WoG 0018 - Walls Of Genius - Wanna Beer?
Evan Cantor:
After Crazed To The Core, we followed up with more of the same. Once again, the title says it all. We had been “accused” of indulging ourselves in beer-soaked hi-jinks, so we went for it whole hog.
Little Fyodor:
If Crazed to the Core was kind of a companion work to Ludovico Treatment because they were almost completely opposite to each other and thus complemented each other by representing our “two sides,” Wanna Beer? was a companion piece to Crazed for the opposite reason, because it was something of a continuation of the same, kind of an attempt to keep the buzz going. It was only our 2nd tape to be less than 90 minutes long (i.e., 60 minutes), and was kind of a little nephew to Crazed. It was not one of our “major” releases. It was a little bit offhand and somewhat reflective of our desire to put out anything we did that we considered worth hearing whether or not it was us at our very best. Besides being similar to Crazed stylistically, it was also similar for being dominated by a single session, only even more so. (Though Evan’s liner notes for the tape misses that “Ugly Girl” was also not done in that session.) The reel box for this session says “Electric Crickets” real big next to the date. I honestly can’t recall if we were ever planning on calling ourselves that, but I don’t care, I’m going to refer to this as the Electric Crickets session for ease of reference’s sake!
EC:
No alternate band names were listed, but the reel-to-reel box for the majority of the session (9-8-1984) calls the ‘group’ Electric Crickets. The Crickets were Buddy Holly’s backing band. All the tracks except four were recorded at a party-jam at the Hall Of Genius on 9-8-84, with Ed, Evan & David joined by Martha Roskowski, Stacy Benedict, Scott Childress and Don Roberts. Some of the songs we played that night had been prepared in advance, but others were requested on the spot and we played them right out of the songbooks, never having done them before. Songs that were recorded but not released were “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s Full of Shit”. Both were likely requests.
LF:
The four people thanked on the liner notes were thanked for being there that day, at the Hall Of Genius, during this Electric Crickets session, which in the grand WoG tradition was very much a party situation, with the partiers often participating to one degree or another. I remember Martha Roskowski and Stacey Benedict kind of egging us on and even choosing some of the cover songs we did. Scott Childress was a good friend of Evan’s at the time and has been thanked for similar roles on previous tapes. We first met Don Roberts at the Festival Of Pain and we both still know him and are good friends with him to this day (unlike a lot of the people listed on our liner notes or otherwise mentioned in this archive!).
Hmm, I see that Evan referred to our home studio as the Halls of Genius rather than the singular Hall on these liner notes, which is what I always thought it was until convinced otherwise recently, hmm….
EC:
The cover is a xerox of Alcoholics Anonymous material. The spine features the title hand-written in magic marker. The notes are handwritten. We thanked all the participants, but did not make any distinction about which of them played instruments or did not. It’s hard to say in retrospect who was doing a lot of the percussion. It could have been Martha, Stacy and Scott in tandem. Don Roberts is noted on the reel box as being “on chair”, which means he only observed and, perhaps, egged us on. Martha and Stacy were KGNU dee-jays who supported Walls Of Genius. Obviously we were hot for both of them, but that never materialized for us in any way other than songs about being horny. Don Roberts was a dedicated fan and, of that entire bunch, he is the only one still in touch with me. Martha disappeared into Denver somewhere, reappeared as a bicycle program director in Boulder for several years where I ran into her a couple of times, and then disappeared again. Stacy was dating a guitarist from the Denver punk band The Fluid for a long time and also disappeared into the larger world out there. David located her on Facebook, though, wearing a smile and a child, so it appears she is living the good life. Scott Childress had been a coworker at my previous job. When I was the Mail Room Supervisor at Trust Company of America, I hired him as an Assistant. After many years of struggling with his sexuality, he settled on ‘gay’. I stopped hanging out with him because his room-mates were constantly on my case about not being gay. They wanted to convert me, but I wasn’t interested. When Scott finally left Boulder, he joined the ranks of the ‘disappeared’.
After Crazed To The Core, we followed up with more of the same. Once again, the title says it all. We had been “accused” of indulging ourselves in beer-soaked hi-jinks, so we went for it whole hog.
Little Fyodor:
If Crazed to the Core was kind of a companion work to Ludovico Treatment because they were almost completely opposite to each other and thus complemented each other by representing our “two sides,” Wanna Beer? was a companion piece to Crazed for the opposite reason, because it was something of a continuation of the same, kind of an attempt to keep the buzz going. It was only our 2nd tape to be less than 90 minutes long (i.e., 60 minutes), and was kind of a little nephew to Crazed. It was not one of our “major” releases. It was a little bit offhand and somewhat reflective of our desire to put out anything we did that we considered worth hearing whether or not it was us at our very best. Besides being similar to Crazed stylistically, it was also similar for being dominated by a single session, only even more so. (Though Evan’s liner notes for the tape misses that “Ugly Girl” was also not done in that session.) The reel box for this session says “Electric Crickets” real big next to the date. I honestly can’t recall if we were ever planning on calling ourselves that, but I don’t care, I’m going to refer to this as the Electric Crickets session for ease of reference’s sake!
