The Cult "Sonic Temple" (1989): Track by Track!

<v Speaker 1>This is Chris.
<v Speaker 2>Go ahead, make my day by listening to the Shirley
<v Speaker 2>You Can't Be Serious Podcast as Jason and d make
<v Speaker 2>your day digging deep into classic movies and albums from
<v Speaker 2>the eighties and nineties. Hello everybody, and welcome back to
<v Speaker 2>the Shirley You Can't Be Serious Podcast today, as we
<v Speaker 2>dive into an album of nineteen eighty nine that was
<v Speaker 2>so big and so cool, the Cult's Sonic Temple. Today
<v Speaker 2>we've got James Buckley on drums, We've got d Graves
<v Speaker 2>with his pick held in the air high, and I,
<v Speaker 2>of course am wearing my furry stetson with the skull
<v Speaker 2>and crossbones on it. We are ready to discuss the
<v Speaker 2>Cult Sonic Temple.
<v Speaker 1>James, how you doing, man?
<v Speaker 3>Wonderful hot day in Louisiana, but that's pretty much every
<v Speaker 3>day in the summer.
<v Speaker 1>How you doing? Yeah? Amen? Over here in Oklahoma, it's
<v Speaker 1>hot up here too.
<v Speaker 3>You guys have put me in a tough position. After
<v Speaker 3>a great white last week, I went back and listened
<v Speaker 3>to that album over again, and I've been listening to
<v Speaker 3>Sonic Temple a lot. This is a tough call, man.
<v Speaker 3>Oh I don't put losers, It's right we don't think
<v Speaker 3>it was like vingeance for kil Welch or Salma Hayek.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, it's just where do you go?
<v Speaker 4>I mean, I gotta. I have to actually give it
<v Speaker 4>up to Jason on this one. This was completely his
<v Speaker 4>idea because number one, I wasn't a huge great white guy.
<v Speaker 4>I mean I knew a little bit of their stuff,
<v Speaker 4>but I literally didn't know who the Cult was when
<v Speaker 4>he was like, we should do the Cult and I'm like,
<v Speaker 4>who's that?
<v Speaker 1>I don't I didn't know him.
<v Speaker 4>And so this is a genuine forty eight year old
<v Speaker 4>man virgin experience with this album that you're about to
<v Speaker 4>hear my take on. So if you've never heard this
<v Speaker 4>album four, you're not alone in the room.
<v Speaker 1>I was.
<v Speaker 4>I was a brand newbie when I listened to it
<v Speaker 4>for the very first time to do this podcast.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm excited to talk about it.
<v Speaker 2>I'm excited to hear your your reaction. So, hey, I
<v Speaker 2>did want to shout out our buddy on Twitter, Adam Mushouski.
<v Speaker 2>He said, Hey, I wasn't a big great white fan.
<v Speaker 2>I don't really even remember Twice Shy that much, but
<v Speaker 2>he said along with several other albums, you guys made
<v Speaker 2>me re listen, rethink, and reappreciate basically, so and I
<v Speaker 2>told him, I said, man, that's that's a huge compliment
<v Speaker 2>for us. If we can we can get people to
<v Speaker 2>take a second look and a second opinion, that's big
<v Speaker 2>lead compliment.
<v Speaker 4>I'll take it absolutely. So all right, let's just jump
<v Speaker 4>in and start talking these tracks.
<v Speaker 1>I got to tell you.
<v Speaker 4>I will give you my take, you know, I will
<v Speaker 4>tell you my first experience with the album. I put
<v Speaker 4>the headphones on, I turned the volume up. I'm thinking, Okay, imagine,
<v Speaker 4>you know, imagine you're fourteen years old again and you've
<v Speaker 4>just bought this album, and I turned this song on,
<v Speaker 4>this very first song for the first time. It's the
<v Speaker 4>introduction that any album would be happy to have. And
<v Speaker 4>I was just like, holy crap, how did I miss this? So,
<v Speaker 4>song number one out of the gate, it's called some Team.
<v Speaker 4>So I can tell you this as a first time listener,
<v Speaker 4>I immediately I'm feeling doors vibes, which apparently was not.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not alone in that. Then the when the first
<v Speaker 1>thing that.
<v Speaker 4>He says at the beginning is this is the end, right,
<v Speaker 4>isn't that the doors?
<v Speaker 1>Right?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah? This is where it all ends.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I guess he paraphrased it a little bit, yes,
<v Speaker 4>but but I mean you start with the organ, which
<v Speaker 4>is classic Doors stuff. He sounds so Jim Morrison in
<v Speaker 4>his voice, but it's a completely different style of music
<v Speaker 4>in my opinion, except for maybe one of the songs
<v Speaker 4>on here. One of the songs is very strongly Doors,
<v Speaker 4>but you just get that vibe. But his voice is
<v Speaker 4>so solid, The guitar is rocking, the drums are rocking.
<v Speaker 4>This is a beautiful intro song. Blown my mind.
<v Speaker 3>The word that comes to minds when I hear this
<v Speaker 3>song is swagger, and that's just what this every pretty
<v Speaker 3>much every song on this album has it. But Iansberry
<v Speaker 3>said it was inspired by the decadence of Louis what
<v Speaker 3>the fourteenth do They call it the Sun King back
<v Speaker 3>in France.
<v Speaker 2>Louis the fourteenth. That's right, We need to talk about
<v Speaker 2>that really quick. So Louis the fourteenth became known as
<v Speaker 2>the Sun King when he was fifteen years old and
<v Speaker 2>believed himself to be the absolute ruler of France. He's
<v Speaker 2>one of these guys that believed everybody beneath him.
<v Speaker 1>He was like a god Ian.
<v Speaker 2>Ashbury said, he was known to crap on the floor
<v Speaker 2>and just the servants would just pick up after him.
<v Speaker 2>But he left France broken, busted in bankrupt.
<v Speaker 3>That's a good song title too, but there's definitely an
<v Speaker 3>element of a great interview with Ian Asbury where said
<v Speaker 3>it's very much a heat dog kind of song, and
<v Speaker 3>he said that's kind of person I am too. So
<v Speaker 3>I guess they were trying to start the album off
<v Speaker 3>with just a statement of intent that we are here
<v Speaker 3>to rock you and rock you hard.
<v Speaker 2>It's a great intro song, you know. But I think
<v Speaker 2>a lot of their songs feel like intro songs because
<v Speaker 2>they have that long sort of lead in, you know,
<v Speaker 2>building rock. They're really good at that building intro you know.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, y'all mentioned last week the Great White Formula to
<v Speaker 3>some of those songs. Yeah, it's kind of on this
<v Speaker 3>album too. You'll notice there's basically two templates for songs
<v Speaker 3>on this album, but hey, they work. I mean the Ramones, AC, DC, Motorhead,
<v Speaker 3>they all released the same album over and over, but
<v Speaker 3>it worked, and I think it works here on this
<v Speaker 3>album as well.
<v Speaker 4>So these guys, they came into this album with Bob
<v Speaker 4>Rock and this is one of Bob Rock's first albums
<v Speaker 4>as producer, right, I mean, and we all know him
<v Speaker 4>now because he's iconic. But the album that they had
<v Speaker 4>heard and they had just come off an album with
<v Speaker 4>Rick Ruben. This album came out in April of eighty nine.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, April tenth, nineteen eighty nine, Sign Temple was
<v Speaker 2>released right.
<v Speaker 4>So before this there was an album in I believe
<v Speaker 4>eighty six or eighty seven, Kingdom Come, Kingdom Come and Again,
<v Speaker 4>a band that I was not familiar with.
<v Speaker 1>But this was kind of.
<v Speaker 4>Bob Rock's first jump into production instead of just being
<v Speaker 4>an engineer with Bruce Fairbairn, which I mean, we've talked
<v Speaker 4>about both of them multiple times because we've covered Doctor
<v Speaker 4>Feel Good and Slippery and Slippery Went.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, they're in the Black album, yeah.
<v Speaker 4>And so they come in having heard Kingdom Come, Kingdom Come,
<v Speaker 4>which I listened to a little bit today on the
<v Speaker 4>way over here, and I was like, this is another
<v Speaker 4>great album that.
<v Speaker 1>I got to check out.
<v Speaker 4>And then it was then this one, this album was
<v Speaker 4>what inspired Lars to call up Bob Rock to do
<v Speaker 4>the Black album. And so that's kind of his stare
<v Speaker 4>stepping is he goes from Kingdom, come to Sonic Temple
<v Speaker 4>to Doctor Feel Good, to the Black Album. I mean
<v Speaker 4>it's just like Bang Bang Bang, And then I think, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>obviously Bonjovi's in there somewhere, but it is a sound
<v Speaker 4>that they were looking for that they hadn't had before,
<v Speaker 4>like the Love album. Well, I guess to start off,
<v Speaker 4>they were punk Ian. Astbury grows up in England and
<v Speaker 4>his family was poor and he felt like he never
<v Speaker 4>fit in, got harassed by teachers at school, and then
<v Speaker 4>they moved to Ontario, Canada for a little while, and
<v Speaker 4>he befriends these Native Americans there and feels like somebody's
<v Speaker 4>finally accepted me.
<v Speaker 1>I finally belong, which is kind of ironic given.
<v Speaker 4>What happens with his Indian persona later on with some
<v Speaker 4>of the some of the guys who talk against him.
<v Speaker 1>But he eventually appears about.
<v Speaker 4>This new punk scene in England sixteen by himself, goes
<v Speaker 4>back to England and starts a punk band, and then
<v Speaker 4>while he's playing with these various punk bands, they ultimately
<v Speaker 4>come up with the band Southern Death Cult.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, which was named after a group of mound building
<v Speaker 3>Native Americans that was part of an archaeological term for
<v Speaker 3>was it the Southwest Memorial Complex or something to that effect.
<v Speaker 3>So again you're already starting to see signs of Ian's
<v Speaker 3>fascination was Native American iconography culture and all that they
<v Speaker 3>were in the post punk era, which is basically where
<v Speaker 3>punk started slowing down, and hey, we can actually add
<v Speaker 3>melodies to songs, and you had one hands. You had
<v Speaker 3>bands like Joy Division, and then you had bands who
<v Speaker 3>went for a more sinister route like Fields of the Nephilum,
<v Speaker 3>and then you had guys who were like the swab
<v Speaker 3>of romantic types like Bauhaus and Southern Death Cult kind
<v Speaker 3>of fit right at the intersection of all of those guys.
<v Speaker 3>Lasted not very long. Those guys break up. Then he
<v Speaker 3>starts up another band a while later, called Just Death Cult,
<v Speaker 3>which is where I think eventually that's where he first
<v Speaker 3>met Billy Duffy, the guitar player, and.
<v Speaker 4>He and Billy Duffy had toured together when he was
<v Speaker 4>still with Southern Death Cult. Billy Duffy was in Theater
<v Speaker 4>of Hate, and so they toured together those two bands
<v Speaker 4>for a while, and then Southern Death Cult ended up
<v Speaker 4>signing with Baker's Banquet, an indie label, and they put
<v Speaker 4>out a song called fat Man and it does really well,
<v Speaker 4>and so then they get then they're starting to get
<v Speaker 4>interest from the major labels, and what does Ian Aspbery do.
<v Speaker 4>He's like, Okay, I'm dumping all this, like I'm dumping
<v Speaker 4>the band. I'm dumping it all. I got my little
<v Speaker 4>grocery bag full of my possessions. And he goes and
<v Speaker 4>finds Billy Duffy and he's like, how about we start
<v Speaker 4>a band. His goal was never to be a rock star,
<v Speaker 4>which is weird since he went to Billy Duffy, whose
<v Speaker 4>only goal was to.
<v Speaker 1>Be a rock star.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, their rise to fame is pretty interesting. I think
<v Speaker 2>even Sonic Temple. Ian Astbury was like, Okay, it's time
<v Speaker 2>for us to make a platinum album, like you know,
<v Speaker 2>just checking off the list right.
<v Speaker 4>And apparently if you had any doubt about his leanings
<v Speaker 4>towards the Native American culture, if you happen to see
<v Speaker 4>any of the early stage performances, he would literally come
<v Speaker 4>out in Native American garb with his face painted like
<v Speaker 4>a Native warrior. Like it was there was no mistake
<v Speaker 4>about where his interest was. So James, you've already talked
<v Speaker 4>about this a little bit. You've heard more of their
<v Speaker 4>music than I have. I'm guessing probably more than Jason has.
<v Speaker 4>What do you think about the progression?
<v Speaker 3>Like I said, they started off more on the gothic
<v Speaker 3>end of things. They were kind of aligned with bands
<v Speaker 3>like the Mission UK, kind of the big anthemic sounds.
<v Speaker 3>Then to the next out. First there was dream Time,
<v Speaker 3>then there was Love, where they started stripping down their
<v Speaker 3>sound a bit more. But the time they got to
<v Speaker 3>an electric in nineteen eighty seven, they were kind of
<v Speaker 3>headed to where they really perfected the sound. On Sonic Temple,
<v Speaker 3>they were stripping away out the excess, getting down to
<v Speaker 3>just rifts and drums and loud vocals, which obviously worked
<v Speaker 3>for them.
<v Speaker 4>Well, speaking of rifts and drums and loud vocals, I
<v Speaker 4>think that brings us quite nicely into song number two.
<v Speaker 2>Song number two is called fire Woman.
<v Speaker 4>All right, And so the question that I posed to
<v Speaker 4>my co hosts today on our text chat was, Okay,
<v Speaker 4>which is the better stripper song, fire Woman from Sonic
<v Speaker 4>Temple or Mista Bone from Twice Shy.
<v Speaker 3>I think mister Bone is probably the song that launched
<v Speaker 3>a thousand g strings. There's something about that really snaky,
<v Speaker 3>sinuous groove. That seems to lend itself to a stripper's ball.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know. This song feels more like a bar
<v Speaker 3>fight song.
<v Speaker 2>I think they both work. I think I could see
<v Speaker 2>that happening. I'm not saying I did see anything, but
<v Speaker 2>I'm saying it could happen.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you can imagine it.
<v Speaker 2>I can, yes, Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Well, it was definitely the imagining of it and fire
<v Speaker 4>Woman that inspired me to ask the question in the
<v Speaker 4>first place. Because in nineteen eighty nine, if you wanted
<v Speaker 4>to have platinum album, you wanted to check that box
<v Speaker 4>had to have a stripper song, and to me, this
<v Speaker 4>is that one on this album.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>This is the first single released March thirteenth, nineteen eighty nine.
<v Speaker 2>This reaches number forty six on the Hot one hundred,
<v Speaker 2>which is not nearly high enough, especially in that time,
<v Speaker 2>but it did reach number two on the Modern Rock charts.
<v Speaker 4>So I can't spike the football with one song, but
<v Speaker 4>I will spike the football with these two first songs
<v Speaker 4>and say these are the two best songs on the album.
<v Speaker 3>Woh, it's a Mike Tyson one to two combination. Man,
<v Speaker 3>it really is same formula. You start off with the
<v Speaker 3>kind of dynamic vaguely ominous intro. It builds and builds
<v Speaker 3>and builds and then just explodes into a killer riff vocals.
<v Speaker 3>I mean it's a great formula. Whant to fix what's
<v Speaker 3>not broken?
<v Speaker 2>Okay, let me ask you, because the drummers here are
<v Speaker 2>really interesting and you're our resident drummer expert. So Eric
<v Speaker 2>Singer of Kiss plays drums on the demos for this album.
<v Speaker 1>One of the demos. One of the demos.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, you had Chris. You've got two demos. You got
<v Speaker 4>Eric Singer on one and Chris Taylor on the other one.
<v Speaker 4>Chris Taylor of Pola. Is that what they were, the
<v Speaker 4>Bob Rock Band?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, okay, Mickey Curry of the Brian Abs Band and
<v Speaker 2>Hallan Oates and Hallan oates and plays drums on the album. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>And then on tour it's Matt Sore.
