Stuff I'm Listening To - #34 - Ministry - Jesus Built My Hot Rod (Redline/Whiteline Version)

Artist: Ministry

Title: Jesus Built My Hot Rod (Redline/Whiteline Version)


Lyrics:

Where you come from is gone
Where you thought you where going to weren’t never there. 
And where you are ain't no good unless you can get away from it. 
(Sampled from Brad Dourif as Hazel Motes from the movie "Wise Blood")


And of course: 

Soon I discovered that this rock thing was true
Jerry Lee Lewis was the devil
Jesus was an architect previous to his career as a prophet
All of a sudden, I found myself in love with the world
So there was only one thing that I could do
Was ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long

Why?: So let me begin by stating... this has been a weird fucking week! I've been, fortunately, busy and distracted at work, but the stress has been there, in the background, gnawing away. Thanks to @threadpennyvinyl in Instagram land for saying what she did today. It was what I wanted to say, but couldn't. With that, all the tension that's been building for a month now, has got to go somewhere. 

So let's start here, with this awesome sauce song.

Aside from the awesome speech which perfectly captures the spirit of being a biker (from my viewpoint) sampled from Brad Dourif as Hazel Motes from the movie "Wise Blood", obviously the opening lines makes the Redline/Whiteline version of this song the song of choice. This song is among a carefully selected motorcycle playlist and will likely remain forever so. It is one of the few songs that cuts perfectly through the low bassy rumble of my motorcycle pipes (a throaty set of Vance & Hines if you must know). You feel this bike before you see it and let me tell you, my bike feels good. 😆  

All the engine noise, screeching tires, intense drumming, guitars and growling about a beloved lovely hot rod. If I needed another love song about my motorcycle (because a 1968 Ford Mustang is a wee bit off budget for me), here it is. Loud, noisy, smelling a bit like gasoline, burnt oil and exhaust. Love was never a prim, proper clean thing. 

Jesus built my car
It's a love affair
Mainly Jesus and my hot rod

*Note: This was originally posted on my Facebook back on March 11, 2019 with shortened text about how awesome Brad Dourif's speech was. I've decided to expand upon it today here. Which is why it's #34 versus #87 if anyone is keeping track.

Transcription: The Countdown interview 1986

Photo by Rob Verhorst - 1986

Sorry for the long delay. I was having trouble remembering what interview transcripts had been requested of me. And then I got distracted. I blame Paul Webb's album for that. Go listen to his album. Tell him that weird person Motorcycle Peanut sent ya. 


Link to the interview on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/talkietalkie/permalink/1628838957147800/
 
Disclaimer: I don’t the rights. This transcript isn’t 100% and is posted for ease of comprehension especially for non-English speakers. As usual, feel free to run this text through your local translator. There's a handy Google translate tool in my blog post to the right side. And Brit people! Please feel free to correct the text if you can in the comments. Between the boys' accents, muttering and everyone talking over each other, I often don't understand what they're saying. I’ll do my best to keep the blog post updated with edits and changes. 

Note: the notation [?] indicates words I was unable to decipher. (?) indicates a guess at the word(s).

Adam Curry: In the [?] Countdown studio this evening Paul Webb-
Paul Webb: Lovely jacket.

Adam: Thank you! I like yours as well mate. Lee Harris. You’re not going to say anything to me? You’re not going to say to me will you? And Mark Hollis. You guys seem to despise the glamour group image. I always wonder what you think of groups such as Wham!, Duran Duran or the Drum Theatre. Mark maybe you could you tell me something about that?

Mark Hollis: I really don’t think about things like that. All I think about are making records. You know, image is [a] very simple thing. Images should be something that’s just based upon your music. I don’t think beyond that. I don’t consider other bands. I just consider making records. That’s what we’re here for. 

Adam: Do you find yourselves often limited as a trio to the number of instruments you can play?

Paul: Well we know we can take on more people anyway. 

Adam: How many?

Paul: It depends. I mean. Eight or nine usually, yeah.

Adam: And they play the violins or do you have a lot of synthesizers on stage? Especially with the new tour.

Paul: Uh. Yeah. I mean we work things out after we’d done the album then we work out how we’re gonna do it live. I mean…

Mark: With the thing with this live tour there is, purely from a point of view of economics, there is an extent to which we would have to use synthesizers live. I mean it’s just a fact.

Adam: Because you didn’t use any synthesizers on the album. So I was wondering if you were going to be touring that you were gonna have to use them.