EC:
No alternate band names were listed, but the reel-to-reel box for the majority of the session (9-8-1984) calls the ‘group’ Electric Crickets. The Crickets were Buddy Holly’s backing band. All the tracks except four were recorded at a party-jam at the Hall Of Genius on 9-8-84, with Ed, Evan & David joined by Martha Roskowski, Stacy Benedict, Scott Childress and Don Roberts. Some of the songs we played that night had been prepared in advance, but others were requested on the spot and we played them right out of the songbooks, never having done them before. Songs that were recorded but not released were “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s Full of Shit”. Both were likely requests.
LF:
The four people thanked on the liner notes were thanked for being there that day, at the Hall Of Genius, during this Electric Crickets session, which in the grand WoG tradition was very much a party situation, with the partiers often participating to one degree or another. I remember Martha Roskowski and Stacey Benedict kind of egging us on and even choosing some of the cover songs we did. Scott Childress was a good friend of Evan’s at the time and has been thanked for similar roles on previous tapes. We first met Don Roberts at the Festival Of Pain and we both still know him and are good friends with him to this day (unlike a lot of the people listed on our liner notes or otherwise mentioned in this archive!).
Hmm, I see that Evan referred to our home studio as the Halls of Genius rather than the singular Hall on these liner notes, which is what I always thought it was until convinced otherwise recently, hmm….
EC:
The cover is a xerox of Alcoholics Anonymous material. The spine features the title hand-written in magic marker. The notes are handwritten. We thanked all the participants, but did not make any distinction about which of them played instruments or did not. It’s hard to say in retrospect who was doing a lot of the percussion. It could have been Martha, Stacy and Scott in tandem. Don Roberts is noted on the reel box as being “on chair”, which means he only observed and, perhaps, egged us on. Martha and Stacy were KGNU dee-jays who supported Walls Of Genius. Obviously we were hot for both of them, but that never materialized for us in any way other than songs about being horny. Don Roberts was a dedicated fan and, of that entire bunch, he is the only one still in touch with me. Martha disappeared into Denver somewhere, reappeared as a bicycle program director in Boulder for several years where I ran into her a couple of times, and then disappeared again. Stacy was dating a guitarist from the Denver punk band The Fluid for a long time and also disappeared into the larger world out there. David located her on Facebook, though, wearing a smile and a child, so it appears she is living the good life. Scott Childress had been a coworker at my previous job. When I was the Mail Room Supervisor at Trust Company of America, I hired him as an Assistant. After many years of struggling with his sexuality, he settled on ‘gay’. I stopped hanging out with him because his room-mates were constantly on my case about not being gay. They wanted to convert me, but I wasn’t interested. When Scott finally left Boulder, he joined the ranks of the ‘disappeared’.
Side A
Born To Be Wild
From Russia With Love
Hills, That is
Lay, Lady Lay
Sugar, Sugar
Fiddler In A Noose
Born To Be Wild
From Russia With Love
Hills, That is
Lay, Lady Lay
Sugar, Sugar
Fiddler In A Noose
“Born To Be Wild”
EC:
This was a part of my (Evan) regular repertoire, a song I had been playing (w/a bluegrass arrangement) for years. I’m singing the lead on this and Ed gets a terrific guitar solo. The organ is rather restrained and melodic for David’s approach. Despite the fact that our notes indicate these tracks were recorded live, it remains possible that I overdubbed the organ after the fact.
LF:
Boy y’know Evan has expressed amazement and gratitude for how much of these bygone days I can call up on the old brain circuits, but I’m a little hazy on the details of this Electric Crickets session. I think – I think – we may have recorded “Born To Be Wild” (yes of course, the classic Steppenwolf anthem) with only a skeletal rendition of the vocals originally while the primary lead vocal that you hear was overdubbed. It may have been overdubbed the same day, during that session, it may not have. But I seem to remember maybe first playing it mostly as an instrumental, with maybe everyone in the room simply chiming in on the “born to be wild” line, which of course everyone knows and loves. I think I may hear Evan’s voice in the background behind his lead vocal, so he may have been singing throughout the original “band” recording, but maybe off mike. The first “scream” or “wow” right near the beginning I think is Scott Childress, and he definitely does the little evil laugh right at the end, right up close to the mike. Ed is there, playing with a more pronounced echo on his Echoplex than usual. Brad Carton is NOT there, and thus I’m covering the percussion, on bongos. Evan plays rhythm electric guitar in the live setting and overdubbed the Farfisa organ, and one of us overdubbed that smashing sound, which is probably our gong but might be a trash can lid or some such, right at the end of Ed’s lead. Notice Evan’s little liberty with the lyrics on the third time through? I give one of my short-breathed screams near the end and Evan seems to be showing me how it’s done with his subsequent very long sustained scream and then I give yet another yelp and then the aforementioned bit of evil laughter of Scott’s has the final say.
“From Russia With Love”
EC:
This is actually based on “The James Bond Theme”, the music that plays in the Bond movies whenever something is about to happen to James Bond. The Theme to From Russia With Love is a completely different song. We didn’t know what it was called, who wrote it or anything other than having heard it in the movies. We didn’t even have videotapes in 1984, nor did we have James Bond movie-music records or tapes, so we couldn’t just rent the movie and cop the song. We made it up as we went along, playing it by ear directly out of our own imagination. The organ here has the same sound as on “Born To Be Wild”, as if overdubbed after the fact.