<v Speaker 3>They had their pick of the elites back at that time.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, Mickey was all over the place. If you
<v Speaker 3>rocked out to eighties rock radio at some point you
<v Speaker 3>were rocking out to Mickey Curry and Matt came on
<v Speaker 3>there at the end for the tour. Actually, I don't
<v Speaker 3>think Matt ever recorded with him, but he definitely did
<v Speaker 3>several tours with him, so and he's a powerhouse himself.
<v Speaker 4>I saw Matt sum talking about being a part of
<v Speaker 4>the band and he said, these guys had made a decision.
<v Speaker 1>They had a drummer.
<v Speaker 4>I don't remember who the drummer was that they had
<v Speaker 4>that was a bad heroin addict. But basically when they
<v Speaker 4>started touring with this album, they've got Matt Sorem on
<v Speaker 4>and they had made one rule, no drugs. Now they
<v Speaker 4>were drinking like fish, but no drugs, right, and the
<v Speaker 4>drinking was to say it was out of hand is
<v Speaker 4>a bit of an understatement. But everybody told Matt Sorem listen,
<v Speaker 4>Ian is the worst and if he comes knocking on
<v Speaker 4>your door in the middle of the night, don't answer
<v Speaker 4>the door. And Matt Sorrem was like, but I wanted
<v Speaker 4>to be friends with him. And so in the middle
<v Speaker 4>of the night he came knocking on my door and
<v Speaker 4>so I was like, okay, I'll open it for him.
<v Speaker 4>I'll be okay, opens the door and Ian Astbury, in
<v Speaker 4>a drunken psychotic episode, comes in and smashes lamps, pictures,
<v Speaker 4>furniture and then pulls down his pants to do something
<v Speaker 4>and before.
<v Speaker 1>He too whatever it is that he's going to do.
<v Speaker 4>Matt Sorm runs into the hallway, rakes the break in
<v Speaker 4>case of emergency, Glass pulls out the fire extinguisher, comes
<v Speaker 4>back in and hoses Ian Asbury down with a fire
<v Speaker 4>extinguisher before he can start or finish the deed as
<v Speaker 4>it is.
<v Speaker 2>A Matt Sorm had front row tickets to the craziest
<v Speaker 2>lead singer bs in the late eighties early nineties because
<v Speaker 2>he goes on to hang out with the Guns and
<v Speaker 2>Roses guys and it's Axl Rose all over the place,
<v Speaker 2>you know.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, and then he has Scott Wiland for a while.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, he does have Skott Willer, that's right.
<v Speaker 4>He went on to play drums with like staying after this, right,
<v Speaker 4>I mean, he's one of those guys that's just everywhere.
<v Speaker 2>I love this. Bob Rock told Mickey Curry to play
<v Speaker 2>drums like Keith must I thought that was a great quote.
<v Speaker 3>Oh the big drum breakdown in the middle of Firewoman.
<v Speaker 3>That's total Keith communion, just toms and cymbals everywhere. I
<v Speaker 3>love it. I've tried to duplicate it with a band
<v Speaker 3>I played in a few years ago, and I can
<v Speaker 3>come close. But man, there's a reason people like nik
<v Speaker 3>Here on so many albums. They take everything up a level.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Bob Rock actually talked about making Curious, said he
<v Speaker 2>made the band better.
<v Speaker 1>And Bob Rock says, you know.
<v Speaker 2>When I hear Firewoman on the radio, I think to myself,
<v Speaker 2>that song's good.
<v Speaker 3>Quick story about this song. This was my first real
<v Speaker 3>exposure to the Cult. It was nineteen eighty nine. I
<v Speaker 3>was a freshman in college. I was working in a
<v Speaker 3>Walmart store. We closed one night and all the customers
<v Speaker 3>were out, and the assistant manager was a guy named Ross,
<v Speaker 3>who's such a couple of years younger than me. He
<v Speaker 3>goes to the back. We don't see Ross for a
<v Speaker 3>few minutes, and then this song just starts pouring over
<v Speaker 3>the loud speakers. He went back and put the a single, Yes,
<v Speaker 3>thek a single for fire Woman. A nice cloud speaker.
<v Speaker 3>You know. I may have heardard Love Removal Machine earlier
<v Speaker 3>on the local rock stations that it never really clicked
<v Speaker 3>with me. As soon as this song kicked in. I
<v Speaker 3>was a Sonic Temple fan.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, me too. Actually, this is the first time
<v Speaker 2>I heard the Cult. They were played this song on
<v Speaker 2>MTV all over the place. By the way, quick recap
<v Speaker 2>of nineteen eighty nine the Modern Rock yearly chart. This
<v Speaker 2>finished number twenty nine for the year, and the song
<v Speaker 2>right in front of it Sewing the Seeds of Love.
<v Speaker 4>Oh nice, here's for two Fears to throw back. Check
<v Speaker 4>out that episode earlier this season, sorright.
<v Speaker 2>My only complain about this song is the video. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>so I don't know if you guys seen the video lately.
<v Speaker 2>You do have the kick butt rock, You've got the
<v Speaker 2>skull hat, you know, the cowboy hat with the skull
<v Speaker 2>and crossbones. You got Billy Duffy going crazy, but there
<v Speaker 2>is no fire woman in the video. Seems like that
<v Speaker 2>would be a perfect place to put stripper something you
<v Speaker 2>know eighties mixen for us to enjoy. I can't say
<v Speaker 2>enough about this song. I love it. I think it's fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>It may be the best song.
<v Speaker 3>On either album, all time classic.
<v Speaker 2>Next song on the album is called American Horse. That
<v Speaker 2>is another killer song.
<v Speaker 3>This is another one of the you know I talked
<v Speaker 3>about the templates they used for this album. This is
<v Speaker 3>the one which the slower grinding the reof and I
<v Speaker 3>love it. This was Ian Astbury's Fascinations Native Americans coming
<v Speaker 3>through again. I read somewhere he said he had a
<v Speaker 3>dream about a black horse with an American flag over
<v Speaker 3>its back being whipped by some mysterious dark figure, and
<v Speaker 3>he assumed they had something to do with the treatment
<v Speaker 3>of Native Americans over here. And yes, later served as
<v Speaker 3>the basis for the song.
<v Speaker 2>Hell Definitely. We talked about how he was fascinated with
<v Speaker 2>the Native of American culture, said he spent some time
<v Speaker 2>on a reservation in Canada. You know, the cover of Ceremony,
<v Speaker 2>which came out in ninety one, which was the fall
<v Speaker 2>up to Sonic Temple, had the picture of a young
<v Speaker 2>Native American boy.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if you guys know this, but they were.
<v Speaker 2>Sued for sixty one million dollars for that photo. It
<v Speaker 2>actually delayed the release of the album, and by that
<v Speaker 2>time grunge had kind of moved in and taken hold
<v Speaker 2>and cost them a ton of time and effort and money.
<v Speaker 2>The case was dismissed in February of ninety seven, and
<v Speaker 2>they're like, this was we purchased it. We're not exploiting anybody.
<v Speaker 2>But it took several years for them to clear that,
<v Speaker 2>and by that time the music landscape had changed.
<v Speaker 3>This was a very transitional period. I mean this year
<v Speaker 3>when eighty nine, when this came out, you had bands
<v Speaker 3>like skid Row and Motley Crue releasing classics, but you
<v Speaker 3>also had faith No Moore's the real Thing. You had
<v Speaker 3>the first Nirvana album coming out, sound Garden Sound to
<v Speaker 3>a major label. So the whole music industry was about
<v Speaker 3>to undergo a massive change, and I guess the Cult
<v Speaker 3>managed to balance themselves perfectly between the two eras.
<v Speaker 4>From what I understand, this album is kind of the
<v Speaker 4>was kind of the wedge that was really driven in
<v Speaker 4>between ian Asberry and Billy Duffy. Billy had really wanted
<v Speaker 4>a more commercial rock sound. You know, they had come
<v Speaker 4>with Electric, they had come out with with what's arguably
<v Speaker 4>a metal album after having been their post punk stuff,
<v Speaker 4>but this one was more of a pop metal album,
<v Speaker 4>and Ian Astbury was very unhappy with not only the sound,
<v Speaker 4>but the fame that came along with it because it
<v Speaker 4>was such a success. It's kind of interesting that this
<v Speaker 4>happens because hatt Ian Astbury had his way on the
<v Speaker 4>following albums and had more of the I mean, he
<v Speaker 4>did the Native American thing because he's more into the
<v Speaker 4>spiritual stuff and more into the deep side of things
<v Speaker 4>and doesn't care about this commercial success, which is right
<v Speaker 4>in line with what all of the grunge guys were doing.