Mark: This album really... With this new album we’re working with a base of 15 to 20 people. You see from a live point of view of touring you can’t take that number. We are limited to around sort of eight or nine people. So that’s what I mean consequently there will be areas where we will have to rely slightly on synthesizers. But that’s more in terms of the old material than the new, because with the new stuff, there will be some things on this album which will we will not be able to do live, because there’s no way at all we will resort to tapes or that sort of things. I mean, with the other stuff, it is, to an extent, sort of, you know organ and piano at least you know… We’ve forgot percussion really.

Adam: Your favourite video. Which one is that? The group’s favourite video.

(Off camera) Lee Harris(?): 'In Between Days', isn’t it?

Paul: What?

Mark: The Cure? [?] isn't it?

Lee: No. You’re suppose to tell them…

Mark: Oh… The Cure. 'In Between Days'.

Adam: Come on [?]. Why is it your favourite video?

Mark: Because we were told to say it was.

Adam: Very good answer! Here’s Talk Talk’s favourite video, The Cure and 'In Between Days'.

Adam: The Cure, 'In Between Days' video request by Talk Talk, even though they were told to say it was that. Yeah, missed it, but you’ve been broadcast.

Paul: {?}

Adam: What what that?

Paul: Sorry.

Adam: That’s all right. On the subject of videos in 'Life’s What You Make It', you had a lot of insects and bugs and no [?] in that one, I don’t believe. Could you tell me maybe why all the bugs and insects, Paul?

Paul: Well, we find animals more fascinating than ourselves really. So, uh, that’s why we do it.

Mark: I think animals are beautiful people.

Adam: Oh. Oh. Okay. I understand. Because you also have a lot of animals on your new album 'The Colour of Spring'. Let’s plug that here for you. Let's see if I can get it on the camera. I see a lot of butterflies in there but some pretty eccentric ones. What’s the reason for the animals on the cover here. What… Is there any meaning for the different colours and different types of butterflies?

Mark: You best ask the artist.

Adam: And who was the artist for the album cover

Mark: James Marsh. James Marsh.

Adam: Just a crazy kinda guy! Okay! Hold on! Now it took you two years to complete this album. Does the record company give you that much freedom to take all that time and spend all that money?

Paul: Yeah.

Mark: The freedom that we’ve had making this album, that’s been given to us by the success that we had with the last album. So the freedom that’s been given to us is really due to the people who bought our last album. I mean, it would be true to say when we made the 'It’s My Life' album the record company gave us freedom, you know, to make that album the way we did because at that point we hadn’t sold many records so we were lucky. But from the point of view of this album, that freedom’s been given by the people that bought it and [?] the record company.

Adam: Okay. You’re here to do your new single “Living In Another World'. I’ve listened to the lyrics. You came across kinda sad song or a breaking up song maybe. Mark, since you wrote them, maybe you can tell me what the lyrics are about exactly since I couldn’t find out for myself.

See how long you can keep this up without laughing. That’s not bad. Paul, maybe you can tell me.

Paul: Now, what I would like to say is we’d like to thank everyone in Holland who bought the record because it’s one of our favourite countries. It was the first place where Talk Talk actually broke as a band. And I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Adam: Great lyrics. Great lyrics guys. If you could go up to our official stage I think Mark is already up there by … Crazy guys. Talk Talk doing their single here in the Europe(?) Countdown. Here’s 'Living in Another World'.

Links to two of the performances from the show (the interview is not included in these clips):
Living in Another World - Countdown television performance - https://youtu.be/HUu3z_2nWBU

It's My Life - Countdown television performance - https://youtu.be/xe12p0sfU5o

Stuff I'm Listening To #86 - Don McLean - American Pie

Artist: Don McLean

Title: American Pie

Favourite Lyrics:
But February made me shiver

With every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step

I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
Something touched me deep inside
The day the music died

Why?: It's always been a great song, especially the unabridged version (along with Stairway to Heaven) which almost certainly indicated, at least back in the less automated days of radio that the DJ was in desperate need of a bathroom break and here was 8 minutes in which they could do so. 

Joking aside, it's a lovely tribute to things past and gone but never forgotten. 

Stuff I'm Listening To - Happy Birthday Andy Taylor

Artist: Andy Taylor

Title: Take It Easy

Lyrics: 
Always loved your coloured hair
Always loved the clothes you wear
I can say that you turn me on
Why not stay all night long

Why?: 
He was that little bit of harder sounding edge to Duran Duran's pop sound back in the day and helped make their sound pretty awesome. Lyrically, he was no Simon leBon, but jeez, can he play a great rockin' guitar. The last time I saw the boys live, during their 'Astronaut' tour, he was still rocking old school hard, bottle of Jack Daniels off to the side. I wouldn't have expected anything less. Happy birthday!

