Garbage
Garbage was formed in 1993 by Butch Vig (drums), Duke Erikson (bass, guitar), and Steve Marker (guitar). All three were record producers who had previously played together in the bands Spooner and Firetown in the 1980s. Vig achieved fame in 1991 as the producer of Nirvana's landmark album, Nevermind. In 1994 Garbage hired singer Shirley Manson after seeing her band Angelfish on MTV. Garbage's self titled debut album was released in 1995. "Vow" was a minor Modern Rock hit in the US and the second single "Queer" reached US Modern Rock #12 and the UK Top 20. "Only Happy When It Rains" was another Modern Rock and minor pop hit. "Stupid Girl" charted across the boards in the US and reached the UK Top 5. The album went platinum and peaked at US #20 and UK #6. Garbage's 1998 follow up was the UK chart topper and US Top 20 hit, Version 2.0. "Push It", "I Think I'm Paranoid," and "When I Grow Up" all reached the UK Top 10, and the former two were Top 10 US Modern Rock hits. In 2001 the band wrote and performed the theme to the James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough, and it reached #11 in the UK. Later that year Beautiful Garbage was another hit album, reached the UK Top 10 and US Top 20.
#1 Crush
I would die for you
I would die for you
I've been dying just to feel you by my side
To know that you're mine
I will cry for you
I will cry for you
I will wash away your pain with all my tears
And drown your fear
I will pray for you
I will pray for you
I will sell my soul for something pure and true
Someone like you
See your face every place that I walk in
Hear your voice every time I am talking
You will believe in me
And I will never be ignored
I will burn for you
Feel pain for you
I will twist the knife and bleed my aching heart
I'll tear it apart
I will lie for you
Beg and steal for you
I will crawl on hands and knees until you see
You're just like me
Violate all my love that I'm missing
Throw away all the pain that I'm living
You will believe in me
And I can never be ignored
I would die for you
I would kill for you
I will steal for you
I'd do time for you
I would wait for you
I'd make room for you
I'd sail ships for you
To be close to you
To be a part of you
'Cause I believe in you
I believe in you
I would die for you.
I'm Only Happy When It Rains
I’m only happy when it rains
I’m only happy when it’s complicated
And though I know you can’t appreciate it
I’m only happy when it rains
You know I love it when the news is bad
Why it feels so good to feel so sad
I’m only happy when it rains
Pour your misery down
Pour your misery down on me
Pour your misery down
Pour your misery down on me
I’m only happy when it rains
I feel good when things are going wrong
I only listen to the sad, sad songs
I’m only happy when it rains
I only smile in the dark
My only comfort is the night gone black
I didn’t accidentally tell you that
I’m only happy when it rains
You’ll get the message by the time I’m through
When I complain about me and you
I’m only happy when it rains
Pour your misery down...pour your misery down
Pour your misery down on me...pour your misery down
Pour your misery down...pour your misery down
Pour your misery down on me...pour your misery down
Pour your misery down...pour your misery down
Pour your misery down on me...pour your misery down
Pour your misery down...pour
You can keep me company
As long as you don’t care
I’m only happy when it rains
You want to hear about my new obsession
I’m riding high upon a deep depression
I’m only happy when it rains...pour some misery down on me
I’m only happy when it rains....pour some misery down on me
I’m only happy when it rains...pour some misery down on me
I’m only happy when it rains...pour some misery down on me
I’m only happy when it rains...pour some misery down on me
Pour some misery down on me...pour some misery down on me...
Pour some misery down on me
Stupid Girl
Stupid Girl
You pretend you’re high
You pretend you’re bored
You pretend you’re anything
Just to be adored
And what you need
Is what you get
Don’t believe in fear
Don’t believe in faith
Don’t believe in anything
That you can’t break
You stupid girl
You stupid girl
All you had you wasted
All you had you wasted
What drives you on what drives you on
Can drive you mad can drive you mad
A million lies to sell yourself
Is all you ever had
Don’t believe in love
Don’t believe in hate
Don’t believe in anything
That you can’t waste
You stupid girl
You stupid girl
Can’t believe you fake it
Can’t believe you fake it
Don’t believe in fear
Don’t believe in pain
Don’t believe in anyone
That you can’t tame
You stupid girl
You stupid girl
All you had you wasted
All you had you wasted
You stupid girl
You stupid girl
Can’t believe you fake it
Can’t believe you fake it
You stupid girl
You stupid girl
Can’t believe you fake it
Can’t believe you fake it
You stupid girl
Genesis
Tony Banks met Peter Gabriel; Mike Rutherford met Anthony Phillips. Out of these teenage friendships and songwriting partnerships a band called Genesis emerged. In 1967, at the height of the psychedelic boom, they began recording together with the man who thought up their name, producer and pop star in waiting Jonathan King.
In pursuit of success, Genesis took the scenic route. It was ten years before they scored their first hit single. Long, radio-unfriendly epics such as 'Supper's Ready', a 26-minute controlled freak-out from the 'Foxtrot' album, were their original stock in trade. Band members subsisted on a retainer of £10 per week. Hotels proving sadly unaffordable, the group would drive home to London and Surrey after every gig. Their live show looked great - a riot of masks and weird costumes - but it cost next to nothing. "The challenge was to create something visually striking that was also cheap," Banks remembers, "which was a good discipline."