LF:
Evan thought James Bond movie music was cool so we did our own version of it. Funny that even though the music is (and was) very familiar to me, I wouldn’t have known which Bond movie it was from. Maybe it appears in more than one? Evan plays the famous background riff to the music on his electric guitar and I play the famous foreground riff on my Farfisa, at pre-ordained intervals. Ed plays lead, often quoting the same riff that I’m playing and sometimes we kind of trip over each other. I’m not a huge fan of this one, and my own very staid and obviously limited keyboard playing is but one reason. But then yeah, it’s cool….
“Hills, That Is”
EC:
This fades in on what sounds like the last of the fading James Bond riffs and moves directly into space-land. David is very palpably on the organ now, his off-beat staccato part keeping the beat. The guitar is oddly minimal for Ed with the Echoplex and it sounds more like me with the digital delay, but I can only do so many things all at once, so it may be that he was once again playing my Gibson SG. After a while, my harmonica rises up playing long chords and then I begin singing, quite morosely, the “Ballad Of Jed Clampett”, albeit in no way resembling the actual song. Only the lyrics remain intact and I’m singing in a morose and maudlin style that I would hear repeated by Ren Hoek many years later on the Ren & Stimpy Show (I think of Ren’s paranoid speech about Stimpy coveting his ice-cream bar or taunting Sven and Stimpy over the Electric Fence game).
LF:
“Hills, That Is” is one of those improvisations (albeit a quasi cover song) that tread the line between being kinda cool in its own demented way and maybe something that better belonged on a most embarrassing moments type release (but maybe that’s what this was?). I’m playing the awkward repeated riff on my Farfisa (which I was playing cause of the last piece). Ed’s guitar and Echoplex are definitely being utilized, but it doesn’t really sound like Ed, though it may have been Ed just making intermittent noises. Who’s playing those bongos? Maybe Evan, or maybe one of our guests? You can hear me making mistakes on my organ and then trying to make them sound intentional by repeating them. I’m guessing maybe that was indeed Evan on bongos since they’re no longer heard by the time we hear Evan on harmonica (and he may have issued a brief growl in between). My wacko organ playing might have been fine buried between a bunch of other stuff, but up front, with little else going on…? Finally I get away from trying to repeat my riffs, and it sounds a bit better! At least it is funny when Evan starts to sing the Beverly Hillbillies theme! Evan might have been hitting the gong while singing or maybe one of the guests did. I’m guessing it was Evan. Wait, one of the gong hits happens at the same time as a harmonica blow, which was definitely Evan, so, hmm, I dunno! I turn on my delay pedal that was evidently hooked up to my organ to get a different sound. Then there’s some Pink Floyd sounding guitar at the very end, the first indication that whoever was playing it had some command of the instrument....
“Lay Lady Lay”
EC:
I think this is the most outstanding track on the title. It was a request and we played it right out of the songbook. We obviously gave it a quick try before going for it whole hog because you hear my voice say “start over again”. David sings lead on the first verse, I chime in on the bridge and from that point forward, we trade lead vocals. There’s a lot of great grunting, lots of down-and-dirty “oohs” and “ahhs”. We break into a manic rave-up led by Evan’s screaming vocal and string-scrubbing rhythm guitar. We return to the song structure for one last verse and David delivers a tremendous libido-crazed vocal. The track ends with Scott Childress exclaiming in his baritone, “Bob Dylan, eat your heart out”. This was one of Bob Dylan’s very few top-forty hits and is reputed to be one of Dylan’s own favorites from his personal catalog. I had the 45-rpm single in my collection from my childhood and still do, although I have no record player.
LF:
I’m pretty sure Martha Roskowski egged us on to play “Lay, Lady Lay,” which must have been in some songbook in our midst. I believe she chose this not because she liked it but rather closer to the opposite, that she wanted to hear us butcher it! “His clothes are dirty but his hands are clean?” she said with some revulsion, “Ewww, get away from me!!” By the way, Martha was a dee jay on KGNU and was likely the host for our live pledge drive performance there from which we took a couple of selections for Crazed To The Core. Back to the song, again there are both “live” and overdubbed vocals, by both Evan and myself, and there’s occasionally a bit of conflict between the two levels. I think we somewhat divvied up the different parts, though there’s places where we’re both singing, too. I’m singing that low growl while Evan does a couple of types of vocals, including something of a subtle Barry White thing. Unless some of that was Scott Childress? Scott is definitely the one at the end saying “Bob Dylan eat your heart out”, etc. to a round of laughter from the partying gang and myself....
“Sugar Sugar”
EC:
Another highlight, a request played right out of the songbook. Evan sings lead, David answers with screaming and moaning. This is so totally uninhibited, it’s art. “Sugar Sugar”, originally conceived as a pop music parody, was a surprise number one hit for the television cartoon group, The Archies.
