Don’t Talk Like a Baby (1999)
with the exception of the hippo song (which kills off ronita once more and features gord on acoustic guitar—the only guest spot on a solo cd of mine for ten years), none of these songs are really about sex, making for a very different sophomore solo cd.
things start off with a bang on weekend from hell, where i sing about the fun weekend i had just returned from. the ex-family wasn’t yet a family of the past at the time, and during the summer and autumn months they were fond of spending time at a trailer up in ipperwash. i didn’t mind so much staying in a small place where i had no bedroom or privacy and had to duck when taking my shirt off at night to avoid smacking my head on the ceiling and getting a concussion…the problem was the people i was staying with. so i turned my love into song, and ended up sounding sort of homicidal. i think it’s the only song i’ve ever recorded that moves up a key at the end like a lot of pop songs and big mushy ballads do. but whatever pop appeal the song might have had is kind of destroyed when i’m screaming, “don’t piss in the motherfuckin’ valley!” it’s kind of funny that i recorded please & thank you the same night; it sounds positively serene by comparison and features a few passages where i try to figure out how to play “here comes the bride” with mixed results. i also seem to be channeling david byrne at a few points. runnin’ blues is, surprisingly enough, my attempt at something bluesy, and it’s probably the most normal-sounding thing on the cd, with nothing too odd going on vocally or musically. tough stuff (the original version of “more tough stuff”) is all about how i wasn’t such a big fan of french class anymore, but everyone around me seemed to think it was important to have a second language at my disposal and encouraged me to keep it up. there’s a nice scream in the middle that may cause hearing damage during headphone listening. i really did have ink on my jeans when i wrote the lyrics in the middle of french class, too.
eventually, maybe is an odd little song. i recorded the guitar near the end of the OESOPHAGUS sessions, but had no idea what to sing to musical accompaniment that was so unusually nice-sounding, so i stopped after about a minute and left it instrumental. six days after recording “kermit got laid” i went back to the song and decided to overdub five tracks of wordless harmonizing just for the hell of it. the harmonies are already light years ahead of anything I did on OESOPHAGUS. the hippo song was recording during a papa ghostface session for HORSEMOUTH and originally viewed as being kind of substandard, but then i added some completely ridiculous harmonies (attempting to sound like a chorus of drunkards before i knew anything about what it was like to be inebriated) and suddenly the song came alive.
michael (matthew) & samantha is a spoken word piece that takes some of my experiences with the ex-family and warps them into a strangely tender short story. well, tender in a fucked up way. i’m still surprised i was able to spin such an involved tale in my state; i was dead tired, which was why i didn’t even attempt to play anything logical on the piano, and the parenthetical “(matthew)” is there because i was so wiped out i actually forgot who i was talking about at one point and changed the name from michael to matthew. fortunately i corrected myself before things got too muddled. still, the result is probably one of my favourite spoken word things i’ve ever done, even now. there’s even a happy ending, if you can call it that. i guess an unhappy childhood is good for something after all. breath munchers features more lou reed-inspired singing and just about the only recorded appearance of my neil young impression, though it isn’t my most neil-like performance. there’s a nice psychotic bit about killing my then-co-workers, while neil sings about saving the planet and chewing on air. it’s quite moving. johndra & the octopus isn’t nearly as climactic an ending as “kermit got laid” was, but it does contain a nice bit of symmetry when i reprise a bit of the opening song in new clothing.
shoot him in the head is unusually catchy for an improvised song about killing the dog i was forced to live with at the time, and you can even hear his bark in the middle of the song, inspiring where the lyrics ultimately went. i’ve always liked that build-up at the end. a few years later i played the song on acoustic guitar for a “mental health” day in my law class. kind of an odd choice, but it worked surprisingly well. taking it to the fur is another tune that’s pretty catchy, and i’m not sure how the i ever improvised all those complicated twists and bridge sections while singing at the same time. i guess i had some fire in my imaginary facial hair. the song also contains some of my most effective guitar-playing on the album, as simple and brief as it is. sometimes a simulated wah pedal is all you need.
TRACKS:
weekend from hell
please & thank you
runnin’ blues
shoot him in the head
tough stuff
ebeneezer scrooge
eventually, maybe
little clownface eyes
taking it to the fur
the hippo song
where’s your sense of adventure?
michael (matthew) & samantha
breath munchers
johndra & the octopus
STUFF TO LISTEN TO:
