The first two tracks are basically just me trying to figure out what I was doing with something that wasn’t a cheap tape recorder.
Cat Piss on My Bed is a mediocre improvisation recorded a few days before the SINGIN’ THE OESOPHAGUS TO SLEEP sessions got underway, while Gotta Get Out features Johnny Smith singing about some stuff while I rifle through synthesizer sounds in search of ideas. It’s a shame that disc of extra synth voices for the Yamaha W-5 stopped working. There were some cool patches on that thing.
La Musique de Mike Tyson was recorded a few months down the road, around the time of SONGS FOR DEAD SKIN. For one of many grade eleven French class presentations I concocted a skit that had Matt Strukelj taking on the role of Barbara Walters interviewing Mike Tyson. I played Mike. Barbara was talking to me about my new musical career, and I recorded a song I could mouth the words to while playing air guitar in front of the class.
The words were deep, probing stuff. In English:
I am a man.
You are a woman.
It’s fantastic.
I don’t understand.
That’s enough.
That’s enough.
That’s enough.
I mean, that’s poetry right there! And the backing vocals make it sound a bit like a warped take on “California Dreamin'”.
The rest of the class seemed to enjoy it, anyway.
In hindsight, my Mike Tyson impression wasn’t really happening that day. There’s also an acoustic interlude at the end of the song, where Mike becomes Elvis and sings “C.C. Rider”. I have no idea why I threw that in there, but it was fun to do.
TRACKS:
Cat Piss on My Bed
Gotta Get Out
La Musique de Mike Tyson
LISTEN:
