll", but as teatotallers as he and Gene have been, it made sense, especially when you have two notorious drinkers in the band like Ace and Peter. Paul did relate a story which Ace asked backstage, is this Seattle or Tacoma? So Paul got the crowd into chanting who was from Tacoma or from Seattle. It was also funny that each time the crowd stood up on chairs for a better view, security told them to sit down. The crowd was having too good of a time!! Gene went through his macabre gestures playing a bass solo before "God of Thunder", and then FLEW THROUGH THE AIR up to the top of the lighting rig!! Amazing!! At the end of "God of Thunder", Peter played his drum solo, but even though it was decent, it wasn't up to what he used to play on the live albums. Showing his age? He also came out to sing "Beth", and he showed that he is quite a short individual. At the end of "Black Diamond" the band went on risers, including the cat drum riser, and explosions from fire pots actually SET THE CEILING ON FIRE!! :eek: After a few minutes house crews put out the fire, and the band came out for encores! Paul thanked the crowd for sticking around, and launched into "Detroit Rock City" and "Rock and Roll All Night". There was more to the concert than described (read about it all on the proceeding pages), but this was one of the best times I ever had seeing KISS! Next to seeing them in 1977, 1979, and I would then see them in 1997 in Seattle. :rock:

KISS was the top-grossing tour for 1996. :cool:

If church brigades and anti-rock zealots found the time to harangue audiences for attending concerts by rockers many considered past their prime, they would have their hands full by the furor (Fuhrer?) unleashed by the album by Marilyn Manson in the fall of that year. Produced by Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, it was a pure statement of purpose, it would become every parents' nightmare that would confirm everything evil about rock and roll (as other bands and albums had in the past). This time it was the former Brian Warner's turn, the young Christian school reject who feared the rise of the future malevolent world leader prophecied in the Book of Revelation--now was his time to rise on his new persona on the album:

ANTICHRIST SUPERSTAR.

:eek2:

On the album Manson portrayed himself as a rock and roll Reichsfuhrer to a T:

Irresponsible Hate Anthem

I am so all-american, I'd sell you suicide
I am totalitarian, I've got abortions in my eyes
I hate the hater, I'd rape the raper
I am the animal who will not be himself
f*** it (x4)
Hey victim, should I black your eyes again?
Hey victim,
you were the one who put the stick in my hand
I am the ism, my hate's a prism
let's just kill everyone and let your god sort them out
f:*** it (x4)
Everybody's someone else's n*****/I know you are so am I
I wasn't born with enough middle fingers/
I don't need to choose a side
I better, better, better, better not say this
better, better, better, better not tell
better, better, better, better not say this
better, better, better, better not tell
I hate the hater, I'd rape the raper
I am the idiot who will not be himself
f:censored: it(x4)
Everybody's someone else's n:censored:/I know you are so am I
I wasn't born with enough middle fingers/
I don't need to choose a side
America can not see anything (x4)

AGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
f:censored: it (x4)
F:censored: (x3)
Everybody's someone else's n:censored:/I know you are so am I
I wasn't born with enough middle fingers/
I don't need to choose a side

Here, on Marilyn Manson's best-known song, he lashes out at "normal" persons in society, the ones with influence, power and control. Those who found his act ugly, repulsive and corrupting failed to see their own ugliness and corruption. His act and his very name capitalized on society's obsession with sex, death and celebrity status.

It took a long while to release the album, due to Manson's experiments with sleep deprivation and drugs in order to fuel creativity and create the proper dark mood for the album. Original guitarist Daisy Berkowitz left the band durign recording, and the remaining guitarist Twiggy Ramirez remained to do the guitar parts. For the upcoming tour, the band found a guitarist by the name of Zim Zum, who was not named for supermodels or serial killers, but took his name from the Jewish mystical sect of Kabbalah.

The Beautiful People

I don't want ya and I don't need ya
don't bother to resist or I'll beat ya
It's not your fault that you're always wrong
the weak ones are there to justify the strong

the beautiful people, the beautiful people
it's all relative to the size of your steeple
you can't see the forest for the trees
and you can't smell your own s:censored: on your knees

there's no time to discriminate,
hate every mother:censored:r
that's in your way

(chorus)
Hey you, what do ya see?
something beautiful, something free?
hey you, are you trying to be mean?
you live with apes man, it's hard to be clean

the worms will live in every host
it's hard to pick which one they eat the most

the horrible people, the horrible people
it's as anatomic as the size of your steeple
capitalism has made it this way,
old-fashioned fascism will take it away

(chorus)

there's no time to discriminate,
hate every mother:censored:r
that's in your way

The beautiful people x8

(chorus x2)

The Beautiful People x8

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Manson described the album as a "musical ritual to bring about the Apocalypse", and for many, he had pretty much lived up to those expectations, being that the decade was so close to the Millenium. Not for a long while had rock and roll had a shocking, dark, theatrical character to upset the masses, from Jim Morrison to Alice Cooper to Ozzy, and now Marilyn Manson. While the other performers attained some level of respectability due to becoming classic rock icons, Manson was going to wreak havok for the 90's.

As the Dead to the World tour was getting underway, in December 1996, a press conference was called by "morals czar" William J. Bennett, Senator Joseph Lieberman, and activist C. DeLores Tucker, aimed at MCA, the owner of Interscope Records which released Manson's albums. Calling several albums released by the label — including Antichrist Superstar — "profane", "violent", "filth", and "crap", the group questioned MCA president Edgar Bronfman's ability to head the label compentently while profiting from such material. In addition, the tour itself was followed by protesters at nearly every venue it visited. The band's March 10, 1997 performance in Columbia, South Carolina was cancelled "in response to growing public pressure by religious, civic and political leaders who criticized the group's image"[4]. The owner of Calgary's Max Bell Centre had Marilyn Manson's July 25 show cancelled, citing "immorality" and the band's "use of animals on stage." Another concert in Portland was cancelled a few days later due to Manson's reputation, and the venue's inability to get insurance for the gig. That November 6, U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management and Restructuring held a public hearing on the effect of violent rock and rap lyrics on youths. Supporters of the band claim it was merely another salvo in Senator Lieberman's declared war on the band. The hearing, chaired by Representative Sam Brownback, featured the testimony of Lieberman and Tucker, and of Raymond Kuntz, of Burlington, North Dakota, who blamed his son's suicide on Antichrist Superstar, which Lieberman denounced as "vile, hateful, nihilistic and damaging".

America's Culture Wars had a new headache--and its name was Marilyn Manson.

Man That You Fear

the ants are in the sugar
the muscles atrophied
we're on the other side, the screen is us and we're t.v.
spread me open,
sticking to my pointy ribs
are all your infants in abortion cribs
I was born into this
everything turns to s:censored:
the boy that you loved is the man that you fear
pray until your number,
asleep from all your pain,
your apple has been rotting
tomorrow's turned up dead
i have it all and i have no choice but to
i'll make everyone pay and you will see
you can kill yourself now
because you're dead
in my mind
the boy that you loved is the monster you fear
peel off all those eyes and crawl into the dark,
you've poisoned all of your children to camouflage your scars
pray unto the splinters, pray unto your fear
pray your life was just a dream
the cut that never heals
pray now baby, pray your life was just a dream
(I am so tangled in my sins that I cannot escape)
pinch the head off, collapse me like a weed
someone had to go this far
I was born into this
everything turns to s:censored:
the boy that you loved is the man that you fear
peel off all those eyes and crawl into the dark,
you've poisoned all of your children to camouflage your scars
pray unto the splinters, pray unto your fear
pray your life was just a dream
the cut that never heals
pray now baby, pray your life was just a dream
the world in my hands, there's no one left to hear you scream
there's no one left for you
when all your wishes are granted many of your dreams will be destroyed

Manson felt that good and evil, darkness and light existed in all, especially the pop culture icons and idols we adored and vilified. Marilyn Monroe had a dark side, he explained, and Charles Manson had a thoughtful, intelligent side.
The religious right, church brigades and conservatives failed to see that Marilyn Manson was rather quite intelligent and outspoken, and were unaware that as shocking as his theatrical act onstage and on his album was, it was in fact a damning commentary on the state of affairs in today's warped culture. The album seemed to take on the tone of Pink Floyd's The Wall with its parody of demagoguery (of which there was plenty in the 90's) and fascism.

Antichrist Superstar

You built me up with your wishing hell
I didn't have to sell you
You threw your money in the pissing well
You do just what they tell you

REPENT, that's what I'm talking about
I shed the skin to feed the fake
REPENT, that's what I'm talking about
Whose mistake am i anyway?

Cut the head off
Grows back hard
I am the hydra
Now you'll see your star

P rick your finger it is done
The moon has now eclipsed the sun
Angel has spread its wings
The time has come for bitter things
P rick your finger it is done
The moon has now eclipsed the sun
Angel has spread its wings
The time has come for bitter things

REPENT, that's what he's talking about
I shed the skin to feed the fake
REPENT, that's what he's talking about
Whose mistake am i anyway?

Cut the head off
Grows back hard
I am the hydra
Now you'll see your star

Time has come
It is quite clear
Our antichrist
Is almost here

Time has come
It is quite clear
Our antichrist
Is almost here

Time has come
It is quite clear
Our antichrist
Is almost here

Cut the head off
Grows back hard
I am the hydra
Now you'll see your star

(When you are suffering,
Know that I have betrayed you
When you are suffering,
Know that I have betrayed you
When you are suffering,
Know that I have betrayed you
When you are suffering,
Know that I have betrayed you
When you are suffering,
Know that I have betrayed you
When you are suffering,
Know that I have betrayed you
When you are suffering,
Know that I have betrayed you
When you are suffering,
Know that I have betrayed you)

It had been a mere twelve years since the Summer Olympics were staged in the United States. Rather than being held it in a city, however, the Games of the 26th Olympiad - held one hundered years after the first modern Olympic Games were held - were staged in Atlanta, a parking lot with skyscrapers. :p

Apart from Gladys Knight (below), who performed "Georgia On My Mind," the opening ceremony blew. It would have to take a big, big, big personality - someone larger than life - to redeem this spectacle.

http://www.picklasvegas.com/images/shows/las-vegas/gladys_knight.jpg

And then he appeared.

http://www.wrhs.net/webdesignprojects/bcs_final_project/ali_old3f.jpg

Muhammad Ali, the first man to set verse to rhythm - the original rapper - lit the fuse that led to the cauldron that would burn brightly throughout the Games, and three billion people watched him. He then disappeared into the trap door behind the podium on which he'd stood.

http://www.suite101.com/files/topics/3571/files/torch.JPG

The next day, when the trap door was opened, Jimmy Hoffa was found. KIDDING!! :D

If Ali could light the torch in an advanced state of Parkinson's disease, it said a lot about the potential of humanity. :)

Eight days after Ali's triumph, faith in humanity was lost again. ohno:

At 1:30 A.M. on July 27, 1996, Olympians and tourists were enjoying a free concert by a bar band that had once been MTV's New Year's Eve house band when a bomb filled with nails exploded. Over a hundred people were injured, a local resident named Alice Hawthorne was killed, and a Turkish TV cameraman died of cardiac arrest running to the scene. Ironically, the name of the rock group performing was Jack Mack and the Heart Attack.

http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9907/30/emergency.response/link.olympic.explosion.jpg

The fear of terrorism had been very real. A New York-to-Paris TWA jet airliner had exploded over the south shore of Long Island ten days earlier, leading some to suspect terrorism (the explosion turned out to be an accident), and it was later learned that counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke told President Clinton to close Atlanta's air space when he suspected the possibility of terrorists crashing a plane into the stadium. :eek:

Security officer Richard Jewell was initially suspected (but never officially), depite the evidence that he couldn't have done it; he was exonerated in that October. The real killer, Eric Rudolph, a right-wing extremist, was finally caught in North Carolina seven years later.

After the terrorist attack, the Games were able to resume and continue without a hitch. The Games ended peacefully on August 4, 1996. Stevie Wonder (below) performed John Lennon's "Imagine" at the closing ceremony.

http://www.msu.edu/~pinsoneb/stevie.jpg

Homegrown terrorism was for many a sure sign of the Apocalypse for many, while the release of Marilyn Manson's second full-length album was another. Manson had become an honorary member of the Church of Satan, with "blessings" from its head Priest Anton LaVey, who in fact in an interview with Manson asked to call him simply Brian Warner, out of respect for one of his peers, the late Marilyn Monroe, who allegedly may or may not have been involved with the irreverent reverend. But Manson was not one to point to Satan as a macabre figure in a red suit causing trouble for Christians, but Satanism was a simply a worship of self, using one's own intellect and pursuing one's own pleasures. Manson would later comment that "Christians" would act worse than the supposed Satanists and believers of other faiths (or freethinkers), as this would soon bear out in the years to come.

Kinderfield

He lives inside my mouth and tells me what to say
When he turns the trains off, he makes it go away
The hands are cracked and dirty and the nails are beetle wings
When he turns the trains off, he unties all of the strings

The worm: "Tell me something beautiful,
Tell me something free,
Tell me something beautiful
And I wish that I could be."

(Then I got my wings and I never even knew it
When I was a worm, thought I couldn't get through it)

Jack: (not spoken) Come, come
The toys all smell like children and the scab-knees will obey
I'll have to kneel on broomsticks just to make it go away.

[The Inauguration Of The Worm]

(Then I got my wings and I never even knew it
When I was a worm, thought I couldn't get through it)

A voice we have not yet heard: "Because today is black/Because there is no turnign back/Because your lies have watered me/I have become the strongest weed" weed...

Through Jack's eyes: The taste of metal
Disintegrator
Three holes upon the leather belt
It's cut and swollen
And the age is showing

Boy: "There's no one here to save ourself."

The Disintegrator: (to himself)
This is what you should fear
You are what you should fear

Marilyn; and Twiggy Ramirez live:

Songs on the album were rife with decadence, malaise, and chaos. The story theme running through the album focused on the rise and decline of a deranged and depraved rock star/dictator "reverse" Messianic figure, much like Roger Waters' character (representing himself) in Pink Floyd's The Wall. Conservative critics were deathly certain that Manson was the future of music, and that his fans would rise spawnlike to replace him.

In concert, the stage show was completely theatrical: in addition to the fascist stage props, there were such items as elongated stilts and other devices to ensure a very macabre, yet bizarrely entertaining performance. Manson was giving people what they wanted.

The Minute of Decay

There's not much left to love.
Too tired today to hate.
I feel the empty.
I feel the minute of decay.

I'm on my way down now,
I'd like to take you with me.
I'm on my way down.

I'm on my way down now,
I'd like to take you with me.
I'm on my way down.

The minute that it's born,
It begins to die.
I'd love to just give in.
I'd love to live this lie.

I've been to black and back.
I've whited out my name.
A lack of pain, a lack of hope,
A lack of anything to say.

I'm on my way down now,
I'd like to take you with me.
I’m on my way down.
I’m on my way down!

The minute that it's born,
It begins to die.
I'd love to just give in.
I'd love to live this lie.
I'd love to live this lie.

(How do you see it?
How do you know?
How do you see it?)
I've looked ahead and everything was dead,
(How do you know?)
I guess that I am too.
(How do you see it?)
I've looked ahead and everything was dead,
(How do you know?)
I guess that I am...
I GUESS THAT I AM TOO!

The minute that it’s born,
It begins to die.
I’d love to just give in.
Ohh. I’d love to live this lie…

I'm on my way down now,
I'd like to take you with me.
I’m on my way down.

I'm on my way down now,
I'd like to take you with me.
I’m on my way down.

I’m on my way down…

In the summer of 1996, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne launched their own festival to get back at the critics who dared say that no one would pay good money to see a shriveled up has-been like Mr. Osbourne. The event was called:

OZZFEST!!!!

The festival was going to be originally a brief event, covering a few cities or so, but when demand for tickets skyrocketed, the festival spread out into a huge tour across the country. The years of retirement had not killed people's desire to see the Ozzman back in action. And to celebrate, he brought a number of other bands on the road with him, to expose the alterna-dulled masses to new faces in metal, as well as a couple familiar ones, with himself as headliner.

The 1996 Ozzfest featured:

Main Stage:
Ozzy Osbourne, Slayer, Danzig, Sepultura, Fear Factory, Biohazard, Neurosis

Second Stage:
Earth Crisis, Powerman 5000, Coal Chamber, Cellophane


Ozzy, and Tom Araya of Slayer at Ozzfest 1996:

In 1996, Brazilian thrash band Sepultura released an ambitious album, the likes of which had never been attempted before in all of metal: they recorded an album with indigenous Brazilian tribesmen, for a more primal, rhythmic sound incorporated in their driving music. The resulting album, Roots, featured tribal drums and beats, as well as music inspired by other native groups in their part of the world, such as the Xaiowas tribe, who had committed mass suicide to protest the Brazilian government's theft of their land, silencing of their beliefs and exploitation of their people. The band even met with the tribe and recorded with them using car generators to run their equipment. With drumming by percussionist Carlinhos Brown, the album delivered a purely Brazilian flavor to their brand of metal.

But many fans, who once considered Sepultura to be the Brazilian equivalent of Slayer, were disappointed by the end product. Instead of sounding fast and blazing like traditional thrash, it seemed that the band had jumped on the Korn-alternative bandwagon and followed the trendiness taking over metal. The chords and riffs felt lumbering, sloppy, and one-dimensional, and the production values were abysmal. Friction also grew with the band that principal member Max Cavalera, who came up with the radical idea for Brazilian "Itsari" (Xavantes word for "root") music, decided to take his musical muse elsewhere in the next few years. Meanwhile, other fans found the album to be a very decent change of pace.

Roots Bloody Roots

Roots Bloody Roots
Roots Bloody Roots
Roots Bloody Roots
Roots Bloody Roooaaaaaahh

I
Believe in our fate
We don't need to fake
It's all we wanna be
Watch me freeeaaak !!