LF:
Martha and Stacy Benedict both wanted us to do “Sugar, Sugar”, and y’know, we horny guys weren’t about to turn down any requests from a couple of attractive women in our living room! (Lest you get any ideas, though, the party never got any raunchier than mere song butchering!) Accordingly, the track starts off with the girls’ cries of (mock?) glee as we launch into the song. Evan sings lead and plays rhythm guitar while Ed plays lead and I play the signature riff (and some other stuff) on kazoo and scream intermittently, showing a little more endurance than certain other times. We overdubbed the little bells as well as Evan both singing “yeah” and delivering a faux burp at the end. The in-house audience shows its appreciation….
“Fiddler In A Noose”
LF:
Another similarity of this tape to Crazed to the Core was the first side ending with a little oddball a cappella piece by myself, turning this into a bit of a pattern, though I think we were only semi-aware at most of it being that at the time. I can’t exactly say where I got this idea from other than that it popped into my head. Fiddler On the Roof was one of only two records I can remember my parents ever playing (along with My Fair Lady), but of course the music is ubiquitous, anyway. Once recently, right after my experimental music radio show on KGNU, the next DJ embarked on an entire show dedicated to the influence and presence of Fiddler On The Roof in Jamaican music (ska, reggae and dub), of all things! Similar to the James Bond music we played, I’m not even sure which actual Fiddler On the Roof song this music represents, but of course it’s very familiar sounding. I think I just found myself at some point singing the bass/background/harmonic portion of that music in that gutteral voice you hear and thought it would be a fun thing to record. It was nice having a project like WoG that would help you realize and release any offhand idea you might have! Obviously I’m singing the melodic portion in a higher register and through my digital delay, on the universally beloved syllable of “wah”. I think we came up with our version of the title later in response to the choked nature of my lower register voice, especially at the end, as opposed to my intentionally seeking that effect from the outset….
EC:
David’s solo vehicle. He has overdubbed 2 voices, one doing a percussive, burpy-belchy bass line and the other wailing with heavy reverb like a cantor in the synagogue on a Fiddler On The Roof theme. (A “cantor” in the synagogue is a singing compatriot to the rabbi. It is possible that somewhere in my own family line, such a character existed and gave the family the name “Cantor”. Etymologically, the name is connected to “incantation” and other romantic language versions of the verb “to sing”, a further irony in terms of my own name).
EC:
This was a part of my (Evan) regular repertoire, a song I had been playing (w/a bluegrass arrangement) for years. I’m singing the lead on this and Ed gets a terrific guitar solo. The organ is rather restrained and melodic for David’s approach. Despite the fact that our notes indicate these tracks were recorded live, it remains possible that I overdubbed the organ after the fact.
LF:
Boy y’know Evan has expressed amazement and gratitude for how much of these bygone days I can call up on the old brain circuits, but I’m a little hazy on the details of this Electric Crickets session. I think – I think – we may have recorded “Born To Be Wild” (yes of course, the classic Steppenwolf anthem) with only a skeletal rendition of the vocals originally while the primary lead vocal that you hear was overdubbed. It may have been overdubbed the same day, during that session, it may not have. But I seem to remember maybe first playing it mostly as an instrumental, with maybe everyone in the room simply chiming in on the “born to be wild” line, which of course everyone knows and loves. I think I may hear Evan’s voice in the background behind his lead vocal, so he may have been singing throughout the original “band” recording, but maybe off mike. The first “scream” or “wow” right near the beginning I think is Scott Childress, and he definitely does the little evil laugh right at the end, right up close to the mike. Ed is there, playing with a more pronounced echo on his Echoplex than usual. Brad Carton is NOT there, and thus I’m covering the percussion, on bongos. Evan plays rhythm electric guitar in the live setting and overdubbed the Farfisa organ, and one of us overdubbed that smashing sound, which is probably our gong but might be a trash can lid or some such, right at the end of Ed’s lead. Notice Evan’s little liberty with the lyrics on the third time through? I give one of my short-breathed screams near the end and Evan seems to be showing me how it’s done with his subsequent very long sustained scream and then I give yet another yelp and then the aforementioned bit of evil laughter of Scott’s has the final say.
“From Russia With Love”
EC:
This is actually based on “The James Bond Theme”, the music that plays in the Bond movies whenever something is about to happen to James Bond. The Theme to From Russia With Love is a completely different song. We didn’t know what it was called, who wrote it or anything other than having heard it in the movies. We didn’t even have videotapes in 1984, nor did we have James Bond movie-music records or tapes, so we couldn’t just rent the movie and cop the song. We made it up as we went along, playing it by ear directly out of our own imagination. The organ here has the same sound as on “Born To Be Wild”, as if overdubbed after the fact.
LF:
Evan thought James Bond movie music was cool so we did our own version of it. Funny that even though the music is (and was) very familiar to me, I wouldn’t have known which Bond movie it was from. Maybe it appears in more than one? Evan plays the famous background riff to the music on his electric guitar and I play the famous foreground riff on my Farfisa, at pre-ordained intervals. Ed plays lead, often quoting the same riff that I’m playing and sometimes we kind of trip over each other. I’m not a huge fan of this one, and my own very staid and obviously limited keyboard playing is but one reason. But then yeah, it’s cool….