By 1970 Genesis were making headway with their uniquely theatrical brand of progressive rock. A series of personnel changes introduced a new drummer, Phil Collins, and guitarist Steve Hackett. Gradually, the world started to prick up its ears. Mike Rutherford: "We've always gone down well in the big industrial cities of the East Coast and Mid West (America), maybe because of the element of fantasy and escapism in our shows."
Following the extraordinary success of the band's seventh album, a soundtrack to their spectacular stage show 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway,' Peter Gabriel left in 1975. "We came close to calling it a day when Pete left," Rutherford recalls, "It wasn't that we lost our nerve. We were always confident we could write the music, because Tony and I had done most of 'The Lamb.' It was just a question of whether the public would accept us." They did. Collins took over on vocals "because he really wanted to do it, basically" and the next installment of Genesis, 'A Trick Of The Tail,' promptly outsold all of their previous releases.
After the departure of Hackett in 1977 the creative nucleus of the band re-configured as a trio, aptly expressed in the album of the following year, '...And Then There Were Three,' on which Rutherford played both guitar and bass. The album also spawned the group's first real UK single chart success with 'Follow You, Follow Me.'
As the 1980's dawned Genesis veered in another direction, one that would introduce shorter, more radio friendly songs, and lead to enormous commercial success. The 1980 album 'Duke' bridged the two eras well with the highly acclaimed group of linked songs known as the 'Duke Suite' and the US chart success of 'Misunderstanding'. 1981's 'Abacab' album also proved to be a huge hit worldwide. "I think the fact that we were all in our thirties by the time we became really successful was a great help," says Banks. "To this day we've never had an argument about money."
Even without Peter Gabriel's showmanship, the band continued to set new standards as a live act. On their 1981-82 world tour they broke box office records in North America when they went out with a revolutionary lighting system, Vari-lite.
However, Gabriel made a brief return to the fold on October 2nd 1982 at the Milton Keynes Bowl for a one off reunion show 'Six Of The Best', this was primarily to help Gabriel's 'WOMAD' project out of an awkward financial situation. Steve Hackett made an even briefer re-appearance when he came out on stage for the encore of the same show. An unforgettable day for all those who witnessed the event.
Banks, Collins and Rutherford went back into the studio to record 1983's self titled album 'Genesis' which spawned two of the band's all time classic tracks, the hugely successful 'Mama' and the brilliant live track 'Home By The Sea'. Their 1986 album, 'Invisible Touch', broke more records when it yielded five US tope ten singles. "Despite the media's perception of us, we didn't think of ourselves as a singles band," says Rutherford. "In our minds we were a band that did long songs but just happened to have a few hits." The accompanying 'Invisible Touch' tour generated the highest average gross per venue of any act on the road that year. A total of 3 million people worldwide attended. In 1987 Genesis were voted Band Of The Year in Rolling Stone Magazine's Reader's poll.
Following a lay-off during which band members pursued individual projects, Genesis re-convened in 1991 to record 'We Can't Dance'. "We were quite surprised Phil wanted to make a Genesis album," Banks recalls. "We felt incredibly loyal to one another, but the pressures of his solo success made it increasingly difficult for us to function as a band." Difficult, but by no means impossible. 'We Can't Dance' sold over 10 million copies to become Genesis' biggest seller so far. A triumphal romp around the world saw the band play their largest-ever British audience when they sold out at Knebworth in the Summer of 1992.
After another break for soloing, Genesis and Phil Collins finally parted company early in 1996. "It did briefly occur to us that we should put Genesis to rest," Rutherford admits, "But Tony and I have never stopped writing songs since we were teenagers, so we thought, why should we give up now?" Most of the songs for the 1997 album 'Calling All Stations' were written before the selection of new vocalist Ray Wilson - a singer whose voice has more in common with Peter Gabriel than Phil Collins, an appointment that signalled a return to Genesis' rockier roots. Banks: "We liked Ray immediately because of the sort of sound pictures his voice conjures up. It has a natural darkness. With Ray we can write in a heavier, more atmospheric way than we did with Phil. We also like the fact that he doesn't have much history."
The release of 'Calling All Stations' didn't meet the same commercial success as past releases had. It was relatively successful around Europe reaching number 2 in the UK album charts. However, it was received poorly in North America and following poor ticket sales, the North American leg of the 'Calling All Stations' tour was sadly called off.
1998 saw Genesis revisit their past with the release of the first Genesis Archive (1967-75) Box Set, this included early demos and rarely heard live material.
The end of 1999 saw Genesis hit the charts once more with a collection of their more commercially successful songs. 'Turn It On Again - The Hits' briefly reunited the 'classic' line up of Banks, Collins, Gabriel, Hackett and Rutherford in a re-make of 'The Carpet Crawlers' from 1974's album 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway'.
So what does the future hold for 'Genesis', is this the end? Rutherford: "I don't really know, I never really know what's going on. We haven't really thought about what we're going to do over the next year. There's nothing planned at the moment, but there never really is. It's a little tough for Genesis at this moment in time, actually - for a lot of the older acts, to be honest. I can't complain, it's been 30 years of plain sailing, but getting no airplay makes whatever you do a little harder."
Banks: " My own feeling is that the Genesis time has probably run out. We haven't made a final decision yet, is the truth of the matter. We'll decide on that. We've had a fantastic career and I can't think of a reason to end it on a low. It's very uphill everywhere you look at the moment. I don't know. The kind of music we do best, particularly what we were trying to get back to on 'Calling All Stations' is extremely unfashionable now. But as for the moment there are no plans to go back into the studio with Ray, you have to be honest. We're going to review it, but one has to say that the chances are that we might now be nearing the end."
