Pearls Before Swine

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Sun, 2005-05-22 13:54

Pearls Before Swine

Do you sometimes dig into the depths of your record collection and play an album you haven't heard for 20 years? Sometimes it brings back great memories - and you realise that it really is rather good. And sometimes you don't.

I am playing 'One Nation Underground' by Pearls Before Swine. It is the biggest heap of hippie garbage I have ever heard. That they called themselves that gives you a clue. They think they really know 'how it is, man'. It's full of little fluet lines, pretty pretty hand cymbals and other rubbish. The singer has a really bad lisp.

It's full of dreadul songs with the worst kind of teenage angst writing. This Tom Rapp clearly thinks some of them are so magnificent that he must write out the lines on the back cover. Take 'Morning Song':

Along the cold and gross canal
The Grey-walled Dwarf
Leaps high
Dwelling dark-victorious
Silent/with a cry

On the ledge
The Leper walks
Soft-pawed
Cold
Lean and crisp
Telling jokes the Old Jew told
Laughing/with a lisp

At the door
I stand and sense
Each picture in its frame
Seeking out
In each new glance
The Hunchback
With my name

Please take it.

He's even copied out the verse from the Bible whence they got their name. they've only used it because it's go 'turn on' in it!:

Give not that which Holy unto the dogs; neither cast ye your PEARLS BEFORE SWINE. lest they trample them under their feet, and turn ye on, and rend ye. Matthew 7:6

No wonder most of the hippies turned into Tories.

Mon, 2005-05-23 16:01

Maxwell Eddison

These are the lyrics to gongs "oily way" from the "Angels Egg" album, kicking in straight after "Flute Salad," lol Now you're here and now you're Gong Now you're back where you belong Meet the wizard of the keys And he'll reveal the mysteries Of Angels' Eggs and Octave Doctors Radio Gnome and Love Projectors Then he'll point up in the sky You will see the Teapots flying Down the Oily Way... Down the Oily Way you slide Through the inner space you ride Lots and lots of Pot-Head Pixies Ridin' round in Teapot Taxies On the Planet Gong they say If everything goes wrong today Fill your Teapot up with tea Come and take a ride with me Down the oily way... Oily Way Oily Way - it's not the milky way Oily Way - it's not the only way Oily Way - it's not the English way Stop ! Wait ! Hey ! Look ! High in the sky, the world you remember Scenes that we dreamed of Time for the end of Hate ! War ! Death ! You big daddy in your big sick city Gotta choose to loose your games now Now you're here and now you're Gong But this ain't me that sings this song For we the Gong Band it's enough To be the instruments of love On which the Octave Doctors play That we be one and all as one with Gong On earth and find again The joys of going around the bend Down the oily way Oily Way Oily Way - not the only way Oily Way - it's not the only way Oily Way - it's not the English way

Mon, 2005-05-23 16:04

Tony Cook

Sounds like a fore-runner of Frank Zappa's 'Keep it Greasy, so it'll go down easy...'

Mon, 2005-05-23 16:05

Maxwell Eddison

When I saw gong at manchester academy in 1992 he dressed in a skin type silken body suit and took to wearing a tea pot on his head and at regular intervals would detach it and ask "would you like some teeaa?" There are references to tea right throughout the whole trilogy and I only found out during that concert when he yelled, "would you all like some mushroom tea?" what he was on about!

Sun, 2005-05-22 13:59

Tony Cook

Agh - I've read more of the cover now. 'Lane Lederer' plays Bass, Guitar, English Horn, Swinehorn, Sarangi, Celeste and Finger Cymbals. 'Wayne Harley' plays Autoharp, Banjo, Mandolin, Vibraphone, Audio Oscillator and Harmony! 'Roger Crissinger' plays Organ, Harpsichord and Clavioline. 'Tom Rapp' palys Guitars (one at a time) (usually). I joke you not - this is true. The album is dedicated to Circe! And I bought it! (second hand - £2 according to the sticker on the front).

Sun, 2005-05-22 14:35

Foxy

Tony, you do not cringe alone, I too have many such albums stashed away at the back of my garage (and that's where they're going to stay btw). And I'm fairly certain that if, at a certain time in my life, I'd seen the album to which you refer I would have bought it as well... especially if I'd read the back cover. *Hangs head in shame* [%sig%]

Sun, 2005-05-22 14:41

Jasper

Was that lot before Beethoven or Apes egg-race events after inventing the spoon? Bloody spoons have got a lot to answer, I reckon!

Sun, 2005-05-22 16:16

Maxwell Eddison

I still listen to gong albums and they sound better with each listen. Daevid Allen got it right when he decided to make light of psychedelia rather than be all arty and abstract about it. That's why the songs stand up so well now. I had a similar urge a couple of days back and I had the video to Strawberry Fields Forever swimming about my head. So I plucked out the 67-71 album and played it and sometimes songs are best left in your head. Gnome by Pink Floyd is another that I have good laugh listening to. Noel Reddings Fat Matress album keeps jumping out and asking me to play it but I feel that just looking at the album cover is as safe a distance to go without spoiling what respect I have for the band :)

Sun, 2005-05-22 16:42

Hox

Don't be so heavy on yourself man, we all went down that road. Chill out with a groovy chick and some good gear, I'll send you some healing vibes....... ohmmmmmmmm ohmmmmmmmm ohmmmmmmmm Can you feel the vibes man? [%sig%]

Sun, 2005-05-22 17:18

#10

Smiley

Fever Tree, some Steppenwolf and Iron Butterfly's "In A Gadda Da Vida"," still stand up well after all these years but White Noise, a lot of early Floyd and other stuff that relied on 'sound effects' have lost a lot of their charm... unless it's just that I never heard the 'straight' before. Mind you I still love Moody Blues' In Seach Of The Lost Chord - yet it was that spinning synth that first attracted me. How on Earth did Dr Livingstone end up on that album - wasn't Timothy Leary enough???

Sun, 2005-05-22 17:27

#11

Smiley

Oops, should be - ... I never heard theM 'straight' before. Totally changes the meaning. Totally changes the sound too ;o)

Sun, 2005-05-22 18:57

#12

Foxy

Hey Hox man, like, peace man. Those vibes man... they were something else... like, cosmic man... groovy.

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