I say
We're growing every day
Getting stronger in every way
I'll take you to a place
Where we shall find our

Roots Bloody Roots
Roots Bloody Roots
Roots Bloody Roots
Roots Bloody Roots

Rain
Bring me the strength
Is breeding me this way
To get to another day
and all I want to see
Set us free

Why
Can't you see
Can't you feel
This is real
Ahhh

I pray
We don't need to change
Our ways to be saved
That all we wanna be
Watch us freak

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

This might sound like gibberish, but this next song featured lyrics from the indigenous Brazilian tribes. For all the frustrated fans who felt let down by Sepultura's foray into NU-metal-esque territory, it came as a deep disappointment that Korn's Jonathan Davis even makes an appearance on one of the songs on the album.

Ratamahatta

Biboca
Garagem
Favela

Fubanga
Maloca
Bocada

Maloca
Bocada
Fubanga

Favela
Garagem
Biboca, porra !!!

Ze Do Caixao
Zumbi
Lampiao

Hello uptown
Hello downtown
Hello midtown
Hello trenchtown

Ratamahatta !!! ...

Hello uptown
Hello downtown
Hello midtown
Hello trenchtown

Ratamahatta !!! ...

:rock: :guitar: :banana: :mango: :drummer:

This song features Korn's Jonathan Davis:

Lookaway

Ahhhh...

Each time I pull it apart
I get disgusted, can't do it today
What makes it so good
That a man would kill for it
Lie just to lick a bit

Each time I pull it apart
I get disgusted, can't do it today
What makes it so good
To lie just to lick

Fake it, you like it, just take me away.
(hold it?), just save it and I'll be repaid

Each time I pull it apart
I get disgusted, can't do it today
What makes it so good
That a man would kill for it
To lie just to lick a bit

Each time I pull it apart
I get disgusted, can't do it today
What makes it so good
To lie, to lick

Take it, enlarge it, became it, before
Like it, I like it, and I'll be (can't tell)

Fake it, then like it, just take it tonight.
Take it

I look at you, (then) you look at me, (then) you look away...
[x14]

The final song on the album, "Dictators:censored:" (an obvious play on "dictatorship) hinted that the death of Brazil's indigenous people was the death of all people.

Endangered Species

Life !!
The struggle to survive
Crawling, ragin
Feed the hate inside

Are we going to see another day ?
Are we going to make it all the way ?
Are we going to see the light of day ?
Are we going to make it till the end ?

Rise !!
Bad moon rise
Another war, another crime
End in sight

Bleak !!
Why & what the f:censored: ?!?
Shut your mouth, shut your mind, this the way
You're just another prey

Is that what we've became ??

RISE ! [8x]

Are we going to see another day ?
Are we going to make it all the way ?
Are we going to see the light of day ?
Are we going to make it till the end ?

Endangered Species [3 x]
Is that what we've became ??

Dictators***

1964
Coup d'etat
Military force
Hundreds dead

Why did they disappear ?
Dictator****
Why did they disappear ?
Dictator****
...

1995
Spirit still alive
We still hear the cry
From the one that survived !!

Why did they disappear ?
Dictator****
Why did they disappear ?
Dictator****

If we have not included this album previously, here is Sepultura's 1993 album Chaos A.D.. The song below was featured on MTV's Headbanger's Ball, with members wallowing in a mud pit, which prompted the members of Slayer, who felt Sepultura was a rip-off of the real deal, to ask: "How can you be evil in a mud pit?" :confused: :lol:

Territory

Unknown man
Speaks to the world
Sucking your trust
A trap in every world

War for territory
War for territory

Choice control
Behind propaganda
Poor information
To manage your anger

War for territory
War for territory

Dictators' speech
Blasting off your life
Rule to kill the urge
Dumb *******s' speech

Years of fighting
Teaching my son
To believe in that man
Racist human being
Racist ground will live
Shame and regret
Of the pride
You've once possessed

War for territory
War for territory

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

The album also featured a song dedicated to the ill-fated Kaiowas tribe, as well as this provocative track:

Biotech is Godzilla

Rio Summit, '92
Street people kidnapped
Hid from view
"To save the earth"
Our rulers met
Some had other
Secret plans

No... No... No... No...

Biotech
Biotech
Biotech
Say what?

Strip-mine the Amazon
Of cells of life itself
Gold rush for genes is on
Natives get nothing

Biotech
Biotech
Biotech
Is Godzilla

Mutations cooked in labs
Money-mad experiments
New food + medicine?
New germs + accidents!
Like Cubatao
"World's most polluted town"
Air melts your face
Deformed children all around
Bio-technology
Ain't what's so bad
Like all technology
It's in the wrong hands

Cut-throat corporations
Don't give a damn
When lots of people die
From what they've made

Biotech
Biotech
Biotech
Is A.I.D.S.?

Stop!!!

Fear Factory was a band who spearheaded the industrial metal movement of tight rhythms played with machinelike precision. The band was fronted by guitarist Dino Cazares, vocalist Burton Bell, bassist Christian Olde Wolbers, and drummer Raymond Herrera. The band's 1995 album Demanufacture focused on a common theme in the band's music,
man vs. machine, humanity vs. technology, and the growing fear that the inventions of man would one day eradicate him--a message accentuated by the band's riveting rhythms played with only sparcity of melody.

Demanufacture

Desensitized by the values of life
Maligned and despaired by government lies

Revenge is so strong
I taste it on my tongue
My gun will be
Your angel of mercy

Dislocated by the eyes of disdain
Abused beyond recognition

I can't hope with
The madness abounding
Blasts in my head
Of gunfire resounding
Firing relentless
Killing the senses

I've got no more goddamn regrets
I've got no more goddamn respects

I am the thorn
In your eye
I am the thorn
In your eye [X2]

[Repeat second verse]

I've got no more goddamn regrets
I've got no more goddamn respects [X3]

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Zero Signal

So withdrawn and feeling numb
Watching life come all undone
Growing fear, a human grace
A drowning mind in a dark
Embrace

My life
A disarray
And I
Fade away

I am down on my knees
Praying beyond belief
The silence deafens my ears
And welds the shackless
Onto my tears

Lost
All faith
Lost
All trust
Lost
All faith
Lost
All trust

So withdrawn and feeling numb
Watching life come all undone

My life
A disarray
And I
Fade away

I am down on my knees
Praying beyond belief
The silence deafens my ears
And welds the shackless
Onto my tears

I have lost all faith
I have lost all trust
A sordid mesh turning to
Dust

I am lost
I am so numb
I am so numb...

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Uh we still had like 1000 posts left on the other one

Fear Factory's debut album, Soul of a New Machine, came out in 1992.
The disk featured such tracks as "Martyr", "Scumgrief", "Scape Goat", "Big God/Raped Souls", which lamented the exploitation of humans by sexual and physical violence, and "Lifeblind". Dino Cazares was one of the first guitarists to popularize the detuned seven-string Ibanez guitars.

Martyr

What I thought was life
Came to an end
Born into a world
I never asked for this
I've got to get away
I've got to get away
I've got to get away
I've got to get away!

Born into hardship
A world of destruction
Suffer, bastard
Suffer, bastard
I've got to get away
I've got to get away
I've got to get away
I've got to get away!

Take me to heaven
Adorn me with wings
Suffer, bastard
I've got to get away
I've got to get away
I've got to get away
I've got to get away!

Suffer, bastard...

[Repeat 1st verse, 2nd verse]

I've got to get away
I've got to get away
I've got to get away
I've got to get away

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Uh we still had like 1000 posts left on the other oneI know, with threads this size, we go until we get cut off at 3000, but I decided to cut the decade in half into two parts. I don't know where I came up with the idea, I think Steve M. had the idea for it, so I just started doing that. It made it less confusing if I had to go back and look up something.

Btw, GREAT AVATAR!!! :lol:

The britich band from Manchester Oasis had an ablum called Whats the Sttory Morning Glory, it was the second album, they were my first fav band ever heres a song from that ablum

Wonderwall
Wonderwall

Today is gonna be the day
That they're gonna throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realized what you gotta do
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do about you now

Backbeat the word was on the street
That the fire in your heart is out
I'm sure you've heard it all before
But you never really had a doubt
I don't believe that anybody feels
The way I do about you now

And all the roads we have to walk along are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would
Like to say to you
I don't know how

Because maybe
You're gonna be the one who saves me
And after all
You're my wonderwall

Today was gonna be the day
But they'll never throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realized what you're not to do
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do
About you now

And all the roads that lead to you were winding
And all the lights that light the way are blinding
There are many things that I would like to say to you
I don't know how

I said maybe
You're gonna be the one who saves me
And after all
You're my wonderwall

I said maybe
You're gonna be the one who saves me
And after all
You're my wonderwall

Said maybe
You're gonna be the one that saves me
You're gonna be the one that saves me
You're gonna be the one that saves me

I know, with threads this size, we go until we get cut off at 3000, but I decided to cut the decade in half into two parts. I don't know where I came up with the idea, I think Steve M. had the idea for it, so I just started doing that. It made it less confusing if I had to go back and look up something.

Btw, GREAT AVATAR!!! :lol:
Ah I see

Thanks!!:D


BTW has Green Day or Weezer been mentoned yet?

Fear Factory released an EP of remixes in 1993 called Fear Is the Mindkiller. The tracks included:

Martyr (Suffer Bastard Mix)
Self immolation (Vein Tap Mix)
Scapegoat (Pigf:censored: Mix)
Scumgrief (Deep Dub Trauma Mix)
Self Immolation (Liquid Sky Mix)
Self Immolation (LP Version)

From the Demanufacture album:

Self Bias Resistor

Hey you! Wake up!
Open your swollen eyes
Erosion invades you mind
A cancer that grows over time

Hey you! Rise up!
Rise to fight, eliminate
Burn your fuse to detonate
The human machines of hate

[Chorus:]
All these years they've tried to break you
To your knees
Anger scours right through your veins

Now it's time to put an end
To all the lies
Now it's time to take control
Of your life

Wake up! Rise up!
Open minds will dominate
Burn your fuse to detonate
The human machines of hate

[Repeat chorus]

Hypocrisy
You can't believe
Machines of hate
A disease that infiltrates

Persist for resisance
Resist their insolence
You are a dissident
Burn away conformity [X2]

[Repeat chorus]

They have tried to break you
They have tried to break you [X2]

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Dino Cazares:

Back on the other side of the rock and roll field, music fans were shocked when it was announced that Sammy Hagar was no longer in Van Halen!!! :eek: The debacle revolved around such instances as the release of a track for the upcoming disaster movie 'Twister' where the band was asked to contribute a song. The band was under specific guidelines as to what the song lyrics should be about ("don't write about tornados!" they were told. :confused: ) So as they finagled about writing the lyrics, Hagar was increasing frustrated and disgusted about the insipidness of Eddie's songwriting process. They even brought in veteran songwriter Russ Ballard to assist with the lyrics for the upcoming VH album, but all that came of that was utter chaos. Hagar was thoroughly displeased with Eddie's lyrics after having to sing a juvenile number such as "Amsterdam" from the previous album. Even Russ Ballard was not impressed with the proceedings. It increasingly appeared that Eddie was no longer his usual happy-go-lucky self, he became increasingly irritable and a virtual control freak, according to Hagar, Eddie was having major problems with writing decent lyrics. The possible reason for this problem was something that would shock everyone, as we shall see later.

But the real clencher came when Van Halen decided to put out a Best-Of album, with one half David Lee Roth hits and the other ones with Sammy. Hagar was not at all impressed with this idea, as he was a sworn foe of the lead singer he had replaced. Why would anyone want to compare the two singers on the album? Meanwhile, Sammy released another solo album for his other record label, which Eddy and Alex interpreted as Sammy "jumping ship" from the group. But in fact, Sammy explains, the album was only a contractual-obligation album which was recorded to pay off his ex-wife in a messy divorce. Sammy was not intending to leave Van Halen, but what then happened next made him think otherwise... :eek:

It came to a point where relations between Sammy Hagar and the Van Halen brothers was at an all time low. Sammy tried to assure them that they could
work out all their differences, and as a bit of pep talk, said, "We're going to become the biggest thing out there!" Alex snapped back defensively, "Oh, so
it's all about making money now? You're just trying to get rich?" After talking him down, the band went their separate ways for a few days. After a while Sammy would tend to more domestic matters, such as his new pregnant wife who had delivered a baby through a very difficult breach birth.
On Father's Day, Eddy called and left a message, urging Sammy to pick up. The Best-Of album was being recorded with a new vocalist. Sammy was upset, and Eddy told him he was just frustrated with Sammy's uncooperativeness. After assuring Sammy he would do anything for him as a friend, he then dropped the bombshell: The new vocalist they had working on two new songs for the Best-Of album was:

DAVID LEE ROTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek2:

Sammy was absolutely shocked, horrified, and LIVID!!!!! :livid: He told Eddy, "To go behind my back and do this--F:censored: you!!! I can do better than either of you!!" Eddy replied, "I dunno, some of the stuff is pretty good..." Upon hearing that DAVID LEE ROTH was back in the picture, Sammy's wife, recovering from labor, sat up in bed, obviously shaken with disbelief. What sort of wacked-out "friend" was Eddy Van Halen to do something like this??

So Sammy and Eddy parted ways, what had begun as a great new lease on life for both men and a great American band had deteriorated into another bizarre, pathetic, and tragic breakdown where friendships, careers, and even credibility were all laid to waste in a pointless act of lack of communication and trust. Much would be laid at the feet of Sammy Hagar in a problem Eddy Van Halen called "L.S.D.--Lead Singer Disease", but soon fans would be guessing as to who really had the problem...:confused:

Best Of Van Halen Vol. 1 was released later that year, with two new tracks featuring David Lee Roth, the hit "Me Wise Magic", and "Can't Get This Stuff No More".

The album featured the following tracks:

1. Eruption
2. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
3. Runnin' With The Devil
4. Dance The Night Away
5. And The Cradle Will Rock
6. Unchained
7. Jump
8. Panama
9. Why Can't This Be Love
10. Dreams
11. When It's Love
12. Poundcake
13. Right Now
14. Can't Stop Lovin' You
15. Humans Being
16. Can't Get This Stuff No More
17. Me Wise Magic


Me Wise Magic

I know what you're thinkin'
What you're thinkin' is easy to see
I know what you're dreamin'
I have those same dreams

Wow!
Reach up to the feet of God
Lookin' for a sign
It was right here all the time, time, time, time!

I am you and you are me

(Do you believe?)
Don't ya trust me?
Me Wise Magic
Ow, baby hold on
(If you could see)
Through my eyes
Me Wise Magic
Ow, hold on

I feel you breathin'
Don't you trust me (trust me)
I feel you agreein'
I know what you need

Wow!
Don't you lie
Just you listen thru me
My words at best to you
A fortune coo-coo-coo-kie
(Who are you and where are we?)

(Do you believe?)
Ow! Don't ya trust me?
Me Wise Magic
Yeah, yeah ow ow!
(If you could see)
Straight through my eyes
Me Wise Magic

A little Zen
headed your way
You'll get it
halfway down the interstate
Four days from now
It all goes clear
A Buddhist riff
for your inner ear

(Guitar Solo)

(Do you believe?)
Ow! Don't ya trust me?
Me Wise Magic
Yeah yeah! Oh yeah! Whoa!
(If you could see)
Straight through my eyes
Me Wise Magic
Whoa-oh-oh!

(Do you believe?)
Tell me you believe
Do you believe?

Whoa, yeah!
(If you could see)
Me Wise Magic
(Do you believe?)
Me Wise Magic
(If you could see)
Me Wise Magic
(Ooooooooo)

The disaster movie 'Twister', starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, featured the hit by Van Halen, "Humans Being":

Humans Being

There is just enough Christ in me
To make me feel almost guilty
Is that why God made us bleed
To make us see we're Humans Being?

You break this, I'll break all that
You break my balls with all your crap
Spread your disease like lemmings breeding
That's what makes us Humans Being

Shine on, shine on
Shine on, shine on

(Guitar Solo)

Yeah! Some low life flat head scum infects
The sickness in his eyes reflects
You wonder why your life is screaming
Wonder why we're Humans Being

Shine on, shine on
Shine on, shine on

(Guitar Solo)

Humans, Humans Being
We're just Humans (That's what makes us)
Humans Being (That's what makes us)
We're just humans (That's what makes us)
Humans Being (That's what makes us) We're just humans (That's what makes us)
Humans Being (That's what makes us)
Humans Being!
We're just humans (That's what makes us)
Humans Being (That's what makes us)
Humans Being!

:guitar:

Twister:

Oh wait--not THAT Twister!! :doh: :lol: This 'Twister'!!:

Here is the solo album by Sammy Hagar which made Eddie and Co. think he was planning to quit the band. Unboxed is basically a best-of album featuring past material by the Little Red Rocker, plus one new song that got much airplay, "High Hopes" (which was not necessarily what people thought it was about, as Sammy said. Not necessarily. ;) ).

Another factor contributing to Sammy Hagar's departure from Van Halen was that he did not want to do any more new songs until Eddy had undergone hip replacement surgery, and Alex did something with his back problems. The two brothers had serious medical issues which required immediate attention. Eddy's hip replacement would soon be the least of his medical worries. :(

High Hopes

Another dream, goes up in smoke
HUH!
And so, fire me up, another toke
Yeah, I'm commin' on
I've got master plans, by the dozens
A-flashin' thru my brain, when I get buzzin'
Suddenly, there gone
Ohhh, the inspiration, runnin' thru your head
Instant stimulation
Oh, your runnin' on

You got........
HIGH HOPES
And they're up in smoke
Up all night, tweakin' every detail
The way I've got it, this could never fail
HEY! This could be the big one
HIGH HOPES
Come and go, so high
But commin' down, fade away and die
HIGH HOPES
I got them, more than a dream
They all get wasted
(Yeah)
Ohhh, the inspiration, runnin' thru your head
Instant stimulation
Your runnin' on
OH!

You got..............HIGH HOPES
Your livin' on
HIGH HOPES
(WHOO!)
HIGH HOPES
Oh yeah
But they're wasted
Hey

{guitar solo}
(Watch it)
(Now listen)
All that talk, is gettin' nuthin' done
Ain't it hard to move, when your body's numb
Put it off..... another day

HIGH HOPES
Come and goin' so high
And commin' down, fade away and die
HIGH HOPES
They're nuthin' more than a dream
They all get wasted (yeah)
Ohhh, the inspiration, runnin' thru your head
Instant stimulation
They're givin' you
OH!............

You got
Well Oh,
HIGH HOPES
Your livin' on
HIGH HOPES
You got
HIGH HOPES
HIGH HOPES
HIGH HOPES
Keep livin' on
HIGH HOPES
HIGH HOPES
{to fade}

:rock: :guitar:

Fans of the classic Van Halen lineup rejoiced at the new songs with Diamond Dave--could it be true?? Was Van Halen finally going to be getting back together with David Lee Roth?? Was the whole Van Hagar fiasco just a horrible, horrible dream??

At the MTV Music Video Awards, the world would find out:

When all four reunited members of Van Halen assembled onstage, the applause was uproarious--and Dave loved every minute of it. "It's been ten years since I've been on stage with these guys!" he exulted. From there, all attention was focused on Diamond Dave, Van Halen's most extroverted member, as he hogged the spotlight, hamming it up and wallowing in the fanfare. The other members felt, yep, same old Dave. It was very awkward to have to deal with his clowning antics, especially when the band had some news for him..."Uhh, Dave? Excuse me, but...you're not in the band..." :rolleyes:

Backstage, the post-show interview was a complete disaster. Dave tried to take control of the spotlight again. While Eddy Van Halen tried to talk about his plans after undergoing hip surgery, Dave butted in, saying, "No one wants to hear about your f:censored:ing hip. Tonight is about me." At that point, Eddy totally blew up at Dave: "NOBODY talks to me like that!! Do you understand?!! If you ever talk like that to me again--" he threatened to kick Roth hard enough to send his testicles into his chest cavity. :mad: :smash:

So once again, David Lee Roth sabotaged his career, not realizing that he could definitely used the exposure of being with his old bandmates. The possibility of Roth returning was perhaps still in the talking stage, but with Dave acting like he was still in control of the band, he shot the whole chance straight into hell's restroom. He simply did not understand the reasons why he was fired in the first place. Fans were not going to be pleased at the shortened "reunion". ohno:

Ah I see

Thanks!!:D


BTW has Green Day or Weezer been mentoned yet? As far as 1996 goes, not yet...

But I did post the lyrics to Wonderwall already, btw!! But it doesn't hurt to hear them again!! That was one of their biggest hits!! :thanks:

As far as 1996 goes, not yet...

But I did post the lyrics to Wonderwall already, btw!! But it doesn't hurt to hear them again!! That was one of their biggest hits!! :thanks:
Ah

Ok where? show me

Yeah :D I love Oasis still, but baxk then I listened to them constantly!!!!:D

Sure was one of their biggest!

Ah

Ok where? show me

Yeah :D I love Oasis still, but baxk then I listened to them constantly!!!!:D

Sure was one of their biggest!
NVM I saw AWESOME!!!:D

After the terrorist attack, the Games were able to resume and continue without a hitch. The Games ended peacefully on August 4, 1996. Stevie Wonder (below) performed John Lennon's "Imagine" at the closing ceremony.

And speaking of Stevie Wonder, let me go back to 1995 for a minute to visit Stevie's last release of hte twentieth century, ConversationPeace. :)

http://www.vh1.com/shared/media/images/amg_covers/200/drd800/d843/d84374xflo0.jpg

ConversationPeace contained the song "For Your Love" - not the Yardbirds song of the same name - that was all over the radio in the mid-nineties, at least on stations that played Stevie's music in their formats. Hey AOR - :racist: :lol:

"For Your Love" was admittedly a slight song, but it was a Stevie Wonder song, and to quote a line from the gone (BUT NOT FORGOTTEN!) sitcom "I'm WIth Her," a little Stevie goes a long way. ;)

ConversationPeace would have to go a long way, as Wonder would not release another album for another decade. :(

Expectations were riding rather high for a Van Halen-David Lee Roth reunion, but once it was not happening, fans were furious with Eddie Van Halen. They felt the problem lie with him rather than Dave. Some faithful followers never got to see genuine article back in the late 70's/early 80's, back when the band was in top full-party form, and now they never would. Sure Dave could be a jerk, a ham, but he was brilliant at it, he was the consummate showman.
But Eddie didn't see it that way. To replay past glories was truly ripping off fans, he said, and "You don't know how much money was thrown at us to do a reunion tour with Roth--probably more than the gross national product of East and West Germany put together. If anyone saw him in Las Vegas, I'm sorry, but the thrill is gone."

What Eddie was refering to was Roth's stint as a performer in Las Vegas, yukking it up and doing what many thought he'd be a natural at doing, a rock and roll song and dance show with show tunes and pop standards (Think full-scale version of "Just a Gigolo"), etc. Roth sent out a letter apologizing for being in denial about the nature of his resumed working relationship with Eddie on the Best Of songs, the band hinted that the "reunion" was only tentative, but Roth let himself believe that there would be more to it than that. It was Eddie, he said, who put a complete stop at the reunion.

Angry fans flooded the internet with hostile messages toward Eddie Van Halen, calling him a "communist", among other things, while others resigned both as fan club presidents and as members. When Roth appeared at the primiers of Howard Stern's film biopic "Private Parts", fans there all began to chant, "Eddie Sucks!" :usuck:

And if no further Van Halen-Roth reunion tour was in the works, fans would have to be content with who Eddie chose to replace Sammy Hagar. It was the biggest, baddest, greatest singer to fill Diamond Dave's backless leather trousers, or Little Red Rocker Sammy's sweaty headband...

It was........:eek:

Ah

Ok where? show me

Yeah :D I love Oasis still, but baxk then I listened to them constantly!!!!:D

Sure was one of their biggest!Check page 127!!

In 1996, Def Leppard released Slang, an album that was a radical departure from almost everything they had ever done. The album had more of an "urban" and grungier feel, as the band had moved away from their metal roots and into a more "alternative" sound. It was their most 90's-sounding album, but not all fans were happy with the direction of their music. But guitarist Phil Collen felt very comfortable with the band's new sound, the one big relief about the 90's was that he did not have to concentrate on trying to be the next Yngwie Malmsteen (who?? :confused: ;) ), he was just happy to be playing songs instead of faster-than-fast guitar exercises. Of course with the accommodations the band had to make with their sound (Rick Allen's electronic drum kit, etc.), plus the success of the atypical rock album Hysteria, it was not surprising that Def Leppard was going in this direction after all. Many top rock acts of the 80's were having to readjust their sound to the new trends in music, much to the chagrin of many older fans.

Work It Out

Day and night black and white
You take it all for granted
I'm the one who turns you on

When you don't know where you belong
And nothin' seems to matter
I'm the one who's holding on

It's alright to be wrong
All we need's a little time
But nothing here can last that long

We show the world a brand new face
It's taken us all this time
All this time
All of this doubt
We get to work it out
All of this doubt
We get to work it out

Yesterday lost your way
Still looking for an answer
I'm the one who holds the key

When you don't know where you belong
And nothing seems to matter
I'll unlock this mystery

All of this doubt
Day and night - Black and White
Take it all for granted
We get to work it out
I'm the one who turns you on
Turns you on - Turns you on
All of this doubt

When you don't know where you belong
And nothin' seems to matter
We get to work it out
I'm the one who's holdin' on
Holdin' on - Holdin' on

:guitar: :banana: :mango

Check page 127!!
I saw it already AWESOME!!!!

This one has a decent massive drum sound:

Truth?

I've been burning
And dousing the flames
I feel the whiplash
Of the backlash on my face
I melt to sleep at night
But I wake to trip the day

Never for you never for me
Would I kiss your feet of clay
I'm still alive and so should I
Soak up the wave of compromise

Am I the victim of youth
Is this the truth
Why don't you tell me
Why don't you tell me

There's no conscience
In charity or shame
The voice deceive me
But believe me its the same
I see the black in white
And the colour in the gray

Better for me better for you
Gonna bleach it all away
I'm still alive and so should I
Soak up the wave of compromise

I see the scars, I hear the lies
So what's the truth
Why don't you tell me

:guitar: :banana: :mango:

Slang

Sittin' dark getting taken 'cause I said
Something lewd in a low down accent
Yeah yeah yeah
Kinda love those eyes
I wanna get down honey
But I ain't your guy

I'll rap 'n' ruck 'n' jam it up
But count me out
Cause all I ever wanna get is slang

Slang with me, I don't wanna get my hands dirty
Slang with me, I just wanna get soakin' wet
Slang with me, I don't wanna get my hands dirty
All I ever wanna get is slang

What's affectin' my condition
What's about to knock you down
Said wrapped 'n' bound and a goddamn
I'd love to get connected but it's outta my hand

I'll rap 'n' ruck 'n' jam it up
But count me out
Cause all I ever wanna get is slang

Slang with me, I don't wanna get my hands dirty
Slang with me, I just wanna get soakin' wet
Slang with me, I don't wanna get my hands dirty
All I ever wanna get is slang

It's my intention to be your obsession
(Mi pasion, mi obsesion, queria que eastuvieras conmigo)
It's my obsession to be your addiction

Uno, dos, tres, cuatro

Slang with me, I don't wanna get my hands dirty
Slang with me, I just wanna get soakin' wet
Slang with me, I don't wanna get my hands dirty
All I ever wanna get is
Slang with me, I don't wanna get my hands dirty
Slang with me, I just wanna get soakin' wet
Slang with me, I don't wanna get my hands dirty
All I ever wanna get is slang

:guitar: :banana: :mango:

All I Want Is Everything

I don't know how to leave you
And I don't know how to stay
I've got things that I must tell you
That I don't know how to say

The man behind these empty words
Is crying out in shame
Holding on to this sinking ship
When nothing else remains

All I want is everything
Am I asking too much?
All I want is everything
Like the feel of your touch
But all I have are yesterdays
Tomorrow never comes

It's hard to hold your head up
When you're kneeling down to pray
And the talking dooesn't come easy now
When the words get in the way
And if you could see what's going on
Behind these private eyes
The truth would look so easy now
But I'm running out of lies

All I want is everything
Am I asking too much?
All I want is everything
Like the feel of your touch
But all I have are yesterdays
Tomorrow never comes

You think the shadow of doubt
Is hangin' over my head
It's just an angel whose wings hide the sun
And it's myself I betray
I can not wish this away
Took my chance now the damage is done

All I want is everything
Am I asking too much?
All I want is everything
Like the feel, the feel of your touch
When all I have are yesterdays
Tomorrow never comes

Ooh, oooh
Ooh, oooh

:guitar: :banana: :mango:

Rush came out with their strongest album of the 90's, Test For Echo, in the fall of 1996. While some fans were disappointed that some of Neil Peart's songs were not quite up to par and even cliched, many agreed that finally Rush had finally released an album that succeeded in their intent over the past few years to hit their full potential. The guitars on the album were crunchy and multi-layered, with various stringed instruments and tones, and the rhythm section was popping and turbulent. Geddy and Neil were a potent team who worked very well together as a pair. The riffs were pulsating and thundering. Whatever critics may have said, one thing that they could not deny was that Rush was a band one either hated or loved--and usually between the extremes of opinion there was something definitely worth checking out!

The opening song, one of their best, began with a haunting clean guitar, hinting something sinister and foreboding, then launched into a tumultuous percussive battery. The lyrics touched on the all-too-familiar "trial by media" reality cop and justice shows, which made O.J. Simpson a celebrity. During their concert, they would play video clips of the O.J. trial as well, in a commentary about the search for "justice" when courtroom members posed pretty for the camera.

Test For Echo

Here we go...vertigo
Video vertigo
Test for echo

Here we go...in slo-mo
Video vertigo
Test for echo

Some kind of trouble on the sensory screen
Camera curves over caved-in cop cars
Bleacher-creatures, would-be desperados
Clutch at plausible deniability
Don't touch that dial
We're in denial
Until the showcase trial on TV

Here we go...vertigo
Video...vertigo
Test for echo

Some kind of pictures on the sense o'clock news
Miles of yellow tape, silhouetted chalklines
Tough-talking hood boys in pro-team logo knock-offs
Conform to uniforms of some corporate entity
Don't change that station
It's a Gangsta Nation
Now crime's in syndication on TV

What a show: vertigo
Video vertigo
Test for echo

Touch and go in slo-mo
Video vertigo
Test for echo

Some kind of drama live on satellite
Hidden camera coverage from the crime scene to the courtroom
Nail-biting hood boys in borrowed ties and jackets
Clutching at the straws of respectability

Can't do the time?
Don't do the crime
And wind up in the perp walk on TV

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Here is one of the most rocking tracks on the album. ;) The video to this is excellent as well:

Driven

Driven up and down in circles
Skidding down a road of black ice
Staring in and out storm windows
Driven to a fool's paradise

It's my turn to drive
But it's my turn to drive

Driven to the margin of error
Driven to the edge of control
Driven to the margin of terror
Driven to the edge of a deep, dark hole

Driven day and night in circles
Spinning like a whirlwind of leaves
Stealing in and out back alleys
Driven to another den of thieves

But it's my turn to drive
But it's my turn to drive

Driven in -- Driven to the edge
Driven out -- On the thin end of the wedge
Driven off -- By things I've never seen
Driven on -- By the road to somewhere I've never been

But it's my turn to drive
But it's my turn to drive

The road unwinds towards me
What was there is gone
The road unwinds before me
And I go riding on

But it's my turn to drive
But it's my turn to drive

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Alex with bike and Paul Reed Smith guitar:

Here is one of the best songs on the album, a very upbeat song with bittersweet lyrics. The album features much guitar and other stringed instruments:

Half the World

Half the world hates
What half the world does every day
Half the world waits
While half gets on with it anyway

Half the world lives
Half the world makes
Half the world gives
While the other half takes

Half the world is
Half the world was
Half the world thinks
While the other half does

Half the world talks
With half a mind on what they say
Half the world walks
With half a mind to run away

Half the world lies
Half the world learns
Half the world flies
As half the world turns

Half the world cries
Half the world laughs
Half the world tries
To be the other half

Half of us divided
Like a torn-up photograph
Half of us are trying
To reach the other half

Half the world cares
While half the world is wasting the day
Half the world shares
While half the world is stealing away

:rock: :guitar: :banana: :mango

Here is a song discussing the variety of religious beliefs in the world. Interestingly enough, one article writer for a national Free Methodist magazine
said that Rush were "New Agers", based on the lyrics on the album! :eek: :rolleyes: The writer seemed to have it both ways in the article, being a hip Christian who listened to tons of bands such as Stone Temple Pilots and Crash Test Dummies, etc. and he could name-drop from his personal listening library, while wanting to encourage others to lead a more holy "God-pleasing" life while watching out for objectionable lyrics. What a phony. ohno:

In actuality, Neil Peart seems to be more of a "free-thinker", not a "New Ager" like Shirley McLaine or other dabblers in non-traditional religious views and mystical eclectism.

Totem

I've got twelve disciples and a Buddha smile
Garden of Allah, Viking Valhalla
A miracle once in a while

I've got a pantheon of animals in a pagan soul
Vishnu and Gaia, Aztec and Maya
Dance around my totem pole
Totem pole...

