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- [00:00]
Lori
Foreign.
- [00:04]
Scott Free
Welcome to the Accelerated Culture podcast. A sonic journey through the vibrant and revolutionary sounds of the 1980s and 1990s. And now 2024 Webby Honoree for best indie podcast. I'm Lori, along with my co host, Scott Free. And in this podcast we explore how new waves stormed the airwaves in the early 80s and and gave way for the rise of alternative music in the 90s. Find us on the web@acceleratedculturepodcast.com hello, and welcome to another episode of the Accelerated Culture podcast.
- [00:48]
I'm Lori and I am Scott Free.
- [00:51]
Scott Free, fresh back from Burning Man. How was it?
- [00:56]
The first rule of Burning man is that you do not talk about burning. Wait, no, that's something else. Burning man was pretty epic. I did the shortest visit to Burning Man I have ever done. I was a bit of a tourist. Did a Burning man speed run, did pretty much everything one wants to do at Burning man in a total of 58 hours. Through the gate and back out the gate.
- [01:22]
Oh, my goodness.
- [01:23]
Last minute decision and no regrets. It was pretty amazing.
- [01:27]
That's cool. You've gone pretty much every year since I've known you.
- [01:31]
I think, you know, I've taken off a year here or there, but yeah, this is my 16th Burning man since 2004.
- [01:39]
I remember when you were going in 2004 because you got those all Terrain skates and I said you were going to break something.
- [01:47]
I did not. Although the all Terrain skates turned out to be more useful in hillier areas rather than the absolute flat desert wasteland that is the Black Rock Desert. But I still got them.
- [02:01]
All right. All right. Well, before we get started on today's episode, I have a few shout outs. So first and foremost, we want to say thank you to our newest Patreon subscriber, Chris Blair.
- [02:16]
Right on. Thank you, Chris.
- [02:18]
So I've sent Chris a special collectible Accelerated Culture pin.
- [02:25]
Nice.
- [02:26]
Yes. And Chris also gets to choose a topic for an upcoming episode.
- [02:32]
Oh, intriguing. This could go a lot of ways. I look forward to seeing what you come up with, Chris.
- [02:39]
Yeah. So Chris was also really excited about this episode, Scott.
- [02:42]
Oh, yeah.
- [02:43]
Yeah. So if you like what we're doing.
- [02:46]
And you do.
- [02:48]
Of course you do, or you wouldn't be listening, but buy us a cup of coffee. Check out our Patreon. $5 a month.
- [02:55]
Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. You drink coffee now?
- [02:58]
No.
- [02:59]
I've known you a long time and I have never once seen you with a cup of coffee in your hand.
- [03:03]
All right, buy us a diet coat.
- [03:06]
Buy us a nice shot one day.
- [03:09]
Yeah, there you go. Although you can only get well for $5, so I don't know. But. But yeah. So check us out on patreon.com or find the link on acceleratedculturepodcast.com accelerateculturepodcast.com because we rock.
- [03:28]
We try.
- [03:29]
All right, all right. We have two other people I want to give a mention to. They both left comments on episode 49, which was about electronic. All right, so we have somebody named R, S, Z, J, B, V, Q, A. Yes. Thank you.
- [03:49]
You got it.
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And they wrote, thank you for the review of electronics. Very special album. It's actually a desert island album for me.
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Wow.
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Yeah. And then Sam wrote, thank you for discussing this amazing record. The first electronic album remains in my top 20 favorite records of all time. 1991 was a year of amazing music.
- [04:15]
Yes. Again, much like the album that we're going to talk about today has some amazing high points and some uneven moments. But I love that you love this album, or however you say your name. And Sam. Oh, I would like to give one additional shout out.
- [04:36]
Sure.
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While at Burning man, another participant there, a good friend, who also happens to be the daughter of a good friend there, mentioned that she has been listening to the podcast. And I just want to say thank you, Annabelle, for listening. It means a lot and I'm glad you're enjoying the show.
- [04:54]
Thanks for listening, Annabelle. Yeah, that's very cool.
- [04:58]
You know, we do seem to be building a bit of a following. One listener at a time, if that's what it takes.
- [05:06]
World domination is right on schedule.
- [05:10]
All right, all right. So it seems as good a time as any to jump into it. This album comes from one of the incarnations of one of my favorite bands. That said, it has some amazing high points and it has a few head scratchers. It is uneven, but those high points are moments of absolute brilliance. And I stand by this as a very worthy bit of accelerated culture. The group is Big Audio Dynamite 2, and the album is the Globe. Do you remember when. When this album came out and what was going on in music and life and all that they do?
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1991 was the year I graduated high school. The Berlin Wall had just fallen. Indeed, rave culture was really kind of taking hold. We had the whole Madchester scene, as.
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We have talked about in a few recent episodes, between the Happy Mondays and electronic and. Yeah, yeah. So dance rock was a thing again somehow, really, for the first time in decades. Were you familiar with Big Audio Dynamite up to this point?
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I was. And there's Kind of a funny story there.
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Please regale us.
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Well, see, I used to. My very first job was at a pizza place and one of the managers knew I was into Oingo Boingo. And he was into Oingo Boingo. And he says, you know, if you really like Oingo Boingo, you need to check out Big Audio Dynamite.
- [06:47]
Curious, because in high school and college, I was hugely into both Oingo Boingo and Big Audio Dynamite. I do not see a ton of crossover appeal between them. There's not a ton of similarities other than danceable guitar rock. But I guess that's enough of a link we can count it.
- [07:08]
Yeah. So I don't know what he was getting at there. I had heard a few of their songs on mtv. James Brown, sure. But honestly, this was the first album of theirs that I really got into.
- [07:23]
All right. For me, this was a hotly anticipated album. This was as good a time as any to get into the history of the band, because the history of the band and my history with the band really sort of go hand in hand. I am a lifelong huge fan of the Clash from, I don't know, let's call it age 11 on. Huge fan of the Clash, London Calling, I consider one of my two favorite albums of all time. Along with the Beastie Boys, Paul's Boutique, and when the Clash split up. It wasn't too long before Big Audio Dynamite arrived on the scene. I eagerly anticipated that album as soon as I heard it was happening. I loved the first single, the Bottom Line. Anytime a new Big Audio Dynamite album was coming out, I was there for it and all about it. Now, Big Audio Dynamite 2, the first shot across the bow from big audio dynamite 2 was actually on a re release cd single of the Clashes, Should I Stay or Should I Go? And the B side or the added track on that single was big Audio Dynamite 2's Rush. Before we get too into any one track, it is worth talking in a little bit more depth about the history of the band. Because you can't talk about big audio dynamite 2 without talking about Big Audio Dynamite. And the story of Big Audio Dynamite really is just the next chapter in the story of the Clash. So let's go back.
- [09:07]
How far are we going to go back, Scott?
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Way back to the 70s, actually. The wayback Machine, my incomparable invention for traveling through time, has been set for the year 1976. 1976, in London as an answer to the Sex Pistols. Mick Jones, who had been working on a couple other projects, Hooks up with an associate of famed producer, talent manager and all around punk spin. Golly, Malcolm McLaren. And they want to form a band that will be the answer to the Sex Pistols. Because punk is hot and it's going to change everything. After struggling to find members in the band, they ultimately land on Mick Jones as one of two lead singers, Paul Simonon on bass, Joe Strummer as the other lead singer and guitarist, and rotating cast of drummers who eventually land on Topper Headon. By the Clash's second album, they were fueled by the popularity of the Ramones and the Sex Pistols. And it became pretty clear after just a little while that the sort of DIY ethos of punk and the kind of shitty lo fi we can't play our instruments aesthetic of punk was not going to last particularly long for the Clash. Turns out Mick Jones is actually a pretty good musician. And some of the guys had to learn to play their instruments specifically to be in this band. Paul Simonon was initially auditioned as a lead singer and they're like, nah, not good enough. But if you learn how to play bass, you can be in the band. And he did, and he was. But they quickly kind of outgrow the strictly punk label, yet to be a legitimately good rock band and then start experimenting with reggae and dub. And the Clash eventually became as much of a reggae band as a punk band and started making these really experimental albums, at least experimental as far as conventional pop and rock and punk goes. For instance, on the heels of the hugely popular London Calling. And again, considered one of the greatest rock albums ever made. They made this album Sandinista, which was a triple album and is. I got it recently on vinyl. I had already heard it, but I got it recently on vinyl. And that album is a mess. It is bizarre, bloated experiments. There's one track that is just the previous track backwards, basically, with new vocals on it. There's reggae dub, versions of tracks. And it's weird, but it just kind of shows you the direction this band was going, which was kind of every direction all at once. If it sounded good and it appealed to their tastes, they were willing to put it on vinyl. The Clash's best known work, Everybody Knows at least two songs by the Clash, Rock the Kasbah and Should I Stay or Should I Go. And these were the two big singles off of their 1982 album Combat Rock. But in relatively recent years, 15 years ago, maybe it came to light that Combat Rock was not the album they wanted to release. The album that they wanted to release at Mick Jones's brainchild was called Rat Patrol at Fort Bragg. And it was another sprawling, bizarre, experimental album, largely Mick Jones's brainchild. And it featured all the kinds of experiments we had seen so far with Jamaican reggae and funk and dub and just all over the board. And they submitted it to the record company. And the record company basically said, there is no fucking way we're releasing another triple album. And they brought in a new producer to whittle it down. And Mick Jones hated it. And his response to that editing down to what would become Combat Rock was part of what actually got him eventually kicked out of the band. It's 1984. Mick Jones is on his own and continues working with some people who he had been associated with in his Clash days. In particular, a film director named Don Letts and a bass player named Easy Kill Williams. It's funny, the story, apparently, is that the three of them were hanging out in a club and Mick Jones and Don Letts were talking. And he said, you know, the three of us here, we look like a band. We could be a band. Do you want to be in my band? And Don Lutz was like, I don't play anything. I'm a director. He's like, it's fine. You'll be great. You'll learn. And this is the beginning of Big Audio Dynamite. Big Audio Dynamite's first album, this Is Big Audio Dynamite, is weird. It is unlike anything else going on at the time. It's a combination of spaghetti western, guitar, rock and funk with some reggae elements to it. And one of the signature sounds that makes a Big Audio Dynamite album. A Big Audio Dynamite album is the copious use of sampled snippets from film and television and other records. One of the singles from this is Big Audio Dynamite is Medicine show, which prominently features spaghetti Western clips from the Good, the Bad and the Ugly and that era of western film. And it gives it a sound unlike anything else. It's fun, it's quotable. And one of the fun things to do when you're listening to a Big Audio Dynamite album is play. Find that sample. Where's that sample from? And I know you, in listening to the album we will be reviewing today, did plenty of that as well, because there is a lot to tuck into there, right?
- [15:27]
I did. Yes.
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Yeah. So Big Audio Dynamite goes on their second album, number 10, Upping street, an amazing, stripped down, much more drum machine, centric Latin flair work. Their third album, For My Money, Pretty Weak, Tighten Up, Volume 88, focuses much more on relatively straightforward pop rock songs. And it is the weakest of their works. And then Megatop Phoenix, a freaking masterpiece of pastiche sound, collage, sampling, danceable. Barely even rock anymore. It's a very electronic album with as much hip hop and house as anything else in it. You mentioned one of the songs that you did know from Big Audio Dynamite there, and that was James Brown.
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Yeah.
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Which made a bit of a splash on mtv. The story of Godfather of Soul, James Brown's fateful police chase in his Cherokee Chief. And yeah, it's a fun video. It's a great song. Contact was another one album, which was a dance floor hit. That was the song that actually probably put Big Audio Dynamite on the map. It's a great album. Megatop Phoenix, it is another one of my all time favorites. If you don't know it, give it a listen. It's weird, it's long, it keeps moving, it's got a lot going on, but it is a great album. So then Big Audio Dynamite 2 comes out with the globe. Big Audio Dynamite 1, better known as Big Audio Dynamite, had been a relatively stable lineup up to that point. Mick Jones is the primary songwriter and singer. Don lets Easy kill Williams and others rounding out the band. Big audio dynamite 2, Mick Jones wipes the slate completely clean and creates an entirely new band. Gone are the dub and reggae influences that sort of made Big Audio Dynamite Big Audio Dynamite as a logical evolution from the Clash. Gone is Don Letts, who was bringing in the samples, who was curator of samples from Movies Music Television Radio. This ain't the same band and this ain't the same sound. This is what happens when you put Mick Jones 100% in charge and let his imagination run wild. Much like the ill fated Clash album Rat Patrol at Fort Bragg. It's a mixed bag. It is not like that album, a bloated, overlong mess. It is a relatively short album coming in at 10 songs. And this seems as good a time as any to get into breaking them down one by one. Unless you have anything additional to add.
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In which case, no, actually, I don't have anything. And so in case anybody's wondering why Scott is running the show here, it just makes sense because this was all extemporaneous for him. He was just rattling this off. This is like. This is like if I were to do an episode on In Excess or Duran Duran, you know, it's like this is your area of expertise. I think when I texted you yesterday, I said you're my subject matter expert, my SME. So. So thank you for that.
- [19:02]
Let's not get too carried away with that. I am an enthusiastic lifelong fan of the band, but, hell, I learned stuff in doing research for this album. So most of that, yeah. Off the cuff, what comes next. And especially some of the samples that took some digging. So with Big Audio Dynamite 2, Mick Jones has cleaned house and put together an entirely new band. He is still the primary songwriter and guitarist and singer, but there are some new guys who are playing along.
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Yeah. So besides Mick Jones on guitar, we have Nick Hawkins on guitar, Gary Stonehenge, Stone Age on bass. I. I don't know how to say his name.
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I'll say Stone Age because it's cooler.
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Okay. And then there was a team of engineers, Andre Scheps, Serge Glansburg and Dave Mercer. And they feature very prominently on some of these songs. And then there's a drummer.
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The drummer is Chris Kavanaugh, who, if you are a fan of 80s new wave and alternative music, and if you're not, I'm not sure what you're doing here right now, you would know Chris Kavanaugh from one Sig Sig Sputnik. Just absolutely batshit crazy band of the 80s that was designed as a commercial product. Proudly talked on their albums about being a commercial product. Their first album, Flaunt, it actually featured commercials on the album in between tracks. The first album ever to do so. And it's shameful and hilarious and very compelling. Chris Kavanaugh, it should be noted, joined six six Sputnik not knowing how to play an instrument. They liked him because of his look and his attitude and said, if you can learn to play the drums, you can be in the band. So he did, and then later was picked up by Mick Jones to be in Bad Too Cool. Yeah, it's pretty cool. So Big Audio Dynamite 2's the Globe opens with, as most albums do, track one, Rush.
- [21:24]
Lori
If I had my time again I would do it all the same and I've changed a single thing Even when I was the blind for the heartache and the pain that I caused throughout my years How I learned to be your man through the laughter and the tears situation no Wind Rush For a change of atmosphere I cover one, so I give in. Got to get myself right out of here. Now I'm fully grown.
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Scott Free
Most albums do really.
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Track one. What else are you going to start with?
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Okay. All right.
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It is a hell of an opener.
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Oh, my gosh. I love this song so much.
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It was the first single, as I said, came out as a B side on a re release of the Clash's Should I stay or should I go? And it is very much unlike that track. It is a straight up dance track with a Cuckoo Bananas interlude in the middle. It made the rounds on mtv, it made the rounds on alternative radio and pretty strong opening track. What's your take on it?
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Well, the first time I heard it was actually on the soundtrack for so I Married an Axe Murderer, which is, by the way. Oh yeah, one of my favorite movies, by the way. So, so funny.
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This is the second time this came up. Last night. Drinks around living room table with the neighbors. The neighbor who is Scottish. How's it going, Ewan? Yeah, we are trading off. He has got a huge cranium quotes. Go cry yourself to sleep on your huge pillow.
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Let's stay again. One of the first things that I noticed was that it's sampled from Baba O'Reilly by the WHO.
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Oh, yeah. It's a weird track, right?
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Yeah, it is, it is. And you know, you mentioned how it kind of breaks in a few places. The first few times I heard it, I thought to myself, it interrupts your dancing. But then I realized that DJs are probably going to edit it in with something else.
- [23:51]
Yeah, there's a single version that was getting the radio airplay that lacks the Cuckoo Bananas middle interlude. But the Cuckoo Bananas middle interlude is the part, I think, that is among the parts most worth talking about in this song. But let's get to that one thing at a time.
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Okay.
- [24:09]
Right. So this is a big audio dynamite track, even if it's big audio dynamite 2. And as such, it does provide fertile ground or a game of spot that sample, as you said. There's the very obvious Baba O'Reilly organ line, which I actually, I learned in doing my research is a Lowry Berkshire Deluxe TB01 organization on a marimba setting. And so it does that crazy overlapping hyperactive textural arpeggiation thing. There are others, though. The drum sample that forms the backbone of the song is actually from Tommy Rowe. Sweet Pea, which is like an oldie. Oh, sweet pea Come on and dance with me Come on, come on, come on and dance with me it's like a 60s bubblegum track, I think.
- [25:08]
Yeah, 66.
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Yeah. You know, Don Letts may be gone, but Mick Jones can still go digging through the crates and finding the weird stuff to sample. Not a lot of people sampling bubblegum pop from the 60s. I mean, you've got this very simple two chord guitar riff, then that comes in that forms really the driving force of this song. And then Mick Jones making some relatively personal lyrics Oftentimes, Bad was storytellers telling stories about people that are not them. But you can look at these lyrics and kind of see it as explaining where he's coming from at this point in his career situation. No win. Rush for a Change of Atmosphere. I can't go on so I give in Gotta get myself right out of here. Whether that was getting kicked out of the class or cleaning house and creating an entirely new version of Bad to free himself from what he saw as the trap he had sort of fallen into. You know, he's just explaining where he is at and how he is moving on and rushing for that change of atmosphere.
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And I think everybody can relate to that. I think that is so relatable.
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Oh, yeah. Cleaning house in your own life.
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Yes.
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Yeah. So you got this relatively straightforward dance track, 122 beats per minute, for the DJs out there thinking about working it into your sets. And then after the who sample does its thing, the instrumental cuts out, you have Mick Jones singing Rush for a Change Of Atmosphere.
- [26:45]
Lori
Rush for a Change of Atmosphere.
- [26:52]
Scott Free
I wish I could sing like that. Yeah, like. Mick Jones was one of two lead singers of the Clash. Several of the Clash's biggest singles do feature Mick on lead vocals between Should I Stay or Should I Go and Train In Vain. And, you know, he's been the singer of Big Audio Dynamite all this time. But if we're honest, he has a weak and weird voice. It's thin, it's reedy, it's kind of nasal, and it's just not a classically good singing voice. But it is a very Mick Jones singing voice. Right.
- [27:26]
And it's very distinctive. I can pick him out, you know, any of his projects right away.
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Absolutely, yeah. And then, as you say, the sample comes in, and this one, I did not know until doing my research for this today that it was Peter Sellers.
- [27:43]
Yes.
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Peter Sellers of Inspector Clouseau fame.
- [27:47]
Yes.
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From a swing song that he made called you, Keep Me Swinging, where he does that whole. Delightful, delightful. I wish I could sing like that. Well, not everything is singing, you know, the only important thing these days is rhythm and melody. And it was weird. In his own song, he had his own. Like, he has a swing big band song that then breaks into him critiquing his own song and then does a ukulele version of. Peter Sellers was a gigantic weirdo, apparently kind of a terrible person, but, man, did he make some interesting art. And I did not know that a big band swing album was one of those arts that he dabbled in.
- [28:26]
I am a huge fan of the Pink Panther movies, so I picked out his voice immediately when I heard it, so. Sorry.
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Always knew that.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And then it comes in with organ and more drum samples and.
- [28:44]
Okay, so can I throw in a couple samples?
- [28:47]
Absolutely.
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Okay. Time to laugh. A Time to Cry. Sugar Hill Gang, Rapper's Delight.
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Yup.
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There was also Pyg Meat Markham's Here Comes the Judge.
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I'm the judge.
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Here come the Judge.
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Yeah. Made famous by Sammy Davis Jr. On laughing originally. But then they brought Pygmy Markham in and gave him the fame that he had deserved after struggling on struggling in secondary strange non mainstream markets. But yeah, that whole sort of shuffle beat. Here come the Judge. And then a strange organ solo comes in for the melody component of rhythm and melody. I remember hearing this one again for the first time. Got that clash single with B82 on the back of it and laughing my fool head off like, what the hell is he doing here? It's such a strange interruption and self critique. Like he's making fun of his own singing voice on the big single, introducing this new iteration of the band. And it's hilarious.
- [30:00]
It is.
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Do you necessarily listen to the Clash or Big Audio Dynamite to be amused to laugh? No, but I gotta respect the very bold choice. And yeah, this one tickled me.
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Time to laugh, Time to cry.
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Right, There you go.
- [30:21]
There's also one other drum sample in there.
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What do you got?
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Get out of My Life Woman by Wilmer and the Dukes.
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Really?
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Yes.
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All right. Where do we find that?
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So actually it's. It's throughout the entire song, but the sample.
- [30:39]
Oh, so it's that. It's get out of My Life Woman by Wilmer and the Dukes. That is the sped up main drum loop for the entire track. That's good to know. You know, there is a video to Rush. It is a relatively typical Big Audio dynamite video. Which is to say it's lackluster. That's one of the things that always frustrated me about being a fan of this band is so many of their videos are just them in a location miming to the song and it's just regular nothing to write home about. Not the worst video they've made. That would be From Tighten Up Volume 88's Just Play Music. That was an embarrassing video and. And again made it sometimes hard to be a bad fan. Cause it's like, oh, you should see. No, you should not see this video. Just listen to the album.
- [31:27]
You know, if I'm not mistaken, Scott, I think this might actually have been the band's biggest hit. It went to number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- [31:36]
All right.
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Number one on the U.S. alternative Airplay chart and 36 on the U.S. dance Club Songs chart.
- [31:46]
Yes, I do remember hearing it at Club X at the State Theater in Detroit. Thanks for letting me come, John Neiman. Very cool of you. Yeah, it did make the rounds. It was a minor dance hit.
- [32:01]
So, anything else about Rush?
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I think we've said a lot about Rush.
- [32:05]
I think we have. So the next track is called Can't Wait Sl. Live.
- [32:13]
I think it's live.
- [32:15]
I think it's live because it's that Shakespeare. How many years a mortal man may live, huh? Isn't it part of it?
- [32:23]
Because it also is a live version of this track.
- [32:26]
Is it really?
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It is.
- [32:28]
Oh, okay, you're right.
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It is slash. Not parenthetically live. So it could be both. And they're playing with our heads.
- [32:37]
Let's play the song.
- [32:43]
Lori
Well, they told me it will be okay yeah, they told me they told me what to say and they gave to me they came you took away again it gave it to me it was.
- [33:28]
Scott Free
So. Can't wait. Live or live. Should write to Mick Jones and find out. Was recorded live at the Alexandria palace in London or the Alley palace in October of 1990. I have been talking a lot. I'll let you start with this one.
- [33:44]
Okay. Well, this is one of the songs that I heard when I was working at a clothing store in the mall. We had this piped in music and a lot of it was off of this album. And please tell me it was Hot Topic.
- [33:56]
Please tell me it was Hot Topic. Please tell me Hot Topic.
- [33:59]
No, it was not Hot Topic. It was not Hot Topic. The first thing that jumps out to me is the footsteps for the percussion. Right.
- [34:09]
Sounds like marching. An army marching.
- [34:12]
Yes.
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Yeah.
- [34:14]
There is Africa, Bambata and James Brown. There's a sample from their song Unity Part three, Nuclear Wild Style.
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Really?
- [34:23]
Yeah.
- [34:24]
Well, you went deep on this one.
- [34:26]
Well, you know, I really been relying very heavily on who sampled.com for a lot of these. Not all of them, but some of them.
- [34:35]
Right.
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And I don't know who's speaking in the live or live part of it. I don't know if it's a sample from a movie, but it's Shakespeare. Henry Vill, Part three, Act two, scene five.
- [34:54]
Right.
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Oh, God. Methinks it were a happy life to be no better than a homeless swain to sit upon a hill as I do now to carve out Dials quaintly point by point Thereby to see the minutes, how they run, how many make the hour full complete how many hours bring about the day, how many days will finish up the year, how many years a mortal man may live.
- [35:22]
Accelerated Culture podcast Come for the new wave. Stay for the Shakespeare. Come on.
- [35:30]
I love it. I love it. Yeah, I have no idea who that gentleman is who's speaking. So if anybody knows, Visit us on acceleratedculturepodcast.com and drop a line and let us know who the speaker is, because that's actually a really cool sample.
- [35:45]
Yeah. Yeah. And again, not something you get in a lot of other pop rock acts. Works. It's just a weird, very B80 thing to do.
- [35:57]
Yes. So we've got Shakespeare, Africa, Bambaza, James Brown, all kind of thrown into a blender, pretty much.
- [36:03]
And that marching footstep rhythm, you know, I'm also a sucker for a timpani drum and features prominently in there, so I was inclined to like this one from the get go. You know, the marching footstep thing is a compelling percussive element. Really drives the whole thing forward. That said, if we had to place this track somewhere in the big Audio Dynamite catalog, it would almost certainly belong in Tighten Up, Volume 88, the 1988 album, which is pretty much, by all accounts the band's weakest album. It sounds a fair amount like a track from that album Apple Cart, which is, for my money, the best track on that album. So it's in pretty decent company. So, you know it's good. Not as good as some of their other stuff, but I do think this song is pretty compelling and it's a little bit more sedate and less overtly bonkers. Follow up to Rush, the album finds its footing here. See Footing. Marching Footsteps. I'm not proud of that, but I'm pretty sure that's going to stay in the episode.
- [37:11]
You're damn right.
- [37:13]
Yeah. I don't know. What else you got? Anything?
- [37:17]
No, just that Mick Jones wrote the song and the lyrics, as he do.
- [37:23]
And, yeah, it's 4 minutes and 38 seconds of pretty decent bad too.
- [37:31]
Yeah.
- [37:32]
Album's off to a relatively strong start, and it just gets stronger when we get to track three, which is called, I don't know.
- [38:02]
Lori
Oh, little place that you can go. You think you can ride by down now? Oh, where you gonna come? You think you can ride by? I don't know. Do you even wanna hear about it? What's going on in in your.
- [38:30]
Scott Free
Love?
- [38:31]
This one.
- [38:32]
Oh, dude. Oh, man. So opens dark and Weird. With another very English spoken word sample with a very deep voiced narrator saying, Ian McShane. Ian McShane. Is it Ian McShane?
- [38:49]
It is Ian McShane.
- [38:50]
Yeah, I know it's from Grace Jones, but. All right, Interesting. Rhythm is both the song's manacle and its demonic charge. Yeah. Sampled from Grace Jones's Jones the rhythm. Grace Jones is a weird act and you kind of have to love and respect her. Music is odd a lot of the time. And if I listen to this track for the first time while doing the research for this album and I don't even know if that's a song. It's a spoken word, please, but whatever. Shame. That is bananas.
- [39:23]
Yeah. He's apparently reading a passage from Jean Paul Goode's biography, Jungle Fever.
- [39:31]
All right.
- [39:32]
Yeah, yeah.
- [39:34]
So you got that spoken word intro and then some tinkling dark atmospheric synth stuff. And then that deep synthesis bass kicks in and oh my God, I love the bass so much.
- [39:53]
Oh, man, this is a good one.
- [39:56]
That alone makes this song among my favorite big audio dynamite songs. This one is made for the dance floor. A lot of their work is. But this one, you can just picture the scene in a dark club with the crowd going hard. It's what. It's a dance floor banger, man.
- [40:15]
I believe it. I believe it.
- [40:17]
Lori
Yeah.
- [40:18]
Scott Free
And those, the sampled percussion, sort of timbale almost. Or Rototom, one of those. But yeah, I dig this track, man.
- [40:30]
Yeah, this is a really, really good. It's kind of got like a almost dark and sinister undertone to it, you know?
- [40:38]
Absolutely.
- [40:39]
Yeah.
- [40:40]
Dark knights in dark clubs.
- [40:43]
Dark knights and dark clubs. We spent a number of those, didn't we?
- [40:47]
Indeed. This is coming on the heels of the Manchester era. Manchester era is still going strong, but this is not going for that house music thing. This is much more techno infused and, yeah. Dark, happy party music it ain't. You know, lyrically, the song is cryptic. What? Dark. You know, thinking you can run but I don't know there's no place you can go Talking about Can't make myself forget about it the way you seem to do there's only one regret about it I can't get through to you. You know, vague but fine. He's not breaking the bank creatively, but it adds to the just overall dark tone of this driving dance song, the one cryptic and there's like a word missing but like, don't really want to think about it. I can't fuck wearing my entrails off by not doing what we ought about it Things just stay the same Always knew you were mad about it don't think Christ ain't too but now I'm feeling sad about it Nothing I can do, you know.
- [42:00]
Those are. Those are the lyrics. Really?
- [42:02]
Those are the lyrics.
- [42:03]
Oh, wow.
- [42:04]
It's surprisingly dark.
- [42:06]
Yeah.
- [42:08]
But also vague. What's he talking about? Dunno. That you didn't know the words, but loved this song. Kind of tells you the words are just another rhythmic textural element. There's another sample in there. If listeners. You are even better at the Find that sample game than we are. There is in the verses. This that repeats. That is from some disco era glam rock song. I used to know this and I've lost it and it's killing me because I can't find it Now I want to say the song is called I Am Danger. Or maybe it's by Gary Glitter. There's a lot of stuff rattling around in my head here. My head is very full of pop culture of this era and sometimes it just gets jostled up and comes out in the wrong place. So if you can find that sample with the O, hey, write in and let us know. You will be putting my mind to rest, which is not an easy thing to do.
- [43:13]
I can vouch for that. So that's all I think we got for. I don't know. Yeah.
- [43:18]
Oh, man. Other. I mean, just. If you are not already familiar with this album and you want to get one of the deeper cuts from the album, add that to your library. Make it. I don't know. This is an incredibly compelling dark dance track. And to my mind, one of the standouts on this album.
- [43:39]
All right.
- [43:40]
Yeah.
- [43:41]
Well, the next one is another single off the album, pretty well known. The title track, the globe.
- [43:57]
Axis spins.
- [43:58]
Lori
All round and round we go where we're going no one really knows Here.
- [44:06]
Scott Free
We, here we, here we, here we.
- [44:08]
Lori
Go Feel the fire Wait till below Switch on the stroke do what you like Gonna have a ball tonight let's have a ball down at the flow.
- [44:34]
Scott Free
So, samples, of course, right away. The first one I recognize is Should I Stay or Should I Go by the Clash. And I think that is absolutely fantastic that he's basically sampling himself, right?
- [44:49]
Yeah. I mean, not everybody has that back catalog that they can plumb and sample and make new. I remember when I heard this track, I wasn't sure how I felt about the Should I Stay or Should I Go sample? And I'll tell you why. A lot of people, just when they hear the Clash, they just think of Should I stay or should I go? So for him to use the biggest single from the biggest album and make that into the pop dance track for this album, I had mixed feelings about it. That said, the opening or that noodling guitar. Bless you. Bless you.
- [45:39]
Lori
Oh, bless you.
- [45:41]
Scott Free
Bless you.
- [45:42]
Woo.
- [45:43]
Bless you. Where he says bless you to his own sneezing scream in the song.
- [45:48]
That's hysterical.
- [45:49]
Cracked me up, man. The guy does have a sense of humor about himself and about his voice, as we've already seen with the. I wish I could sing like that. Continuing with his repurposing of his own work and making fun of himself in the process. That's just funny, man.
- [46:07]
That was the first sample that I.
- [46:08]
Recognized and it's doing the heavy lifting for the whole song.
- [46:13]
Yeah, it's basically the rhythm track for the entire song.
- [46:16]
Yeah.
- [46:17]
And then of course, there's a part in the middle where you could very clearly hear All Night Long by Lionel Richie.
- [46:23]
Yeah. That sort of woo. With the tropical drum machine thing going. I am the Bishop of Brixton on my way to the guard party at.
- [46:32]
The palace where's the party officer? And I don't know what. What this sample's from. Maybe you know, Scott, I am the fisherman on me way to the garden party at the palace where's the party officer? And I swear that where's the party officer? Sounds like a really like low budget Bart Simpson.
- [46:55]
Right?
- [46:55]
I don't know. I don't know where that sample is from, but it's gotta be from something.
- [47:00]
Yeah, no doubt we can get more into the find that sample stuff because that comes in another sort of interlude in the middle. There is Mick Jones doing his singing thing. And then there is what we have seen now a couple times as not quite a staple, but a recurring theme of 1991 English music. And that is white English guys rapping poorly.
- [47:29]
Although this one doesn't. I. This one doesn't suck. What? I don't think this one sucks. So, Sipho, the human beatbox. I think it's Sipho. S I P H O.
- [47:40]
Okay.
- [47:41]
And then there's also some additional vocals by somebody named Gobblebox. One word.
- [47:48]
All right.
- [47:48]
I don't hate the rap part to this. It's spoken in kind of a disaffected or disinterested way that. I mean, I like it, you know, especially. Come on, come on. It's.
- [48:01]
It's fun, but it's dumb. So I'm going to quote, get up and clean your teeth and have a shave. It's 1am let's go out to a rave. One more. And before we hit that grave, it's hotter than a microwave wave. I mean, they are not going to be winning any prizes for poetry, you know, whatever. It's party music. It doesn't have to be deep.
- [48:30]
I do kind of like they're addressing some environmental themes. Are they waking up the global warming way?
- [48:38]
All right.
- [48:39]
Napalm cornflakes for my special kitchen. What's the health department got to say? Don't smoke more than 50 fags a day now, lest anybody write in and say they're offended. In the UK, fags or cigarettes.
- [48:54]
That's right.
- [48:55]
Yes.
- [48:56]
50 a day is too many either.
- [49:00]
So for our generation, I mean, I think we were probably the. Well, I mean, I guess the 60s, there was the whole hippie dippy, peace and love thing. But our generation, I think, was really the first one to be concerned about things like climate change, you know, acid rain, that kind of stuff. So I thought it was just kind of clever how they worked that into the song.
- [49:23]
I'll give you that. I'll give you that. It's not all dumb party music. It's dumb party music with a conscience. Then there is again, much like in Rush, the crazy interlude in the middle where a bunch of samples get thrown at you hot and fast. Yeah. Esta Loca, apparently from Latin age. Esta loca.
- [49:48]
Two without hats. The song is called Try Yaz. And then in parentheses, East 140th Street Club. Yaz, which.
- [49:58]
What is the Esta Loca? Yeah, it's originally from Latin Age. Esta Loca, isn't it?
- [50:04]
Oh, I don't know.
- [50:05]
Sample for a house track, maybe. All right, so I. I can't say which it's originally from. It does appear in a 1989 Latin House track called Esta Loca. It's the main hook for it. So when did the track you're talking about come out?
- [50:23]
Also 89.
- [50:24]
Interesting.
- [50:25]
Yeah. Then there's from 1988, Acid man by Jolly Roger.
- [50:31]
Yep. I don't know. What this tells you is Mick Jones and his production team were keeping up on the current house music scene, current dance music scene in general. He was not resting on his laurels and just using Should I Stay or Should I Go? Clash era samples. He was, you know, digging through the crates. He was making music or clubs now. And even if this was not a house track, this is a pop rock track with English bigly hip hop influence. You know, he's. He's keeping it fresh. He's doing current, current stuff.
- [51:11]
So I was today years old when I learned where that vocal sample at the very end or towards the end, where there's a woman saying, throb to the pulse of life.
- [51:22]
Can you throb to the pulse of life? Yeah. What is that?
- [51:28]
That is actually from an album by Timothy Leary.
- [51:32]
Fascinating.
- [51:33]
The beginning of the voyage. And then in parentheses, heart chakra. So in that context, that makes sense to me. You know, the heart chakra, throb to the pulse of life. But I can't help but notice there's a little bit of a theme here. So we're talking about going to a rave and then we have samples from Acid man and Timothy Leary. You know what, what are we getting at here? Mick 1:00am let's go out to a rave, man. That brings back some memories, right? The last one I went to was 15 years ago, and I remember it got busted by the cops.
- [52:11]
Interesting.
- [52:13]
Yeah.
- [52:14]
I think I've been to at least one thing that counts as a rave in the last year, to say nothing of Burning Man. So, you know.
- [52:21]
Yeah, I didn't realize they were still a thing.
- [52:24]
Yeah, they're still a thing.
- [52:26]
Rafe till dawn. Okay.
- [52:31]
All right. I guess that brings us to track five. Innocent child.
- [52:43]
Lori
Live for yourself today and tomorrow look after your health Forget all your sorrows Whoa I wish I could have seen you but you could run wild I would have liked to know you as an innocent child Child, Innocent.
- [53:13]
Scott Free
Child okay, so a couple things. Obviously, this contains a slowed down, pitch shifted sample of Phil Collins's in the Air Tonight, which, you know, at this point in 1991, Phil Collins was uncool again. So to be using in the Air Tonight was a choice. It was a daring choice, but, like, it's immediately recognizable, even slowed down, that very distinctive drum machine from in the Air Tonight. And, you know, Bill Collins may have been a little uncool at the time, but I never stopped loving him. I love you, Bill Collins. So I was delighted when I heard this, when I heard the sample in this track. There is also, right in that intro sample again, Mick Jones going back and mining his own catalog to get samples for his new work. There's a sample from Big Audio Dynamite's aforementioned debut single. The bottom line from this is Big Audio Dynamite. It's that big guitar chord with a lot of reverb. And that's just the intro.
- [54:27]
There's a couple other samples. There's a sample from Vienna by Ultravox.
- [54:33]
That is true.
- [54:34]
And also some of the drumbeat from Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye.
- [54:39]
Yes.
- [54:40]
Yes.
- [54:42]
In track one, Rush Mick makes fun of his own singing voice. And in most of Big Audio Dynamite's career, he sings the lead, but it's usually more up tempo. The lyrics and tempo make the vocals a little bit more rhythmic, sometimes even staccato. But this Innocent Child is a slow song. He's singing these long, sustained notes, and that is not his strong suit. But there's a certain raw vulnerability to it here, particularly with the lyrical content. And it's. This is kind of a charitable way of saying that it's kind of crappy singing, yet it's endearing. There is a sweetness to this song and his performance on it that, you know, despite musical theater training and all my instincts as a singer, it's like, wow, this is actually bad singing. And yet I like it.
- [55:41]
Okay. I don't. I think it's. I. This is my least favorite song on the album. It is so annoying and whiny.
- [55:50]
Yeah.
- [55:51]
I do, however, appreciate the acoustic guitar on this one. I think that's really strong.
- [55:56]
Right.
- [55:56]
This one was released as a single, Scott, but I couldn't find.
- [56:00]
Weird choice.
- [56:01]
Yeah. So this was, like, the third single off the album. It was released sometime in 1992. I wasn't able to find out where or when, and it did not chart in the United States. I think it might have actually charted in Australia.
- [56:15]
Interesting.
- [56:16]
Yeah. The Aussies are weird.
- [56:18]
Yeah. You know, you may not like it, but it only lasts for six minutes. They did not go for brevity on this album because there are only 10 tracks. And as we'll see, the 10th track is kind of a throwaway. So, you know, the tracks are all pretty long. And, yeah, six minutes of Mick Jones crooning.
- [56:45]
Whining, whining.
- [56:48]
You know, I find it endearing, but I don't think it's a particularly strong track for this album. And it is a strange choice as a single, but. Well, you see where that got him.
- [57:00]
Yes. Okay, so the next track is actually one of my favorite songs on the album. This is called Green Grass.
- [57:34]
Lori
On the stairway of your mind Till you reach the miracle Expecting what you find exactly what you want not what you want to be I'll say, hey, well, that's all I find in.
- [58:00]
Scott Free
All right. Again, this song could just as easily appear on big audio Dynamite's 1988 album, Tighten Up, Volume 88. You wouldn't even feel a little bit out of place on that album. If you are a bad fan, I would Compare it to Mr. Walker said from that particular album, but it's not on that album. It's on this album. Greengrass, what do you got?
- [58:23]
I really enjoy this one. I like. From the very beginning, you have. It sounds like a woman's high heels. And that kind of is a thread throughout the entire song. So there's a sample. The piano is from Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush. There's also some. I think it's strings from Lay Lady Lay by Bob Dylan, which I was not expecting to find in this song.
- [58:48]
Yeah. As I understand it, it's not an actual sample, It's a ghost sample, which is to say they played the guitar line, but they played it themselves rather than directly sampling Dylan.
- [58:58]
And then there's a part of the song that. God, it took me a long time to identify this. There's a woman's voice.
- [59:06]
Yeah.
- [59:06]
You know the part I'm talking about?
- [59:08]
It's a relatively extended spoken word bit, is it not?
- [59:11]
It is. So I found out just today what that was from.
- [59:16]
I could not. What do you got?
- [59:17]
Okay, there was a documentary movie by Peter Whitehead in 1967 called Tonight Let's All Make Love in London. And he was exploring different parts of, like, the free love culture of the 60s. It's broken into segments, and segment two is called Dolly Girl. And there's an interview with this woman. It looks like she's sitting in a. Like a Ferris wheel or an amusement park ride, but that's the part where dresses how she feels, she does what she likes, she's free, she doesn't care about convention. She's talking about this Dolly girl Persona. Yeah. You know, for a long time I was trying to figure out what the lyrics to this one were. And I know there's a part about Christmas Eve spacecraft getaway, right?
- [60:11]
Yeah, I think intentionally cryptic, that one. There's one set that I really like. So you search the rooms of the stairway of your mind. Side note, the rooms of the stairway. Whatever. We'll let it go, Mick. So you search the rooms of the stairway of your mind till you reach the mirror room, expecting what you'll find exactly what you are, not what you want to be.
- [60:34]
I like that.
- [60:35]
Yeah. It's not the deepest philosophical stuff, but he's, you know, he's making an effort to go a little deeper. This isn't just party music.
- [60:45]
The idea of, like, looking at yourself and seeing yourself for who you really are. Yeah, I like that.
- [60:51]
That's right.
- [60:52]
This song always puts me in a good mood. This is one of my go to tracks. When I'm, you know, I. I need a lift. This is a good one.
- [60:59]
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It's cheery. It is not saccharine like Innocent Child before it. It is not dark and foreboding like, I don't know, it's just a. Yeah. Cheery little jaunt. You know, there's parts of it that I don't necessarily entirely love. There's like a Casio quality keyboard chord segment to it. The specific sounds that they used for it. I think date it in a way, it hasn't aged especially well. But I think the basic rhythm, the basic hook, the lyrics and the vocals, they all make it one of the stronger songs on the album. Anything else?
- [61:44]
No, I can't. That, that's. That's all I got.
- [61:46]
That is fair.
- [61:48]
Yeah.
- [61:49]
Well then, moving right along brings us to track seven. Kool Aid, ladies and gentlemen. The depth out, collapse out Come on.
- [61:58]
Lori
Your misfits and muscle men Pack them up and move them along let's get it together tonight 10 million tons of water like we did a cave can somebody tell me what am I doing here?
- [62:40]
Scott Free
You know, I am a sucker for a synthesized computer voice. Have been ever since I was a seven year old Electric Light Orchestra fan. So this opens with a synthesized computer voice kind of rapping sorta. And you know.
- [62:59]
Reminds me of a speak and spell.
- [63:01]
Absolutely. And I freaking love me a speak and spell.
- [63:05]
Okay. That's the part of, that's the part of the song I don't care for. Everything else is okay, but I don't really care for that. But, you know. All right, it kicks up. I, I kind of like. It's got a little bit of a funky disco Y vibe to it, which is probably related to the fact that they sampled Giorgio Moroder.
- [63:26]
You know, it's got an up tempo hip hop beat, but that just gets into straight pop dance territory. So, you know, I think this track is the one from this album that pays most homage to the Madchester era in which they're living. This is probably closest we're going to see on this album to something that would make sense on a Happy Mondays album or something like that. Particularly some of the piano, syncopated piano chord stuff that comes in maybe 2/3 of the way through it. This is dance rock, heavy on the synth, light on the rock. But I don't know, you could see it being geared towards a dance floor at the Hacienda or something like the same. And you know, it was released as a single. Was it?
- [64:16]
No, I, I don't believe that this was a single.
- [64:18]
No, Got it. Well, fair enough. But, you know, you could see it making the rounds on dance floors in the UK or wherever. And, you know, Good danceable track.
- [64:31]
Yeah. And I mean, the samples on this one, it's like a who's who of synth and also like rhythm, so like Giorgio Moroder. E equals MC squared. That's sampled in there. Right.
- [64:43]
Where this chorus of computer voices at the end of the track say MC squared. I think that's the extent of that sample. True.
- [64:51]
Sure. Let's go with that.
- [64:53]
Think so.
- [64:53]
I. I don't know. There's a lot of samples from Kraftwerk song numbers.
- [64:59]
Oh, yeah, yeah. The very cold computery beeping that happens through.
- [65:03]
Yeah, yeah. There's actually like the guitar riff from could you'd be loved by Bob Marley and the Wailers. Or you are Malcolm McLaren, Buffalo Gals. There's this part at the very end of Buffalo Gals that's sampled. It just feels like it's just kind of thrown in there.
- [65:23]
I actually have buffalo gals. I'm 45.
- [65:27]
Yeah.
- [65:28]
Yeah. I actually bought it while I was in England in 2018.
- [65:32]
I want to say I honestly don't care for I I Malcolm's voice, first of all. He sounds like a Muppet. And, you know, we talk about the English white rappers. Yeah, that's just cringe. I'm sorry. It's just cringe.
- [65:50]
It's at the end of Buffalo Gales. You say.
- [65:53]
Yeah, it's. It's in there. And then there is Feel Good Party Time by Junior Funk and the Love Machine.
- [66:02]
Never heard him, but, man, is that a great band name. JR Funk and the Love Machine. Come on.
- [66:08]
Yes.
- [66:09]
The funk era was awesome.
- [66:11]
Put them all in the blender and see what comes out.
- [66:15]
Very big audio. Dynamite thing to do. Yeah, well, you know, making party music and. Yeah, you know, I'll give it to him.
- [66:24]
And this one, Gary Stoneage, the bassist, shares a writing credit with Mick Jones.
- [66:31]
Oh, interesting.
- [66:32]
Yeah. He also shares a writing credit on the next one, In My Dreams. Shall we listen?
- [66:39]
Let's. All right.
- [66:59]
Lori
It ain't hard. I tried to get it close but took too long. It was gone. It was gone.
- [67:25]
Scott Free
All right, so you got a mid tempo groove, you got looping guitar and then that sort of getting looped thing, then with this tinkling sort of piano line. And that's all fine, you know, it's not the strongest, but it is a solid groove. But then, oh, dear Lord, do I hate that boop boop voice that counterpoints the McJones vocal lines. I hate it so much. Oh, God, do I hate it. And you know why I think I hate it?
- [68:01]
Why?
- [68:01]
Because it reminds me of Betty Boop. And I freaking hate Betty Boop. Oh, man, I hate it so much. This is. I think this is a good. A good solid mid tempo groove. This song that is absolutely ruined by that vocal sample, which is like nails on a chalkboard for me.
- [68:22]
Scott. That's my favorite part.
- [68:24]
I hate it so very much. We are very different people, you and I. Yeah.
- [68:31]
Thank goodness. I don't know for sure because I haven't been able to verify that might be Marilyn Monroe.
- [68:39]
Might it?
- [68:40]
It might be. It might, but I. I don't know that for sure. I do know that there are a number of samples from Shake by the Gap Band in this one.
- [68:51]
This is true.
- [68:53]
So, okay, we got to agree to disagree on this one.
- [68:56]
Okay.
- [68:57]
This one was written by, I mentioned, Gary Stoneage, Mick Jones, and the other guitarist, Nick Hawkins.
- [69:04]
Nice.
- [69:05]
All right, so I guess we won't spend too much time on this one then, Scott.
- [69:10]
Thank you. Which then brings us to track nine. When the time comes.
- [69:28]
Lori
You'Re still booming big out of poverty and cleaning up the street and the man who wants to stand for his piece of land Gets pushed aside Cause he dug quite fit Try to make him quit untwist his mind go from behind Call out the hit members and this time they realize that when a time time comes they're gonna terrorize And I hear every day what you say that a man still got his rise but when the time comes they're gonna terrorize.
- [70:18]
Scott Free
I don't know what to think of this one.
- [70:20]
I mean, it feels like they're going for an acoustic singalong sort of thing.
- [70:25]
For the first half.
- [70:26]
Yeah. Again, this is another one. If you don't know how you feel about it, you're gonna have plenty of time to figure it out because it is 6 minutes and 33 seconds long. Once again, not going for the brevity thing on this particular track. So, yeah, they're going for kind of uptempo acoustic sing along thing with then crunchier guitars that come in with some power chords and then things take a very hard left turn about three minutes in.
- [71:40]
Yeah, they're almost going for the lip sync funky town kind of. You know how the. The first verse was normal and then the second verse was the same thing, but run through a like computer voice filter thing.
- [71:56]
Sure. A voc order, if you will.
- [71:59]
Yes, thank you.
- [72:00]
Or voice synthesis. Yeah.
- [72:01]
But yeah, wouldn't think what it was called.
- [72:03]
Yeah. So, yeah, first half. First three minutes is this up tempo acoustic sing along sort of thing. And then it takes this sudden left turn and then becomes this mid tempo synthesized computer chorus redo of the song. And it feels like two separate tracks but with the same melody and vocals. And it's a. It's a choice. It is a choice, to be sure.
- [72:31]
Lyrics are really interesting.
- [72:33]
What do you got?
- [72:34]
Call out the hitmen Mercenaries. Don't they realize that when the time comes they're going to terrorize?
- [72:41]
Yeah.
- [72:42]
And I hear every day what you say that a man's still got his rights but when the time comes they're going to terrorize. I mean, that's.
- [72:50]
Yeah, it goes on. A brother on the street Met a small time hokey hood who played guitar they were strictly middle class Saying this would never pass they don't belong Will people sing to this musical theme and raise their voice? Or will we have to say that they just can't play their guitar or go very far? It feels autobiographical.
- [73:14]
It does, yeah.
- [73:15]
Although McGill's always been in bad a storyteller, so it's hard to say when he's singing about him and when he's singing about a fictional character and just telling a story, but it feels like maybe he's putting some autobiography in there.
- [73:30]
I think you're probably right. It does, actually. I mean, it's a little menacing.
- [73:35]
A little bit, yeah.
- [73:37]
All right. That's all I got for that one. I don't have any information on samples for that one.
- [73:42]
Well, there is a sample of We Will Rock youk slowed down quite a lot.
- [73:47]
Oh yeah?
- [73:48]
Yeah. Really audible. It's really audible when the. The main instrumentals drop out at the 2 minute 30 mark. But you kind of can realize that it has actually been going all along as part of the drum loops. There's like 60 plus seconds of wind blowing and ambient howls, church belts tolling in the distance. And then this sudden left turn into this chorus of robot voices doing an entirely new version of the same song. Then there's like an oboe, or at least a synthy version of an oboe. Just some really odd choices in this one. And I feel like I could have probably lived with it if it was only the first half.
- [74:30]
Yeah, I think so too.
- [74:32]
And then, and then Scott on track 10. Well, no, let's, let's, let's do a. Let's do our own edit of the album. And then the strange left turn into Cynthia Computer. When the Time Comes is the closer for the album. And then there are no more tracks and we can all go home and go on with our lives.
- [74:56]
Oh, no, that's not how it works.
- [74:59]
Damn it. Bye.
- [75:01]
Okay, so the final track on the album is called the Tea Party.
- [75:44]
Lori
Well, they told me.
- [75:48]
Scott Free
It would be okay.
- [75:51]
All right, you've already said how you feel about this one.
- [75:54]
But, Scott, I can just tell you the first line in my notes. This track should not exist.
- [76:05]
You know, first line in my notes says it reminds me of one of Weird Al's polka parties.
- [76:10]
I could see that.
- [76:11]
He kind of does like a medley of all these other songs. I think it's fun. I mean, it's not something that I out of my way to listen to.
- [76:20]
Right. You're never going to put this track on is the thing, as an album closer. I get it. It's like a recap of the entire album up to this point. They do a redo of the melody from opening track, rush over some, let's be honest, kind of cheesy synth sequences, and then I'm gonna go ahead and say a terrible female vocal version of Just Can't Wait. I don't know. Who is she? Do you know who she is?
- [76:51]
Lorna Stuckey.
- [76:53]
Lorna Stuckey. Why would we know her? Where did they find her?
- [76:56]
I guess she's known for, like, singing in blues clubs.
- [77:00]
Okay.
- [77:01]
I don't think she's a major recording artist.
- [77:03]
Got it.
- [77:04]
Yes.
- [77:04]
And then a similar treatment of synths and Lorna Stuckey doing Innocent Child and then Kool Aid. And the synths sound like a Casio keyboard doing calliope music. And why? Why did this happen? And there's a weird pizzicato version, you know, the plucked strings thing of when the Time Comes, which we just heard. When the Time Comes. It's like a snake eating its own tail. This album has become an ouroboros and it is now devouring itself in the tenth and final track.
- [77:41]
I can't follow that.
- [77:44]
Well, neither could Mick Jones. It's the last track on the album, and it is the last track from big audio dynamite 2. There would be additional Big Audio Dynamite projects in the years that would follow, including Big Audio. Like, you started just messing with every possible permutation of the name. You had Big Audio Dynamite. You had big audio dynamite 2. Then you had Big Audio. And they never really hit the high water mark of, at least in my estimation, Megatop Phoenix. Again, subsequent projects would sound a little bit more straightforward rock. As I said at the beginning, I feel like this album is Important in the context of 1991 because it allowed Mick Jones to sample and re explore his old work. Using Should I Stay or Should I Go? On the Globe, using the Bottom line in Innocent Child, where he got to really take full creative control of the band. Choosing the samples, choosing the influences, choosing the musical styles. For my money, it is not Big Audio Dynamite's best work and it shows that Don Letts in particular was an important guiding hand in the earlier incarnation of the band and he is missed here. But there are some standouts and I guess that gets us to what we often do when we are wrapping up an album. Laurie, what is your favorite track from this album?
- [79:16]
You know, I've been back and forth on this one, but I think I'm gonna go with Greengrass.
- [79:21]
Oh yeah?
- [79:22]
Yeah.
- [79:22]
Understandable.
- [79:24]
How about you?
- [79:25]
I. I pretty much telegraphed it earlier in the episode track three. I don't know that B. That darkness, that driving. It's just so compelling to me. It. It has not aged like a lot of the rest of the album has. Yeah, I think this is that. That's just a great track.
- [79:43]
Yeah.
- [79:45]
We also oftentimes do at the end of the episode the where are they now? And in this case, if you're talking about Bad two, the they that you're talking about really is Mick Jones. McJones had, as I mentioned, a couple Bad or at least Big Audio follow up albums. In 2002 he had a project teaming up with another member of Sig Sig Sputnik, Tony James. They created a band called Carbon Slash Silicon and they released an album in 2002. Mick Jones has then gone on to do a fair amount of producing, working with the Gorillas, the Wallflowers, and most recently 2019 Flaming Lips album in which Jones narrated it. He's also featured, apparently on the album's cover artwork and worked with the Avalanches. He was featured on the single We Go on from their 2020 album We Will Always Love youe. So you know, I did not see a lot of very recent activity for Mick Jones, but I think at this point between the Clash, Big Audio, Dynamite in all its various incarnations, and Carbon Silicon, he has had enough of a career behind him that if he wants to rest on his laurels for four or ten years, he's entitled.
- [81:14]
Okay, so our next episode is going to be in two weeks on September 28, but we're doing something a little bit different. This is the second year that we're going to be participating in International Podcast Day. International Podcast Day and so, Scott, you and I are going to do a short live podcast.
- [81:36]
Fuck it. We're doing it live.
- [81:38]
And it's going to be a video podcast, so you'll get to see what we look like.
- [81:43]
Wow.
- [81:44]
Yeah.
- [81:45]
Get a haircut and take a shower.
- [81:49]
Please. Please. Because I think you and I are actually going to be in the same room, so please.
- [81:53]
Oh, yeah, we're gonna be in the same room. That is a rarity these days. All right.
- [81:57]
Unless it's a concert. I don't know. Well, we still have to figure that part out, Scott.
- [82:01]
I know.
- [82:01]
That's the idea we were kicking around. We don't have to. We don't have to be in the same room. So check out our website, acceleratedculturepodcast.com I'll post the details about International Podcast Day. You'll see how you can tune in live. And that'll be in two weeks.
- [82:21]
Yeah.
- [82:22]
Yeah. All right, so thank you again for listening and for taking this musical journey with us with Big Audio Dynamite, too. So goodbye from me and from me.
- [82:41]
Sa.