Tag Archives: 1994
In Concert : New Rock (Westwood One) 8 Track Version
Summary
US syndicated radio show featuring highlights of the Brixton Academy 9th December 1993 gig.
Track List
Pressure’s On / Born Of Frustration / Laid / Honest Joe / Low Low Low / Chain Mail / Lullaby / Sometimes
Details
Release Name: | In Concert : New Rock (Westwood One) |
Artist Name: | James |
Release Date: | November 1994 |
Format: | Promo Album |
Catalogue: | Show# 94-46 |
Related Release(s): |
US syndicated radio show featuring highlights of the Brixton Academy 9th December 1993 gig.
- Born Of Frustration :1992
- Chain Mail :1986
- Honest Joe :1994
- Laid :1993
- Low Low Low :1993
- Lullaby :1993
- Pressure’s On :1994
- Sometimes (Lester Piggott) :1993
Wuss-Stock – Select
What you wanted and what you got. (Two days of paranoia, mud and bullshit… that’s Woodstock II. And what the hell were limey invaders JAMES doing there?)
“This is CNN Live and we’re off to Saugerties, New York to Woodstock ’94. Come in Bob.” (Cut to Bob in tragic ex-hipster attire walking through starry-eyed bods covered in mud) “Hello Larry, yes. They were stardust, they were golden and now they’ve come back to the garden. But this time it costs $200 for a ticket, $6 for a slice of pizza and $30 for a T-shirt. What was peace and love is now greed and profit. The age of Aquarius had been replaced by the era of Mammon.”
A kid pushes forward and blows the smoke from a joint into Bob’s face. Before Bob can finish his ridiculous gush, the studio cut to a clip of Hendrix doing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ Thus we are spared talk of the $2 million Pepsi sponsorship and the interview with a hippy who was at the first event. Ah, the memories, the nostalgia, the comparisons and the commercialism. Woodstock ’94 is knee-deep in it: mud and bullshit.
Take An Other Hippie up there on stage. He’s 45 and he’s ranting “We’re the generation that stopped the war! We’re the generation that made a President resign!” Yeah, sure. The Vietnam war stopped because it was hemorrhaging money into an intractable conflict that most people in America had lost interest in by the time it ended. Nixon took the long walk because of a load of tapes leaked by some straight. A bunch of longhairs in kaftans waving flowers had little or nothing to do with it. We’ve heard it all before, all those myths and legends I blame the parents, especially as this time around they’re in charge.
Woodstock ’94 is a desperate affair. Journalists traipsing around in Millets-style outdoors outfits, desperately trying to find out what “Generation X” believe in. Hordes of record industry Mafia running about believing their own hype and desperately protesting too much about what a fantastic time they’re having. The bands lost in this world of make believe, desperately wanting not to go under.
And the punters desperately wanting something, without actually knowing what it is. They’ve come in the hope of experiencing the kind of hippy epiphany legend has it everyone underwent in ’69. But they have no idea of how to get it. Especially without any beer, let alone any brown acid.
Walking past the 45th security checkpoint into the whimsical world of the backstage village, the airis thick with anticipation. No matter how you interpret it, this is a big event, if ridiculous. Look around: in the distance somewhere is ‘The Surreal Field,’ whatever that is. Just here are various tents encouraging you to get personally involved with every kind of wildlife creation. Save the Michigan beaver. Save the Miami sea cow. Adopt a dolphin.
The whole thing has been designed as a media fiesta. The press corps here stretched to 1,500 people-the kind of numbers usually associated with covering international conflicts and natural disasters. And every one of them gets a huge fact-pack on everything you don’t need to know, which
boasts about the logistical triumph of the festival: “65,000 gallons of diesel fuel will be consumed;” “4,000 cans of soda will be consumed backstage;” “7,200 latex gloves will be used;” “there is enough vinyl flooring to do 52 kitchens.”
Each band playing is subjected to a three-legged press conference: first the one for MTV, then the one for the new Woodstock movie and then, at the end, one for the ordinary press.