I believe in what I see
I believe in what I hear
I believe that what I'm feeling
Changes how the world appears

Angels and demons dancing in my head
Lunatics and monsters underneath my bed
Media messiahs preying on my fears
Pop culture prophets playing in my ears

I've got celestial mechanics
To synchronize my stars
Seasonal migrations, daily variations
World of the unlikely and bizarre

I've got idols and icons, unspoken holy vows
Thoughts to keep well-hidden
Sacred and forbidden
Free to browse among the holy cows

That's why I believe

Angels and demons inside of me
Saviors and Satans all around me

Sweet chariot, swing low, coming for me

:rock: :guitar: :banana: :mango

Here is another upbeat number with some heavy guitars, dealing with a topic similar to varieties of diverse religious beliefs, the omnipresence of THE INTERNET and how it seems to "duplicate" existence for many. Neil mentioned in an interview, however, that on the internet, you could read and view all you can about Mt. Kilamanjaro, for example, but it would not be the same as actually climbing it, the rush of exitement scaling the African peak, with sweat streaming, chilling winds ripping over your face, the bright sun filling your eyes, as each painful step over the snow and rocks is one more step toward achievement....See, this entry is nothing like the real thing. ;) :lol:

Virtuality

Like a shipwrecked mariner adrift on an unknown sea
Clinging to the wreckage of the lost ship Fantasy
I'm a castaway, stranded in a desolate land
I can see the footprints in the virtual sand

Net boy, net girl
Send your signal 'round the world
Let your fingers walk and talk
And set you free

Net boy, net girl
Send your impulse 'round the world
Put your message in a modem
And throw it in the Cyber Sea

Astronauts in the weightlessness of pixellated space
Exchange graffiti with a disembodied race
I can save the universe in a grain of sand
I can hold the future in my virtual hand

Let's dance tonight
To a virtual song
Press this key
And you can play along

Let's fly tonight
On our virtual wings
Press this key
To see amazing things

Like a pair of vagabonds who wave between two passing trains
Or the glimpse of a woman's smile through a window in the rain
I can smell her perfume,
I can taste her lips
I can feel the voltage from her fingertips

Net boy, net girl
Send your heartbeat round the world

:rock: :guitar: :banana: :mango

Here is an acoustic ballad, one of Neil's best lyrics:

Resist

I can learn to resist
Anything but temptation
I can learn to co-exist
With anything but pain

I can learn to compromise
Anything but my desires
I can learn to get along
With all the things I can't explain

I can learn to resist
Anything but frustration
I can learn to persist
With anything but aiming low

I can learn to close my eyes
To anything but injustice
I can learn to get along
With all the things I don't know

You can surrender
Without a prayer
But never really pray
Pray without surrender

You can fight
Without ever winning
But never ever win
Without a fight

I can learn to resist
Anything but temptation
I can learn to co-exist
With anything but pain

I can learn to compromise
Anything but my desires
I can learn to get along
With all the things I can't explain


Geddy:

Is Rush showing their age on this song? ;)

Dog Years

In a dog's life
A year is really more like seven
And all too soon a canine
Will be chasing cars in doggie heaven

It seems to me
As we make our own few circles 'round the sun
We get it backwards
And our seven years go by like one

Dog years -- It's the season of the itch
Dog years -- With every scratch it reappears

In the dog days
People look to Sirius
Dogs cry for the moon
But these connections are mysterious

It seems to me
While it's true that every dog will have his day
When all the bones are buried
There is barely time to go outside and play

Dog years -- It's the season of the itch
Dog years -- With every scratch it reappears
Dog years -- For every sad son of a bitch
Dog years -- With his tail between his ears

I'd rather be a tortoise from Galapagos
Or a span of geological time
Than be living in these dog years

In a dog's brain
A constant buzz of low-level static
One sniff at the hydrant
And the answer is automatic

It seems to me
As well make our own few circles 'round the block
We've lost our senses
For the higher-level static of talk

:guitar: :banana: :mango: :dog:

Throught the seventies and early eighties, as an indispensible lieutenant to Senate Republican leader Howard Baker of Tennessee, and then from 1985 as Baker's successor, Senator Robert Dole of Kansas had been a formidable legislator who garnered respect from both parties - and an attractive presidential prospect. But his vote-getting handicaps of wamth, keen intelligence, and genuine wit cost him the Rpeublican presidential nomination in 1980, and he was thwarted again in 1988. In 1996 he became the Rpeublican nominee at last - only to have to run against an even more forimdable politician in the form of incumbent President Bill Clinton. Dole became the only Republican nominee since Barry Goldwater in 1964 never to occupy the White House.

http://www.nndb.com/people/957/000022891/robert-dole.jpg

Dole undistinguished himself in the campaign by making a speech attacking Hollywood entertainment conglamorates - even mentioning Time Warner by name - for pushing hip-hop, heavy metal, and similar musical entertainments on impressionable children and renounicng their repsonsibility as good corporate citizens. The speech was attacked by pop stars left and left :lol: for subliminal racism and elitism. Rap and metal, they declared, were the voices of disaffected and downtrodden youth whose lives were made all the more miserable by the Republican party's mere existence. Some of them even told Dole in no uncertain terms what he could do with himself. :eek:

Dole's speech - written by a staffer - also attacked the movies, and it didn't help that the staff speechwirter was a Schwarzenegger fan. The speech recommended Arnie's True Lies, a flick Dole himself had never seen, as wholesome family entertainment. ohno:

When he saw it later on, Dole admitted it was "pretty bad." :rotflmao:

Roger Chapman had stayed away from the recording studio for four years, but he returned in 1996 with his new solo album Kiss My Soul. The former Family/Streetwalkers frontman's new release was the most eagerly awaited new album of the year. Okay, in Germany, but it was still eagerly awaited somewhere. :)

http://home.freiepresse.de/disch/cd_kiss.jpg

Chappo was 54 now, and he showed no signs of mellowing out. Also, the sly smile he gave of the cover of Kiss My Soul was a reassuring wink to his fans - he wasn't about to retire any time soon! :thumbsup:

:cool:

In addition to another instrumental, "Limbo" (which Alex Lifeson insisted was "NOT about Rush Limbaugh!!" :lol: ), the album featured other decent tracks such as "The Color of Right", "Time and Motion", and "Carve Away the Stone".

After the album and tour that next year, Rush came to an unfortunate abrupt halt that disrupted any and all plans...:(

Carve Away the Stone

You can roll that stone
To the top of the hill
Drag your ball and chain behind you

You can carry that weight
With an iron will
Or let the pain remain behind you

Chip away the stone
(Sisyphus)
Chip away the stone
Make the burden lighter
If you must roll that rock alone

You can drive those wheels
To the end of the road
You will still find the past right behind you
Try to deny
The weight of the load
Try to put the sins of the past night behind you

Carve away the stone
(Sisyhpus)
Carve away the stone
Make a graven image
With some features of your own

You call roll the stone
To the top of the hill
You can carry that weight
With an iron will
You can drive those wheels
To the end of the road
You can try to deny
The weight of the load

Roll away the stone
(Sisyhpus)
Roll away the stone
If you could just move yours
I could get working on my own

So who was Bob Dole's favorite band that election year? In all the conundrum over the destructive messages of rock and roll, heavy metal, rap and pop music, as well as movies and television, his favorite band apparently was:

CANNIBAL CORPSE!!!!!!! :eek2:

Which made perfect sense--not only did it give him a legitimate target of attack in his campaign about declining moral values, but it would possibly alert teen headbangers as to just how cool and with-it he really was!! The New York death metal thrashers who peddled sex and violence in their lyrics wasn't a household name to many. But, thanks to Bob Dole, now it would be!

Here is the excerpt from Bob Dole's 1996 speech.


"Our schools are teaching recycling and AIDS prevention, but our system of justice doesn't seem to keep us free. And I concluded that we take such justified pride in today - America's greatness - all that we should try to find common ground. We have tried and tried, again and again. But such a place appears to be President so I can reconnect our government and profoundly different visions of America.

I know that the secret to getting our country so far in the good, not play on our fears of life's dark corners. This is a vision we all share, for it is true for those who cultivate moral confusion for profit should understand this: we will name their names and shame them as fanatics out of step with America. President Clinton has chosen to defend an education establishment run by liberals and are careening dangerously off course. But we can get our country back to her place in the miracle of America held by our country's elites. A nation of special interest groups united only by a sense of hope andwork and courage that is the way our popular entertainment. Parents understand the pull of the poor and disadvantaged, education and the future of that system, and is honorable.

But those who went before, we don't have to do is face the fact that we cannot give in to all of that without becoming an optimist about America. I've seen our country back to the policies of the union. But a numbing exposure to graphic violence and loveless sex. I'm talking about groups like Cannibal Corpse, Geto Boys and 2 Live Crew. About a culture becoming dangerously coarse. I have the Freedom to speak up, as well. Mark Canton, the president spokewith great eloquence about a future with a half-silent consciousness that we can get our country back on track is simply to return the favor. I see a lot of friends here tonight: Chuck and Barbara Grassley, Terry and Chris Branstad, Jim and Elisabeth Leach, Bob and Billie Ray -- and so many others.

I think the highest compliment anyone ever paid me was back in 1988, Dan gave me the honor of delivering his nomination speech at the cutting edge of creative excellence, but also too often the leading edge of coarseness and violence is given a catchy tune. When teen suicide is set to an end, but it will only stop when the leaders of the companies on the state ofthe entertainment industry. There are few national priorities more urgent."

Bob Dole, 1996


He later admitted he had never actually heard Cannibal Corpse's music! ohno:

And why was it that Bob Dole always spoke in third person?? :confused:


Btw, Bob Dole had a point with singling out Cannibal Corpse--they are one of the most disgusting bands lyrically and image-wise out there. puke: But Bob Dole may have won points for mentioning the band's name, it gave him some attention--as it did the band! ;)

Dole on Time's cover; and Cannibal Corpse:

Cannibal Corpse's 1996 album Vile featured horrific, pathetic lyrics describing torture, dismemberment, and all things disgusting and morbid. With songs like "Devoured By Vermin", "Mummified In Barbed Wire", and "Puncture Wound Massacre", there was no question that the band had topped Slayer in the shock department, and had every reason to cause Bob Dole concern. The band had been banned from playing in countries such as Germany and other European nations. The band was about the most successful of the death metal genre, with over a million copies of their albums sold without airplay or MTV. To their credit, they appeared on "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective", but their lyrics remained as obscene as ever. Sexual violence was also a recurring theme. The band members found nothing wrong with the topics they sang about, which was a rather sad commentary on pop culture which found tittilation with themes of death, decay, and dehumanization.

The album cover below is a tamer version of their 1996 album:

In related metal news, British grindcore pioneers Carcass had broken up the year before, but released a *posthumous* album, Swansong. The band had called it quits under speculation that the band had abandoned their trademark fast breakneck riffs and embraced more 80's melodic thrash, in other words, the band had regressed, in many fans' eyes (and ears). Guitarists Mike Amott and Bill Steer went on to pursue different bands, one of which had success in a few years.

The album titles are not typical of the "medical-textbook" metal that grindcore employed. The album featured tracks such as "Keep On Rotting In the Free World", "Tomorrow Belongs to Nobody", "Room 101" and "Generation Hexed", all generally songs about societal ruin and spiritual isolation.

The song below has letters x'd out not because of profanity, but that the very idea that rock and roll could and should change the world was a profane idea itself.

R**k the Vote

Hands In Another's Pocket,
The Bed They Make,
Is Not The One In Which They Lie,
The Same Old Faces,
The Same Old Establishment,
The Same Old Lies,
Cross Your "X",
It's Your Only Voice,
Do As You're Told,
Don't Rock The Boat,
And Buy What You're Sold,

Believe The Lie,
The Line That You Toe,
Doing Fine,
If You Just Do As You're Told,

No Dissident Voices,
The Faces Merge,
Are One, Absolute,
A Comfortable, Privileged,
White Over Belly,
Revolution,
No Threat, No Change,
No Gain, Just Pain,
The Same Old Scheme,
No Hope, No Choice,
No Future, No Voice,
This Is No Pipe Dream,
All Is Not What It Seems,

Believe The Lie,
The Line That You Toe,
You'll Do Just Fine,
If You Just Do As You're Told,
You Believe The Lie,
The Line That You Toe,
Doing Fine,
If You Just Do As You're Told,
Is This Rock'n'roll Or A Form Of State Control?

Is This Really Rock'n'roll?
Or A Form Of State Control?

Carcass' 1991 album Necrotism - Descanting the Insalubrious was a defining moment in the grindcore/goregrind genre. Judging from the album song titles such as "Inpropagation", "Corporeal Jigsore Quandary",
"Symposium Of Sickness", "Pedigree Butchery", "Incarnate Solvent Abuse"
"Carneous Cacoffiny", "Lavaging Expectorate Of Lysergide Composition", and
"Forensic Clinicism / The Sanguine Article", it gave the impression that the band were former medical students, when in fact the band used such titles to convey a sense of dehumanization by science. Other quaint themes were found on the song "Pedigree Butchery", where the lyrics suggested dead humans be turned into pet food! :eek: :idea: "Impropagation" pondered the idea of human remains being turned into fertilizer, and on "Carneous Cacoffiny"
(a play on the word cacaphony), human cadavers could be used as musical instruments! What imaginations! Soylent Green, anyone? :lol:

Goregrind is a sub-genre of the music style grindcore, which is related to music styles such as death metal, thrash metal, and crust punk. The main features that musically distinguish goregrind from grindcore can be narrowed down to two main aspects: 1) The use of an octave shifter on the vocals, creating a unique low pitch gurgle texture, similar to the effects used in horror movies for a possessed, demonic or undead character. 2) More of a reliance on metal influence, or more specifically, in later years, on a primatively constructed aspect of the downtuned textures frequently used in Death Metal, which had, in many cases, taken the place of the crust influence on its grindcore bretheren.

Its beginnings can be placed with the band Carcass who began their career in the late 1980s. The genre has, however, changed from the original archetype offered by Carcass, who were influenced by the hardcore punk and thrash metal popular in the 1980s underground scene. Carcass used pitch shifters, medical imagery and a host of other 'visceral' associations when they originally conceived the band, a deviation from the frequently political or left wing lyrics commonly used in the hardcore and grindcore scenes. An example of their lyrics can be seen below:

"An abrasive concoction is formed in my throat,
Methylated bile, jaundiced kidneys bloat,
Tumorous stomach, coughing up gall,
The thorax infected with furuncles and boils"


The band's other lyrics were similarly awash with complicated medical terms and stomach-churning bodily functions. Until their middle period where more focus on technicality and heavy metal with a variety of other styles, changed their sound.

The doctor will see you now. puke: :lol:

If Carcass is a tasteless name for a band, here are some charming names of actual grindcore or goregrind bands:

Amoebic Dysentery
Animals Killing People
Anorrectal Protuberance
Autophagia
Basket of Death from Japan
Catasexual Urge Motivation
Dead Infection
Decomposition
Decomposing Serenity
Destined to Fester
Exhumed
Feculent Goretomb
Flesh Grinder
General Surgery
Gore
Gruesome Stuff Relish
Haemorrhage
Last Days Of Humanity
Libido Airbag Techno-goregrind
Lymphatic Phlegm
Microphallus
MonoClarific
Necrocannibalistic vomitorium
Neuro-Visceral Exhumation or NVE
Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis
Regurgitate
Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition or SCD
The County Medical Examiners

Carcass may have had a more specific purpose in writing explicit medical lyrics than for mere shock value. Much of the themes promoted vegetarianism
and animal rights causes, among others.

Carcass:

Another band hailing from Quebec other than Voivod was Cryptopsy, whose 1996 album None So Vile was a defining moment for death metal. The band featured Lord Worm on vocals, Jon Levasseur on lead and rhythm guitars, Eric Langlois on bass, and Flo Mounier on drums and backing vocals, but were about to undergo major lineup changes. The music was rather exceptional, the drumming was quite powerful, and the guitars were blisteringly fast, but the vocals were garbled, raspy, and resembled Cookie Monster committing major spewage. The lyrics were typical happy thoughts of death, darkness and blasphemy.

This concludes the "3 C's" of 90's death metal.

Later pic with five members:

Going back to our other favorite power trio, King's X released one of their finest efforts, Ear Candy. The band was full-on into their psychedelic Beatle-esque mode, but they did not sound at all derivative or as artsy as their previous albums. It was a purely musically honest album, but while critics raved about how good the band was, the album died commercially and went out out of print. The record label did not give it that badly needed push and dropped them (apparently they were still looking for the next Crayonbox from Seattle. :rolleyes: ). It seemed that the big breakthrough would never come for the band who deserved to make it. Their influence and fan base covered many bands and artists from Dimebag Darrell to Pearl Jam.

The Train

Step up and step aboard,
Your seat is to the left.
Leave all you bags behind
And tighten up you metal belt

Chorus:
Last time aboard the train that
goes around the world.
Last time aboard the train
Last time aboard the train that
goes around the world.
Around the world

You leave us all behind,
You start to feel the pain
(Last time aboard the train...)
Don't try to take the ride,
Sit back and let it rain
(Last time aboard the train...)

Chorus:
Last time aboard the train that
goes around the world.
Last time aboard the train
Last time about the train that goes........

(Flying)
Around the world
(Flying)
(Flying)
Around the world
(Flying)

Solo

Chorus:
Last time aboard the train that
goes around the world
(Last time aboard the train)
Last time aboard the train that
goes around the world
(Last time aboard the train)
Last time aboard the train that
lives inside my head
(Last time aboard the train)
Last time aboard the train
I'm going 'round the world.
Around the world.

:guitar: peace: peacesign:

Sometime

Sometime, I want to give
Sometime, I want to take
Sometime, I want to run
Sometime, I want to stay

Chorus:
Sometime
Sometime
Sometime
Sometime

Sometime, I want to love
Sometime, I want to hate
Sometime, I want to build
Sometime, I want to break

Chorus:
Sometime
Sometime
Sometime
Sometime

Solo

Sometime, I want to live
Sometime, I want to die
Sometime, I want to believe
Sometime, I want to get high and fly

Chorus:
Sometime
Sometime
Sometime
Sometime
(repeat)

:guitar: peace: peacesign:

Doug Pinnick:

(Thinking and Wondering) What I'm Gonna Do

So would you take me for a ride
And let me know that I'm alive
Oh sometimes I wish I never
Had an answer or a clue to anything

Chorus:
All this wondering
And this thinking and wondering
And this thinking and wondering
What I'm gonna do

So many reasons to believe
I am so easily deceived
Oh, sometimes I wish I never
Had an answer or a clue to anything

Chorus:
All this wondering
And this thinking and wondering
And this thinking and wondering
What I'm gonna do

Solo

So would you take me for a ride
And let me know I'm still alive
Oh, sometimes I wish I never
Had an answer or a clue to anything

Chorus:
All this wondering
And this thinking and wondering
And this thinking and wondering
What I'm gonna do


Ty Tabor:

Mississippi Moon

Today I walked
Today I ran
Today I tried to figure who I am
Yesterday we played
In our waterfall
Dancing with the summer
Laughing at it all

Chorus:
Over the Mississippi moon
Have to make myself remember
It's something that I used to know
Over the Mississippi moon
Got to get myself together
I've started seeing blue and gold

Today I flew
Over the hill
Reaching for that feeling
That one more thrill
Yesterday the same
Tomorrow never knows
I carry all my life
Wherever I go

Chorus:
Over the Mississippi moon
Have to make myself remember
It's something that I used to know
Over the Mississippi moon
Got to get myself together
I've started seeing blue and gold

Over the Mississippi moon
Ohhh, ohhh, over
Over the Mississippi moon
Ohhh, ohhh, over

Solo

Chorus:
Over the Mississippi moon
Have to make myself remember
It's something that I used to know
Over the Mississippi moon
Got to get myself together
I've started seeing blue and gold
(blue and gold)
I've started seeing blue and gold
(blue and gold)


Jerry Gaskill:

Before the release of Rush's Test For Echo album, guitarist Alex Lifeson recorded his own solo album with the name Victor while the band was on hiatus. Featuring the lead vocalist Edwin from the Canadian band I Mother Earth, the Victor album dealt with topics such as marital discord and breakdown of relationships. Lifeson took the name at random from a book of writings and stories by poet W. H. Auden and came up with the story entitled "Victor", which told the tragic tale of a man who was deliriously in love with his wife that when she became extremely unfaithful, his
jealousy erupted into a rage to where he murdered her. Lifeson was so shocked at the denouement of this tale that he began to write songs contemplating about how such a deep love could go horribly wrong. Life and love apparently not all they were cracked up to be.