“Hills, That Is”
EC:
This fades in on what sounds like the last of the fading James Bond riffs and moves directly into space-land. David is very palpably on the organ now, his off-beat staccato part keeping the beat. The guitar is oddly minimal for Ed with the Echoplex and it sounds more like me with the digital delay, but I can only do so many things all at once, so it may be that he was once again playing my Gibson SG. After a while, my harmonica rises up playing long chords and then I begin singing, quite morosely, the “Ballad Of Jed Clampett”, albeit in no way resembling the actual song. Only the lyrics remain intact and I’m singing in a morose and maudlin style that I would hear repeated by Ren Hoek many years later on the Ren & Stimpy Show (I think of Ren’s paranoid speech about Stimpy coveting his ice-cream bar or taunting Sven and Stimpy over the Electric Fence game).
LF:
“Hills, That Is” is one of those improvisations (albeit a quasi cover song) that tread the line between being kinda cool in its own demented way and maybe something that better belonged on a most embarrassing moments type release (but maybe that’s what this was?). I’m playing the awkward repeated riff on my Farfisa (which I was playing cause of the last piece). Ed’s guitar and Echoplex are definitely being utilized, but it doesn’t really sound like Ed, though it may have been Ed just making intermittent noises. Who’s playing those bongos? Maybe Evan, or maybe one of our guests? You can hear me making mistakes on my organ and then trying to make them sound intentional by repeating them. I’m guessing maybe that was indeed Evan on bongos since they’re no longer heard by the time we hear Evan on harmonica (and he may have issued a brief growl in between). My wacko organ playing might have been fine buried between a bunch of other stuff, but up front, with little else going on…? Finally I get away from trying to repeat my riffs, and it sounds a bit better! At least it is funny when Evan starts to sing the Beverly Hillbillies theme! Evan might have been hitting the gong while singing or maybe one of the guests did. I’m guessing it was Evan. Wait, one of the gong hits happens at the same time as a harmonica blow, which was definitely Evan, so, hmm, I dunno! I turn on my delay pedal that was evidently hooked up to my organ to get a different sound. Then there’s some Pink Floyd sounding guitar at the very end, the first indication that whoever was playing it had some command of the instrument....
“Lay Lady Lay”
EC:
I think this is the most outstanding track on the title. It was a request and we played it right out of the songbook. We obviously gave it a quick try before going for it whole hog because you hear my voice say “start over again”. David sings lead on the first verse, I chime in on the bridge and from that point forward, we trade lead vocals. There’s a lot of great grunting, lots of down-and-dirty “oohs” and “ahhs”. We break into a manic rave-up led by Evan’s screaming vocal and string-scrubbing rhythm guitar. We return to the song structure for one last verse and David delivers a tremendous libido-crazed vocal. The track ends with Scott Childress exclaiming in his baritone, “Bob Dylan, eat your heart out”. This was one of Bob Dylan’s very few top-forty hits and is reputed to be one of Dylan’s own favorites from his personal catalog. I had the 45-rpm single in my collection from my childhood and still do, although I have no record player.
LF:
I’m pretty sure Martha Roskowski egged us on to play “Lay, Lady Lay,” which must have been in some songbook in our midst. I believe she chose this not because she liked it but rather closer to the opposite, that she wanted to hear us butcher it! “His clothes are dirty but his hands are clean?” she said with some revulsion, “Ewww, get away from me!!” By the way, Martha was a dee jay on KGNU and was likely the host for our live pledge drive performance there from which we took a couple of selections for Crazed To The Core. Back to the song, again there are both “live” and overdubbed vocals, by both Evan and myself, and there’s occasionally a bit of conflict between the two levels. I think we somewhat divvied up the different parts, though there’s places where we’re both singing, too. I’m singing that low growl while Evan does a couple of types of vocals, including something of a subtle Barry White thing. Unless some of that was Scott Childress? Scott is definitely the one at the end saying “Bob Dylan eat your heart out”, etc. to a round of laughter from the partying gang and myself....
“Sugar Sugar”
EC:
Another highlight, a request played right out of the songbook. Evan sings lead, David answers with screaming and moaning. This is so totally uninhibited, it’s art. “Sugar Sugar”, originally conceived as a pop music parody, was a surprise number one hit for the television cartoon group, The Archies.
LF:
Martha and Stacy Benedict both wanted us to do “Sugar, Sugar”, and y’know, we horny guys weren’t about to turn down any requests from a couple of attractive women in our living room! (Lest you get any ideas, though, the party never got any raunchier than mere song butchering!) Accordingly, the track starts off with the girls’ cries of (mock?) glee as we launch into the song. Evan sings lead and plays rhythm guitar while Ed plays lead and I play the signature riff (and some other stuff) on kazoo and scream intermittently, showing a little more endurance than certain other times. We overdubbed the little bells as well as Evan both singing “yeah” and delivering a faux burp at the end. The in-house audience shows its appreciation….