And what of the others? Gabriel is concentrating on getting his next solo album finished, Hackett always has at least one project simmering, but of all the past members the one that has expressed a possible interest in returning in some form is Phil Collins. Phil would be more than happy to take part in a reunion tour behind the drum kit and has also talked about the possibility of recording something new with Banks and Rutherford. Whether it happens and goes under the name Genesis remains to be seen...
Back In N.Y.C.
I see faces and traces of home back in New York City-
So you think I'm a tough kid? Is that what you heard?
Well I like to see some action and it gets into my blood.
The call me the trail blazer-Rael-electric razor.
I'm the pitcher in the chain gang, we don't believe in pain
'cos we're only as strong, as the weakesst link in the chain.
Let me out of Pontiac when I was just seventeen,
I had to get it out of me, if you know what I mean, what I mean.
You say I must be crazy, 'cos KI don't care who I hit, who I hit.
But I know it's me that's hitting out and I'm not full of shit.
I don't care who I hurt, I don't care who I do wrong.
This is your mess I'm stuck in, I really don't belong.
When I take out my bottle, filled up high with gasoline,
You can tell by the night fires where Rael has been, has been.
As I cuddled the porcupine
He said I had none to blame, but me.
Held my heart, deep in hair,
Time to shave, shave it off, it off.
No time for romantic escape,
When your fluffy heart is ready for rape. No!
Off we go.
You're sitting in your comfort you don't believe I'm real,
You cannot buy protection from the way that I feel.
Your progressive hypocrites hand out their trash,
But it was mine in the first place, so I'll burn it to ash.
And I've tasted all the strongest meats,
And laid them down in coloured sheets.
Who needs illusion of love and affection
When you're out walking the streets with your mainline connection? connection.
As I cuddle the porcupine
He said I had none to blame, but me.
Held my heart, deep in hair.
Time to shave, shave it off, it off.
No time for romantic escape,
When your fluffy heart is ready for rape. No!
Broadway Melody Of 1974
Echoes of the Broadway Everglades,
With her mythical madonnas still walking in their shades:
Lenny Bruce, declares a truce and plays his other hand.
Marshall McLuhan, casual viewin', head buried in the sand.
Sirens on the rooftops wailing, but there's no ship sailing.
Groucho, with his movies trailing, stands alone with his punchline failing.
Klu Klux Klan serve hot soul food and the band plays 'In the Mood'
The cheerleader waves her cyanide wand, there's a smell of
peach blossom and bitter almonde.
Caryl Chessman sniffs the air and leads the parade, he know in a scent,
you can bottle all you made.
There's Howard Hughes in blue suede shoes, smiling at the majorettes
smoking Winston Cigarettes.
And as the song and dance begins, the children play at home
with needles; needles and pins.
Dance On A Volcano
Holy Mother of God
You've got to go faster than that to get to the top.
Dirty old mountain
All covered in smoke, she can turn you to stone
So you better start doing it right
Better start doing it right.
You're halfway up and you're halfway down
And the pack on your back is turning you around.
Throw it away, you won't need it up there, and remember
You don't look back whatever you do.
Better start doing it right.
On your left and on your right
Crosses are green and crosses are blue
Your friends didn't make it through.
Out of the night and out of the dark
Into the fire and into the fight
Well that's the way the heroes go, Ho! Ho! Ho!
Through a crack in Mother Earth,
Blazing hot, the molten rock
Spills out over the land.
And the lava's the lover who licks your boots away, Hey! Hey! Hey!
If you don't want to boil as well,
B-B-Better start the dance
D-D-Do you want to dance with me.
The music's playing, the notes are right
Put your left foot first and move into the ight.
The edge of this hill is the edge of the world
And if you're going to cross you better start doing it right
better start doing it right.
Let the dance begin.
Grand Parade
Its the last great adventure left to mankind
Screams a drooping lady
Offering her dream dolls at less than extortionate prices
And as the notes and coins are taken out
I'm taken in to the factory floor
The grand parade of lifeless packaging all ready to use.
Its the grand parade of lifeless packaging i just need a fuse.
Got people stocked in every shade
Must be doing well with trade
Stamped, addressed in odd fatality
That evens out their personality
With market potential marked by a sign
I can recognize some on the production line
No bite at all in labor bondage
Just wrinkled wrapers or human bandage
The grand parade of lifeless packaging all ready to use.
Its the grand parade of lifeless packaging i just need a fuse.
The hall works like clockwork
Their hands mark out the time
Empty in their fullness
Like a frozen pantomime
Everyones a sales representative
Wearing slogans in their shrine
Dishing out failsafe supurlatives
Brother John is number nine
For the grand parade of lifeless packaging all ready to use.
Its the grand parade of lifeless packaging I just need a fuse.
The decor on the ceiling
Has planned out their futre day
I see no sign of free will
So I guess I'll have to pay
Pay my way
For the grand parade of lifeless packaging all ready to use.
Its the grand parade of lifeless packaging I just need a fuse.