The album featured such songs as the radio hit "Promise", and "Shut Up Shuttin' Up" (taken from the Bugs Bunny cartoon where a gangster urges the Wascally Wabbit to keep silent--twice), where band members' wives prattle about the downside of being married to rock musicians. :gossip

Promise

One more glass
A million more days
One more smoke
Release me from my ways
Break the mould
Break youre back
Break the promise you made
Seek the world now
Don't look back
Make you're promise today
Leave the safety
Leave this life
Leave before it's too late
It's your only chance
Don't pretend romance
Keep the new promise you made
What if I wasn't so scared ?
Why can't I be brave ?
I've forgotten all that we shared
You can't give me what I crave
One more glass
Take another pill
One more day
I feel like I could kill
What if you let me walk away ?
You think it's me who needs to be saved
Your lifea tragic, self-centered play
You never gave me what I craved
What I want
You can never give
What you want
My dead life to live
Break the mould
Break youre back
Break the promise you made
Seek the world now
Don't look back
Make you're promise today
Leave the safety
Leave this life
Leave before it's too late
It's your only chance
Don't pretend romance
Keep the new promise you made
Break the mould
Break youre back
Break the promise you made
Seek the world now
Don't look back
Make you're promise today
Leave the safety
Leave this life
Leave before it's too late
Seek the world now
Don't look back
Make your promise today
Keep the new promise you made
Keep the new promise you made

:rock: :guitar:

In 1996, former Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson released Skunkworks, which was originally intended to be the name of his new band with guitarist Alex Dickson (no relation), but the record company
insisted that he release it under his own name. The title of the album was a reference to Lockheed aircraft equipment, as aviation was becoming a huge passion for Bruce. The album, however, was unlike anything he had ever done with Maiden--it sounded much more like current Rush than anything else. But this was at this point where Bruce's muse lie, he was in control of his own solo career, and was eager to distance himself from his past in heavy metal. Steve Harris and the rest of Maiden were rather preturbed at his departure three years before and were not on the best of terms with him, but felt they could still manage just fine with Blaze. But many fans found this to be the most curious release by Bruce. :confused: The album featured songs such as "Space Race", "Back From the Edge", "Inertia", and "Inside the Machine".

Back From the Edge

A silent river flowing black
strange attractions no turning back
present danger I recall
that pins my senses to the wall
back from the edge where the darkness has fled
and I'm swimming
in light and I'm falling... falling from the edge...
back from the edge
I fell from grace and that's a fact
still have urges I fight back
cold decisions wear me thin
kill yourself begin again
back from the fear
that you're not worth a damn
throw yourself
into light and the rush as you
sign from the edge...
back from the edge...
now and then I wonder where the faces
from my childhood have gone
like father like son your bones it lives on glowing shadows
back from the edge

:rock: :guitar:

Lollapalooza 1996 was a turning point for the whole alternative music festival.
When Perry Farrell learned that none other than the mightiest metal band on the planet METALLICA was headlining the main stage, he dissociated himself from the festival in disgust. The event he had created had gotten out of his control, and a major corporate band was the main draw (but wasn't pretty much all alternative corporate at this point anyway?). But the festival was not all about metal or alternative, there were even country-rock artists as well, including a few more surprises. It was also the first time a third stage was added.

Sadly, it was the last year that the Ramones would be playing. Lollapalooza was going the be their last hurrah. :(


1996
Main Stage: Metallica, Soundgarden, Cocteau Twins, Waylon Jennings, Cheap Trick, Violent Femmes, The Tea Party, Wu Tang Clan, Rage Against the Machine, Steve Earle, Devo, The Ramones, Rancid, Shaolin Monks, Screaming Trees, Psychotica

Side Stage: Beth Hart Band, Girls Against Boys, Ben Folds Five, Ruby, Cornershop, You Am I, Soul Coughing, Sponge, The Melvins, Satchel, Jonny Polonsky, Fireside

Indie Stage: Chune, Moonshake, Lutefisk, Capsize 7, The Cows, Long Fin Killie, Thirty Ought Six, Varnaline, Crumb


Liz Frazier of the Cocteau Twins; Lollapalooza photo composite; Psychotica at a signing; Beth Hart performing:

Kim Thayil and the other members of Soundgarden, who were second to Metallica in headlining, noticed something very odd about Metallica's entourage. Thayil was put off by Metallica having a sort of sealed-off "camp", as if no one else could get in and hang with them. This was totally not in keeping with the spirit of Lollapalooza, which was based on mutual respect and cameraderie. There were no egos, no "I'm-bigger-than-thou" attitudes. But it was very disturbing that Metallica, the band which prided itself on being a band of "dudes" who got along with even the lowliest of fans, barricaded themselves like rich rock stars and posting beefed-up security that kept even established fellow musicians from even entering into their circle. It was one thing that Metallica was no longer the band of longhaired characters in torn jeans from Norwalk to the Bay Area, but their attitude of being some sort of rawk royalty was very galling. The members of Soundgarden were very uncomfortable with all the star hierarchy.

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/08.08.96/gifs/lollapal3-9632.jpg
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/08.08.96/gifs/lollapal4-9632.jpg

The third photo below features the Tibetan Shaolin Buddhist Monks who were
performing chants onstage. The freedom for Tibet from China's communist rule became a huge cause during this time, from everyone from actor Richard Gere to even the Beastie Boys supporting the nation-within-a-nation.

Screaming Trees' Van Connor:
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/08.08.96/gifs/lollapal1-9632.jpg
Rancid's Lars Fredrikson:
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/08.08.96/gifs/lollapal2-9632.jpg
Tibetan Shaolin Monks:
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/08.08.96/gifs/lollapal6-9632.jpg

Below is a shot of Joey Ramone onstage at Lollapalooza. It was ironic that a band as influential as the Ramones probably got some of their largest crowds at their "farewell tour: on the festival, while the band which is credited with inventing punk got so little recognition from the mainstream, even when everything from new wave, alternative and "pop-punk" had become the biggest thing in the world.

Joey Ramone:
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/08.08.96/gifs/lollapal5-9632.jpg

Even new wave pioneers DEVO regrouped to make an appearance!

Factoids you may have not have known about DEVO:

1. Devo first performed as the "Sextet Devo" at Kent State University in 1973. Co-founders Gerald Casale, Mark Mothersbaugh, and Bob Lewis were students at Kent State at the time the National Guard shot and killed students at a protest against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia--the 'pivotal moment' in their founding, according to Casale.

1. The original inspiration for the band's name and underlying philosophy came from Oscar Kiss Maerth's "The Beginning Was the End", a pseudoscientific anthropological thesis which attributes the rise of man as an evolutionary accident caused by a species of sex-crazed, cannibalistic apes who developed tools to exploit each other sexually and feed on each others' brains (See devolution). This metaphor is carried throughout Devo's work as a commentary on modern society.

3. Only Mark Mothersbaugh, the band's lead singer and synthesizer player, and Gerald V. (Gerry) Casale, the group's bassist have been members of Devo since its inception. The first lineup included Gerald Casale (bass), Mark Mothersbaugh (keyboards), Bob Lewis (lead guitar), Bob Casale (rhythm guitar), Rod Reisman (drums) and Fred Weber (vocals). Later versions of the band added Bob Mothersbaugh (lead guitar) and Jim Mothersbaugh (drums).

4. Devo's big break came in 1976 when their short film The Truth About De-Evolution won a prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival; it was then seen by David Bowie and Iggy Pop, who championed them and enabled Devo to secure a recording contract with Warner Brothers Records. By this time Alan Myers had replaced Jim Mothersbaugh as drummer. After David Bowie backed out due to previous commitments, their first album, "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!" was produced by Brian Eno and featured a radical cover of the Rolling Stones' (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction and the controversially titled "Mongoloid". In 1978, Lewis successfully sued the band for theft of intellectual property.

5. Although they started out with a mixture of traditional rock instruments and electronic effects, during the early 1980s Devo adopted mostly or entirely synthetic instrumentation, becoming one of the first American acts to perform on stage using only synthesizers; they were also one of the first groups in the world to regularly use radio microphones and microphone headsets on stage.

6. Devo actively embraced the Church of the SubGenius in the early 1980s. In concert, Devo sometimes performed as their own opening act, pretending to be a Christian soft-rock group called "Dove (the Band of Love)". They also recorded "E-Z Listening Muzak" versions of their own songs to play before their concerts. In 1982, they appeared in the Neil Young film "Human Highway."

7. Devo remained popular in many countries—for instance, they had a large and loyal following in Australia. The nationally broadcast '70s-'80s pop TV Countdown was one of the first programs in the world to broadcast their video clips, and they were given consistent radio support by Sydney-based non-commercial rock station Double Jay (2JJ), which was one of the first rock stations outside America to play their recordings. The late night music programme "Nightmoves" provided a showing of The truth about de-evolution.

8. After the release of Smooth Noodle Maps in 1990, the band stopped recording and full scale touring, although it has been revived on several occasions for one-off performances and short tours including those in 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2005. In 2001, members of Devo formed the surf band The Wipeouters, claiming that it was actually a reunion of the first garage band they started while in their early teens.

9. Mark Mothersbaugh has gone on to considerable success writing and producing music for television programs (starting with Pee Wee's Playhouse), video games, cartoons and movies. In 1985, he released an elaborately packaged solo cassette, "Musik for Insomniaks," which was later expanded and released as two CDs. His company, Mutato Muzika, provides employment for Devo guitarists Bob Mothersbaugh and Bob Casale: the former works as a composer, and the latter as a recording engineer. Gerry Casale has directed rock videos by other bands, including Rush and Foo Fighters. Recently they allowed a version of "Whip It" to be used in Swiffer television commercials, a decision they have said they regret.

10. Devo is probably as well known for their image as for their music, donning uniforms that mocked industrial culture and pop consumerism, such as the yellow chemical-protection suits during the early Q: Are We Not Men? period, matching Reaganesque plastic hairpieces, masks and the signature "flower pot" hats (energy domes) for Freedom of Choice--which were intended (according to the band) to channel their sexual energy into their voices. Mark Mothersbaugh also donned a baby mask to create his famous alter-ego, Booji Boy (pronounced "Boogie Boy"), said by some to symbolize the infantile regression that Devo saw in American culture. The character featured in many stage performances and video clips, as did Booji Boy's father, General Boy (played by Mothersbaugh's father Robert Mothersbaugh), who satirised American authority figures. For their performance at the 1996 Sundance Festival, they wore black-and-white-striped prisoners' uniforms. In their more recent shows, they have returned to the hazmat outfits and energy domes of their earliest days.

Mark Mothersbaugh; Bob Casale ("Bob 2"); and Bob Mothersbaugh ("Bob 1");
Jerry Casale:

Soundgarden released their followup to Superunknown, Down on the Upside, that year, which was another very successful album. However, the band was sick of touring, and sick of all the attention they were getting as "rock stars." Kim Thayil admitted that if he had his way, he would just be content at playing little club dates while they were unknowns, such as at the Blue Moon Tavern, a landmark watering hole in Seattle's University District. But now the band were huge names and very uncomfortable with their fame. It was something they could no longer control. Once even Thayil became involved in an altercation at a hotel when a group of partygoers confronted him, but once the group got physically abusive, in an act of self-defense he swung out and hit a person he did not intend to strike--a girl. :eek: :doh: They seemed to realize his "stardom" and decided to corner him. His privacy was becoming increasingly jeopardized.

On tour, the band even hated to have to face the crowd. While playing dates
in Australia, bassist Ben Sheppard played with his back turned to the audience. The band cringed at having to look out into the massive throngs there to see them--which was rather ironic coming from a band who said that, while on tour with Guns N' Roses several years earlier, they had no problem with it because "you only saw the first couple rows", they had no stage fright issues back then. But 1996 was a completely different story.

Graphic artist Frank Kozik, who did the artwork for The Melvins' Houdini album, directed the video for the following song, which was heavily edited by MTV for "objectionable" content:

Pretty Noose

I caught the moon today
Pick it up
And throw it away all right
I got the perfect steal
A cleaner love
With a dirty feel all right
Fall out and take the bait
Eat the fruit
And kiss the snake goodnight

Common ruse dirty face
Pretty noose is pretty hate
And I don't like
What you got me hanging from

Let your motor race
Pick it up
And get this mother gone
Out from and far away
The wooden stake
This thing has got me on

Diamond rope silver chain
Pretty noose is pretty pain
And I don'like
What you got me hanging from

I don't care what you got
I don't care what you need
I don't want anything
And I don'like
What you got me hanging from

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

This is one of the best, and heaviest songs on the album, a return to form for Soundgarden:

Rhinosaur

Standing with my enemies
Hung on my horns
With haste and reverie
Killing with charm

Only happy when you hurt
Only deadly in a swarm
Only healthy in the dirt
Only empty in your arms

I play, I'm sick and tame
Drawing the hordes
I wait, and show tha lame
The meaning of harm
The skulls beneath my feet
Like feathers in sand
I graze among the graves
A feeling of peace

Only bending when you break
Only feeding when you're cold
Only healing when you ache
Only feeling when you don't

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

This is one of the big hits from the album, which even uses a little acoustic dobro guitar:

Burden In My Hand

Follow me into the desert
As thirsty as you are
Crack a smile and cut your mouth
And drown in acohol
Couse down below the truth is lying
Beneath the riverbed
So quench yourself and drink the water
That flows below her head

Oh no there she goes
Out in the sunshine the sun is mine

I shot my love today would cry for me
I lost my head again would you lie for me
I left her in the sand just a burden in my hand
I lost my head again would you cry for me

Close your eyes and bow your head
I need a litle simpathy
Cause fear is strong and love's for everyone
Who isn't me
So kil your health and kill yourself
And kill everything you love
And if you live you can fall to pieces
And suffer with my ghost
Just a burden in my hand
Just an anchor on my heart
Just a tumor in my head
And I'm in the dark

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

My Francais is a little rusty for the caption in the middle:

Problems over creative freedom always dogged the band, such as with the case for the album's track "Ty Cobb" which contained a few profanities. More controversy ensued when this video
was aired in Europe, which was temporarily banned:

Blow Up The Outside World

Nothing seem to kill me no matter how hard I try
Nothing is closing my eyes
Nothing can beat me down for your pain or delight
And nothing seems to break me
No matter how hard I fall nothing can break me at all
Not one for giving up though not invincible I know

I've givin' everything I need
I'd give you everything I own
I'd give in if it could at least be ours alone
I've given everything I could
To blow it to hell and gone
Burrow down and
Blow up the outside world

Someone tried to tell me something
Don't let the world bring you down
Nothing will do me in before I do myself
So save it for your own and the ones you can help

Want to make it understood
Wanting though I never would
Trying though I never would
Blowing it to hell and gone
Wishing though I never could
Blow up the upside world

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Zero Chance

I think I know the answer
I stumbled on and all the world fell down
And all the sky went silent
Cracked like glass and slowly
Tumbled to the ground
They say if you look hard
You'll find your way back home
Born without a friend
And bound to die alone

I'm thinking of your highness
And crying long upon the loss
I've found
And on the plus and minus
Zero chance of ever
Turning this around

Why doesn't anyone believe
In loneliness
Stand up and everyone will see
Your holiness

They say if you look hard
You'll find your way back home
Born without a friend
And bound to die alone

Pics of Kim Thayil (above) and Ben Sheppard (below):

Never Named

I had a dog he was a mix
He loved me like God
But I was just a kid
The kind mother likes
Now I'm big like the sky
And I'm down sized inside
I'll put this all to rest
I'm just a baby who looks like a boy
I'm getting all depressed
I'm just a baby who looks like a boy

I got my father's sense
And my big brother's pants
And I look like a man
And I feel like an ant
Just speck on the ground
Growing like a weed
A fleck of a seed

I'll put my hands in flames
I'm just a baby who looks like a boy
Feels like I'm born again
I'm just a baby who looks like a boy
I'm just a baby who looks like a boy

And I'll keep hanging from your hair
And I'll keep playing the sand
Just as long as I can

Chris Cornella (Lollapalooza pic on right); and Matt Cameron:

In addition to the rehearsal photo below, a picture clip of the band's stint on Saturday Night Live is included. Not much chance the song below was performed, though it was released as a single.


It was "not ready for prime time"? ;)

Ty Cobb

I'm sitting in a magic hat
With smoke and mirrors
And tir rubber firesWatch me disappear
What made it slow you down
Sucking on a ball and chain
Another muther:censored:r goes down the drain
Hard headed f:censored: you all
Just add it up to the hot rod death tol

Sick in the head sick in the mouth
And I can't hear a word you say
Not a bit, and I don't give a s:censored:
I got the glass, I got the steel
I got the love to hate
All I need is your head on stake
Hard headed f:censored: you all
Just add it on on the hot rod death toll

:rock :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

A Soundgarden Christmas card from 1996: :tree: :santa2: :cc: :stocking: :santa: :rednose: :cc:

By 1996, Pearl Jam's fortunes began to decline due to their refusal to release
videos as well as their suit against Ticketmaster which kept them from playing practically any venue in the country. Their album that year was No Code, an album that did not commercially grab fans. It debuted at #1 on the charts, but began a quick slide from there. Like many alternative artists, Pearl Jam liked creating music on their own terms, but it did not help if no one was buying.