“Fiddler In A Noose”
LF:
Another similarity of this tape to Crazed to the Core was the first side ending with a little oddball a cappella piece by myself, turning this into a bit of a pattern, though I think we were only semi-aware at most of it being that at the time. I can’t exactly say where I got this idea from other than that it popped into my head. Fiddler On the Roof was one of only two records I can remember my parents ever playing (along with My Fair Lady), but of course the music is ubiquitous, anyway. Once recently, right after my experimental music radio show on KGNU, the next DJ embarked on an entire show dedicated to the influence and presence of Fiddler On The Roof in Jamaican music (ska, reggae and dub), of all things! Similar to the James Bond music we played, I’m not even sure which actual Fiddler On the Roof song this music represents, but of course it’s very familiar sounding. I think I just found myself at some point singing the bass/background/harmonic portion of that music in that gutteral voice you hear and thought it would be a fun thing to record. It was nice having a project like WoG that would help you realize and release any offhand idea you might have! Obviously I’m singing the melodic portion in a higher register and through my digital delay, on the universally beloved syllable of “wah”. I think we came up with our version of the title later in response to the choked nature of my lower register voice, especially at the end, as opposed to my intentionally seeking that effect from the outset….
EC:
David’s solo vehicle. He has overdubbed 2 voices, one doing a percussive, burpy-belchy bass line and the other wailing with heavy reverb like a cantor in the synagogue on a Fiddler On The Roof theme. (A “cantor” in the synagogue is a singing compatriot to the rabbi. It is possible that somewhere in my own family line, such a character existed and gave the family the name “Cantor”. Etymologically, the name is connected to “incantation” and other romantic language versions of the verb “to sing”, a further irony in terms of my own name).
Side B
You're A Scumbag
Time Won't Let Me
The Letter
The Famous Last Jam
Ugly Girl
If You Could Read My Mind
You're A Scumbag
Time Won't Let Me
The Letter
The Famous Last Jam
Ugly Girl
If You Could Read My Mind
“You’re A Scumbag”
EC:
This is Evan’s solo vehicle, a straight ahead folk-rock tune. This was written shortly after my disappointing sexual experience with Helen Broderick (quite likely disappointing for her, too, not just me), but has nothing to do with that in particular. Helen was a talented poet and I had no reason to believe she was spreading it all around town, like some harlot in an old blues song. Helen and I had traded anonymous flirtatious sexy-talk on the “Go For It” radio show in the guise of our respective invented characters, Roy Watkins and Veronica the cowgirl. We should have stuck to that, but we didn’t. This was a classic case of sex ruining what should have been a great friendship. I think it’s a catchy tune, though, with an explosive refrain, and quite truly, has nothing to do with Helen.
LF:
“You’re A Scumbag” is Evan’s commentary on a (then) recent affair of his about which Tom Waits might have said, “Hubba hubba ding ding dong, baby sure didn’t last too long!” The key line is “I don’t know you anymore, do you?”, cause it ended so abruptly (and without explanation or discussion) that it felt like Evan didn’t know the woman anymore. Evan handles all the parts on this one. Nice that he turned the type of experience that has launched a zillion sappy ballads into something funny!
“Time Won’t Let Me”
EC:
This was prepared in advance, as I had learned the riff to the Outsiders’ great one-hit-wonder song. I open with the riff, Ed plays lead. I sing in a vibrato, David joins for the chorus, and Ed gets a terrific solo. A real tribute to garage-rock.
LF:
We did all sorts of cover songs, but our specialty was hits from the sixties (which weren’t quite as old back then!), and “Time Won’t Let Me” is one of those. I didn’t even know this song as a kid and had barely become aware of it from the Denver oldies station we listened to a lot. (There’s oldies stations now too, but probably not the same one we listened to then as these critters come and go….) I’m sure this was Evan’s idea. The reel box notes show this to be the first song we did that day, likely before some or all our eventual guests of the day had shown up, though that might be Scott’s voice hitting the high notes on “wait that long” (if it’s not me?) behind Evan’s lead vocal. Ed and Evan on guitars and someone, probably Evan, bangs a gong….
“The Letter”
EC:
This is another cover version (Alex Chilton’s Boxtops) that was in my regular repertoire. I’m singing the lead in a squeaky scream, then go back to a baritone for the refrain. David ends the track by exclaiming “Excuuuse Me!”
LF:
Ed plays his guitar in a more purely rhythmic or trance like style on “The Letter” and Evan plays the more traditional lead guitar role, which may have been overdubbed. Again there seems to be “live” and overdubbed vocals, with Evan singing lead and me backup. The cabasa seems a little awkward so I’m guessing I played it! Sometimes less is more and I think I prefer the Pus-Tones version that was captured on video the following year…. Well yeah, excuse me!! (That was me at the end there.)
“The Famous Last Jam”
EC:
This was indeed the last track recorded on the night of 9-8-84. It’s another of those epic improvisations that we loved so well. It opens with Evan on lead guitar, playing a randomized scale in no particular key (what I call my ‘druidisations’ after “Making A Deal with The Druids”, one of my instrumental pieces recorded previously). Ed is making spacey sci-fi sounds on the Echoplex. David gets his dander up with rhythmic scat-singing and my rhythm guitar picks up on his groove. Now Ed takes up the lead guitar and morphs into a Hendrix-like rhythm all his own. Evan returns to playing lead over Ed’s spacey Echoplex rhythm. Evan devolves into a 2-chord death-metal groove which Ed picks up and continues. Evan plays a little mandolin-style lead guitar (triplets) and then cuts out as Ed launches into a lengthy Echoplex exploration and solo, accompanied by a lot of percussion. Finally, it devolves into a bunch of hollering and screaming and Evan leads the room in a chant of “I Like The Way Burning Smurfs Smell”. The last thing you hear is Scott Childress’ resonant baritone exclaiming “Yeah, right!”
LF:
Evan’s playing lead guitar at the start of “The Famous Last Jam” while Ed is utilizing his Echoplex for sound effect. There’s a bunch of percussion which is probably me, and maybe others. And then I start doing some crazy vocalizations! This would be a crime in most bands, but Walls Of Genius were a rather permissive lot! Then Ed takes over the lead, starting with some riffing chords. I’m not sure where this is going – does anyone? Well, it’s going where Ed takes it! I hear more percussion than I had hands for while Evan’s still playing guitar too, so evidently we hadn’t driven all our guests out yet! Ooh, some crazy Echoplex noise! Which suddenly changes into guitar playing sound. I think Ed hit a switch! Can the Echoplex play loops and make feedback noise both at the same time? Hey, I think I hear that machine Evan recorded at his work place! (I don’t remember the name of it.) Was this overdubbed? Oh hey, everyone’s still there all right, you can tell by their screaming! And burning smurfs chanting! Scott wraps things up with a “yeah right.” He liked saying stuff like that….
“Ugly Girl”
LF:
Okay, as I mentioned above, “Ugly Girl” was not part of the Electric Crickets session, though Evan forgot to mention this in his liner notes. This would mark the first “studio” recording of this song to be released, a song that became my solo signature song for many years, until fairly recently when my current bass player hinted that we were playing it too much and it became evident that people liked “You Give Me Hard-On” more. I don’t think I was really expecting this rendition to see release, I was more just trying my hand at seeing if I could put this together in a finished form, just playing around at it and seeing what I could do. But Evan liked it and I didn’t protest. I used his recording equipment, after all! I play all the instruments, I think. I may have played the bass on my Farfisa. A rare WoG showing of my guitar playing!
EC:
David’s solo vehicle, he plays all the parts on this, overdubbed. This is a very straight rendition of what would become a signature Little Fyodor song. This was perhaps inspired by Jimmy Soul’s one-hit-wonder song, “If You Want To Be Happy For The Rest Of Your Life” (… get an ugly woman to be your wife.).
“If You Could Read My Mind”
EC:
This was a song I knew from my songbooks. It had been a difficult tune to learn and I wasn’t performing it in my straight repertoire. I knew it only because I attempted to learn every song in my songbooks when I was learning how to play the guitar. It fades in somewhere in the middle in order to keep the track from being too long for the side of the cassette. I sing it in multiple funny voices, even singing a couple of lines “straight” as a contrast to the howling and screaming. It’s another of those nearly-over-the-top-in-their-sincerity types of sentimental tunes that worked so well for parody. In the big picture, I like most of Gordon Lightfoot’s songs, but this is not one of my favorites. It was, however, a favorite to make fun of!
LF:
Evan’s all over the map with his vocals on this solo cover of “If You Could Read My Mind”, mixing in a few moments of “sincere” singing along with all manner of silly singing. I think he was exploring ways of mixing his former sincere folkie approach with his more recent silly WoG stylings, perhaps with an eye towards moving back to the former…?
EC:
This is Evan’s solo vehicle, a straight ahead folk-rock tune. This was written shortly after my disappointing sexual experience with Helen Broderick (quite likely disappointing for her, too, not just me), but has nothing to do with that in particular. Helen was a talented poet and I had no reason to believe she was spreading it all around town, like some harlot in an old blues song. Helen and I had traded anonymous flirtatious sexy-talk on the “Go For It” radio show in the guise of our respective invented characters, Roy Watkins and Veronica the cowgirl. We should have stuck to that, but we didn’t. This was a classic case of sex ruining what should have been a great friendship. I think it’s a catchy tune, though, with an explosive refrain, and quite truly, has nothing to do with Helen.
LF:
“You’re A Scumbag” is Evan’s commentary on a (then) recent affair of his about which Tom Waits might have said, “Hubba hubba ding ding dong, baby sure didn’t last too long!” The key line is “I don’t know you anymore, do you?”, cause it ended so abruptly (and without explanation or discussion) that it felt like Evan didn’t know the woman anymore. Evan handles all the parts on this one. Nice that he turned the type of experience that has launched a zillion sappy ballads into something funny!
“Time Won’t Let Me”
EC:
This was prepared in advance, as I had learned the riff to the Outsiders’ great one-hit-wonder song. I open with the riff, Ed plays lead. I sing in a vibrato, David joins for the chorus, and Ed gets a terrific solo. A real tribute to garage-rock.
LF:
We did all sorts of cover songs, but our specialty was hits from the sixties (which weren’t quite as old back then!), and “Time Won’t Let Me” is one of those. I didn’t even know this song as a kid and had barely become aware of it from the Denver oldies station we listened to a lot. (There’s oldies stations now too, but probably not the same one we listened to then as these critters come and go….) I’m sure this was Evan’s idea. The reel box notes show this to be the first song we did that day, likely before some or all our eventual guests of the day had shown up, though that might be Scott’s voice hitting the high notes on “wait that long” (if it’s not me?) behind Evan’s lead vocal. Ed and Evan on guitars and someone, probably Evan, bangs a gong….