<v Speaker 4>You know, they could have had an Allison Chained trend
<v Speaker 4>where they moved from metal into alt rock very successfully.
<v Speaker 4>But then ironically, the thing that keeps them from making
<v Speaker 4>that smooth transition is the use of this native American
<v Speaker 4>kid's photo that calls him into question of you know,
<v Speaker 4>what do you guys, what are you white English guys
<v Speaker 4>doing with this stuff, which of course is hugely upsetting
<v Speaker 4>to the guy who's so devoted to that culture.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, speaking of Billy Duffie briefly, don't think we've said
<v Speaker 3>enough about him so far. This is this song. I
<v Speaker 3>love that riff and the solo he plays, particularly during
<v Speaker 3>the fade out. If the guy was a shredder, absolutely.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he's a beast quick cut note about the nineteen
<v Speaker 2>eighty seven album Electric So they got they talked Rick
<v Speaker 2>Rubin into producing that album. Rick Rubin, of course known
<v Speaker 2>for Run dmc Beastie Boys. But Ian Astbury heard Cookie
<v Speaker 2>Puss and was like, now that song is really awesome.
<v Speaker 2>Cookie Puss. We talked about that.
<v Speaker 1>On our Beasty Boys episode.
<v Speaker 2>But from that nineteen eighty seven album you get love
<v Speaker 2>Removal Machine, which I learned from guitar hero. I love
<v Speaker 2>what Rick Rubin told them when they sat down and said, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>what are we going to do here? Is this gonna
<v Speaker 2>be goth? Is this gonna be rock? Is this going
<v Speaker 2>to be commercial?
<v Speaker 1>What are we doing?
<v Speaker 2>And so Rick Rubin says, do you want to play
<v Speaker 2>pusty English music or do you want to rock? And
<v Speaker 2>they said we want to rock, and so here we go.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know if you ever ever heard their cover
<v Speaker 3>of Born to Be Wild off Electric, if you haven't
<v Speaker 3>turnonmous or anything, it's truly not a good cover.
<v Speaker 1>Well now we have to listen right, let's hear it
<v Speaker 1>right here, An shut His voice does not belong on
<v Speaker 1>that song. Nope. I love his voice, and it does
<v Speaker 1>not belong on that song.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, it's a got this perfect wolf like hal
<v Speaker 3>And you mentioned the Jim Morrison stuff. I think in
<v Speaker 3>the early two thousands, ray Man, Zurich and Dinsmore whoever,
<v Speaker 3>they started the Doors. I don't know what you call it,
<v Speaker 3>but Ian sang for a while for him, so he
<v Speaker 3>definitely lived up to the Morrison comparisons.
<v Speaker 2>See that's fascinating to me. So he almost got the
<v Speaker 2>lead role in the Oliver Stone movie The Doors. He
<v Speaker 2>actually turned down the role that eventually went to Val Kilmer.
<v Speaker 2>The reason why he turned it down is because he
<v Speaker 2>did not like the way Jim Morrison was portrayed. So
<v Speaker 2>think about I mean, Val Kilmer comes in and absolutely
<v Speaker 2>kills it. Which I heard that when Val Kilmer is
<v Speaker 2>trying to convince Oliver Stone that he was right for
<v Speaker 2>the part. You played him three songs and he said
<v Speaker 2>which was me and which was Jim Morrison and Oliver
<v Speaker 2>Stone couldn't tell the difference, and that's how he got
<v Speaker 2>the role. But Ian Askedberry. The guys from The Doors
<v Speaker 2>took notice that he was almost hired for that role.
<v Speaker 2>They called him up later and said, hey, do you
<v Speaker 2>want to sing with us as we do the Doors?
<v Speaker 2>They became the Doors of the twenty first century and
<v Speaker 2>performed a lot, except without their original drummer, so Stuart
<v Speaker 2>Copeland helped out.
<v Speaker 3>Pretty cool, OHI always bend the knee at the mention
<v Speaker 3>of Stuart Copeland.
<v Speaker 2>Next song on the album is called Edie Chow Baby, that's.
<v Speaker 3>You know that I love this song, man, I really did.
<v Speaker 4>So we come in with this beautiful twelve string guitar
<v Speaker 4>that was an absolute fad that I absolutely bought into
<v Speaker 4>one in nineteen eighty nine. We talked about it on
<v Speaker 4>the Twice Shy album. She Only starts off like that,
<v Speaker 4>which was still the kind of even throwback to their
<v Speaker 4>Savior Love, which I again spiking football the best great
<v Speaker 4>White song of all times.
<v Speaker 1>And they do a beautiful job with this.
<v Speaker 4>It is a different His voice is a different sound
<v Speaker 4>for this twelve string guitar though, and as much as
<v Speaker 4>I like this sound, I think I prefer Jack Russell's
<v Speaker 4>voice with a twelve string guitar. I still like this,
<v Speaker 4>but I think Jack Russell does a better, better job
<v Speaker 4>specifically with you know Babe, I'm Gonna leave you and
<v Speaker 4>save your love.
<v Speaker 2>They're both incredible vocalists. I think Ian Astbury's voice is
<v Speaker 2>so different, it's almost like his brand. It's comparable. I
<v Speaker 2>think only to like Axel Rose. Like you hear that,
<v Speaker 2>you know exactly who that is, and nobody can really
<v Speaker 2>fill those shoes, I would say. But yeah, this is
<v Speaker 2>a beautiful song. I find it fascinating on who this
<v Speaker 2>was written about, you know the story behind this. So
<v Speaker 2>this was written about Edie Sedgwick, who was this actress
<v Speaker 2>and model and socialite from the sixties. She was one
<v Speaker 2>of these stable girls for Andy Warhol. She was actually
<v Speaker 2>in a movie called Chow Manhattan. That's kind of where
<v Speaker 2>he gets the Chow Baby. Ian Astbury became fascinated with
<v Speaker 2>her while he was living in New York recording the
<v Speaker 2>Electric album. And this is a girl who she was
<v Speaker 2>very rich, but she was kind of the it girl.
<v Speaker 2>And so I think maybe the best comparison to her
<v Speaker 2>would be like Kim Kardassian or Paris Hilton or somebody
<v Speaker 2>like maybe Paris Hilton be the best comparison. So she's rich,
<v Speaker 2>she's famous, she's pretty, she's in movies. She had mental
<v Speaker 2>health issues and eventually died of a drug overdose in
<v Speaker 2>nineteen seventy one at age twenty eight. I think a
<v Speaker 2>lot of people suspect that it might be suicide. So
<v Speaker 2>it's just kind of sad story about success and drug
<v Speaker 2>abuse and mental health. She was actually played by Cianna
<v Speaker 2>Miller in the two thousand and six movie called Factory Girl.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, so I caught a little bit of the video
<v Speaker 4>on this and apparently the girl that's in this video
<v Speaker 4>playing the edy part is or was Ian Astberry's actual girlfriend,
<v Speaker 4>and from listening to it, she was kind of the
<v Speaker 4>Yoko Ono of the band. It was like he stopped
<v Speaker 4>spending time with the band and spent only time with her.
<v Speaker 4>She's a beautiful girl and sounded like she was an
<v Speaker 4>intelligent person as well. But he kind of infatuated with her,
<v Speaker 4>and that just added to the rift that was going
<v Speaker 4>on with this different desires of where to go and
<v Speaker 4>what to do with the music that was happening between
<v Speaker 4>Billy Duffy and Ian.
<v Speaker 2>You know in the video you talk about the video
<v Speaker 2>she looks like Edie Sedgwick and maybe that's the reason
<v Speaker 2>why he was so into her at that moment. Also
<v Speaker 2>in this music video, they have this it's shot in
<v Speaker 2>New York City. Clearly they have the eight cellists sitting
<v Speaker 2>at the corner of a major intersection.