Home By The Sea
Creeping up the blind side, shinning up the wall
stealing thru the dark of night
Climbing thru a window, stepping to the floor
checking to the left and the right
Picking up the pieces, putting them away
something doesn't feel quite right
Help me someone, let me out of here
then out of the dark was suddenly heard
welcome to the Home by the Sea
Coming out the woodwork, thru the open door
pushing from above and below
shadows without substance, in the shape of men
round and down and sideways they go
adrift without direction, eyes that hold despair
then as one they sign and they moan
Help us someone, let us out of here
living here so long undisturbed
dreaming of the time we were free
so many years ago
before the time when we first heard
welcome to the Home by the Sea
Sit down Sit down
as we relive out lives in what we tell you
Images of sorrow, pictures of delight
things that go to make up a life
endless days of summer longer nights of gloom
waiting for the morning light
scenes of unimportance like photos in a frame
things that go to make up a life
Help us someone, let us out of here
living here so long undisturbed
dreaming of the time we were free
so many years ago
before the time when we first heard
welcome to the Home by the Sea
Sit down Sit down
as we relive out lives in what we tell you
let us relive out lives in what we tell you
Sit down sit down
cos you won't get away
so with us you will stay
for the rest of your days. So sit down
As we relive out lives in what we tell you
Let us relive out lives in what we tell you
Throwing It All Away
Need I say I love you
Need I say I care
Need I say that emotion's,
Something we don't share
I don't want to be sitting here
Trying to deceive you
Cos you know I know baby
That I don't wanna go.
We cannot live together
We cannot live apart
That's the situation
I've known it from the start
Every time that I look at you
I can see the future
Cos you know I know babe
That I don't wanna go.
Throwing it all away
Throwing it all away
Is there nothing that I can say
To make you change your mind
I watch the world go round and round
And see mine turning upside down
You're throwing it all away.
Now who will light up the darkness
Who will hold your hand
Who will find you the answers
When you don't understand
Why should I have to be the one
Who has to convince you
Cos you know I know baby
That I don't wanna go.
Someday you'll be sorry
Someday when you're free
Memories will remind you
That our love was meant to be
Late at night when you call my name
The only sound you'll hear
Is the sound of your voice calling
Calling after me.
Just throwing it all away
Throwing it all away
There's nothing I can say
We're throwing it all away
Yes we're throwing it all away...
The Lady Lies
The man steps out in the moonlight
At the sound of a scream from below
He thinks he is a warrior
So he picks up his sword and goes
From the mouth of the monster
He rescues the maiden fair
But we know she's a demon
Come to lure him to demon' s lair.
Through restless foliage and tall trees he leads
To a house in a clearing, a place in her fear she calls home.
"Come with me, I need you, I fear the dark and I live all alone
I'll give you wine and food too And something special after if you like."
And though his body bids him
To enter in with her, There was something in her manner
That his mind could not ignore.
Also it is whispered In the kingdom far and wide,
To beware a little cottage In the forest in a glade.
For who knows what magic takes place in his world?
So he just thanks her kindly preparing to go on his way.
"Come with me, I need you,
I fear the dark and I live all alone.
I'll give you wine and food too
And something special after if you like.
Come to my garden,
Taste the fruits and the spices of love.
You cant resist me,
I'm the kind that your dreams tell you of
"So glad you could make it
We had everything arranged.
So glad you saw fit to pay a call."
Some men never listen,
And others never learn,
But why this man did as he did
Only he will ever know.
He knew he was walking into a waiting trap,
Neatly set up for him
With a bait so richly wrapped.
So he went inside there to take on what he found
But he never escaped them, for who can escape what he desires?
Come with me, I need you,
I fear the dark and I live all alone.
I'll give you wine and food too
And something special after if you like.
Undertow
The curtains are drawn
Now the fire warms the room.
Meanwhile outside
Wind from the north-east chills the air,
It will soon be snowing out there.
And some thete are
Cold, they prepare for a sleepless night.
Maybe this will be their last fight.
But we're safe in each other's embrace,
All fears go out as I look on your face-
Better think awhile
Or I may never think again.
If this were the last day of your life, my friend,
Tell me, what do you think you would do then?
Stand up to the blow that fate has struck upon you,
Make the most of all you still have coming to you, or
Lay down on the ground and let the tears run from you,
Crying to the grass and trees and heaven finally on your knees
Let me live again, let life come find me wanting.
Spring must strike again against the shield of winter.
Let me feel once more the arms of love surround me,
Telling me the danger's past, I need not fear the icy blast again.
Laughter, music and perfume linger here
And there, and there,
Wine flows from flask to glass and mouth,
As it soothes, confusing our doubts.
And soon we feel,
Why do a single thing to-day,
There's tomorrow sure as I'm here.
So the days they turn into years
And still no tomorrow appears.
Better think awhile etc.
Seven Stones
I heard the old man tell his tale:
Tinker, alone within a storm,
And losing hope he clears the leaves beneath a tree,
Seven stones
Lay on the ground.
Within the seventh house a friend was found.
And the changes of no consequence will pick up the reins from nowhere.
Sailors, in peril on the sea,
Amongst the waves a rock looms nearer, not yet seen,
They see a gull
Flying by.
The Captain turns the boat and he asks not why.
And the changes of no consequence will pick up the reins from nowhere.
Despair that tires the world, brings the old man laughter,
The laughter of the world only grieves him,
believe him,
The old man's guide is chance.
I heard the old man tell his tale:
Farmer, who knows not when to sow,
Consults the old man clutching money in his hand,
And with a shrug,
The old man smiled,
Took the money, left the farmer wild.
And the changes of no consequence will pick up the reins from nowhere.
Despair that tires the world, brings the old man laughter,
The laughter of the world only grieves him, believe him,
The old man's guide is chance.
Gil Scott-Heron
"I don't think it's addictive," Gil Scott-Heron told the Village Voice last July after his court appearance for cocaine possession. "I think it's only psychologically addictive. But I haven't had enough money to get any. I think you have to have quite a lot of money to get psychologically addicted to those things."
Even a man with the verbal agility of 52-year-old musician, poet, author and activist Scott-Heron couldn't make that defence stick. Whatever the nature of his addiction, or the state of his personal finances, he had been wrestling with an on-off cocaine habit for many years when he was arrested on New York's Amsterdam avenue in November last year in possession of 1.2g of powder cocaine and two crack pipes.
At his July court date, he pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance and accepted a plea deal of 18 to 24 months in rehab on his return from a European tour. After the tour, during which his gaunt, ragged appearance betrayed his troubles, he failed to appear in court. Four weeks later, he was arrested in New York and sentenced to one to three years in jail by state supreme court justice Carol Berkman. "You've had all these opportunities to help yourself, and you just don't seem to care," said an exasperated Berkman. Many of Scott-Heron's friends and fans share that frustration.
In the long, messy history of musicians and their bad habits, most have either been killed or cured. Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison became rock'n'roll legends by dying before drugs had a chance to annihilate their talent and looks. Alternatively, rehab alumni such as Courtney Love, Eric Clapton and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler sought help in time and bounced back, aglow with health. Even Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan, whose heroin habit ensured him a regular seat in the last chance saloon during the mid-1990s, knew an ultimatum when he saw it. Threatened with jail, he finally cleaned up in 1996.
Scott-Heron's story, however, is not the stuff of rock mythology. It's a messy tale of poverty, creative paralysis and the mundane horrors of thousands of drug addicts whose fates do not make headlines on MTV News. Most depressing is the fact that a man who spent 30 years dispensing advice to black America - about escaping the ghetto, taking control, dodging poverty's pitfalls - ended up ignoring it.
Born in Chicago in 1949, Scott-Heron had a difficult, itinerant childhood. After his parents divorced he was sent to live with his grandmother in Lincoln, Tennessee. A civil rights campaigner, she introduced him to both music and literature. But the young Scott-Heron endured constant racial abuse as one of only three black children picked to integrate an elementary school in nearby Jackson. Returning to New York to live with his mother, he got a different perspective on oppression in the housing projects of the Bronx.
But he was too bright to settle for less. After publishing an acclaimed novel, The Vulture, at the age of 19, he won a place at Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, the alma mater of his hero, black poet Langston Hughes. He dropped out after a year to pursue a career in poetry. In 1970 producer Bob Thiele convinced him to set his first collection, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, to music; the album's conversational style and funky percussion earned Scott-Heron the tag of "the godfather of rap". He once joked, with typical insouciance: "I ain't saying I didn't invent rapping. I just cannot recall the circumstances."
Classic protest songs such as The Revolution Will Not Be Televised and Whitey On the Moon were fuelled by a keen, angry intelligence. His back catalogue also boasts several articulate dissections of an addict's mindset, including The Bottle and Angel Dust. On 1971's Home Is Where the Hatred Is, he sang, "You keep saying kick it, quit it, kick it, quit it, God but did you ever try to turn your sick soul inside out so that the world can watch you die?" It has never been clearly established when Scott-Heron became addicted to cocaine; looking back on his works about drugs, it seems the line between empathy and autobiography was blurred throughout his career. Even in recent years, he has used his ready wit to fudge the issue of his drug use.
Apart, perhaps, from glue, there has never been a drug more impervious to glamour than crack cocaine; there is no "crackhead chic". For the typical rock casualty, fame provides both the psychological pressures that create a drug habit and the funds to feed it. But crack whiffs of the ghetto, rather than the hotel suite. In jail for crack possession, Scott-Heron is not a victim of the high life. It is almost as if he never left the housing projects in the first place. In a letter faxed to Justice Berkman this year, Scott-Heron's ex-girlfriend, Monique de Latour, painted a grim picture. She wrote that he "spends around $2,000 a week on cocaine, he does not have a home, he's been living in a crack house for a year," and owed $20,000 for his mother's funeral. She further alleged that she once came home to find her partner "buck naked with a bunch of $2 crack whores" and that he would remove all the lightbulbs in his apartment because he was convinced someone was spying on him. In 1999, she obtained a restraining order against him after he hurled a table at her.
Scott-Heron accepted the restraining order, but denied her other claims and refused to concede the need to enter rehab. "To rehabilitate for what?" he asked the Village Voice. "For some people to call the judge and say things I can't defend myself against?"
Regardless, the state of his career speaks volumes. From 1970 to 1982 he released a new studio album almost every year. Since then, he has managed just one, 1994's Spirits. He paid the bills by voicing the classic Tango ad ("You know when you've been Tangoed").
It's conceivable that prison might shock him into recovery, but equally possible that it may worsen his plight. "I have heard drugs are easy to get in jail," de Latour wrote to Berkman, pleading for clemency. "If he could be put in a drug programme in a place where he cannot leave for at least a year or more, this may save his life." That option is now gone. The bleakest diagnosis comes from Scott-Heron's own Angel Dust: "Down some dead-end streets there ain't no turnin' back." It would be a relief if on that point one of America's most insightful lyricists was wrong.
Extra 2003 Site Addition
Gil Scott-Heron got out of prison on the 28th October 2002. At the end of October 2003, on his way to a gig in Chicago, he was arrested at La Guardia airport, New York. He’s charged with possession of a controlled substance and detained at Rikers Island Penitentiary between the airport and the Bronx. He got out in June 2004.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
You will not be able to stay home brother
you will not be able to plug in, turn on and drop out
you will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip
skip out for beer during commercials
Because the revolution will not be televised
The revolution will not be televised
the revolution will not be brought to you by xerox
in 4 parts without commercial interruption
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog moss confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary
The revolution will not be televised
The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Wood and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner because The revolution will not be televised brother
There will be no pictures of you and Willie Mays
pushing that cart down the block on the
dead run
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen
ambulance
NBC will not be able to predict the winner at 8:32
or the count from 29 districts
The revolution will not be televised
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay
There will be no pictures of young being
run out of Harlem a rail with a brand new process
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a red, black and
green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
for just the right occasion
Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant and
women will not care of Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day
The revolution will not be televised
there will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Engelbert Humperdinck of The
Rare Earth
The revolution will not be televised
The revolution will not be right back after a message
about a white tornado, white lightning, or white people
You will not have to worry about a germ in your
bedroom, the tiger in your tank, or the giant in you
toilet bowl
The revolution will not go better with Coke
The revolution will not fight germs that can cause
bad breath
The revolution WILL put you in the driver's
seat
The revolution will not be televised, will no be televised
will not be televised
The revolution will be no re-run brothers
The revolution will be live--
Goo Goo Dolls
Aspire. Attain. Surpass.
The three words that aptly sum up the Goo Goo Dolls career to date- aspiration, attainment and the ability to surpass all expectations- are also the essential elements in the creation of Gutterflower, the trio's brilliant new offering on Warner Bros. Records, featuring their stunning new single "Here Is Gone."
"There's no way we could rest on our laurels," asserts vocalist and guitarist John Rzeznik on the collective mindset the band brought to the writing and recording of their fourth major label release. "No matter how successful we were going into this record, we all felt we were starting from scratch, as if we were making a record for the first time. Sure, you learn from experience, but the important thing is to keep it fresh, to stay alive to the possibilities and potential of the music. You can never take that for granted." So much for Aspiration. And, while it's true that success too often breeds complacency, for the Goo Goo Dolls it's only served to bring them closer to the fundamentals of their fifteen-year partnership. "We never really bought in to the whole rock star myth," John continues, before adding with a laugh, "Well, we might have 'rented in' for a weekend here and there, but in the end it always comes back to the music. For us, success - real success - is one song at a time."
That's the way it's always been for the Goo Goo Dolls. From their earliest days on the rough-and-tumble Northeast music scene through years of playing according to bassist Robby Takac - "every one night stand in American, twice," through their obligatory stint in the indie records realm, the band have combined an unerring instinct for original and authentic music with a hardcore work ethic that is nothing short of inspirational.
It was that mix of talent and sweat equity that paid off with the 1998 release of Dizzy Up The Girl, a breakthrough in every sense of the word, with worldwide sales approaching six million and counting and a string of smash singles including the epochal "Iris," as well as "Slide," "Black Balloon" and the title track. Together, Dizzy's hits have racked up an historic one million radio spins to date. Two solid years of international touring followed the album's release and, while the band and its fans could be forgiven for concluding that the Goo Goo Dolls had finally "arrived," it was that restless urge to turn the next creative corner that kept the trio cranking.
Which brings us to Attainment. After a well-deserved six-month hiatus, the group reconvened to compile a long overdue career retrospective. With the revealing title of What I Learned About Ego, Opinion, Art & Commerce, the 22-track collection was, says Robby, "A way for people to get caught up on what came before 'Iris.' We've been at this a long time and we're proud of what we've done. This was our way of acknowledging that history."
It was in the fall of 2001 that John and Robby, along with drummer Mike Malinin and producer Rob Cavallo (the man behind the boards for Dizzy Up The Girl) began assembling the elements of a new album. "Of course our success was a factor going in," asserts John. "How could it not be? We worked our asses off to get to this place, and we didn't want to disappoint ourselves or our fans. But more than that, we wanted to see where the music would take us. We'd been living in a fishbowl for three years, and it felt good to get back to basics."
"Basics" in this case included recording with an array of vintage instruments in the confines of Hollywood's legendary Capitol Records Studios. "The place had a real vibe," John continues. "I even put up some velvet drapes and a memorial bar in honor of Sinatra and all the others who had recorded there. Along with using the old equipment, it helped us keep in touch with the sound we were after. With digital technology you're always fighting against something antiseptic. We needed that edge to keep it real."
"The whole process took about four months," continues Robby, "which is about normal for us. The pressure was definitely on, but that didn't change our approach. We had an incredible team, especially Rob Cavallo, who totally understands what we're about and our engineers Allen Sides and Ken Allerdyce. In the studio, the difference between success and failure can come down to how many inches there are between microphones. We depended on them totally to make those calls."
With all the elements in place, it remained for the Goo Goo Dolls to grapple with the greatest challenge of their career - to create music that would both build on and surpass the extraordinary accomplishments that preceded it. And it's in this final category that Gutterflower represents a full-on, flat-out triumph. Simply put, the twelve tracks that comprise this potent and persuasive tour de force not only exceed every available expectation, but also create a whole new standard for the energy and emotional impact that has always been the hallmark of genuine rock & roll.
It always starts, of course, with the songs. On Gutterflower both John and Robby seemed to have taken a leap from an already impressive perch, fashioning music and lyrics into a resonant and revealing listening experience far greater than the sum of its parts. On that rarest of occurrences - an album with no throwaway tracks - it's impossible single out any one selection for special attention except to say here is a collection of songs that manages to convey universal insights in highly personal terms.
"I think, if there's a theme to these songs, it about being honest with yourself and with others, and seeking out those who will return the favor," John ventures. "Our experiences over the past three years have taught us to appreciate friendship, love and loyalty…those basic human values. When we're writing about characters we've encountered and scenes we've survived, it's that need for connection that comes through and hopefully everyone can relate to that. Otherwise, you're just talking to yourself."
The assured and accessible lyrics of Gutterflower are matched, note for note, with music that both celebrates the band's stylistic diversity and conclusively consolidates their cohesive ensemble sound. From their trademark blood-and-thunder alchemy to glorious acoustic outings to a soundscape wholly their own, the Goo Goo Dolls, on Gutterflower, have expanded their expressive range in dazzling new directions.
Next up, naturally, is an extensive touring itinerary. "This is one of my favorite times of the whole process," John reveals. "The album is finished. There's nothing more you can do, even if you wanted to. It's time to start thinking about stepping from the studio onto the stage and making that the best experience it can be. We're ready."
Back To Good
It's nothing, it's so normal you
Just stand there I could say so much
But I don't go there cuz I don't want to
I was thinking if you were lonely
Maybe we could leave here and no one would know
At least not to the point that we would think so
Everyone here, knows everyone here is thinking about
Somebody else
It's best if we all keep it under our heads
I couldn't tell, if anyone here was feeling the way I do
But I'm lonely now, and I don't know how
To get it back to good
This don't mean that, you own me
This ain't no good, in fact it's phony as hell
But things worked out just like you wanted too
If you see me out you don't know me
Try to turn your head, try to give me some room
To figure out just what I'm going to do
And everyone here, hates everyone here for doing just like
They do
It's best if we all keep this quiet instead
And I couldn't tell, why everyone here was doing me like
They do
But I'm sorry now, and I don't know how
To get it back to good
Everyone here, is wondering what it's like to be with somebody else
Everyone here's to blame, everyone here
Gets caught up in the pleasure of the pain, everyone hides
Shades of shame, but looking inside we're the same, we're
The same
And we're all grown now, but we don't know how
To get it back to good
Everyone here, knows everyone here is thinking 'bout
Somebody else
It's best if we all keep this under our heads
I couldn't tell, if anyone here was feeling the way I do
But it's over now, and I don't know how, it's over now
There's no getting back to good
Iris
And I'd give up forever to touch you
Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now
And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
And sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight
And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything feels like the movies
Yah you bleed just to know you're alive
And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
Green Day
Green Day is an American punk rock band consisting of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt (born Michael Pritchard), and Tré Cool (born Frank Edwin Wright III).
The beginning
At the age of 12, Tré Cool became a member of the band The Lookouts. Their album attracted some attention, and Tré began performing at an early age at the Berkeley, California punk club 924 Gilman Street. In 1988, Billie Joe Armstrong (16 years old) and Mike Pritchard (16 years old) formed Sweet Children, with Armstrong on lead vocals and guitar, Pritchard (a.k.a. Mike Dirnt), on bass and backing vocals, and John Kiffmeyer (a.k.a. Al Sobrante), on drums.
Their first show was in 1988 at Rod's Hickory Pit in Rodeo, California. A couple months later, they played a high school party with the Lookouts in a remote mountain location near Willits, California, where Tré and Kain Kong of the Lookouts lived and attended school. Only five kids showed up for the party, and there was no electricity in the house, so Sweet Children had to play using a generator and candlelight, but they played, as Lookouts singer/guitarist Lawrence Livermore put it, "As if they were the Beatles at Shea Stadium."
Livermore, who also ran the Berkeley independent label Lookout! Records, immediately offered Sweet Children a deal, and in early 1989 they recorded their first EP, "1,000 Hours," and then decided, weeks before the EP release, to change their name to Green Day. The record came out, with the cover changed at the last minute to reflect the new name, in April 1989.
One year later, in April 1990, Green Day released their first album, 39/Smooth, and that summer set out in a van on their first national tour. Before leaving, they recorded another four-song EP called "Slappy," and while in Minneapolis-St. Paul they recorded a four-song EP of some of their old songs for the local label Skene Records, and called it "Sweet Children". (In 1991, 1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours was released which re-issued on CD 39/Smooth with 9 additional tracks from "Slappy" and "1,000 Hours".)
After this tour, at the end of the summer of 1990, Al Sobrante left the band on what was supposed to be a temporary basis to attend college in Arcata, California. By this time the Lookouts had become mostly inactive, and Cool, now 17 and living in Berkeley, began playing with Green Day as a temporary replacement. The combination worked out so well that he soon became Green Day's permanent drummer.
During 1991, the band toured and played locally, building up a large following, and also wrote and recorded their second album, Kerplunk!, released on Lookout Records in January 1992. The CD version also included the four tracks from the "Sweet Children" EP. They continued to tour through 1992 and 1993, ranging as far afield as the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, Holland, Poland, and the Czech Republic (then still known as Czechoslovakia).