This song seems rather tame and lackluster, but was their first hit from the album:

Off He Goes

1, 2, 1, 2...
know a man, his face seems pulled and tense
like he's riding on a motorbike in the strongest winds
so i approach with tact
suggest that he should relax
but he's always moving much too fast
said he'll see me on the flipside
on this trip he's taken for a ride
he's been taking too much on
there he goes with his perfectly unkept clothes
there he goes...
he's yet to come back
but i've seen his picture
it doesn't look the same up on the rack
we go way back
i wonder about his insides
its like his thoughts are too big for his size
he's been taken... where, i don't know?
off he goes with his perfectly unkept hope
and there he goes...
and now i rub my eyes, for he has returned
seems my preconceptions are what should have been burned
for he still smiles...
and he's still strong
nothing's changed, but the surrounding bull**** that has grown
and now he's home
and we're laughing like we always did
my same old, same old friend
until a quarter-to-ten
i saw the strain creep in
he seems distracted and i know just what is gonna happen next
before his first step
he's off again

Hail, Hail

ah, is there room for both of us?
both of us apart?
are we bound out of obligation?
is that all we've got?
i get the words, and then i get to thinkin'
i don't wanna think, i wanna feel
and how do i feel?
and how do i...
if you're the only one, will i never be enough?
hail, hail the lucky ones, i refer to those in love
swore i'd love you till the day i die, and beyond..
are we going to the same place? if so, can i come?
it's egg rolling thick and heavy
all the past you carry
oh, i could be new... you underestimate me
if you're the only one, will i never be enough?
hail, hail the lucky ones, i refer to those in love
i sometimes realize i could only be as good as you'll let me
are you woman enough to be my man?
bandaged hand in hand
i find it on the run in a race that can't be won
all hail the lucky ones, i refer to those in love
if you're my only one, so could you only one?
i want to be your one, enough...
you won, your one, your hun

:rock: :guitar: :banana: :mango

Who You Are

come to send, not condescend
transcendental consequence
is to transcend where we are
who are we? who we are
trampled moss on your souls
changes all you're a part
seen it all, not at all
can't defend f:censored:d up man
take me a for a ride before we leave...
circumstance, clapping hands
driving winds, happenstance
off the track, in the mud
that's the moss in the aforementioned verse
just a little time, before we leave...
stop light plays its part
so i would say you've got a part
what's your part? who you are
you are who, who you are

:guitar: :banana: :mango

Jeff Ament:

This is one of the better songs on the album:

In My Tree

up here in my tree, yeah
newspapers matter not to me, yeah
no more crowbars to my head, yeah
i'm trading stories with the leaves instead, yeah
wave to all my friends, yeah
they don't seem to notice me, no
all their eyes trained on the street, yo, oh
sidewalk cigarettes and scenes, (tem-pted)
up here so high i start to shake
up here so high the sky i scrape
i'm so high i hold just one breath here within my chest
just like innocence
(eddie's down in his home)
(oh, the blue sky it's his home)
(eddie's blue sky home)
(oh, the blue sky it's his home)
i remember when, yeah
i swore i knew everything, oh yeah
let's say knowledge is a tree, yeah
it's growing up just like me, yeah
i'm so light the wind he shakes
i'm so high the sky i scrape
i'm so light i hold just one breath and go back to my nest
sleep with innocence...
up here so high the boughs they break
up here so high the sky i scrape
had my eyes peeled both wide open, and i got a glimpse
of my innocence... got back my inner sense...
baby got it, still got it

:guitar: :banana: :mango

Red Mosquito

watched from the window, with a red mosquito
i was not allowed to leave the room
i saw the sun go down, and now it's coming up
somewhere in the time between
i was bitten, must have been the devil
he was just paying me...
a little visit, reminding me of his presence
letting me know, he's a-waiting... oh
red man's your neighbor, call it behavior
while you're climbing up slippery hills
two steps ahead of him, punctures in your neck
hovering just above your bed
hovering just above your bed
i was bitten, must have been the devil
he was just paying me...
a little visit, reminding me of his presence
and letting me know, he's a'waiting, he's a'waiting...
up there... yeah
if i had known then what i know now...
if i had known then what i know now...
if i had known then what i know now...
if i had known then what i know now...

:guitar:

Around the time that Pearl Jam guested on Neil Young's Mirror Ball album, they released an EP, Merkin Ball, which featured the track "I Got Id" (id=psychological term meaning unconscious source of desires with the mind).

I Got Id

And I wished for so long cannot stay
All the precious moments cannot stay
It's not like wings have fallen cannot stay
But still something's missing I cannot say yea
Holding hands are daughters and sons
And their faiths are falling down down down down
I have wished for so long
How I wish for you today

Will I walk the long road the long road
Cannot stay the long road
There's no need to say goodbye say goodbye
All the friends and family
All the memories going round round round
I have wished for so long
How I wish for you today

And the wind keeps roarin'
And the sky keeps turning grey
And the sun is setting
The sun won't rise another day

I have wished for so long
How I wish for you today
I have wished for so long
How I wish for you today
Will I walk the long road
We all walk the long road
Will I walk the long road
We all walk the long road
Will I walk the long road
Will I walk the long road
We all walk the long road
Will I walk the long road
We all walk the long road
Will I walk the long road

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

One of the biggest comeback stories of 1996 was the reunion of the Sex Pistols, with their aptly named Filthy Lucre tour. Why did they regroup after almost twenty years? They said they felt that the band had not ended the way they wanted it, and though the band was well past their prime, why not give it one more go. Their last "tour" of the United States was an abysmal joke, with playing redneck bars and to unreceptive audiences, but now they were up to doing a decent summer tour. For the tour, they brought back original bassist Glen Matlock, who was initially kicked out of the band for admitting he liked The Beatles (Johnny Rotten/Lydon sported shirts with the caption "I Hate Pink Floyd" at that time), seeing that infamous bassist Sid Vicious' new residence was in Air Duct Vent #4 at London's Heathrow Airport.

The band's tour began with a tumultuous start in Finland, but by the time they reached American shores for a series of summer dates, they found a warm, receptive audience ready to embrace the filth and the fury!

Johnny Rotten/Lydon:

Tour Poster:

http://www.angelfire.com/zine/sexpistols/images/sthlm96poster.gif

Pic of the live show:

Bassist Glen Matlock:

Here is a hilarious interview with the Pistols that rivals the Beatles on their arrival in America:

100 Club Press Conference 18th March 1996
PISTOLS DRAWN
(Transcript from Melody Maker. 23rd March 1996)

(Autograph pic from Satellite - Paul Burgess and Alan Parker)

SEX PISTOLS ended months of speculation this week by announcing they are to reform for a series of gigs, including an outdoor show at London’s Finsbury Park on June 23 - as exclusively reported in the February 10 issue of Melody Maker. The four original members of the Pistols hosted a press conference in front of 350 journalists from around the world at the 100 Club in Oxford St, London, on Monday (March 18). Before the band’s arrival, five transvestites in skimpy DayGlo outfits handed out cheese rolls and jellied eels, while tapes of Second World War songs were played over the Union Jack* festooned PA. A huge Union Jack was also draped over the podium. In the middle was a photo of Princess Diana with “Queen Of Tarts” emblazoned across her eyes, in the style of the “God Save The Queen” single sleeve. The Pistols’ wives and girlfriends, Steve Severin, Eddie Tudorpole and Vivienne Westwood’s son were preset.

Lydon immediately demanded a beer.

Lydon: “All right, we’re here, who’s first?"

What do you think about Malcolm McLaren’s comments in Melody Maker that you’re just dray horses out for your last ride before being put out to pasture?

Lydon: "I’m, glad he’s still doing our press for us.”

Johnny, are you on any prescribed medication that we should know about?

Lydon: “The only thing I’m on is ego, and I’ve got more than enough to go round.”

This is sad isn’t it?

Lydon : “Pardon can I have that in English? It’s sad that an arsehole like you doesn’t appreciate the effort we’ve gone to.”

How much money are you getting?

Lydon: “More than The Beatles and f**king right ‘n’ all. Cos this is the only thing that’s ever come out of Britain that’s actually worth the money.”

Isn’t it a complete about-face from everything you’ve ever stood for?

Lydon: “Listen, we invented punk, we write the rules. You follow. Not the other way round.”

Where’s your first gig?

Lydon: “Finland!”

Why Finland?

Lydon; “You’ve got to rehearse some place.”

Do you still hate each other?

Lydon: “Yes, with a vengeance, but we share a common cause, and it’s your money.”

How much are you getting?

Cook: “Don’t be nosey.”

Lydon: “I’ll tell you at the end of the year.”

What do you think of Green Day?

Lydon: “Childish prattle. It’s the same old **** really, nothing’s changed. Through the years we’ve all gone off and done different things and left it up to others to make waves but nobody out there has done bollocks all to change this world, so here it is, part two. And quite frankly, the Sex Pistols never finished properly so this is what this is about, to put a full stop on it.”

Why has it taken you so long?

Lydon: “Well I ran away from it for a long time. I couldn’t cope with it because it went tragically wrong due to management and various other arsehole members. Money isn’t the be all and end all. I’m also incredibly spiteful and when someone thinks something is so sacrosanct that it should never be touched, I wanna touch it.”

Asked about a Pistols reunion in the past you’ve said, “What are we gonna do, dig up Sid?” Do you think that might make a better spectacle?

Lydon: “I thought about that, but Sid’s ashes were blown all over Heathrow airport! We’d need a f***ing Hoover!”

Are you writing new material?

Matlock: “No, we haven’t even rehearsed yet. This is only the third time we’ve even seen each other. We’ve spent five minutes together and it’s going great.”

Are you gonna get rid of the monarchy for us this time?

Lydon: "No, Our very good fifth member, Lady Di, is doing an excellent job. In fact we’ve offered to do a benefit for Madame Di cos she really does need the cash, just like us.”

What would Sid think off all this?

Lydon: “He’d love it, if he could think at all. Sid was nothing more than a coat hanger to fill in an empty space on stage. These are the people that wrote the songs and now we’d like to be paid for it. Every f**er has lived off us and we’ve not seen penny one or respect. If you wanna complain about people grabbing money, then look at all those trashy little pop stars you’ve got out there left right and centre. I don’t see you bitching about any of those bumholes. Is it cos we’re working class that that means we have no access to cash, period?”

You live in Malibu!

Lydon: “Should we just stay in our council estates?”

Are you old farts like the Stones?

Lydon: “There ain’t nothing wrong with getting old. Like a fine wine, I’ve matured with age.”

Glen, what have you been doing for the last 20 years apart from your writing your book?

Lydon: “Not a lot.”

Matlock: “I’ve done a lot thanks John. I’ve got an album coming out this month on Creation. It’s called “Who’s He When He’s Not At Home.”’

How far can you spit these days?

Lydon: “Do you wanna test it?”

Do you like Oasis?

Lydon: “They’re just a pop band, you know.”

Matlock: “Don’t wanna say anything about them, they’re really hard and they might hit us.”

Who’s gonna support you on tour?

Lydon: “Some bunch of F***ing geriatrics. Who cares? Let’s face it nobody is gonna go for any of the support bands. Apparently the Buzzcocks are gonna be at Finsbury Park but if you really want a good laugh, come late.”

The first time you went to Finland they wouldn’t let you in, now they will. What does that say about you as a band?

Lydon: “It says nothing at all. Nobody cares about Finland.”

Do you expect anyone to start gobbing at you again?

Lydon: “No, and quite Frankly I never appreciated that in the first place. I am not no f***er’s spittoon.”

How old are you all now?

Lydon: “I’m 21 and I’ve been that way for 19 years. I’m 40. I’m not the slightest bit ashamed about it. We’re not pretending to be kids. We also don’t give a **** what we look like. We love our beer bellies and you’re gonna too.”

What do we call you, Johnny - Rotten or- -

Lydon: “You’ll call me sir”

What do you think of artists like Tricky doing something new?

Lydon: “What Tricky’s doing isn’t new. That’s all samples of other people’s stuff. That’s not new. There’s not one original thought in there. By the way, I like Tricky.”

Do you think it’s inevitable that the Clash will follow suit and reform?

Lydon: “We don’t know anything about The Clap.”

Matlock “I think they’ll do it next year. Cos they always did stuff after us anyway.”

You said you hated stadium rock bands but you are one now.

Lydon: “No we’re not. What stadium would that be? You name the stadium and I’ll call you a liar. Finsbury Park is not a stadium, it is a field.”

Would you like to appear in Hello magazine with Nora?

Lydon: “We could make a threesome with Lady Di.”

Matlock: “And Fergie.”

Lydon: “Not Fergie. That tart in a tent can stay where she is. That’s the bum suck end of it. That’s The Clash of the royal family.”

How many times have you been approached to do this?

Lydon: “About 10 solid years of it. But all those have never really been solid offers. This is happening because we actually sat down and bothered to think about it and started to call in some of these arseholes offering all this money and have no qualms whatsoever about taking them up on their big fat mouths.”

If the concerts go well are you going to make this a permanent - - -

Lydon: “No. No, the concerts won’t go well and no, it will not be permanent. I mean, you know what this lot’s like. We always disappoint on the night. And surely that’s the fun of it all. I hope [at] Finsbury Park it rains and you get your wheelchairs stuck in the mud,”

Does Sid’s mother have any rights to the Sex Pistols stuff?

Lydon: ‘‘We look after her and her *****. She has a cat.”

Will you play “Top Of The Pops”?

Lydon: “No. No. It could never work. That show’s so bad. You’ve really depressed me, just the f***ing thought of it.”

Matlock: “The c***s wouldn’t have us on there 20 years ago, why should we go on now?”

Lydon: “Unless. They pay. Now you must admit that’s a novel idea.”

What are you gonna spend the money on?

Jones: “Prostitutes. Well I am anyway."

Lydon: “He’s not joking either.”

Are you gonna play ‘EMI’ now that your record company (Virgin) is owned by EMI?

Lydon: “Can you please not mumble that again."

Do you think you’ve grown up?

Lydon: “No. I’ve grown wide.”

Live pics:

http://www.geocities.com/SuprmChaos/johnny-rotten-062196.jpg

Steve Jones:

Interestingly enough, I got to see the Sex Pistols play at Seattle's Memorial Stadium for Bumbershoot exactly the day before I got to see KISS at the Tacoma Dome!! The local music magazine The Rocket posted a cartoon illustration of both Gene Simmons, with slipping dentures, and Johnny Rotten, with emaciated, haggard looks, on the cover to spoof their being "old fossil rockers". But no one seemed to share that opinion of either band. At the Pistols' show, they played pretty much all their songs from the Never Mind the Bollocks album, with Johnny Rotten/Lydon observing, when someone threw a single shoe onstage, "Well, someone threw one left shoe onstage! I guess that makes them 'Shoeless and Clueless in Seattle'!" :lol: He also ragged on some members of the audience who felt inclined to flip the middle finger: "What the f:censored: does that mean, anyway? Like you're being so rebellious, yeah right! " :rolleyes: The other notable feature of Mr. Rotten was that his hair was two different colors sticking in opposite directions! :crazy:

On the cover of Q:

Hootie and the Blowfish were on top of the world at the beginning of 1996, but by the end of the year they were a punch line. In between the frat-boy foursome released their Fairweather Johnson LP.

http://cover09.cduniverse.com/MuzeAudioArt/210/211405.jpg

The album - like Cracked Rear View, titled with a stoo-pid scatological double entendre - featured more of their dense, overproduced, carefully calculated mush-rock. Only this time, almost no one was buying it. Fairweather Johnson - the title song about sports fans who root for the side that's winning - sold a minor fraction of copies compared to its predecessor. As a result , the group went from kings to bums, and no one was rooting for them now that they were losers. :p

Rock critics had the following reaction to Fairweather Johnson's foul sales. . . .

"THERE IS A GOD!!!!!"

party: :woohoo:

Hey, Hootie - :yousuck:

F:censored:in' good riddance to bad rubbish! :barf:

Nearly twenty years after coming out of Forest Hills, New York, the Ramones had finally called it a day, the reason being, they said, was to have enough time to enjoy retirement while they still had it. They didn't feel like going on like the Stones or any other bands like that. Most likely, it was because they had personal conflicts with each other. Joey and Johnny did not get along, both were from opposite sides of the political fence: Joey was a devout liberal, and Johnny was a hardcore follower of the conservative far right. He was stung when Joey wrote and sung the lyrics to "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" without letting Johnny know he had just played and recorded guitar tracks for a song attacking his hero Ronald Reagan. Johnny refused to ever play the song live.

Johnny also criticized Joey at every opportunity. In fact, the final straw came when Joey allegedly "stole" Johnny's girlfriend, whom Joey later married.
The song "The KKK Took My Baby Away", written by Joey, was an intended poke at Johnny's love life and politics (some insiders have noted that Johnny Ramone had been known to express rather politically incorrect comments, or ones considered racist). The two stopped speaking for years.

iAdios Amigos!, released in the summer of 1995, was not a big seller, but featured two dinosaurs in funny sombreros (a tongue-in-cheek statement at their being "old"). They would not be the first band to use this motif.

I Don't Want to Grow Up

When I’m lyin’ in my bed at night I don’t wanna grow up
Nothing ever seems to turn out right I don’t wanna grow up

How do you move in a world of fog that’s always
Changing things makes wish that I could be a dog

When I see the price that you pay I don’t wanna grow up
I don’t ever want to be that way I don’t wanna grow up

Seems that folks turn into things that they
Never want the only thing to live for is today...

I’m gonna put a hole in my t.v. set I don’t wanna grow up
Open up the medicine chest I don’t wanna grow up

I don’t wanna have to shout it out I don’t want my hair to fall out
I don’t wanna be filled with doubti don’t wanna be a good boy scout
I don’t wanna have to learn to count I don’t wanna have the biggest amount
I don’t wanna grow up

Well when I see my parents fight I don’t wanna grow up
They all go out and drinkin’ all night I don’t wanna grow up

I’d rather stay here in my room nothin’ out there but sad and gloom
I don’t wanna live in a big old tomb on grand street
When I see the 5 o’clock news I don’t wanna grow up
Comb their hair and shine their shoes I don’t wanna grow up

Stay around in my old hometown I don’t wanna put no money down
I don’t wanna get a big old loan work them fingers to the bone
I don’t wanna float on a broom fall in love, get married then boom
How the hell did it get here so soon I don’t wanna grow up

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

In 1994, The Ramones released Acid Eaters, a collection of covers of psychedelic 60's songs they enjoyed listening to while growing up. Johnny Ramone said that his decision to play with such simplified, barre-chord riff-age came from his seeing guitar legend Jeff Beck and thinking, "I can't play like that." He decided to just play what he felt, and in the process ended up creating a new, long-lasting genre. Johnny did not even strictly consider himself a musician, it was just something he wrote down on tax forms when he was as asked for his occupation. He did not practice at home, it was in concert that he got into his "craft", like, as he said, where a baseball player performs when he gets into the groove of the game.

The songs included such covers as "Journey to the Center of the Mind" by the Amboy Dukes, "Substitute" by The Who, "Out of Time" by The Rolling Stones, "The Shape of Things to Come" by The Yardbirds, "Somebody to Love" by Jefferson Airplane, "7 and 7 Is" by Love, "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and others.

Substitute

You think we look pretty good together.
You think my shoes are made of leather.

But I'm a substitute for another guy.
I look pretty tall but my heels are high.
The simple things you see are all complicated.
I look pretty young but I'm just back dated, yeah.

Substitute your lies for facts.
I see right through your plastic mac.
I look all white but my dad was black.
My brand new suit's really made out of sack.

I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth.
The North side of my town faced East and the east was facing South.

And now you dare to look me in the eye.
Those crocodile tears are what you cry.
It's a genuine problem you won't try
to work it out at all, just pass it by, pass it by.

Substitute me for him.
Substitute my Coke for gin.
Substitute you for my Mum,
at least I'll get my washing done.

I'm a substitute for another guy.
I look pretty tall but my heels are high.
The simple things you see are all complicated.
I look pretty young but I'm just back dated, yeah.

I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth.
The North side of my town faced East and the east was facing South.

And now you dare to look me in the eye.
Those crocodile tears are what you cry.
It's a genuine problem you won't try
to work it out at all, just pass it by, pass it by.

Substitute me for him.
Substitute my Coke for gin.
Substitute you for my Mum,
at least I'll get my washing done.

Substitute your lies for facts.
I see right through your plastic mac.
I look all white but my dad was black.
My brand new suit's really made out of sack.

:guitar: peace: peacesign:

In 1992, The Ramones released Mondo Bizarro , an album which featured one of the most un-Ramones-like songs they ever performed, "Poison Heart", which sounded much more like an alternative jangle-rock hit. The song showed that the band was attempting to sound current, and had received decent airplay. Other songs on the album included "Censorsh*t", criticizing attempts to stifle free speech, and a song title everyone can relate to, "The Job That Ate My Brain." :crazy: :eat:

Poison Heart

No one ever thought this one would survive
Helpless child, gonna walk a drum beat behind
Lock you in a dream, never let you go
Never let you laugh or smile, not you.

Well, I just want to walk right out of this world,
'Cause everybody has a poison heart
I just want to walk right out of this world,
'Cause everybody has a poison heart.

Making friends with a homeless torn up man
He just kind of smiles, it really shakes me up.
There's danger on every corner but I'm okay
Walking down the street trying to forget yesterday.

Well, I just want to walk right out of this world,
'Cause everybody has a poison heart.
I just want to walk right out of this world,
'Cause everybody has a poison heart,
a poison heart, a poison heart, a poison heart ... yeah!

You know that life really takes its toll
And a poet's gut reaction is to search his very soul
So much damn confusion before my eyes,
But nothing seems to phase me and this one still survives.

I just want to walk right out of this world,
'Cause everybody has a poison heart.
I just want to walk right out of this world,
'Cause everybody has a poison heart,
Well, I just want to walk right out of this world,
'Cause everybody has a poison heart.
a poison heart, a poison heart, a poison heart.
a poison heart, a poison heart, a poison heart.

:guitar:

The Ramones press their handprints in a slab of concrete for Hollywood's Rock Walk.

On July 11, 1996, tragedy and scandal rocked the music world again when it was found that Jonathan Melvoin, a session keyboardist who was also the brother of Suzanna and Wendy Melvoin of Prince and the Revolution, was found unconscious after shooting heroin and drinking alcohol with Smashing Pumpkins' drummer Jimmy Chamberlin while both were touring behind the Melon Collie album. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful, including dousing his head in a shower, and by the time paramedics arrived, Melvoin was dead. Billy Corgan promptly fired Chamberlin from the band, and replaced him and Melvoin with Filter drummer Matt Walker and The Frogs' keyboardist Jimmy Flemion. According to the band, Chamberlin had been given repeated warnings to clean up his heroin and drug addiction, but when they went unheeded, Melvoin's death became the last straw. Chamberlin was subsequently arrested, and the street value of the notoriously potent brand of heroin spiked--it became the the most sought-after drug on the black market within hours of the news of Melvoin's death.

Jonathan Melvoin; and Jimmy Chamberlin:

There seemed to be a growing problem in pop culture, as the guardians of decency claimed, of the prevalence of 'heroin chic', where the dangerous and highly addictive drug was seen as glamorous and cool. The evidence of the acceptance of the drug was found not only in grunge and alternative rockers, specifically ones from from Seattle, but in various fashion ads which allegedly depicted young men and women with pale, sallow, and emaciated faces and features, signs of obvious abuse. Redness appeared around the eyes, and the expressions looked bleary and unhealthy. Bodies and frames looked skeletal and undernourished (a long-running complaint against the fashion industry). For an added bonus, models were depicted engaging in sexually suggestive acts, even in (more than) implied lesbianism.
It even got to a point where President Clinton (a conservative member of the Democratic party with a tight connection with the MTV crowd for his "I didn't inhale" comments) condemned the trend within the industry to make heroin addiction fashionable. Another salvo fired by the anti-pop culture conservatives in Election Year.

Images reflecting "heroin chic": Bloodshot eyes, suggestive poses, young, trashy, and (implied?) lesbian frolics (note the redness around eyes):

Stone Temple Pilots released Tiny Music... Songs From the Vatican Gift Shop, which showed that the band was coming into its own and moving away from the Pearl Jam comparisons. The album featured such hits as "Tripping on a Hole in a Paper Heart", "Big Bang Baby", and others. However, at the peak of their success, vocalist Scott Weiland was facing his own personal problems that were threatening to tear apart the band.

Tripping on a Hole in a Paper Heart

Don’t cut out my paper heart, I ain’t dyin’ anyway
Take a look at eye full towers
Never trust them dirty liars
Sippin’ lemon yellow booze `ole’ leadbelly sings the blues
All dressed up on wedding day keep on trippin’ anyway

I am I am I said I’m not myself, but I’m not dead and I’m not for sale
So keep your bankroll lottery eat your salad day deathbed motorcade

Fake the heat and scratch the itch
Skinned up knees and salty lips
I’ll breathe your life vicks vapor life
And when you binge I purge alike
Let go it’s harder holding on
One more trip and I’ll be gone

So keep your head up
Keep it on, just a whisper I’ll be gone
Take a breath and make it big
It’s the last you’ll ever get
Break your neck with diamond noose
It’s the last you’ll ever choose

I am I am I said I’m not myself, but I’m not dead and I’m not for sale
Hold me closer, closer let me go let me be just let me be

:guitar:

Big Bang Baby

I got a picture of a photograph
Of a wedding and a shell
It's just a burning ancient memory
I never kiss and tell

So turn it up and burn it
There's a hole in your head
There's a hole in your head
Where the birds can't sing along

Does anybody know how the story really goes, how the story really goes
Or do we all just hum along
Sell your soul and sign an autograph
Big bang baby, it's a crash, crash, crash
I wanna cry, but I gotta laugh
Orange crush mama is a laugh, laugh, laugh

Spin me up, spin me, spin me out
Station to station send me up and out
Is this what life and love is all about
I think I think so

We used to see in color
Now it's only black and white
Ya it's only black and white
Because the world is color blind

Does anybody know how the story really goes, how the story really goes
Or do we all just hum along
Sell your soul and sign an autograph
Big bang baby, it's a crash, crash, crash
I wanna cry, but I gotta laugh
Orange crush mama is a laugh, laugh, laugh

Nothing's for free, nothing's for free
Take it away boys
Nothing's for free, nothing's for free
Take it away boys

So turn it up and burn it
There's a hole in your head
There's a hole in your head
Where the birds can't sing along

Does anybody know how the story really goes, how the story really goes
Or do we all just hum along
Sell your soul and sign an autograph
Big bang baby, it's a crash, crash, crash
I wanna cry, but I gotta laugh
Orange crush mama is a laugh, laugh, laugh

Nothing's for free, nothing's for free
Take it away boys
Nothing's for free, nothing's for free
Take it away boys

So turn it up and burn it
There's a hole in your head
There's a hole in your head
Where the birds can't sing along

Does anybody know how the story really goes, how the story really goes
Or do we all just hum along

:guitar:

Tumble in the Rough

I can't eat
I can't sleep
I can't live
I can't cry
I can't die
I can't walk
I can't talk
Booze
I can booze
Steal your shoes
So I can move
Tumble in the rough
Tumble in the rough
Tumble in the rough

I'm looking for a new mediation
Still looking for a new way to fly
Don't want any plastic validation
Not looking for a new way to die

I made excuses for a million lies
But all I got was humble kidney pie
So what

I'm lookin' for a new stimulation
Quite bored of those inflatable ties
I'm lookin' for a new rock sensation
Dead fish don't swim around in jealous tides

I made excuses for a million lies
But all I got was humble kidney pie
So what

<Can't hold you when I miss you
(Tumble in the Rough)
Left on a summer intermission
(Tumble in the Rough)
Can't hold you when I miss you
(Tumble in the Rough)
Left on a summer intermission>
(Tumble in the Rough)>

:rock: :guitar:

Ride the Cliche

She no wait, but she know me
Intake purge, it's my disease

Hold me closer let me be
Hold me closer let me go away
Barely know you know my name
Trip the witch and ride the shame

Just because you're so cliched
It don't mean you won't get paid

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

In addition to being a funny guy, George Burns was also a singer. He was a rock singer, having recorded two Beatles songs and performed a third with the Smothers Brothers on their sixties TV show. He was also a country singer! "Why not?" he declared. "I'm older than most countries!" :lol:

http://www.brownsteins.net/RichsFamily/FamilyPhotos/George%20Burns.jpg

From the vaudeville generation to Generation X, George Burns appealed to just about everyone who ever lived in the century he was on this earth. He celebrated his one hundredth birthday on January 20, 1996. Although he had no intention of dying - "I can't die. I'm booked!" - he did die on March 9, 1996.

And we all thought he'd live forever. . . . :(

Love's Pop Suicide

Can you figure out what I want,
pull the trigger with a pop gun
Mindless fools that aggravate it
pick at you in desperation

Oh it's a love pop suicide
Oh I'm in love pop suicide

Pop life living is so real
Midwest farmers' kids are milkfed
Breed and incubate what you see
Ten years later here on t.v.

Oh it's a love pop suicide
I'm in love pop suicide

Father can't you love your women
Father can't you teach your children
Long range love implosion short wicked
Short wave mind explosion

Oh I'm in love suicide, about a pop star homicide

:rock: :rock:

Stone Temple Pilots Seattle Concert Poster:

In 1995, Scott Weiland was arrested for buying rock cocaine and sentenced to one year probation. His continuing drug problems forced Stone Temple Pilots to cancel much of their Tiny Music tour in 1996. The band went on hiatus where Weiland was arrested for buying heroin. Weiland was joining other disgraced musicians such as Jimmy Chamberlain in their travails with drugs. It is believed that Weiland picked up his habit from Butthole Surfers' vocalist Gabby Haynes, a known user, while both bands jointly toured. The problem with drugs would long remain with Weiland deep into his career.

During the band's hiatus, Scott Weiland recorded Twelve Bar Blues, a diverse album featuring everything from soft acoustic bittersweet ballads to trippy avant garde noise rock. The album even featured appearances by Sheryl Crow and U2 producer Daniel Lanois, and Weiland even performed a mini-tour for the album, which was cut short by his heroin arrest. The songs on the album included "Barbarella", "About Nothing", "Where's the Man", and "Desparation #5".

1996 was a big year for the band that introduced Scott Weiland to the pleasures of heroin, The Butthole Surfers. Their commercial breakthrough album Electriclarryland not only scored a hit with the electronica/acoustic blues guitar track "Pepper", but also ran afoul of the folks at fine music outlets like Sam Goody and Walmart with the bizarre cartoon on the cover.
The album was re-released in a less controversial cover with a prairie dog on the front and letters in their names censored out.

Anyone remember the Far Side cartoon with the characters poking their heads out of holes with the caption, "The timid prairie people"? ;) :lol:

Pepper

Marky got with Sharon
And Sharon got Sharice
She was sharing Sharon's outlook
On the topic of disease
Mikey had a facial scar
And Bobby was a racist
They were all in love with dyin'
They were doing it in Texas
Tommy played piano
Like a kid out in the rain
Then he lost his leg in Dallas
He was dancing with a train
They were all in love with dyin'
They were drinking from a fountain
That was pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
I don't mind the sun sometimes
The images it shows
I can taste you on my lips
And smell you in my clothes
Cinnamon and sugary
And softly spoken lies
You never know just how you look
Through other people's eyes
Some will die in hot pursuit
In fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain

[Chorus]

Another Mikey took a knife
While arguing in traffic
Flipper died a natural death
He caught a nasty virus
Then there was the ever-present
Football player rapist
They were all in love with dyin'
They were doing it in Texas
Polly caught a bullet
But it only hit his leg
Well it should have been a better shot
And got him in the head
They were all in love with dyin'
They were drinking from a fountain
That was pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain

[Chorus]

:guitar: :banana: :mango

The Butthole Surfers' 1993 album Independent Worm Saloon featured the track "Who Was In My Room Last Night?", a video which was featured on
Beavis and Butthead with a cameo of Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers where the dudes exclaimed, "Hey look! There's Flea!!"

The Butthole Surfers were totally a bad trip in psychedelic music. Rolling Stone magazine called them "so genuine in its depravity" and called them scary because "the weirdness is much too real to qualify as mere dadaist showmanship." Which was apparently a vote of approval. Other songs on the album included "Goofy's Concern" and "Some Dispute Over T-Shirt Sales."
For a Bible-Belt state which frowned on such extreme expression and rampant drug abuse, The Butthole Surfers were a sort of rock and roll's under-appreciated success stories. :yeahthat

Former Led Zeppelin bassist/keyboardist/musical arranger John Paul Jones produced the album. In keeping with punk attitude, the band was known to have ragged on his production abilities as the work of an "old rock star wanker". Great attitude. :rolleyes:

Who Was In My Room Last Night?

I'm flying [7x] flying away, I'm flying away, I'm flying [13x+]
All night long my body burned well I she's my wicked coal
Lights were in my eyes were gone and anything will lose the door
I found it in my window just I found it in my head
I wonder who was in my room that night.
Who the hell was in my bed
The boss had me that body there
That's where I smelled some flesh
It took a little time but I figured they were mine
There were fingers going down my chest
My mouth went through the ceiling and my body fell through the floor
I couldn't find a key cause there was no one I could see
And so I ran through the door OW!
Well I got a breeze this place is fine
And no one really had a clue
Love was a tellin' who was touchin' me
Or attack what I could do
My throat was dry my hopes were high
But nothin' really ever got said
But who was in my room that night
Who the hell was in my bed

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

We have visited the Butthole Surfers previously in the 80's thread, with the album Locust Abortion Technician from 1987, which features the track "Sweat Loaf", an obvious nod to Black Sabbath, with the charming dialogue below. The band was one of the precursors to grunge by combining punk with metal.

Sweat Loaf

"Daddy, what does regret mean?
Well son, the funny thing about regret is,
It's better to regret something you have done,
Than to regret something you haven't done.
And by the way, if you see your mom this weekend,
Be sure and tell her, SATAN, SATAN, SATAN!!!"

:devil:

The Butthole Surfers have been known to have very theatrical shows complete with strobe lights, videos, and stripper dancers.

A selection of Butthole Surfers songs:

Colored FBI Guy
Cough Syrup
Dog Inside Your Body
Dracula From Houston
Goofy's Concern
I Saw an X-Ray of a Girl Passing Gas (great song! :rock: Yes, I've heard it!)
Jingle of a Dog's Collar
Julio Iglesias
The Ballad of Naked Man
The Shaw Sleeps In Lee Harvey Oswald's Grave
Ulcer Breakout

Lot of songs about dogs... :dog:

Social Distortion returned with their followup to Between Heaven and Hell with
White Light, White Heat, White Trash, a decent hard-edged album which featured the hits, "I Was Wrong" and "When the Angels Sing".

I Was Wrong

Oh, when I was young
I was so full of fear
I hid behind anger, held back the tears
It was me against the world
I was sure that I'd win
But the world fought back, punished me for my sins
I felt so alone
So insecure
I blamed you instead, made sure I was heard
And they tried to warn me
Of my evil ways
But I wouldn't hear what they had to say
I was wrong
Self destruction's got me again
I was wrong
I realize now that I was wrong

And I think about my loves
Well, I've had a few
Well, I'm sorry that I hurt them
Did I hurt you too?
I took what I wanted
Put my heart on the shelf
But how can you love me when you don't love yourself?
It was me against the world
I was sure that I'd win
The world fought back, punished me for my sins
And they tried to warn me
Of my evil ways
But I couldn't hear what they had to say

I was wrong
Self destruction's got me again
I was wrong
I realize now that I was wrong
I was wrong, yeah
I was wrong

I grew up fast
And I grew up hard
Something was wrong from the very start
I was fighting everybody
I was fighting everything
But the only one that I hurt was me
I got society's blood running down my face
Somebody help me get outta this place
How could someone's bad luck last so long?
Until I realized that I was wrong

I was wrong
Self destruction's got me again
I was wrong
I realize now that I was wrong
I was wrong
Self destruction's got me again
I was wrong
The only moment that I was me
I was wrong

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

When the Angels Sing

At last we meet again, dear God
Hear the angels sing
The funerals are nicer when we know you're there
When the angels sing
Sometimes
I try so hard
To understand
The things you do
I like to question you
When it all comes down
Hear the angels sing
Stand up strong
Feel the pain
When the angels sing
Love
And death
Don't mean a thing
Till the angels sing

The prisoners pray when they're on to death row
When the angels sing
The junky
Cries for love but it's all run out
When the angels sing
The sins
Of the world
And it's cold on the streets
And you're all alone
And the tears
They start to fall
When it all comes down
Hear the angels sing

Stand up strong
Feel the pain
When the angels sing
Love
And death
Don't mean a thing
Till the angels sing
Little
By little
Day by day
I watch the children play
Cause life
And death
Don't mean a thing
Till the angels sing

When the angel of death comes to looking for me
Hear the angels sing
I hope I was everything I was supposed to be
When the angels sing
There's gotta be a heaven
Cause I've already done
My time in hell
And a little
Baby's born when it all comes down
Hear the angels sing

Stand up strong
Feel the pain
When the angels sing
Love
And death
Don't mean a thing
Till the angels sing
Little
By little
Day by day
I watch the children play
Cause life
And death
Don't mean a thing
Till the angels sing

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Drugs tragically claimed yet another figure of alternative music that year, Brad Nowell, guitarist for ska punk band Sublime. His body was found by his Dalmatian dog Lou Dog after he had succumbed to a heroin overdose. He had left behind a wife, Troy, and his son, Jake, who was not even a year old. He was only 28.

