Freak Storm
Colin: Just collections of words/phrases, I don't know
if there was much meaning or intent at the time... I can't
remember.
Andy: "Train speeds up Coventry bound, ridiculed and
caught in a howling gale"
Neal: They borrowed the acoustic guitar I've had since
13 for the recording, and the engineer said it was rubbish.
Rachel Clean
Colin: If I remember correctly the original idea came
from a book "The Rachel Papers" by Martin Amis. But I
also recall it seemed to remind me of Chris Harrison's
girlfriend…
Andy: A rare beauty
H.O.N.E.Y.M.O.O.N
Colin It's about unconventional beauty, maaaan! Not
saying who it's about, though.
Andy: Someone who's quite ugly - in 5/4 NOT waltz
Neal: Muzorewi's daughtah!
Roger: Andy the Time Signature maestro spent aeons
introducing me to the concept that is 5/4
Quicksand
Andy: A trip to Wigan pier was never this strange.
Alan: One of the first songs I ever rehearsed with the
band after joining. I think I surprised them a bit that I picked
up all the stops and tempo changes immediately. What they didn't
know was that I had listened to the record probably a 100 times
beforehand to make sure I got it!
Neal:One! Two! Three! Four! Device used to ensure we all
come into the verse at the same time becomes an exciting
highlight of the song.
Roger: Great value - 5 songs in one
Penny-Pinching Cathy
Colin Drawn from experiences while involved with
Militant but kinda developed the idea with a touch of
"artistic licence".
Andy: The treasurer of a non-existent organization.
Roger: The affrontery of it!
Blows rain down
Colin: Guilt / victim empathy
Neal: It's sad that this is the best recording we have
of this song. It's a pop classic.
Roger: The complete STOP always managed to startle
the crowd into spilling gallons of beer when we played live
Gentleman Caller
Colin: About the poll tax and loneliness / sadness of
old age
Neal: Same comment as for Blows... One of my favourite
Colin lyrics.
The Best Laugh I Ever Had
Colin: About depression / mental illness
Andy: Ken Nelson's finest hour... and days and nights and
weeks…
Neal: "SON! Make decisions for yourself"
Roger: The best song I ever had
Not Nailed Down
Colin: A song about 'the incredible bullshitting man' -
"brains not connected to the mouth bone."
Andy: A bullshitting Bobok bastard
Alan: For the sake of finding something to do on the
record (Roger had laid the drum tracks before leaving) I
contributed some percussion in the form of congas and tambourine.
Quite why our award-winning producer chose to omit the
Caribbean-style timbale from the final mix, though, I just don't
know…
Neal: We started work on this while
Nick-the-session-drummer was still with us. Quite how it survived
that experience and came out this good is a mystery to me.
Roger: A bobok is a small bean - thank you Fyodor
Covered in love
Colin: A sex song.
Andy: Scary - compare with the Warsaw bootleg
Neal: When they say coruscating - this is what they mean. I
became very self-conscious about how I play some parts of the
song after a reviewer praised us for "one fingered guitar
solos". Did some people feel let down if I used two, or was
that an innovation on a winning formula?
Sacred Skin
Colin: It's about racism / facism and Tory twats
generally.
Andy: Watch your driving
Alan: I love the line "driving my new car through
third-world debt"
Neal: Sacred - it's sacred
Callaghan
Colin: I liked the name and I'd had some words kicking
around for a long time. I kinda liked the idea of some Beehive
pub type bloke, lacking sobriety in a relationship that promises
but never EVER delivers. So he's in the pub once groping this old
dear... anyway…
Andy: James? Or Moonshake?
Neal: I was probably aiming at Josef K
Sarasine
Colin: A couple of minutes "blast-out".... it
might have some meaning, but I'm blowed if I know what it is!
Andy: The intro can scare animals
Alan: Would we be breaching copyright by saying Radio 4
was sampled in the middle-eight? If so, then we didn't. Oh no, it
was something else totally...
Neal: More maths. Deliberate overuse of semi-tone
changes in the verse sent out as a challenge: here, make a song
of that if you can!
No Hands
Colin: Oblique, maaan.... possession.
Andy: Slowing down almost impossibly
Alan: The slowy-down bit works. Trust me. I'm a
drummer…
Neal: It's always wise to slow down when you find a
devil in your hair.
Lovespoons
Colin: Fuck knows what its about, but it sounds great!
Andy: Flat, nasal, mathematical and aboriginal - just the
way we like it!
Alan: The Hellfire Sermons encapsulated in just over
three-and-a-half minutes. Weird and wonderful.
Neal: Cramps, S Yoof , string glissandi
Bill & Sarah
Colin: One of my favourites lyric-wise... that
Thatcher/yuppie/liberal thaaang... anathema! Some of the lines
were 'lifted' from that fantastic Louis MacNeice poem
"Bagpipe Music".
Andy: As baggy as it gets
Alan: Hellfires attempt 'dance-crossover'. With
predictable consequences…
Neal: I don't know what the others were doing, but I was
aiming at Dropping Rhymes on Beats by DJ Jazzy Jeff with a bit of
New Order thrown in. It's a good job the others weren't!
Him Again
Colin: The joys of trepanning, ho ho ho
Andy: Joy Division?
Neal: Trapanning?!? He never told us that. It all makes
sense now though - especially that abrupt strange of direction.
Two Faces
Colin: Weird.
Andy: Strangely catchy
Neal: One of my favourites. I used to love standing
there shouting 'BADA! BADA!' in the chorus, and making rhythms
with the tremelo arm.
Real Life Seams
Colin: A play on words, great song and an oblique
reference to female oppression... I was always desperate to get
Hitler into a song!
Andy: Better live, much better!
Alan: After joining the band, this is the first 'old' one
that I rewrote the drum part for, so I'm immensely proud of it.
Gave me the confidence to contribute further ideas, which is what
the band is all about - four people's ideas converging.
Neal: I went the whole Sonic Youth hog with a specially
tuned guitar that made great droning noises. We had to drop the
song from the set when the guitar broke.
8/12/2002