Attention
By 1993, Green Day had sold about 55,000 copies of each of their first albums, a huge amount for the independent punk scene in those days, and attracted a great deal of attention from the major labels. Eventually they decided to sign a deal with Reprise Records, leaving Lookout on friendly terms, and spent the greater part of the year recording their major label debut, Dookie, which proved to be an almost instant sensation, helped by extensive MTV airplay for the videos "Longview" and "Basket Case."
In 1994, Green Day embarked on a nationwide tour and chose queercore band Pansy Division as their opening act. At the time this was regarded as quite controversial; nonetheless, the tour was a success. Green Day had made their audience aware that they were not just another 'pop' band with a couple of hit singles. The band joined the lineups of both the Lollapalooza Festival and Woodstock 1994. Green Day's Woodstock gig included a gigantic mud fight between the band and the audience, leading to a melee in which Dirnt lost his front teeth.
They recorded a single called "J.A.R." in 1995, and followed it up with the album Insomniac. Though the album didn't approach the success of Dookie, it still sold several million copies in the U.S. Their third major label album, Nimrod, was released in 1997, and Warning: in 2000.
In 2003, during time spent in the studio, a New Wave band appeared on the scene, known as The Network. This 5 piece band, at first look/listen appears to be Green Day. The front man "Fink" bears a striking resemblance to one Wilhelm Fink (Billie Joe Armstrong's pseudonym).
American Idiot
Fighting burnout after Warning:, the band went into the studio to write and record new material for an album. After completing 20 tracks — an impressive album according to those few who heard it — the master tapes were stolen from the studio. The band chose not to try and re-create the stolen album but instead started over with a vow to be even more ambitious.
The resulting 2004 album, American Idiot, is being billed as a "punk rock opera", or more accurately a concept album telling the story of characters such as St. Jimmy, Jesus of Suburbia, and Whatsername. Two of the tracks, "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Homecoming", composed by 5 different parts, are multi-movement suites that are both more than nine minutes long. The song "American Idiot" has been hailed by the band as their public statement in reaction to the confusing and warped scene that is American pop culture. The album as a whole is more political than their previous ones, if for no other reason than their aging. Billie Joe has said that they chose to write this way because the band has obtained respect and sway in the music world, and that this social commentary is part of the natural evolution of a band.
Their album American Idiot won a Grammy in 2005 for Best Rock Album along with 5 other Grammy nominations. The song "American Idiot" was featured in the video game NFL Madden 2005
Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of broken dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...
My shadows the only one that walks beside me
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Till then I walk alone
Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh-Ah
Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah
I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line of the edge
And where I walk alone
Read between the lines
What's fucked up and everythings all right
Check my vital signs to know I'm still alive
And I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...
My shadows the only one that walks beside me
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Till then I walk alone
Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh-Ah
Ah-Ah Ah-Ah I walk alone, I walk a...
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of broken dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk a..
My shadows the only one that walks beside me
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Till then I walk alone!
American Idiot
Don't want to be an American idiot.
Don't want a nation under the new media.
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mindfuck America.
Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
Well that's enough to argue.
Well maybe I'm the faggot America.
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along in the age of paranoia.
Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
Well that's enough to argue.
Don't want to be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It's going out to idiot America.
Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
Well that's enough to argue.
Jesus of Suburbia
I'm the son of rage and love
the jesus of suburbia
from the bible of "none of the above"
on a steady diet of soda pop and ritalin
no one ever dies for my sins in hell
as far as I can tell
at least the ones I got away with
but there's nothing wrong with me
this is how I'm supposed to be
in the land of make believe
that don't believe in me
get my television fix sitting on my crucifix
the living room in my private womb
while the mom's and brad's are away
to fall in love and fall in debt
to alcohol and cigarettes and mary jane
to keep me insane and doing someone else's cocaine
Holiday
Hear the sound of the falling rain
Coming down like an Armageddon flame (Hey!)
The shame, the ones who died without a name
Hear the dogs howling out of key
To a hymn called Faith and Misery (Hey!)
A plead, the company lost the war today
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday
Hear a drum pounding out of time
Another protestor has crossed the line (Hey!)
The line, the money's on the other side
Can I get another Amen (Amen)
There's a flag wrapped around the score of men (Hey!)
A gag, A plastic bag on a monument
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday
"The representative from California has the floor"
Seek out to the president gasbag
Bombs away is your punishment
Pulverize the Eiffel tower
who criticized your government
Bang bang goes the broken glass man
Kill all the fags that don't agree
Triumph by fires, sinning buyers
Is that a way that's meant for me
Just cause
Just cause because we’re all ok
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
This is our lives on holiday
Wake Me Up When September Ends
Summer has come and past.
The innocent can never last.
Wake me up when September ends.
Like my fathers come to pass,
Seven years has gone so fast.
Wake me up when September ends.
Here comes the rain again,
Falling from the stars.
Drenched in my pain again,
Becoming who we are.
As my memory rests
But never forgets what I lost.
Wake me up when September ends.
Summer has come and past.
The innocent can never last.
Wake me up when September ends.
Ring out the bells again.
Like we did when spring began.
Wake me up when September ends.
Here comes the rain again,
Falling from the stars.
Drenched in my pain again,
Becoming who we are.
As my memory rest,
But never forgets what I lost.
Wake me up when September ends.
Summer has come and past.
The innocent can never last.
Wake me up when September ends.
Like my fathers come to pass.
Twenty years has gone so fast.
Wake me up when September ends. x3
