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I'd recorded the keyboard parts on 8-channel cassette at home. When I got to the studio the next day (two hours later), Toss and Stanam had just finished recording a drum/table jam direct to DAT. I was most entertained and suggested adding their track to mine--they were the exact same length. That would be just one of the reasons why this song scares me.
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The title phrase was (when I was four years old) my all-purpose response to any "why" question to which I didn't know the answer. Like all things childhood, at some point its usefulness was exhausted for me, but my dad took to it and continued using it for years afterward. It works! Try it! Thanks to Justine for liking the part about the dog so much.
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My wife likes this song a lot. I like it too; it affects my metabolism oddly.
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This was the first song specifically written for the album, and inspired, although I'd be hard-pressed to describe precisely how at this particular juncture your honr, by "Electric Ladyland". I'll send bagels to the first person who can discern what's being sung in the left speaker during the "No way out" section.
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For some reason I feel like dedicating this song to the Firesign Theatre--I met them the other night and they're terrific people.
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Like "Apple Pie", this song was dreamed whole (the only dream songs I can remember are the dopey ones). The dream was split-level; simultaneously I was eight years old in Long Island hearing it on the radio, and an adult in the recording studio watching a group of semi-grizzled veterans recording it, possibly right before an Archies session. Then I half-awoke and, for a minute, could hear it coming out of the clock radio on our headboard. I'm so proud of my drum solo I cannot begin to tell you.
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Just before Toss, Doug and I recorded the basic track for this medley (which we call "Dolphins"), Toss was trying to decide whether or not we needed to purchase and consume beer before taking a shot at the beast. I responded "of course we need beer for 'Dolphins'", leading us to a variety of scenarios which I, being easily amused, found unimaginably hysterical (Doug suggested going from door to door, collecting for the "Beer For Dolphins" foundation). And I realized we finally had a band name. So if and when Toss, Doug and I come around to rock your town, just you watch out for MIKE KENEALLY AND BEER FOR DOLPHINS. Doug was the first one to notice the initials.
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Originally I'd intended to spell it correctly, but Jeff wrote "Bullys" on the track sheet and I liked it. He subsequently informed me that he got the spelling from an old Apple Jacks commercial ("a bowl a day keeps the bullys away" was written on something). I don't remember that commercial myself--I guess it didn't impact upon me as heavily as the Honey Comb hideout.
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I showed the stucture of this tune to Joe and Bryan about three months before recording commenced, then gave them the directive "Funkadelic 1972". No sweat. (Joe and Bryan play insanely well on this album.) This is a Drop Control song, they being the group I had in San Diego from '86 to '90 (with an 8 month break for Frank), consisting of Alan Silverstein (drums), Doug Booth (bass) and my brother Marty (guitar). We actually had a reunion during the sessions for this album, the first time all four of us had played together in four years ("Performing Miracles" on the last album was a cheat--Marty wasn't really there, I just flew in some guitar effects he'd done in 1989. Psych!). The new recordings sound wonderful to me, but there wasn't room on this album for them. As God as my witness you will hear them somehow. The reason I'm humming "I Melt For You" during the instrumental section of this song is because Brad Gilson (one of the gentlemen who was extremely kind enough to videotape the "Dust Speck" sessions; Phil Cuttino was the other main guy. Mike Anderson helped out in a clinch and Glenn Norris and Kris Jeter did it at the beginning--numerous pounds of thanks to all of them) had just told me that there was a new version of "I Melt For You" where they evened out the timing of the drum fill after the humming part (many think it's the drummer rushing, but it's the singer lagging, dammit to blazes.) That anomoly was the part I liked, and they ruined it, and this pisses me off. Then, a few weeks later, I heard the new version while eating a Carney's vegetarian burger which consists of everything you'd get on a cheeseburger mu=inus meat, which is better than it sounds (I've cut my meat consumption to a great degree since recording "Day Of The Cow". I also hardly wear hats anymore. Catharsis much?), and the piano part was screwed up in a really ugly way. What the hell are people thinking?
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The sounds you hear at the end of this song come from the mouth of Satnam. He's astonishing. I had to pound four Mickey's Big Mouths to do the vocal (you can hear a swig during the break after "scoffing shrieking freaks"). This weekend happened. It wasn't fun.
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At first these lyrics were jokier and called "Land Of Broken Spleens" and intended for the music in the middle of "O'Bannon". The basic track of this song is a jam with Joe and Bryan which was once called "Mark Spitz", and at one point there were a bunch of jokey lyrics to go with that too. Somewhere along the line this album got less jokey.
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We never would have double tracked the bass except that Doug did the basic track on fretted bass, and I'd wanted fretless, but rather than replace the original he doubled it. Voila! Instant Mick Karn, as Doug put it (then, a week later, part of the fretless track was accidentaly replace, an event which Doug dubbed "Karnage"--Doug has been on a roll lately--when I called to break the news to him. Also, when the bass track was wounded, I flew off the handle, screamed and spit and stormed out of the studio and bought $93 worth of CDs to cool off, so I went to publicly apologize to Jeff for being an asshole that day). I think of "Blameless" as a sad song, kind of, but I admit that the line about baseballs cracks me up.
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Believe it or not, this is intended as an affectionate tribute. Everybody who hears the rough mix of the basic track (which is just Tom drumming while I sing nonsense syllables--including "na shnindo" which I admit is deeply entertaining) says I have to release it. I worked too hard on this version, though, so the spectacular original version that everyone adores shall remain, for now, canned. As God as my witness, etc. etc.
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I think the next album is going to be a lot more upbeat. I think it'd have to be.
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It turned out that we didn't get the beer for 'Dolphins', we got it for this. Then Toss and I goofed off and got buzzed while Doug did the fretless overdubs on "Aglow" and "Blameless". I love the studio very passionately.
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After the "Weekend" vocal, I ingested the remaining two Big Mouths to sing this one (I should have just called this album, "Beer"). This was written in 1983. Singing it in 1994 feels like doing a cover. I'm way too filled with guile to write something like this nowadays (sniff).
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This was recorded at home. It's for Viv and Jesse. Jesse is the most awesome kid. You have to meet her.
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Thank you for buying "Boil That Dust Speck".
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This was written, recorded and rough-mixed to cassette on Saturday, Dec. 4, 1993 (Jeff wrote Dec. 3 on the box but he was mistaken--he thinks I'm confused about this but I would never forget this date). The original idea was to tinker with it further, add overdubs, and mix it "properly". Other events of the day have prompted me to leave it be (except for some editing in the second section in order to make it fit on a CD)--the mix you hear was transferred from my rough cassette. This song obviously is for Frank.
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Very much thanks to Alan for supplying the vast majority of the instruments used on this song, and for having the patience to allow an over-enthused neophyte like myself to bang on the stuff.
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Vol. 17, No. 2: Feb.-Mar. 2012