The band's third album had not even been released. The band left a career filled with wild antics and party-hearty image, while Nowell contended with his heroin addiction for two years. Their shows became virtual barbecues and keggers, but during the meantime, their recording process was hampered by rampant drug use. Two years before, Nowell married Troy, and sought to clean up when she became pregnant. He was only partially successful, and remained in denial about his evident drug use on the phone with Troy only a few hours before his death. The band was set to go out on the road when they discovered him dead. The band released a series of posthumous hits which ensured alternative stardom for years to come.

:crying:

http://40oztofreedom96.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/brad_nowell_baby_lou-thumb.jpg

Unfortunately, Nowell died before many people had even heard much of Sublime's music. Many critics felt that, had he lived, the band would have become one of the biggest iconic bands of the 90's, but such was not to be.
It was noted that Nowell was not only a fan of another fallen rock idol of the 90's, Kurt Cobain, but shared his dependence on a destructive drug, heroin--a drug he assured family and friends would not only hinder his success, but actually help his creativity. Such was the mentality of many gifted musicians.

Sublime's third, self-titled album, Sublime, was released only two months after Nowell's death. It featured such tracks as "Santeria", "What I Got", and "Doin' Time". New fans came out in droves for the band who basically self-imploded long before they were known by many. Those who did had missed out on the party to end all parties, the band was very raucous and irreverent: The band members smoked a joint on an interview with KROQ radio in Los Angeles, prompting to ban their hit "Date Rape" from the playlists. Fans rushed the stage and their mascot dog Lou even bit a television presenter. The band were fearful of selling out and going corporate, but fortunately, the band ended before they had that chance. The band's fan base remained fanatical and extreme due to their show biz deviltry.

Santeria

I don't practice Santeria
I ain't got no crystal ball
Well I had a million dollars but I, I'd spend it all
If I could find that heina and that sancho that she'd found
Well I'd pop a cap in sancho and I'd slap her down
What I really wanna know (my baby)
What I really wanna say, I can't define
Well it's love that I neeeeeed
My soul will have to wait till I get back
Find a heina of my own
Daddy's gonna love one and all
I feel the break, feel the break, feel the break
And I gotta live it out
Oh yeah un-huh
Well I swear that I, what I really wanna know (my baby)
What I really wanna say, I can't define
Got love! Make it go
My soul will have to...
What I really wanna say (my baby)
What I really wanna say, is I've got mine
And I'll make it
Yes, I'm going up
Tell sanchito that if he knows what is good for him
He best go run and hide
Daddy's got a new .45
And I won't think twice
To stick that barrel straight down sancho's throat
Believe me when I say that I got something for his punk-ass
What I really wanna know (my baby)
What I really wanna say, is there's just one way back
And I'll make it
My soul will have to wait

:guitar: :banana: :mango

This song is a cool, laidback kind of tune, not one you'd expect from a rowdy band;

Doin' Time

summertime and the livin's easy,
and bradley's on the microphone w/ ras m.g.
all the people in the dance will agree
that we're well qualified
to represent the lbc,
me and louie,
run to the party dance to the riddim it gets harder.

me and my girl,
we got this relationship.
i love her so bad but she treats me like...
on lock down like a penitentiary.
she spreads her lovin' all
over and when she get home there's none left for me

(chorus)

oh take this veil from off my eyes,
my burning sun will some day rise
so what am i gonna be doin' for a while
say i'm gonna play with myself,
show them how we come off the shelf,
so what

(chorus)

evil,
i've come to tell you that she's evil,
most definately,
evil, ornery scandalous and evil,
most definately.
the tension,
is getting hotter,
i'd like to hold her,
head underwater, oh

me and my girl,
we got a relationship,
me and my girl,
we got a relationship,
my girl,
we got a relationship,
oh and my girl

take a tip,
take a tip,
take a tip from me.
bradley's on the microphone w/ ras m.g.
all the people in the dance will agree
that we're well qualified to represent the lbc,
me, la la louie,
everybody,
run to the riddim it gets harder

:banana: :mango

This was their biggest hit from the album:

What I Got

Early in the mornin'
Risin' to the street
Light me up that cigarette and I'll strap shoes on my feet
Got to find the reason
Reason things went wrong
Got to find the reason why my money's all gone
I got a dalmatian
I can still get high
I can play the guitar like a motherf:censored:in' riot

Life is too short so love the one you got
Cause you might get run over or you might get shot
Never startle static I just get it off my chest
Never had to battle with my bulletproof vest
Take a small example, take a tip from me
Take all of your money, give it all to charity
Life is what I got it's within my reach, and
The sublime style is just straight from Long Beach
It all comes back to you, you finally get what you deserve
Try and test that, you're bound to get served
Love's what I got, don't start a riot
You'll feel it when the dance gets hot

Lovin' is what I got, I said remember that
Lovin' is what I got, And remember that
Lovin' is what I got, I said remember that
Lovin' is what I got, I got, I got, I got

I don't cry when my dog runs away
I don't get angry at the bills I have to pay
I don't get angry when my mom smokes pot
Hits the bottle and moves right to the rock
F:censored:uck it or fight it, it's all the same
Livin' with Louie dog's the only way to stay sane
Let the lovin', let the lovin' come back to me

Cause lovin' is what I got, I said remember that
Lovin' is what I got, And remember that
Lovin' is what I got, I said remember that
Lovin' is what I got, I got, I got I got

:guitar: :banana: :mango:

In the photo montage, Lou the Dalmatian is their mascot:

The What I Got EP cover with Lou the dog:

Beck (the "Loser" guy, not the "Blow By Blow" guitarist) returned with Odelay, proving that he was not a one-hit wonder with everyone's favorite slacker anthem. Produced by the men behind the Beastie Boys, The Dust Brothers, the album featured more instruments and effects to yield such one-man band experimental music hits as "Where It's At" and "Devil's Haircut".

Devil's Haircut

somethin's wrong cause my mind is fadin'
and everywhere I look there's a dead end waiting,
temperature's dropping at the rottin' oasis
stealing kisses from the lepers faces
heads are hanging from the garbageman trees
mouthwash, jukebox, gasoline,
pistols are pointing at a poor man's pockets
smiling eyes with 'em out of the sockets
got a devil's haircut in my mind
got a devil's haircut in my mind
got a devil's haircut in my mind
got a devil's haircut in my mind
love machines on the sympathy crutches
discount orgies on the dropout buses
hitchin' a ride with the bleedin' noses
comin' to town with the briefcase blues
got a devil's haircut in my mind
got a devil's haircut in my mind
got a devil's haircut in my mind
got a devil's haircut in my mind
somethin' wrong cause my mind is fading
ghetto blastin' disintegrating
rock 'n' roll, know what I'm saying?
everywhere I look there's a devil in waiting.
got a devil's haircut in my mind
got a devil's haircut in my mind
got a devil's haircut in my mind
got a devil's haircut in my mind
got a devil's haircut in my mind
got a devil's haircut in my mind
got a devil's haircut in my mind

:banana: :mango

This is one of the coolest songs on the album:

New Pollution

She's got a cigarette on each arm
She's got the lily-white cavity crazes
She's got a carborator tied to the moon
Pink gods looking to the fruit of the ages
She's alone in the new pollution
She's alone in the new pollution
She's got a hand on a wheel of pain
She can talk to the mangling strangers
She can sleep in a fiery barn
Throwing troubles to the dying embers
She's alone in the new pollution
She's alone in the new pollution
She's alone in the new pollution
She's alone in the new pollution
She's got a paradise camoflauge
Like a whip-crack sending me shivers
She's a boat through a strip-mine ocean
Riding low on the drunken rivers
She's alone in the new pollution
She's alone in the new pollution

:banana: :mango

Where It's At

There's a destination a little up the road
From the habitations and the towns we know
A place we saw the lights turn low
Jig-saw jazz and the get-fresh flow
Pulling out jives and jamboree handouts
Two turntables and a microphone
Bottles and cans and just clap your hands and just clap your hands
Where it's at!
I got two turntables and a microphone
Where it's at!
I got two turntables and a microphone
Where it's at!
I got two turntables and a microphone
Where it's at!
[robot] I got two turntables and a microphone
[sample]: take me home in my elevator bones!
[sample]: that was a good drum break
Pick yourself up off the side of the road
With your elevator bones and your whip-flash tones
Members only, hyponotizers move through the room like ambulance drivers
Shine your shoes with your microphone blues
Hirsuits with your parachute flutes
Passing the dutchee from coast to coast
Let the man Gary Wilson
[sample]: "rock the most"
Where it's at!
I got two turntables and a microphone
Where it's at!
I got two turntables and a microphone
[sample]: "What about those who swing both ways: AC-DC's
Two turntables and a microphone
Two turntables and a microphone
Two turntables and a microphone
Two turntables and a microphone
Two turntables and a microphone
Two turntables and a microphone
Where it's at!
I got two turntables and a microphone
Where it's at!
I got two turntables and a microphone
Oh, dear me. Make Out City is a two-horse town
[sample]: "That's beautiful, Dad."
Get my microphone....
There's a destination a little up the road
From the habitations and the towns we know
A place we saw the lights turn low
Jig-saw jazz and the get-fresh flow
Pulling out jives and jamboree handouts
Two turntables and a microphone
Bottles and cans and just clap your hands and just clap your hands
Where it's at!
I got two turntables and a microphone
Where it's at!
I got two turntables and a microphone
I got plastic on my mind
Telephone plastic baby

:banana: :mango

Bush released their sophomore album to Sixteen Stone, the less successful Razorblade Suitcase, which featured a few hits such as "Swallowed" and "Greedy Fly". The album hit #1 and escaped the pigeonholing of being compared to Nirvana, whom the band was constantly being accused of imitating. However, the above songs were did not quite match the quality of earlier tracks like "Everything Zen" and others.

Swallowed

Warm sun feed me up
And I’m leery loaded up
Loathing for a change
And I slip some boil away

Swallowed followed
Heavy about everything but my love
Swallowed sorrowed
I’m with everyone and yet not
I’m with everyone and yet not
I’m with everyone and yet

Just wanted to be myself
Hey you said that you would love to try some
Hey you said you would love to die some
In the middle of a world on a fishhook
You’re the wave
You’re the wave
You’re the wave

Swallowed borrowed
Heavy about everything but my love
Swallowed hollowed
Sharp about everyone but yourself
Swallowed oh no
I’m with everyone and yet not
I’m with everyone and yet not
I’m with everyone and you’re not
I’m with everyone and yet

Piss on self-esteem
Forward busted knee
Sick head blackened lungs
And I’m simple selfish son

Swallowed followed
Heavy about everything but my love
Swallowed oh no
I’m with everyone and yet not
I’m with everyone and yet not
I’m with everyone and yet not

Got to get away from here
Got to get away from here
Got to get away from here
Got to get away from here

I miss the one that I love alot
I miss the one that I love alot
I miss the one that I love alot

:guitar:

The one connection that the band had with Nirvana was that In Utero's producer Steve Albini produced the second Bush album. The band did a major concert tour for the album.

Greedy Fly

do you feel the way you hate
do you hate the way you feel
always closest to the flame
ever closer to the blade
i am poison crazy lush
built these hands to lift me up
we are servants to our formulaic ways
i'm screaming daisies
from 14 miles away
i've got my own time
got it all today
make up your mind
i need some help
to find this mind
limbo this and limbo that
you were this and you were that
ever know that what you fear is what you
find
this indian summer
i signed my life away
there's a greedy fly in here
and i fly away

:guitar:

Toadies were a band from Fort Worth, Texas whose sole hit was "Possum Kingdom" from their album Rubberneck. The name of the song came from Possum Kingdom State Park in Texas. Their members included Todd Lewis on vocals and guitar, Lisa Umbarger on bass, Mark Reznicek on drums, and Clark Vogeler on guitar, with various members revolving around the band prior to and since their brief breakthrough. Their sound has been classified as "post-grunge" with a bit of Texas twang. One of the members actually claims that they have had relatives involved the ill-fated Branch Davidian cult.

Possum Kingdom

Make up your mind
Decide to walk with me
Around the lake tonight
Around the lake tonight
By my side
By my side
I'm not gonna lie
I'll not be a gentleman
Behind the boathouse
I'll show you my dark secret

I'm not gonna lie
I want you for mine
My blushing bride
My lover, be my lover, yeah...

Don't be afraid
I didn't mean to scare you
So help me, Jesus

I can promise you
You'll stay as beautiful
With dark hair
And soft skin...forever
Forever

Make up your mind
Make up your mind
And I'll promise you
I will treat you well
My sweet angel
So help me, Jesus

(hey, hey, hey)

Give it up to me
Give it up to me
Do you wanna be
My angel?
So help me!

Be my angel
Be my angel
Do you wanna die?
I promise you
I will treat you well
My sweet angel
So help me, Jesus

Jesus
Jesus
Jesus...

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

The Toadies were in fact much more abrasive on their albums than with just "Possum Kingdom". It was amazing and ironic that the band were not able to follow up their success after this disk.

There is a definite religious tone on the album, in a wild sort of way which author Flannery O'Connor described the Southern man as being "haunted by Jesus".

Backslider

Bended knee
Nine years old
Waitin' for...
Just one word!

I was thinkin' of all the things
My daddy told me of
Sin and salvation and
Manhood and dignity...

All that time
In the dark
Just one word...
Backslider!

I remember the day I stepped
Into the water
My daddy held me in his hands
And pushed my head under
And said...

Son I am
So proud.
Just one word...
Backslider!

Well I opened my eyes
And my daddy held me in his hands
I looked up through the water
And thought I saw Jesus, and then...

Well I threw up my hands!
And I heard, Amen!
And I prayed, sweet Jesus
Don't let me become a backslider!

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :guitar:

7 Mary Three were a college band from William and Mary College in Virginia whose independent album Churn paved the way for success with the hit single "Cumbersome" from their 1995 album American Standard. Fronted by Jason Ross and Jason Pollock, questions remained about what their name meant, some professors and others thinking it was a religious reference. In fact, the name came from one of the officers' call signs on the 80's t.v. show C.H.i.Ps! :lol:

Cumbersome

she calls me Goliath and I wear the David mask
I guess the stones are coming too fast for her now
you know I'd like to believe this nervousness will pass
all the stones that are thrown are building up a wall
I have become cumbersome to this world
I have become cumbersome to my girl

I'd like to believe we could reconcile the past
resurrect those bridges with an ancient glance
but my old stone face can't seem to break her down
she remembers bridges, burns them to the ground
I have become cumbersome to this world
I have become cumbersome to this girl

too heavy too light, too black or too white, too wrong or too right, today or tonight
cumbersome
too rich too poor, she's wanting me less and I'm wanting her more
the bitter taste is cumbersome

there is a balance between two worlds
one with an arrow and a cross
regardless of the balance life has become
cumbersome

too heavy too light, too black or too white, too wrong or too right, today or tonight
cumbersome
too rich too poor, she's wanting me less and I'm wanting her more
the bitter taste is cumbersome

Nooooo Yea yea Noo No NOOOOOOO

NO NO NOOOO YEA YEA

NO NO NO NO YEAA YEAA YEAA

Your life has become Cumbersome

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

The themes on the American Standard album were topics dealing with guilt, redemption, relationships, and a commonality with all men and women. The members felt "American Standard" was not about elitism, but the equal bonds between all.

This next song is reminescent of Warrant's "Uncle Tom's Cabin":

Water's Edge

'don't go there' I heard her say.
'you can't stomach what you're going to see'
It's down there, by the water's edge
wasted and bloated and waiting for someone else

funny how, these little things come about
when you're tied to the teeth and mouth
no sound or fury, no shot of pain
there was no real reason, no gain

I can't go down to the water's edge
I didn't do it... I saw who did it
Don't go down to the water's edge
they did it once and they can do it again

it ain't no secret to me
how she got there down by the stream
I'd seen her a minute before the van pulled up and opened
the door (took all my love)

but I can't say a single word
about what I saw of her
her killers...they got their friends
in familiar places, I tell you man

this ain't no f:censored:ing game
and I'm feeling so ashamed
because I didn't do anything

I didn' do a thing

I swear

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

Another up and coming band was Brother Cane from Birmingham, Alabama. Fronted by singer/guitarist Damon Johnson,, the band scored a hit from their 1995 album Seeds, the radio favorite, "And Fools Shine On". Their sound was more hard rock but not quite metal, with a little Southern influence.

And Fools Shine On

Come and see me
Can't you see me
It's so easy
To believe in you
I believe in you

Your intention, my addiction
Fear no evil
You'l be safe in here, I was saved in here

And fools shine on
Where fools shine on

Want tomorrow, no tomorrow
Come together
Only here and now, and I need it now

Walk the narrow, straight and narrow
Look behind me
There's a light out there, in your light I stare

Where your eyes won't open
Fade or divide
Peace, from the darkest hours
Bathe in your light

Chorus

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock: