so white & dry & innocent but evil—the sweetness that creates a sucking sound—a light in every dark heart—candy lives that go down easy attention spans that spin at the sour—the dirty truth you have to get down on your hands & knees to ride—the faint trail in the dust that leads out through the lines—white footsteps in the green wet grass straight to—SUGAR ISLAND where the deal goes down—kill for a mouthful to bury this turpentine taste—the big size drinks at the asphalt corner stand—in a big plastic sweating cup—each sip leads unbearably to the next ’til yr teeth fall out, your waist is dragging like a swollen hula hoop—yr breath is shorter than a fullback’s book report. Sugar has its spot at the very top of the pyramid, like King Tut or the Sphinx—sugar the universal solvent—more potent than alcohol? A brighter name in the Poison Hall Of Fame—oh we all love to lick the pan—let our tongue lead the way through wisps & crisps of alleys & chiffon floating sweetness—her voice was thin & pinched everybody called HER sugar & she gave them something very sweet that soon rotted their teeth—its a ballast without it I fall sooner than later like learning to walk on Saturn or Jupiter where my weight is doubled but no float is for free—you pay in perfect pounds—its an aphrodisiac—or not? A replacement.
My version of Memphis Minnie’s great song, which I learned watching Honeyboy Edwards play in L.A. twenty years ago. This was recorded during the HWY 62 sessions, but never released, as that album featured songs I wrote about contemporary topics, and Bumble Bee didn’t seem to fit. But I played it on a guitar Ben Harper gifted me, a Fraulini version of Lead Belly’s Stella, and they recorded the first time I picked the instrument up.
Minnie’s version is the one. All her records are great. Play them loud! But check this out, it is what it is…
If you dug the Plimsouls Kool Trash, here’s a solo track cut at roughly the same time, that has a similar vibe, in a way. By that I mean, a rocker story song set in the big city, with a big chorus, kinda like “Down.” 1995. This track was cut at Capital Records, with Steven Soles on harmony vocals, Jerry Scheff on electric bass, Greg Leisz on electric lap steel guitar, and Don Heffington on drums. It was cut at the very end of the session, when we had five minutes left! Billy Swan helped with the vocals too, I think…Larry Hirsch engineered it. Steven, Larry and I produced it, as a team…
Falling Awake is another of the Sunset Sound Demos. I played the surfy sounding leads on a Rickenbacker just like the John Lennon guitar. Eddie played the bluesy breaks in the middle and at the end. I goof up after Eddies solo and don’t get my pick-ups turned as load for my last twang lead, it doesn’t really have the bite. That always bugged me, but a card laid was a card played. This is a demo, I never really felt we got the arrangement right on this, but I dig the lyric, addressing the acute anxiety I call “falling awake,” that is, coming to a realization about life the hard way. Clem Burke played great on this track. So there you have it, the seven cuts from Sunset. The album was filled out with three tracks recorded digitally, somewhere else, and the drums didn’t sound as good, as nothing beats tape. But there you go, Shari Lipman!
(If you want to hear the rest of the ones I’ve featured, go to the blog here at www.petercase.com/blog and scroll down through he most recent entires. The titles I’ve featured are “Down,” “Playing With Jack,” “Lost,” “Pile Up,” “Dangerous Book,” “Kool Trash,” and this one “Falling Awake.”)
I think this will be my last Kool Trash post, and the last of the tracks cut at Sunset Sound in ’95.
Dig the crazy piano part, frantic tempo, pissed off lyric, and explosive ending. The Kool Trash album was completely overlooked at the time, even missed by a lot of our friends. Maybe it was lack of management, or publicity, or just the atmosphere of the era. We played a ton of gigs, with Clem Burke, and then later, Bryan Head, and they were all fun, but the muted response on the record eventually sorta made the band a dead issue: what’s the point of writing and recording new material? People just dug the old stuff. Don’t take your bands and songwriters for granted, folks, if you do they may have to go on their way. Oh well, its all ok, life is such a gift, if you’re not rocking’ somewhere you’re rolling somewhere else. And Kool Trash certainly has it’s fans…
If you want to hear the rest of the ones I’ve featured, go to the blog here at www.petercase.com/blog and scroll down through he most recent entires. The titles I’ve featured are “Down,” “Playing With Jack,” “Lost,” “Pile Up,” “Dangerous Book,” and this one, “Kool Trash.”
Next I’ll post a track from my 1995 solo record Torn Again, “Baltimore,” which has a lot in common with these tracks.
Another track from the Kool Trash sessions, this one recorded at about 3:30 in the morning, the last thing we cut at Sunset Sound. Rock and roll at it’s simplest, down to the core. Eddie’s guitar lick is cribbed from a Texas blues standard “Kinda Mixed Up,” but it fits perfect here, while my lyric reflects everyday tensions and frustrations in the Los Angeles area. Clem Burke is on drums, as on the rest of the album. Brett Gurewitz sings backing vocals with David-o.
I put the words here, as the diction is pretty gnarly. For a long time this was my favorite from the sessions.
“well they’re comin’ for miles/with beans in their ears/socked in/crocodile tears/dead set/caught in a cage/they’re flipped out/all in rage/it’s a pile up/it’s pile up/ they’ll slaughter the lamb/shut down and the road is jammed/help me/yeah we’re gonna be late
well my baby called me on the telephone/imagine that/ she said I’m all alone/I went out/ frantic search for my car/jumped in didn’t get so far/it’s pile up/a pile up/try to dart in this roadster slam /some time we’re all in a jam/oh/ we’re gonna be late/
ah-oom-bop-diddy!
the priest came down to bless the dead/ I cant tell you half the things he said/I knelt down–“father I confess/sometimes it’s a goddamn mess”/ it’s a pile up/it’s pile up/ we’re caught in a cage/ they’re glued up and all in a rage/it’s over/yeah we’re all gonna be late”
Here’s another track, from the Plimsouls album of demos, Kool Trash, recorded in 1995 and released in ’98.
“Lost” slows it down a little, and was placed, along with “Pile Up” (which I’ll post later) in a Liv Tyler movie called ‘Heavy.” I remember this as a live performance in the studio, next to no overdubbing. It’s raw but maybe that’s how the feeling gets through…
what I didn’t know