<v Speaker 1>They're playing the cello.
<v Speaker 2>They're all playing the cello, which that was Bob Rock's
<v Speaker 2>idea to bring in the strings and it works. It's
<v Speaker 2>so cool. But there is a gigantic billboard that has
<v Speaker 2>the batman symbol and I'm like that was shot in
<v Speaker 2>the summer of nineteen eighty nine, without a doubt.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, fun part.
<v Speaker 3>The composer was a Canadian named Bob Buckley, sadly no relation.
<v Speaker 3>The guy came up strings and cello port but he
<v Speaker 3>did an excellent job with that.
<v Speaker 2>This was the second single released June twenty sixth, nineteen
<v Speaker 2>eighty nine. I thought this was really cool. Bob Rock
<v Speaker 2>was approached by Little Steve Even of the East Street band.
<v Speaker 2>Bob Rock's like, this guy's my hero. He doesn't even
<v Speaker 2>really care about me or know who I am. Came over,
<v Speaker 2>put his hand on his shoulder and said, I just
<v Speaker 2>want to let you know. My favorite string arrangement of
<v Speaker 2>all time is what you guys did on Edie. And
<v Speaker 2>he said, my favorite ballad of all time is Eadie.
<v Speaker 1>Wow.
<v Speaker 2>Bob Rock said his jaw hit the floor.
<v Speaker 1>Sometimes you can't meet your heroes. I guess yep, there
<v Speaker 1>you go.
<v Speaker 2>By the way, I just I watched some videos, I
<v Speaker 2>listed some interviews. Ian Astbury was sort of similar to
<v Speaker 2>Nikky six that he would take journals, like tons of journaling,
<v Speaker 2>right down his thoughts, right down his feelings, write down
<v Speaker 2>what was going on. And Bob Rock said that that
<v Speaker 2>even rubbed off on him, and so that actually became
<v Speaker 2>a habit of Bob Rock's because of Ian Ashbery. He
<v Speaker 2>really says he changed his life. Pretty fascinating.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, next song on the album.
<v Speaker 2>Next song on the album is Sweet Soul. Sista barely
<v Speaker 2>say that without singing it.
<v Speaker 1>Dang, the song is freaking good.
<v Speaker 4>So I mentioned earlier there was one song on this
<v Speaker 4>album that was particularly doors Ish, and that to me
<v Speaker 4>is this song you come in with that organ. I
<v Speaker 4>mean it's a different sound organ, but it's still an
<v Speaker 4>organ and still got.
<v Speaker 1>That style of the Doors.
<v Speaker 4>I don't know, I do not have documentation of this,
<v Speaker 4>but I know that John Webster, who is like a
<v Speaker 4>go to keyboardist for Bob Rock, is on this album.
<v Speaker 4>My guess is this intro to this song is where
<v Speaker 4>he comes in. And then when you got Sweet Soul's sister,
<v Speaker 4>I mean that chorus is screaming.
<v Speaker 1>Jim Morrison.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's the very definition of anthemic. It's very power,
<v Speaker 3>wonderful chorus.
<v Speaker 2>I love this song. This was the fourth single released
<v Speaker 2>February of nineteen ninety. Buddy on my baseball team had
<v Speaker 2>this because single and we used to thump it when
<v Speaker 2>you drove from the school to the baseball Diamond, and.
<v Speaker 1>So you had to be waving at the girls when
<v Speaker 1>you were doing this.
<v Speaker 2>Sweet Soul's Sister.
<v Speaker 4>Hop down, turn it up, waving at the girls. It's
<v Speaker 4>the Sweet Soul Sister chimes.
<v Speaker 2>That's it, Andy Milrett, You and me brother. So I
<v Speaker 2>want to talk just briefly about the bassist in the Cult.
<v Speaker 2>His name was Jamie Stewart, kind of a guy in
<v Speaker 2>the background. A rock gave him a lot of credit
<v Speaker 2>for kind of being a bridge guy. But I heard
<v Speaker 2>a story where he was They were sitting in and
<v Speaker 2>Jamie Stewart's like, Hey, I got this baseline and I
<v Speaker 2>want to play you guys, maybe we can do something
<v Speaker 2>with it. So he plays this baseline. He says, what
<v Speaker 2>do you guys think about this? And Billy Duffy looked
<v Speaker 2>him dead in the eye and said, Ian and I
<v Speaker 2>write the songs.
<v Speaker 1>And that's why this was the last album that he
<v Speaker 1>was on.
<v Speaker 2>Jami series like, see you guys, I'm out of here.
<v Speaker 2>So he actually quit after the tour, and Matt Soorm
<v Speaker 2>of course was standing over there too. Matt Soorm he
<v Speaker 2>was standing backstage when the tour manager for Aerosmith was
<v Speaker 2>telling Ian Aspberry kind of the rules for their show
<v Speaker 2>as they opened for Aerosmith. Now Aerosmith in eighty nine
<v Speaker 2>and ninety had re emerged from the dead and we're
<v Speaker 2>really one of the biggest bands in the world. And
<v Speaker 2>the tour manager for the Airsmith guy said, all right, listen,
<v Speaker 2>my only rule is don't go down this ramp. That's
<v Speaker 2>Steven Tyler's ramp and there's this sort of whatever special
<v Speaker 2>effect at the end of it. It don't want you
<v Speaker 2>to go through that, So don't touch the ramp, okay,
<v Speaker 2>And I guess there was like a hand at the
<v Speaker 2>end of it, So here we go. Show starts. Of course,
<v Speaker 2>Ian asked. Berry's like, oh yeah, we'll watch this runs
<v Speaker 2>down the ramp and like it's like stomping and kicking
<v Speaker 2>the whatever item it was the hand. And as soon
<v Speaker 2>as they got done, the tour manager was super pissed
<v Speaker 2>and they were like, you're fired. We don't We're not
<v Speaker 2>taking any more of this crap. We can get anybody
<v Speaker 2>to come on with Aerosmith with us. You guys are fired.
<v Speaker 2>And Matt Sorm went to him and he knew Steven
<v Speaker 2>Tyler personally, but he went to the tour manager and said, listen, listen,
<v Speaker 2>let me just talk to Steven see if I can
<v Speaker 2>smooth this thing over. Matt Sorem went to Steven Tyler
<v Speaker 2>and said, listen, Ian's English. He doesn't know what a
<v Speaker 2>ramp is. And so Steven Tyler's like, oh yeah, okay.
<v Speaker 2>So he got him to stay because he convinced them
<v Speaker 2>that Ian didn't know what a ramp was.
<v Speaker 5>It.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, I love this song. Ian Astbury said he wrote
<v Speaker 2>this about the americanization of the European culture.
<v Speaker 4>Before you leave, Jamie Stewart, I have to know the
<v Speaker 4>Coult stuck together despite the fact that they were, you know,
<v Speaker 4>falling apart of the Steams until nineteen ninety five. But
<v Speaker 4>by that time Jamie Stewart had retired from the music industry,
<v Speaker 4>went back to the UK and worked as a software
<v Speaker 4>and user interface designer and lives in Oxfordshire with his family.
<v Speaker 4>He went from being the bassist in the cult to
<v Speaker 4>software designs.
<v Speaker 2>Good for him, man, good for him. I bet nobody
<v Speaker 2>looks at him in the eye and says, I do
<v Speaker 2>the computer designs around here?
<v Speaker 1>All right?
<v Speaker 2>Hit stop on your tape player, kick it out, flip
<v Speaker 2>it over for side two. We start off this side
<v Speaker 2>with the song sol Asylum.
<v Speaker 1>I would describe this song as pulsing.
<v Speaker 3>It's a return to their goth roots. I feel like
<v Speaker 3>a lot of the riff feels like something has been
<v Speaker 3>at home and one of those bands from that era.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, this is a slow pounding headbanger. Like in concert,
<v Speaker 2>I could see people like really getting into This is
<v Speaker 2>Bob Rock's favorite song and Billy Duffy's favorite song.
<v Speaker 3>A dark Horse contended for my favorite on this album
<v Speaker 3>as well.
<v Speaker 1>It's great.
<v Speaker 4>I love this and I love the slow pulse build.
<v Speaker 4>This is a getting dirty song.
<v Speaker 2>It's seven minutes long.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and it's not I was gonna say, it's not
<v Speaker 1>that I don't know it's on the Makeout List.
<v Speaker 4>It's like upgrade from the Makeout List's third base list.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know what you call it. That's what this
<v Speaker 1>song belongs on.
<v Speaker 2>The third Bass Playlist.
<v Speaker 3>I love the line who could break a Butterfly on
<v Speaker 3>a Wheel? And I think that there's another goth band
<v Speaker 3>called The Mission UK who's been next year would release
<v Speaker 3>a song called Butterfly on a Wheel, which I have
<v Speaker 3>to think was maybe inspired a little bit by this one.
<v Speaker 5>So many times, so many times.
<v Speaker 2>I've got a great story for you though, involving our
<v Speaker 2>man Dave Grohl.
<v Speaker 1>Okay.
<v Speaker 2>Apparently Dave Grol and the Cult had a feud.
<v Speaker 1>Do you know about this? Okay?
<v Speaker 2>So in two thousand and one, the Cult was recording
<v Speaker 2>their album Beyond Good and Evil, but they toyed with
<v Speaker 2>actually calling that album bring Me the Head of Dave Grohl.
<v Speaker 1>Okay.
<v Speaker 2>So all this came from comments that Dave made in
<v Speaker 2>a rock magazine where he said he went to a
<v Speaker 2>Cult show and wanted to put a gun to his head. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>And of course the guys from the Cult, who their
<v Speaker 2>popularity was waning in large part due to the success
<v Speaker 2>of Nirvana and bands like them, really took that personal
<v Speaker 2>and had a real grudge against Dave. Well, twenty seventeen
<v Speaker 2>rolls around and they're playing They're headlining the same music festival,
<v Speaker 2>so it's finally time the guy's to be kind of
<v Speaker 2>in the same room together, and Dave, to his credit,
<v Speaker 2>walked in and said, Hi, I've never met you before.
<v Speaker 2>My name's Dave Grohl, shook his hand and said, I'm
<v Speaker 2>sorry for everything I said. Can we just put this
<v Speaker 2>in the past, And they were gracious and said, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>let's do that.
<v Speaker 4>I'm glad that you at least I understand somewhat at
<v Speaker 4>this position, because, as I said, no experience with this
<v Speaker 4>band except for this album and this.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, they're awesome. They sound so good.
<v Speaker 2>They're awesome.
<v Speaker 4>I mean Ian Astbury his voice isn't just a voice,
<v Speaker 4>it's a musical instrument.
<v Speaker 1>Bye yea.
<v Speaker 4>I mean he doesn't just say fire, he says by yea.
<v Speaker 4>I mean he brings it with his voice right to
<v Speaker 4>one word chorus.
<v Speaker 1>I know.
<v Speaker 4>And I talked to Kevin Davis about this band, our
<v Speaker 4>Patreon good friend, Kevin Davis, and he was like, love
<v Speaker 4>love love. Listen to the album, saw them live twice.
<v Speaker 1>They're terrible.
<v Speaker 3>Oh.
<v Speaker 4>I was like, what he's like. I don't know what's
<v Speaker 4>going on with their singer. I think he must be
<v Speaker 4>just a studio guy or whatever. But he wouldn't sing
<v Speaker 4>half of the time. The other half of the time,
<v Speaker 4>he got the lyrics only half right. It didn't sound
<v Speaker 4>like him. It just wasn't It wasn't good.
<v Speaker 1>And I mean it.
<v Speaker 4>Could be that he's it could be that he is
<v Speaker 4>just better in the studio than he is live.
<v Speaker 1>That's possibility. I've seen several folks like that, of course.
<v Speaker 4>And it could also be that he's got a distaste
<v Speaker 4>for a lot of the music that is their most
<v Speaker 4>popular music, and so he's not really into it, doing
<v Speaker 4>his groovy kind of voice thing, which I think if
<v Speaker 4>I was a fan of the album and then I
<v Speaker 4>got there and listened to him kind of begrudgingly half
<v Speaker 4>built out these songs, I'd be disinterested as well. But
<v Speaker 4>of course, right after I texted you guys and asked
<v Speaker 4>which would be the better stripper song, I posed the
<v Speaker 4>same question to Kevin Davis and his response was, good question.
<v Speaker 4>I think live I would prefer Miss the Bone, But
<v Speaker 4>the studio version, it's.
<v Speaker 1>A toss up. Hey.
<v Speaker 2>I talked to Chris Weber and he sent me a
<v Speaker 2>story on the Cult as well. He saw them live
<v Speaker 2>like in the late eighties, and he said that they
<v Speaker 2>had this band that was opening for them who was
<v Speaker 2>really good and kind of upcoming.
<v Speaker 1>I guess maybe this was eighty seven, maybe eighty eight.
<v Speaker 2>Anyway, it was not unusual for the opening band to
<v Speaker 2>kind of prank the headliners, and so they came out
<v Speaker 2>on stage with nothing but towels on and the Cult
<v Speaker 2>guys thought it was hilarious and sort of managed to
<v Speaker 2>get their hands on a few of the towels and
<v Speaker 2>kind of ripped them off, and so they're running around
<v Speaker 2>stage and that band was Guns N' Roses. I thought
<v Speaker 2>that was a great story.
<v Speaker 1>Oh that's great. Okay, we done with this one.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I love it, man. I think it's one of
<v Speaker 3>the best on the album.
<v Speaker 1>It's a banger for sure. Okay.
<v Speaker 2>Next song on the album is called New York City Rambo.
<v Speaker 1>This is formula rock at its finest. Guys. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>you like it or you don't like it.
<v Speaker 4>I mean it's a good song, but I can tell
<v Speaker 4>that it is a cookie cutter mold.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, I like it. I think it's great. It's a bang.
<v Speaker 2>I'm sure in concert this is a great song.
<v Speaker 3>It's like Sarah whethers Billy Duffy said. It was inspired
<v Speaker 3>by the time they spent in New York recording the
<v Speaker 3>Electric album, just the whole general vibe of the city.
<v Speaker 3>And my favorite thing about this song is in the background,
<v Speaker 3>particularly during the little bridge, you can hear the vocals
<v Speaker 3>of the mister James Osterberg himself.
<v Speaker 1>Baby.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I was hoping to stun you with that information,
<v Speaker 2>but I see Dee've got it pulled up, you're right
<v Speaker 2>on top of it.
<v Speaker 4>So James even stole my idea of saying backup on
<v Speaker 4>the song is James Newell Osterberg Juniors.
<v Speaker 2>Did you hear how he got to the studio to
<v Speaker 2>sing vocals?
<v Speaker 5>No?
<v Speaker 2>Okay, he went straight from a gig ian Astberry went
<v Speaker 2>over to that gig, picked him up on his harley,
<v Speaker 2>drove him to the studio when he walked in, like
<v Speaker 2>other members of the band and the producer there like,
<v Speaker 2>let's say, you pop, what's he doing here?
<v Speaker 1>Showed up just to seeing vocals. Awesome.
<v Speaker 2>By the way, the second verse deals at least a
<v Speaker 2>little bit with the assassination of John Lennon.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, so we've had seven songs so far and not
<v Speaker 4>a loser in any one of them. No skippers, no skippers,
<v Speaker 4>and most of them solid turn it up songs.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, the first six are bangers, but next song is
<v Speaker 2>called automatic Blues.
<v Speaker 4>So, James, I know you are not a Led Zeppelin fan.
<v Speaker 4>I'm sorry for outing you here in front of God
<v Speaker 4>and everybody. So I don't know how you feel about
<v Speaker 4>this particular song. But if this is not a straight
<v Speaker 4>theft of black Dog, I don't know what it is.
<v Speaker 3>There's a port in the middle where Nicky Curry does
<v Speaker 3>his quick little flurries on his bass drum that straight
<v Speaker 3>out at good times bad times. So yeah, the zepplog
<v Speaker 3>was all over this song.
<v Speaker 1>So how do you feel about it? Given that that case.
<v Speaker 3>I'm not necessarily gonna skip it, but I may become
<v Speaker 3>distracted waiting for a chance to go back and listen
<v Speaker 3>to sun King again or Firewoman. It's not an automatic skipper,
<v Speaker 3>but it's not my favorite track on the album.
<v Speaker 2>Jason, this is not a great song.
<v Speaker 1>This one the first one that really didn't work for me.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I feel like they are they're a little too
<v Speaker 4>on their nose with the led Zeppelin love. And his
<v Speaker 4>voice is not Robert Plant's voice. It's it's a different style.
<v Speaker 4>It's not bad. It's maybe better for a whole lot
<v Speaker 4>of songs, but he shouldn't be singing this.
<v Speaker 2>You're saying Jack Russell is a better imitator of led Zeppelin, right.
<v Speaker 4>I'm saying Jack Russell is a better imitator of led
<v Speaker 4>Zeppelin than Robert Plaints.
<v Speaker 2>YESO nice in certain certain states, Yes, I agree.
<v Speaker 1>From a certain point of view.
<v Speaker 2>There's a time in nineteen ninety three where you had
<v Speaker 2>Metallica touring the Black Album and opening for them on
<v Speaker 2>certain dates, you had Alison Chains on other dates you
<v Speaker 2>had the Cult. That's a heck of a ticket right.
<v Speaker 1>There, man.
<v Speaker 2>Either one of those would have been awesome to see
<v Speaker 2>at that time.
<v Speaker 1>As I understand it, most of the Metallica froud was
<v Speaker 1>not very happy to see the car.
<v Speaker 2>They were super hard on them.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they boot them.
<v Speaker 2>I can't believe that. That seems crazy to me. I
<v Speaker 2>was going to tell you guys this, Bob Rock when
<v Speaker 2>he was gearing up to record Sonic Temple, he went
<v Speaker 2>to see the Cult open for Metallica on the Justice
<v Speaker 2>Tour and Justice for All, Justice for All. So he
<v Speaker 2>saw the Cult watch them, Yeah, I can produce their
<v Speaker 2>next album aid for Metallica, saw what they did on
<v Speaker 2>the end Justice for All tour and thought, these guys
<v Speaker 2>are really powerful. I think I can help them write
<v Speaker 2>some really great commercial songs. And that's how that partnership started.
<v Speaker 2>And basically he's been with them ever since.
<v Speaker 3>I saw Metallica on that tour. Dear God, they were
<v Speaker 3>in peak form. They saw Queens Reike open for him.
<v Speaker 3>They were great, but Metallica in that time on that tour,
<v Speaker 3>they were a machine, all right.
<v Speaker 2>Moving on to the next song on the album. This
<v Speaker 2>song is called Soldier Blue, So.
<v Speaker 4>Again he doesn't just say yeah, he says yeah. But
<v Speaker 4>to me, this one is this one's all kinds of
<v Speaker 4>Mickey Curry. I want to know James's opinion on the
<v Speaker 4>intro drums on this one, because they're freaking fire.
<v Speaker 3>Oh yeah, just that big bouncy shuffle feel. Mickey really
<v Speaker 3>kills it on that.
<v Speaker 2>This is the same guy who plays Summers, not Summer
<v Speaker 2>sixty nine.
<v Speaker 1>No, not Summer of sixty.
<v Speaker 2>Somebody in Heaven and all those great.
<v Speaker 4>Bryan Adams songs, yeah, and Private Eyes that's it, that's
<v Speaker 4>it and Eater.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, all the notes. He gets his chance to rock
<v Speaker 2>out and he takes advantage of it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, this is a great song. I'm a fan.
<v Speaker 2>Feels like they're attempting to make something a little more commercial,
<v Speaker 2>a little more mainstream.
<v Speaker 1>I dig it.
<v Speaker 4>This one is on the on the lower half of
<v Speaker 4>the album. For me, I like the drums and I
<v Speaker 4>like the guitar, but I just don't feel like the
<v Speaker 4>I don't feel like the lyrics on this one, and
<v Speaker 4>the melody of the song is super enticing.
<v Speaker 3>No, it's not a bad song. It's not gonna it's
<v Speaker 3>not gonna rank in my top five or six. Off
<v Speaker 3>the album.
<v Speaker 2>There's not a lot of room in the top five
<v Speaker 2>because the first five songs.
<v Speaker 1>Are freaking amazing.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, oh yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I did hear Bob Rock talk about this particular song
<v Speaker 2>and said that Ian Astbury is the same guy that
<v Speaker 2>you see on stage, that you see in the studio,
<v Speaker 2>that you see out to eat or whatever. So that
<v Speaker 2>a lot of guys that he's worked with, they've got
<v Speaker 2>their stage persona and then they got the guy who
<v Speaker 2>comes in and flip flops and shorts, you know. But
<v Speaker 2>Ian Asbury sees himself as a soldier and he has
<v Speaker 2>all these like old uniforms, like he's a collector.
<v Speaker 1>All right.
<v Speaker 2>Next song on the album is called wake Up Time
<v Speaker 2>for Freedom.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, I think that we've finally hit what I would
<v Speaker 4>describe as the first skipper on the album.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's not great. It's kind of a hand clapper.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what they're trying to do on this one.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, there's a kind of weird juxtaposition in this song
<v Speaker 4>because the chorus is about wake Up Time for Freedom,
<v Speaker 4>wake Up time to fly. But it's all so when
<v Speaker 4>I open the door, there's a law man star and
<v Speaker 4>I'm getting dragged into a waiting car. So it's like
<v Speaker 4>he's wake up time for Freedom. I'm getting arrested. I'm
<v Speaker 4>gonna die.
<v Speaker 1>Well.
<v Speaker 2>This song was written by En Asbury about a reoccurring
<v Speaker 2>nightmare that he had about getting arrested.
<v Speaker 1>Oh there you go.
<v Speaker 4>So I don't know why that's wake Up Time for
<v Speaker 4>Freedom though, how does that come into play?
<v Speaker 2>I got to think that that comes from Blade Runner, honestly,
<v Speaker 2>Blade Runner, because the rudger Howard characters says, has that
<v Speaker 2>real famous quote where he says, wake up time to die.
<v Speaker 4>I got you, Okay, Yeah, I still don't know where
<v Speaker 4>wake up time for Freedom is there?
<v Speaker 1>Wake Up time to die?
<v Speaker 4>That makes sense in the in the context of the
<v Speaker 4>song wake Up Time for Freedom.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. I don't know.
<v Speaker 4>It doesn't make any sense. It's it's not a good song.
<v Speaker 4>Let's get on, sorry, yeah, let's move on. We're moving
<v Speaker 4>on trying to get back to the beginning of Sun.
<v Speaker 2>King So exactly can we just go back to sun
<v Speaker 2>King Rise? So let's go to Bonus track. This was
<v Speaker 2>not on the tape. This was on the CD and vinyl,
<v Speaker 2>but not on the tape. This song is called Medicine Train.
<v Speaker 1>Okay.
<v Speaker 4>I I got a very bait and twitch kind of
<v Speaker 4>feeling on this one. I mean, I've got this fantastic
<v Speaker 4>blues harmonica harp coming in here, blowing me away, and
<v Speaker 4>then they just drop it and go ahead and go
<v Speaker 4>back to the just kind of standard rocking sound. I'm
<v Speaker 4>not really sure what a medicine train is, but here's
<v Speaker 4>here's some of the lyrics from the song. Says standing
<v Speaker 4>on a stage, the boy started shaking, lip curled back,
<v Speaker 4>started quaking. I'm getting a strong Elvis vibe on that one,
<v Speaker 4>Like this is this is very reminiscent of Elvis as
<v Speaker 4>a boy, but when he went to the revival and
<v Speaker 4>kind of was inspired to become a singer. And the
<v Speaker 4>lip curl that, I mean, it's just making me think Elvis.
<v Speaker 4>Elvis has got a song called Mystery Train, and medicine
<v Speaker 4>Train is a mystery So there you go. I don't know,
<v Speaker 4>it's all I could do in this one, Okay, love
<v Speaker 4>the harmonica at the beginning. The rest of the song
<v Speaker 4>is just kind of mad. I wish they would have
<v Speaker 4>kept up with the harmonica that they had.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, this is not a great song, but it does
<v Speaker 2>give us this lyric shooting from the hip in the
<v Speaker 2>Sonic Temple. Oh and that's how we get the title
<v Speaker 2>of the album.
<v Speaker 1>So they had to put it on. I ca'd on
<v Speaker 1>this track.
<v Speaker 3>I don't.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, okay, yeah, So now good, we're back to son
<v Speaker 4>King again and I can start I can start off
<v Speaker 4>with the good music again, because once again, this is
<v Speaker 4>not a this is not one. I must stay and
<v Speaker 4>listen to the whole time.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, side A killer, Yeah, side B mid.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, you know, well, I think that means that we're
<v Speaker 4>I mean, we're done with the album now, yes, and
<v Speaker 4>so we've got time left. We've got to say. We've
<v Speaker 4>covered Great White. Why shy, We've covered the cult Sonic Temple.
<v Speaker 4>It's time for final judgment, Jason, what are your thoughts?
<v Speaker 1>Okay?
<v Speaker 2>So I love both of these albums. This matchup was
<v Speaker 2>my idea, and in the summer of nineteen eighty nine,
<v Speaker 2>I had both of these albums.
<v Speaker 1>I listened to them both.
<v Speaker 2>I love both. I love the bluesy blues of Great White.
<v Speaker 2>I'm a blues rock kind of guy. I'm not a
<v Speaker 2>big goth progressive post punk kind of guy, but this
<v Speaker 2>album really hits me because they lean into that rock.
<v Speaker 2>I think, so what is the better album? I think
<v Speaker 2>the best song on both of these albums is Firewoman.
<v Speaker 2>I can crank that up to eleven any day of
<v Speaker 2>the week. And although it's lopsided, it's very front heavy,
<v Speaker 2>Like the first six songs of Sonic Temple are amazing,
<v Speaker 2>and then it falls off pretty quickly after that. If
<v Speaker 2>I'm walking out the door and I only can grab
<v Speaker 2>one grabbing Sonic Temple by.
<v Speaker 4>The cult, Okay, now we need to hear from James.
<v Speaker 4>Let's see what James is taking.
<v Speaker 3>Tough call two of the top contenders of nineteen eighty nine.
<v Speaker 3>But after going back and listening to him over and
<v Speaker 3>over again, I think The Great White is the album
<v Speaker 3>I keep going back to. There are a lot of
<v Speaker 3>great moments in Sonic Temple, but some of it, you know,
<v Speaker 3>with the looking back over the years, feels a bit
<v Speaker 3>I don't know, almost like they were trying to cop
<v Speaker 3>onto the hard rock thing at the time. And so
<v Speaker 3>it's a fantastic album. I've love going back to listen
<v Speaker 3>to it, But if I had forced to choose a
<v Speaker 3>musical gunpoint, I'd have to go with Great White.
<v Speaker 1>Wow, awesome man.
<v Speaker 2>James is leaning twice shy. So the question, though, is
<v Speaker 2>that you know you weren't super familiar with Great White,
<v Speaker 2>you never even heard of the cult Nope. So I'm
<v Speaker 2>really anxious to hear how you come down on these
<v Speaker 2>two albums. See where are you?
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to be the tiebreaker. Here you are the time.
<v Speaker 4>I want to be the tye breaker. All right, Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>I'm excited about this. So I like you love the blues.
<v Speaker 4>I love the sound that Great White has. I think
<v Speaker 4>Jack Russell's voice is phenomenal. I would listen to it
<v Speaker 4>sing most any song. And Ian Astbury it's it's he
<v Speaker 4>was perfect for some songs and not right for other songs.
<v Speaker 4>And a couple of them we get on this album
<v Speaker 4>and I don't feel like on Why Shy there were
<v Speaker 4>any skippers, Like there are songs that are less good
<v Speaker 4>than others, but none that I would just be like
<v Speaker 4>not skipping that song. They are all very listenable songs.
<v Speaker 4>A House of Broken Dreams is one of the best
<v Speaker 4>blue songs that I was completely unfamiliar with that I
<v Speaker 4>now love but the first side of Sonic Temple is
<v Speaker 4>so powerful and so good. I can tell you, you know,
<v Speaker 4>there's something when you you know, when you see the
<v Speaker 4>girl for the first time and your eyes meet and
<v Speaker 4>the spark happens. I can tell you that that didn't
<v Speaker 4>happen for me. On twice, Shy enjoyed it. It was fine,
<v Speaker 4>she was cute, she was cute, and I would go
<v Speaker 4>out with her again.
<v Speaker 1>Right.
<v Speaker 4>But when I heard sun King for the first time,
<v Speaker 4>it was like the lights went up and the romantic
<v Speaker 4>music started playing, and I was moving across the floor
<v Speaker 4>to meet Sonic Temple face to face this album. I
<v Speaker 4>was so glad that you introduced me to this album
<v Speaker 4>because this is, without questions, Bike in the football, Sonic
<v Speaker 4>Temple is the better.
<v Speaker 1>Album of these two albums.
<v Speaker 4>All right, yeah, fantastic, I will it is now in
<v Speaker 4>the queue. Sun King, Firewoman, American Horse, all.
<v Speaker 1>Of them are going to be in my regular play rotation.
<v Speaker 2>I'm so glad to hear that. I'm so glad that
<v Speaker 2>you enjoyed it. We want to hear from you, guys,
<v Speaker 2>how did we do? Which one of these albums do
<v Speaker 2>you like better? We want to hear from you. You
<v Speaker 2>and I are available on email. Anybody's available to email
<v Speaker 2>us Shirleypodcast at gmail dot com. Reach out to us.
<v Speaker 1>We'd love to hear from you.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, we love hearing it. By the way, guys, if
<v Speaker 4>you want to make a comment in our review, it's
<v Speaker 4>even better. Ops us up on other people's ratings, give
<v Speaker 4>us a little five star, give us a little take
<v Speaker 4>on this episode and any other episodes you want to
<v Speaker 4>chime in on.
<v Speaker 1>It helps us so much.
<v Speaker 4>It's absolutely free for you to do, so please do
<v Speaker 4>that and also check out our Patreon page.
<v Speaker 1>We've got some secret episodes over.
<v Speaker 4>There that are some of our best where we cover
<v Speaker 4>some one hit wonders and other novelty songs that are
<v Speaker 4>just too fun not to listen to. So go check
<v Speaker 4>us out on Patreon dot com slash Shirly Podcast James,
<v Speaker 4>thanks again for coming to hang out with us.
<v Speaker 1>Loved having you here.
<v Speaker 2>Next week is fourth of July. We're gonna put out
<v Speaker 2>one of our special edition episodes for you guys to
<v Speaker 2>enjoy in the week of the fourth July.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, we've got in our in our Patreon episodes. We've
<v Speaker 4>started doing this little thing where it's like a little
<v Speaker 4>mystery track where it's you're trying to guess what the
<v Speaker 4>song is. I have a similar concept that I'm bringing
<v Speaker 4>to you guys for the fourth of July Special Edition.
<v Speaker 4>And then after that we're going to come back. What
<v Speaker 4>do we got after that?
<v Speaker 2>We got best of nineteen seventy nine.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, that's going to be socc right, yes.
<v Speaker 2>And then after that shortly we're gonna have Lethal Weapon
<v Speaker 2>to versus Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. What is
<v Speaker 2>the best sequel of the Summer.
<v Speaker 1>Of nineteen eighty nine. That's a hard choice.
<v Speaker 2>It's gonna be amazing. Yeah, we will see you guys
<v Speaker 2>down the road.
<v Speaker 1>See you guys next week. Thank you.
<v Speaker 4>I think you'll have an easier time with your name.
<v Speaker 4>It's name if you just call him giggy Pop. Giggy
<v Speaker 4>Pop's gig gig give me, give me yeah, folks.
<v Speaker 2>Jeez, by the way, the second boar, sorry, I jinxed you.
<v Speaker 2>I geez