Stuff I'm Listening To - Happy Birthday Peter Gabriel

Artist: Peter Gabriel

Title: Shock The Monkey

Favourite Lyrics: 

Fox the fox
Rat the rat
You can ape the ape
I know about that

Why?: Happy birthday Peter Gabriel. This was the first song I'd ever heard by him. I remember liking it very much despite the somewhat nightmarish video attached. 

Stuff I'm Listening To - 10 Albums that Strongly Influenced My Musical Tastes - A Facebook Game

So, it started innocently enough. Someone on Facebook tagged me in a post with a photo of Mark Hollis' solo album and this text:

I was given the task of choosing 10 albums that have strongly influenced my musical taste. One album per day for 10 days. No explaining, nor reviewing. Only the album covers. Every day I will ask somebody else to do the same thing.
Day 4 - I nominate ...

So I decided to play along and I dug deep into my repertoire. The problem with me is I was always very much a 'singles' and Top 40 person. For me to sit down through a whole album was a rare thing. If you had asked me what singles influenced my musical tastes, it would have been a much longer, and potentially stranger, trip indeed.

And the rules stated 'no explaining, nor reviewing'. But sucks to that. These ten albums deserve a mini-explanation at least so far as I'm concerned. If you followed me this long, you know each song or picture tells a story or is strongly connected to some kind of memory for me. Each one of these albums is here for a reason. For my selections, rather than indicate favourite albums, I thought long and hard for the albums that influenced my musical tastes in such a way as to make a permanent change in the way I listen. Each description below is linked with a selection from the album with the exception of choices 1 and 3 which I could not locate on YouTube.

1: Korean Folk Songs
This album is mostly connected to one song for me. 'Arirang'. It is an old Korean folk song that is as ingrained with Koreans as is kimchi. It's one of those things that is as essential to who I am as a person as my genetic code is. Yeah. It's THAT important. A history about this folk song is found in this link here. Below isn't the version one the album, but a good example of how important it is. EVERYONE in the audience is singing along: 


 
2: Sharon, Lois and Bram - One Elephant, Deux Éléphants
When you are in kindergarten, the types of music you have access to tended to be whatever you sang or nursery rhymes they decided to play for you. Then there was these guys. If you were Canadian and grew up in the 70s and 80s you know Sharon, Lois and Bram. Their songs were cute, and catchy. Every song inspired by numerous genres: Folk, jazz, big band and more. They wrote songs that were easy for kids to comprehend. Below, the title track from this album, the first little bit of French that I learned over forty years ago.



 

3: Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor ("Choral") - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra - Ferenc Fricsay

The importance of this album and music has already been discussed here. Long story short, classical music was one of the things my mother liked to listen to, so I was exposed to a fair amount at a very young age. Below was one of my dad's favourites.




4: Star Wars: Original Soundtrack composed and conducted by John Williams, Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra

Another album that's come up in previous discussions here. It's STAR WARS! It made me understand the importance of music in films and how music is so important to the way a scene is perceived. This choice could easily have been 2001: A Space Odeyssey but they never released a proper soundtrack for that movie until 1996.



5: The Beatles - 1962 - 1966


Here was my introduction to rock and roll music. This album actually belonged to my big brother. It's a wonder the thing isn't scratched to hell. At four years of age I could barely read but I knew my favourite song, 'Help!', was the first song on one of the sides of one of the records. I would let the album play through because there were other favourite songs contained within, but it was important I hear my favourite song first. 

'Yellow Submarine' was another favourite, largely because of the animated film that managed to capture my attention for the entire one hour and thirty minute running time. I imagine gave my parents a break from dealing with me, so for what it was worth, 'Yellow Submarine' was a great babysitter. One of my favourite memories of my brother was how he was determined to make me laugh, by changing up the lyric 'We all live in a yellow submarine' to 'We all live in a purple jelly-bean'. Six-year-old me laughed but was determined to explain how scientifically impossible that was. I failed in the explanation because I was laughing too hard.



6: Sex Pistols - The Great Rock and Roll Swindle

I've discussed the impact of Sid Vicious' version here. This album was the one that turned my musical tastes of mostly Top 40 pop on it's head, and directed me into the world of alternative and punk. I'd already been listening to ska lightly (read... I knew a handful of songs by Madness and the Specials already). This just just started me down the path to purchase more (among all the other alternative, punk and and ska that was to be found).



7: Arcadia - So Red The Rose

This one needs a bit of explaining. Most people would dismiss this as a Duran Duran album. At the risk of being one of those people who compare bands, let me flip this little comparison over. Talk Talk fans will understand me, so I'll let everyone else in on it. Seems every music writer needs to compare Talk Talk to Duran Duran. BALDERDASH! It's like comparing the novel 'War and Peace' to apples and oranges! That's how comparatively dissimilar they are. Oh... but they have a double name too. LAZY journalism! LAZY! But for me and for here, Arcadia's So Red the Rose was to Duran Duran what Spirit of Eden was to Talk Talk (yeah... yeah... I know it's a stretch... but hear me out). It was a direction they (Simon leBon and Nick Rhodes) wanted to explore (FYI, Roger Taylor seemed to just come along for the ride, but as with all awesome drummers did a wonderful job here) while the harder rocking boys (i.e. John Taylor and Andy Taylor) took off to play harder rock in the guise of the Power Station (with Robert Palmer and Tony Thompson), also great, but it was already what I was listening to and didn't educate me further). Arcadia went off into another direction, a little more pretentious, a little more arty, a little more depth. Unlike Talk Talk, they played by the rules and at their core, still a pop band. It wasn't, by any means, a ground breaking album, but introduced a different, slightly moodier and gothy side to Duran Duran.

Arcadia had Grace Jones do her thing for their lead off single 'Election Day'. If that's not über pretentious and amazing in it's own right, I don't know what is. It opened my ears to listen for less pop influences, and look for further depth in the midst of my Duran Duran love. Truth me told, I'm only a Duranie by default. I much prefer Arcadia and those handful of Arcadia-eque pieces scattered throughout their vast library. Below, one of the more light hearted pieces from the album and a video where Simon leBon gets to bust out his comedy acting chops to remind you, despite the moody Arcadia guise, at his heart, he's still the fun-loving happy-go-lucky lead singer of a heart-throb band.



8: Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine

In the 90s there was teenage me looking for something different. Nine Inch Nails came along and primed me for the industrial music scene. So very different than punk. Instead of angry reckless teenage rebellious abandon via the Sex Pistols, here was anger, angst despair all wrapped in a danceable package. Here was Trent Reznor screeching all this emotion that could easily have come from my own core at the time. But through all my late teenage angst, I was dancing because I could. Below, the second single from the album which was actually the first song I'd heard from it.



9: Talk Talk - Laughing Stock 

But why not The Colour of Spring or even Spirit of Eden you ask? Because they contained singles. So for the most part, I was able to pull apart the albums; I was still able to listen to each track individually. Not so with Laughing Stock. It was the first album in many years that made me sit down and really listen, the way Mark Hollis wanted us to. I couldn't do that with Spirit of Eden. 'Desire' stands out so strongly, it might as well be a single. 'I Believe in You', is the same and has an accompanying video that further distances it from the rest of the album in my head. But try to pull out a track from Laughing Stock. Yeah, each track could stand alone, but at that point it's an like one of those optical illusions, you know, like that three pronged trident that is really two pronged, or is it? Something is not quite right when you stand them alone. You just need to hear it all.  'Runeii' stands alone here because even though it's the end track, it's intriguing enough (at least for me) to want to go back and hear everything back from the start. My hope is if you haven't heard the album before this track will make you want to see where it came from.



10: Rustin Man - Drift Code

Before Talk Talk, I would honestly, never have considered this album for myself. It wasn't Top 40, it wasn't what I was in to. It was as foreign sounding to me as the Korean Folk Songs probably sounded to you at first. But here it was, presented to me because he was the bass guitarist from the band. Ok... I'll see what it has to offer. 

And it offered so much. Seventeen years in the making, this album doesn't sound like it's an album from 2019. It doesn't sound like it's from 2002. I can offer only this. It's one of these albums that doesn't place itself anywhere specific. It's music for the sake of being music. It's not an album you put on as background music. You put it on and you actively listen. It doesn't fit into any genre. It doesn't fit into any specific era. The songs can have a tinge of nostalgia, but make you look forward at the same time. It's an album that sits outside of time comfortably (... Why yes. I'm suggesting that Rustin Man is a Time Lord, musically speaking.. what of it? ;) ). 

So while this is a recent addition to the albums that influenced my musical tastes, it's had a noticeable impact on what I choose to listen to. Don't get me wrong. I can still listen to Top 40 (to an extent) but it often gets tiring quickly. Every song is the same. Every song is catchy and quick to hook you, but there's such lack of depth I quickly loose interest. Rustin Man's music has just further pushed me to dig deeper into any piece of music, and really listen to the layers. If your song is as thick as a one page flyer for a takeaway restaurant, you'll have lost me by the time the song is over (especially if I'm not hungry). Rustin Man's music is a feast comparatively speaking. Sorry for the food analogy... it's lunch time now and I'm hungry. 

Below, the first song I'd heard from the album, on the surface, a tale about a card game with the devil. Growing up, I had heard so many stories about people trying to best the devil, so there's your nostalgia bit. Then dig a little deeper and there's some food for thought (sorry!); that the way you live your life catches up to you eventually. Enjoy.

Stuff I'm Listening To #85- Covenant - Dead Stars

Artist: Covenant

Title: Dead Stars

Lyrics:  
Dead stars still burn
Dead still stars burn

  
Why?: I've got very little to say about the actual song. It is just one of those things that ended up in my music library thanks to my good friend with whom I used to spend hours with when we were teenagers. We hung out and spent hours downloading songs from Napster, then Limewire, then Bearshare. She had a pretty expansive library and this happened to be one of the songs in said expansive library. I didn't know the lyrics until just now and they have nothing to do with the rest of this post.

It's a pretty rocking dance-floor piece and the title and chorus are suitable for today as I just received news that Voyager 2 is more or less fixed and have been digging deep into why Betelgeuse is fading away and could potential go supernova in a mere 100,000 years. 

Huh? 

Yeah... amongst all the 'fandoms' I follow, science is my biggest if you can consider it a fandom. I'm not a scientist nor did I ever go into the field, but I love all things science. I'm fascinated by it and whenever a scientific or medical breakthrough is announced, I'll read what has been announced not on the generic news sites, but go digging through their source articles in their respective journals or associations to get a better understanding of what's going on. 

So if you're interested, Voyager 2 is one of two spacecraft we sent hurdling through our solar system and it's sister (Voyager 1) has recently entered interstellar space.

Betelgeuse (which is unrelated to Tim Burton's 'Beetlejuice') forms the left shoulder of the constellation Orion. It's a bright star and has been getting dimmer. If you are to believe the reports, it's been in its death throes for the last ten years. Exciting shit if you're into astronomy. 

Links here: 
NASA's Voyager mission status: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/#where_are_they_now

Betelgeuse: not going to explode soon: https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/dont-panic-betelgeuse-is-almost-certainly-not-about-to-explode

Update: Voyager 2 is fully back online as of yesterday. Woot to mission control who got it up and running despite the fact it takes 17 plus hours to send a signal to it and 17 plus hours to receive a signal back from it, being at this time, over 17.7 billion kilometres from here. 



Link - https://www.inverse.com/science/nasa-brings-voyager-2-fully-back-online-11.5-billion-miles-from-earth

Stuff I'm Listening To - Happy Birthday Bob Marley

Artist: Bob Marley and the Wailers

Title: Simmer Down

Lyrics:
Simmer down, you lickin' too hot, so!
Simmer down, soon you'll get dropped, so!
Simmer down, can you hear what I say?
Simmer down, simmer won't you, why won't you,

Why: You have to acknowledge some legends and birthdays are awesome days to do so. Happy birthday Bob.

Stuff I'm Listening To #84 - I Want It Now - from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Artist: Julie Dawn Cole (written by: Anthony Newley & Leslie Bricusse)

Title: I Want It Now

From: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Lyrics: 

I want the world

I want the whole world

I want to lock it all up in my pocket

It's my bar of chocolate

Give it to me

Now!

Why?: My brain is a dangerous place. Honestly. Today one of my favourite musicians decided to announce that he was releasing a new album. Naturally I was excited and through the course of the morning my bratty nature came through with crystal clarity.

I pre-ordered the album and now have to wait until March 20th to see the vinyl arrive at my door. Unacceptable! I want it now! So immediately after my mini-tantrum played out on his Instagram page, it became clear that I'm Veruca Salt. 

For what it's worth, my apologies for being so utterly and very demanding. I know he'd been working hard to get the album together and released. I know because I watched and listened to the first video single from the album and it's just as wonderful as everything else I've heard him release. 

For your listening pleasure, the song from the movie linked above. For your viewing pleasure, a badly photoshopped recreation of me below, if I was at the record factory, which I wasn't, which was probably a good thing.  

Motorcycle Peanut as Veruca Salt in 'Rustin Man and the Record Factory'

For those interested in Rustin Man’s new single it’s linked here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT9ukDa_b2Y&feature=share