“The Letter”
EC:
This is another cover version (Alex Chilton’s Boxtops) that was in my regular repertoire. I’m singing the lead in a squeaky scream, then go back to a baritone for the refrain. David ends the track by exclaiming “Excuuuse Me!”
LF:
Ed plays his guitar in a more purely rhythmic or trance like style on “The Letter” and Evan plays the more traditional lead guitar role, which may have been overdubbed. Again there seems to be “live” and overdubbed vocals, with Evan singing lead and me backup. The cabasa seems a little awkward so I’m guessing I played it! Sometimes less is more and I think I prefer the Pus-Tones version that was captured on video the following year…. Well yeah, excuse me!! (That was me at the end there.)
“The Famous Last Jam”
EC:
This was indeed the last track recorded on the night of 9-8-84. It’s another of those epic improvisations that we loved so well. It opens with Evan on lead guitar, playing a randomized scale in no particular key (what I call my ‘druidisations’ after “Making A Deal with The Druids”, one of my instrumental pieces recorded previously). Ed is making spacey sci-fi sounds on the Echoplex. David gets his dander up with rhythmic scat-singing and my rhythm guitar picks up on his groove. Now Ed takes up the lead guitar and morphs into a Hendrix-like rhythm all his own. Evan returns to playing lead over Ed’s spacey Echoplex rhythm. Evan devolves into a 2-chord death-metal groove which Ed picks up and continues. Evan plays a little mandolin-style lead guitar (triplets) and then cuts out as Ed launches into a lengthy Echoplex exploration and solo, accompanied by a lot of percussion. Finally, it devolves into a bunch of hollering and screaming and Evan leads the room in a chant of “I Like The Way Burning Smurfs Smell”. The last thing you hear is Scott Childress’ resonant baritone exclaiming “Yeah, right!”
LF:
Evan’s playing lead guitar at the start of “The Famous Last Jam” while Ed is utilizing his Echoplex for sound effect. There’s a bunch of percussion which is probably me, and maybe others. And then I start doing some crazy vocalizations! This would be a crime in most bands, but Walls Of Genius were a rather permissive lot! Then Ed takes over the lead, starting with some riffing chords. I’m not sure where this is going – does anyone? Well, it’s going where Ed takes it! I hear more percussion than I had hands for while Evan’s still playing guitar too, so evidently we hadn’t driven all our guests out yet! Ooh, some crazy Echoplex noise! Which suddenly changes into guitar playing sound. I think Ed hit a switch! Can the Echoplex play loops and make feedback noise both at the same time? Hey, I think I hear that machine Evan recorded at his work place! (I don’t remember the name of it.) Was this overdubbed? Oh hey, everyone’s still there all right, you can tell by their screaming! And burning smurfs chanting! Scott wraps things up with a “yeah right.” He liked saying stuff like that….
“Ugly Girl”
LF:
Okay, as I mentioned above, “Ugly Girl” was not part of the Electric Crickets session, though Evan forgot to mention this in his liner notes. This would mark the first “studio” recording of this song to be released, a song that became my solo signature song for many years, until fairly recently when my current bass player hinted that we were playing it too much and it became evident that people liked “You Give Me Hard-On” more. I don’t think I was really expecting this rendition to see release, I was more just trying my hand at seeing if I could put this together in a finished form, just playing around at it and seeing what I could do. But Evan liked it and I didn’t protest. I used his recording equipment, after all! I play all the instruments, I think. I may have played the bass on my Farfisa. A rare WoG showing of my guitar playing!
EC:
David’s solo vehicle, he plays all the parts on this, overdubbed. This is a very straight rendition of what would become a signature Little Fyodor song. This was perhaps inspired by Jimmy Soul’s one-hit-wonder song, “If You Want To Be Happy For The Rest Of Your Life” (… get an ugly woman to be your wife.).
“If You Could Read My Mind”
EC:
This was a song I knew from my songbooks. It had been a difficult tune to learn and I wasn’t performing it in my straight repertoire. I knew it only because I attempted to learn every song in my songbooks when I was learning how to play the guitar. It fades in somewhere in the middle in order to keep the track from being too long for the side of the cassette. I sing it in multiple funny voices, even singing a couple of lines “straight” as a contrast to the howling and screaming. It’s another of those nearly-over-the-top-in-their-sincerity types of sentimental tunes that worked so well for parody. In the big picture, I like most of Gordon Lightfoot’s songs, but this is not one of my favorites. It was, however, a favorite to make fun of!
LF:
Evan’s all over the map with his vocals on this solo cover of “If You Could Read My Mind”, mixing in a few moments of “sincere” singing along with all manner of silly singing. I think he was exploring ways of mixing his former sincere folkie approach with his more recent silly WoG stylings, perhaps with an eye towards moving back to the former…?
from the fifth Walls Of Genius catalog, The Gift Of The Geek
