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jake3
- FB Fan -
United Kingdom
248 Posts |
 Posted - 06/12/2023 : 12:41:43
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For the 35th anniversary of 'Surfer Rosa' Life of the Record has interviewed Joey Santiago, Dave Lovering and Steve Albini about the making of the album. I cannot recommend the listen highly enough, it's really a great insight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rPK3GzlBrM
One thing which jumped out to me which I'd never heard before was that the band recorded a song for the album which was vetoed by Ivo Watts-Russell. It might've be an early version of 'Gouge Away' but it's hard to say?
Steve Albini: "There was one long, droney, abstract song on there that was a kind of an experimental move that Charles was championing. I remember taking a phone call from Ivo [Watts-Russell] where he said... I don't remember the name of the song, I want to say that it was called 'Gouge My Eyes Out' or 'Gouge Away' or something like that. I know that they had a song called 'Gouge Away' I don't know if that's the same song but there was a long, meandering, droney song that was sort of interrupted one side of the record. It was like kind of an obstacle on one side of the record. I was kind of into that conceptually. I kind of liked the idea that you'd had interrupting the flow of an album with this thing that people had to get through to get to the the jazzier bits, you know? I know that Charles had affection for that song just as a piece. I remember getting a phone call from Ivo [Watts-Russell] saying that he couldn't conceive of the album including that song. Like he just thought it was such a scar that he he wanted to put his foot down and say you can't put this song out. That seemed out of character for him. It's also the kind of thing that if it were my band I would have told him to go fuck himself, you know? But yeah I think in the end the band did take that song off the record." |
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Bedbug
> Teenager of the Year <
3146 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2023 : 13:39:40
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| That really is very interesting, thanks for sharing the link Jake3, I look forward to listening to the whole thing |
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benji
> Teenager of the Year <
New Zealand
3426 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2023 : 23:26:56
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I listened to this in it's podcast form on a run on Sunday and it was really interesting. Joey was full of interesting stories.
I also wondered about the song Steve Albini talked about there.
Can also be found on Spotify.
all i can say, thank god for polio! brian |
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Arm Arm Arm
* Dog in the Sand *
1037 Posts |
Posted - 06/18/2023 : 09:56:52
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While I can respect when a band does things like this – and sometimes I even like it, I think leaving it off was a good call; Surfer's a perfect album, it would've been a scar or maybe a bog in the middle of an exceptional listening experience.
Thanks for sharing! |
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Troubles A Foot
= Cult of Ray =
USA
955 Posts |
Posted - 06/21/2023 : 23:16:52
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Listened to this, also the Violent Femmes episode. Both were fantastic.
So Albini is just talking about Gouge Away? I'm confused about the confusion, he literally names the song, and Gouge Away has a long and droning intro, at least the way they do it live. It was probably presented in that form back then and then made shorter for Doolittle. |
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The Making of Surfer Rosa: ft. Joey, Dave & Albini