Right now Tim Booth and Saul Davies are on the end of the somnambulant series of questions in which the great American fourth estate attempt to get to grips with one of the few British bands here.
A man from the Chicago Tribune looks at Tim: “For your dancing do you draw from Joe Cocker?”
Booth stares blankly into space with the silently impassive expression of a man who’s just been shot between the eyes with a silenced pistol. The press conference is at an end.
JAMES are big in the States: their last LP, “Laid,” was well received; they’ve toured with Neil Young; recorded an experimental album, “Wah Wah,” with Brian Eno; and helped in the opening ceremony of World cup ’94. Woodstock is the last gig on a large tour, which apparently had been an excellent laugh.
Backstage the band are pondering what they’re doing here. “When success came in the UK with Sit Down we’d worked hard for it and were desperate to be taken seriously. But this time around, in the States, it’s like such a bonus we’ve all been able to enjoy it a lot more,” explains bassist Jim Glennie.
Outside the band’s Portakabin, Tim Booth is dancing outside the picket fence which runs around his prefab structure. No sign of nerves you might expect to see from an outfit about to play the biggest gig of their career. The others sit in the canteen, arguing about the calorific value of cheesecake and apple pie. They are not the angst-ridden Manc bohemians you might expect. But they’re still not having a historic or epoch-making time of it.
“You can’t even get a beer here!” points out Mark the keyboardist, swigging from a bottle of Beck’s, referring to the (largely ignored) alcohol ban. Five minutes before they’re due to go onstage, the band slouch around in the canteen. There isn’t supposed to be any beer here. There are no drugs.
Everything is run like a scout camp. Worse still, DEL AMITRI are playing in front of 250,000 people.
“Woodstock ’94?” mutters Jim. “This is Wuss-Stock ’94.”
According to Newsweek, the first Woodstock has now become a rigid historical event. The original festival isn’t regarded merely as a weekend when a load of hippies gathered in a muddy field to watch some dodgy bands, but-like the Boston Tea Party or the Gettysburg Address-as a watershed for a developing nation still in its historical adolescence. British people might have it pegged simply as a US Glastonbury, an alternative to the traveling Reading that is Lollapalooza, but to America it’s much more important than that. To us, it might look much the same-a rainy farm filled with a daft mixture of hipsters, hippies, punters, psychotics and the criminally unstable. But where Glastonbury has developed into a quaint English tradition, an annual pilgrimage for anyone with even the most fleeting interest in music, drugs or falafels-for Americans, Woodstock ’94 is more like the recent D-Day celebrations, a commemoration of others’ glories and a tribute to their success.
Of course the legacy of Woodstock isn’t as great as the old longhairs would have you believe. Aging beardies are often making a point of how apolitical and apathetic the Rave (UK)/X (US) Generation is, but we wouldn’t have been in this state if ’60s radicals had achieved just ten per cent of what they set out to. Their real legacy is not peace and love, but hedonism and good music. The concrete achievement of The Woodstock Generation is not that they changed the world, but that they gave us the mechanisms with which to cope with it.
JAMES are not a typical Woodstock ’94 band. It’s a capital R-for-Rock weekend and the many all-American Beavis and Butt-heads in the audience are not big on perceived English ethereals. They go down amazingly well even with the stuff from “Wah Wah.” Booth dances in his wavy-gravy way and mouths through a megaphone over the Eno-manipulated weird-outs. The crowd doesn’t know what’s going on, but they know it’s different from everything else so far. JAMES refuse to grab their big moment in history like no-hopers further down the bill. Earlier, one of a succession of redundant metal acts tried to impress us by drinking beer, smoking joints and simulating sex with a cameraman. Watching the spectacle from half-way up the scaffolding (from which is suspended one of the slightly sad banners proclaiming ‘2 More Days Of Peace And Music’) it’s hard not to be awestruck by the sheer numbers of people. This is Desmond Morris material.
“It’s funny,” says Larry after their set, peering over the seven-foot fence in front of the stage, designed to separate ‘talent’ from ‘customer.’ “It’s like a congregation. I’m a bit done in by it-you just provide the backdrop. It’s like The Kop-the Woodstock crowd will be more famous than the team.”
And the crowd is all. In spite of everything, it erodes the event’s corporate identity. By mid-Saturday morning rain is sluicing down. Reeling bodies indicate that cracks have appeared in the alcohol embargo. The PTA atmosphere starts to evaporate as ticketless hordes begin turning up and security glimpse the enormity of their task. By early evening you can’t walk anywhere without falling over; the paths are now biblically-proportioned rivers of slurry. The summer camp atmosphere has begun to decay toward that of a rich man’s Rwanda. As dusk gathers, shadowy figures an be seen scaling the fence into the VIP enclosure.
In a bizarre way the scene suits Tim Booth. “I used to think that if something was really commercial on the outside it would have to be on the inside. But now I can see that they can put up this huge bureaucratic machine and it can still be eroded. People are looking for meaning at Woodstock, they’re coming with preconceptions. It’s set up like that. It’s a contemporary pop culture ritual-25 years on from this weird happy accident that left a big impact, they’re setting everything in place and hoping the spirit comes.”
Typical Booth-speak, which’d make him sound borne down under a weight of pretension, if not for the fact that he really means it.
“It’s a bit sick what’s happening here. It’s so expensive ‘cos some of the bands are taking a mint.” They certainly are. Aerosmith got a reported million dollars, while Dylan got $300,000. James got less than the $18,000 that Hendrix got in ’69.
“I hope the spirit doesn’t see all the commercialism and money, and decided not to arrive. (Tim is a descendant of William Booth who founded the Salvation Army. As a child he went to church six days a week, between the ages of 11 and 18, which may account for his slightly loopy, yet deeply-felt worldview.) The language has been devalued. Spirituality is just a feeling of aliveness. I get it from dancing. When people feel ‘the spirit’ all it means is they’re alive. At Woodstock they’re calling down some Dionysian, Bacchanalian revelry.”
We spend the first part of Wuss-Stock ’94 looking for spirits of a different kind. All we find is half bottle of Passport Scotch and the slops in a can of Bud. It feels like an outward-bound course with the Young Liberals, a lurid combination of physical exhaustion and patronising glibness. Still, with enough inside you and ORBITAL onstage it’s possible to find ‘the spirit’…
By Saturday night everything has fallen apart. The highway has been sealed off. The security have given up. It’s pouring. Ark-building is considered. Lightning is forecast. Everybody is told to lie low and steer clear of metal fences-seems the ideal chance to climb up the tallest piece of scaffolding and wish for deliverance. But things are improving, someone’s selling commemorative Woodstock acid.
And we’ve made the wise provision of inviting friends down from Boston. Who arrive bearing beer, chocolate vodka, a bag full of herbal uppers and a very nice pill that, apparently, truckers use for late-night long distance journeys. Ideal for parties and other social gatherings. But be warned, we end up thinking it’s a “good idea” to go, shoeless, to a sodden tent owned by a guy named Hooter.
He insists we drink fortified wine and smoke some rather powerful homemade cigarettes. The wine he later refers to as “pure L-S-D!” Consequently most of Sunday morning is spent trying to locate our motel which is half-an hour away and not, as we’ve grown to believe, a six-hour drive through a mountainous terrain filled with bears and leaping elks.
The rain offers some respite during Metallica’s storming set. This is the only highlight of the event.
They summoned up the spirit big-time, as the trucker’s speed, chocolate vodka and fireworks all mixed with the lightning. We are treated to an all-American spectacle. We understand. It’s in The Constitution, man! Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness! In the States, ROCK is part of the fabric of freedom. It’s about making big bucks, going for it and Rock and fucking Rolling. Or as Tim puts it, “Rock is just a small part of the tapestry of English Heritage. In the states, through, it’s much more part of the society.”
Damn right, 25 years and history’s already warped. Parallel universes created with each new news report. Reality and history don’t mix. Well, only occasionally. In the Woodstock film-the groovy one, the brown-acid-no-rain-myth-making one-there’s an interview with a young guy sitting on the roadside. This is what he say: “People that are nowhere are coming here ‘cos there’s people they think are somewhere. Everybody’s looking for some kind of answer when there isn’t one why would 300,000 – 600,000 people come to anything? Was music that important? I don’t think so… People don’t know how to live, they don’t know what to do, and they think they’ll find out what it is or how to maintain with it. People are very lost.”
If people’d listened to him – not Dylan, Leary, Lennon or the Woodstock legend-maybe they’d be happy now, and looking forward. Maybe we’ll never understand. But, then again, it’s only rock ‘n’ roll. And is there any reason left to like it? James’ spirit, however… if it comes in pints, let’s have a couple.
Incidentally, if you ring me in 2019 I’ll be out.
September 1994
Wah Wah
Summary
Released 30 years ago in 1994, Wah Wah is an album of jams and experimental tracks recorded during the Laid sessions. The band had intended for it to be released with Laid, but this was overruled by their record company.
Track List
Hammer Strings / Pressure’s On / Jam J / Frequency Dip / Lay The Law Down / Burn The Cat / Maria / Low Clouds / Building A Fire / Gospel Oak / DVV / Say Say Something / Rhythmic Dreams / Dead Man / Rain Whistling / Basic Brian / Low Clouds / Bottom Of The Well / Honest Joe / Arabic Agony / Tomorrow / Laughter / Sayonara
Details
Release Name: | Wah Wah |
Artist Name: | James |
Release Date: | 12 September 1994 |
Format: | Studio Album |
Catalogue: | LP – 522 827-1, CAS 522 827-4, CD 522 827-2 |
Related Release(s): | Jam J / Say Something (Single) |
Wah Wah was recorded during the six-week sessions for the Laid LP at Real World Studios in Bath. The band had set up a second studio where they could jam when not working on the Laid album. Brian Eno or Markus Dravs would then select a piece of this improvised music and mix it, but only doing one take on the mix to keep in the spirit of the improvisation. Tim was then left to come up with lyrics, but with many of the tracks they remained instrumentals or had soundbites rather than coherent structured lyrics.
All but three of the tracks on Wah Wah were conceived this way according to Tim’s liner notes. Pressure’s On dated back to 1991. Maria, albeit in more conventional form, had been in the James live set since 1992, but failed to make the cut for Laid. Tomorrow was said to have been conceived at BBC’s Maida Vale studios on the day Laid was released, when the band had time between playing a song into each show that day on Radio 1.
The concept of Wah Wah came about when Eno visited the band’s rehearsals in Manchester before the album sessions began and witnessed the unique jamming process which provided the seeds for James songs. He felt that the results of these jams were as important to James sound as the songs that emerged and encouraged them to consider releasing these jams.
Plans to release Wah Wah coincidentally with Laid were shelved as the record company were initially reluctant to release it. Jam J was coupled with Say Something from Laid as a double a-side in March 1994 – however it was the latter that received the majority of the radio play and the MTV-friendly video.
Struggling to decide how to release the album, it eventually came out as a limited edition which was to be deleted after one week in September 1994. There was to be no single, no tour and very little other promotion of the album.
Despite this the album reached number 11 in its week of release although it did disappear quickly from the charts. Pressure’s On, Basic Brian, Jam J, Honest Joe and Tomorrow (later to be resurrected for Whiplash) had featured regularly in James live sets, but there was little to appeal to the more casual James fan in the rest of the album. For the more committed, it provided a previously unseen insight into the band’s working methods.
The press response to the album was mixed. The low profile of the release saw it ignored in certain quarters. Some reviewers missed the concept of the album and were puzzled as to why James were releasing it at all. The NME bizarrely called it “one of the few genuinely engaging dance albums around.”
- Arabic Agony :1994
- Basic Brian :1994
- Bottom Of The Well :1994
- Building A Fire :1994
- Burn The Cat :1994
- Dead Man :1994
- DVV :1994
- Frequency Dip :1994
- Gospel Oak :1994
- Hammer Strings :1994
- Honest Joe :1994
- Jam J :1994
- Laughter :1994
- Lay The Law Down :1994
- Low Clouds :1994
- Maria / Maria’s Party :1994
- Pressure’s On :1994
- Rain Whistling :1994
- Rhythmic Dreams :1994
- Say Say Something :1994
- Sayonara :1994
- Tomorrow :1994
- James To Release Laid And Wah Wah Albums in Deluxe Editions – Even The Stars
- T In The Park – 12th July 2014
- Benicassim Festival – 3rd August 2001
- Chelmsford V Festival – 23rd August 1998
- TFI Friday (Tomorrow) – April 1997
- 1993 – 1996: Laid Back Years
- Wuss-Stock – Select
- Wah Wah Album Release – Press Release
- No Folk On The Wah Tour – NME Magazine
- James Let Loose – Manchester Evening News
- James Wah Wah – Melody Maker News
- James Take A Dip – Melody Maker News
- The Musician Interview And Feature
- James To Make Ambient Football Album (Mr Agreeable Parody) – Melody Maker
- Mr Agreeable – Melody Maker
- Vous Avez Dit James – Le Soir (French)
- London Astoria – 28th September 1993
- Eno’s Wah Wah Notes
- Woodstock 2, New York – 14th August 1994
- Portland Beatfest – 7th August 1994
- Seattle Endfest – 6th August 1994
- Glastonbury Festival – 25th June 1994
- San Diego Sunfest – 12th June 1994
- Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre – 11th June 1994
- Mountain View Shoreline Amphitheatre – 10th June 1994
- Tucson venue unknown – 8th June 1994
- El Paso venue unknown – 7th June 1994
- Lubbock venue unknown – 6th June 1994
- Houston venue unknown – 4th June 1994
- Arlington Six Flags – 3rd June 1994
- Oklahoma City venue unknown – 31st May 1994
- Lawrence Liberty Hall (KS, USA) – 30th May 1994
- Columbus venue unknown – 28th May 1994
- St Louis Mississippi Nights – 27th May 1994
- Minneapolis First Avenue – 24th May 1994
- Chicago Riviera – 22nd May 1994
- Cleveland Agora Theatre – 21st May 1994
- Toronto Ontario Place Forum – 20th May 1994
- Norfolk venue unknown – 18th May 1994
- Chapel Hill venue unknown – 17th May 1994
- Atlanta venue unknown – 15th May 1994
- Washington RFK Stadium (HFStival) – 14th May 1994
- New Haven Toad’s Place – 9th May 1994
- Boston Orpheum Theatre – 8th May 1994
- Phoenix The Grind – 27th March 1994
- Las Vegas Huntridge Theatre – 25th March 1994
- San Diego SU Montezuma Hall – 24th March 1994
- Los Angeles Hollywood Palace – 22nd March 1994
- Los Angeles Hollywood Palace – 21st March 1994
- San Francisco Marriott Hotel – 19th March 1994
- San Francisco Warfield Theatre – 17th March 1994
- Sacramento Crest Theatre – 16th March 1994
- Vancouver Commodore Theatre – 13th March 1994
- Portland La Luna – 12th March 1994
- Seattle Moore Theatre – 11th March 1994
- Boston Orpheum – 9th March 1994
- Denver Ogden Theatre – 7th March 1994
- Houston Numbers – 5th March 1994
- Dallas Deep Ellum Live – 4th March 1994
- New Orleans Tipitina’s – 1st March 1994
- Memphis New Daisy Theatre – 27th February 1994
- Atlanta Roxy 26th February 1994
- Cincinnati Bogart’s – 24th February 1994
- Columbus, Newport Music Hall – 23rd February 1994
- Bloomington Jake’s – 22nd February 1994
- Chicago Vic Theatre – 20th February 1994
- Milwaukee Marquette University Varsity Theatre – 19th February 1994
- Detroit St Andrew’s Hall – 18th February 1994
- Cleveland Peabody’s Down Under – 17th February 1994
- New York Irving Plaza – 15th February 1994
- Washington WUST Music Hall – 14th February 1994
- Philadelphia Trocadero – 12th February 1994
- Boston Avalon – 10th February 1994
- Providence The Strand – 9th February 1994
- New Haven Toad’s Place (CT, USA) – 8th February 1994
- Toronto Opera House – 6th February 1994
- Toronto Opera House – 5th February 1994
- Montreal Club Soda – 4th February 1994
- Evanston Northwestern University – 16th January 1994
- West Lafayette Elliott Hall – 15th January 1994
- New York Radio City Music Hall – 13th January 1994
- New York Radio City Music Hall – 12th January 1994
- New York Radio City Music Hall – 11th January 1994
- Fairfax George Mason University – 9th January 1994
- West Point Eisenhower Theatre – 8th January 1994
- Hartford Civic Centre – 6th January 1994
- The Palace, Auburn Hills – 4th January 1994
- Minneapolis Target Centre – 2nd January 1994
- York Barbican Centre – 16th December 1993
- Newport Centre – 13th December 1993
- Norwich UEA – 12th December 1993
- Portsmouth Guild Hall – 11th December 1993
- London Brixton Academy – 9th December 1993
- Gloucester Leisure Centre – 8th December 1993
- Derby Assembly Rooms – 7th December 1993
- Wolverhampton Civic Centre – 5th December 1993
- Manchester G-Mex – 4th December 1993
- Glasgow Barrowlands – 1st December 1993
- Porto Coliseum – 28th November 1993
- Lisbon Pavilhao dos Belenenses – 27th November 1993
- Madrid Pacha – 26th November 1993
- Barcelona Zeleste – 25th November 1993
- Paris, Casino de Paris – 23rd November 1993
- Lyon Transbordeur – 22nd November 1993
- Geneva Salle du Lignon – 20th November 1993
- Marseille Theatre du Moulin – 19th November 1993
- Toulouse Le Confluant – 18th November 1993
- Besancon Montjoye – 16th November 1993
- Munich Charterhalle – 15th November 1993
- Frankfurt Music Hall – 13th November 1993
- Cologne Live Music Hall – 12th November 1993
- Hamburg Markthalle – 11th November 1993
- Los Angeles Roxy – 28th October 1993
- San Francisco Slim’s – 27th October 1993
- Coimbra Pavilhao Estadio Universitario – 9th October 1993
- London Astoria – 28th September 1993
- San Francisco WOMAD – 19th September 1993
- Los Angeles WOMAD – 18th September 1993
- Milwaukee Marcus Amphitheatre WOMAD – 12th September 1993
- Chicago WOMAD – 11th September 1993
- Buckeye Lake Centre, Thornville, OH – 10th September 1993
- Burgettstown Starlake Amphitheatre WOMAD – 8th September 1993
- Saratoga Springs Performing Arts Centre WOMAD – 6th September 1993
- Carlyon Bay WOMAD – 28th August 1993
- Bad Mergentheim Schlosshof – 18th July 1993
- Milan Assago Forum – 13th July 1993
- London Finsbury Park – 11th July 1993
- Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall – 8th July 1993
- Bath Moles Club – 21st March 1993
Wah Wah Album Release – Press Release
Bottom Of The Well
Bottom Of The Well is track eighteen on James’ 1994 album Wah Wah.
Details
Do you really wanna go on like this
Do you really wanna go on like this
Get to the bottom of the well
Do you really wanna go on like this
Do you really wanna go on like this
Do you really wanna go on like this
Get to the bottom of the well
Song: | Bottom Of The Well |
Released: | 12th September 1994 |
Main Associated Album (or Single): | Wah Wah |
First Heard Live: |
- Wah Wah promo tape :Promo, Album, 1994
- Wah Wah :Studio, Album, 1994
- The Gathering Sound (full promo) :Promo, Box Set, 2012
- The Gathering Sound :Compilation, Box Set, 2012
- Laid / Wah Wah Super Deluxe Edition :Compilation, Box Set, 2015
- Can't find any records of performances.
Lay The Law Down
Lay The Law Down is track five on the 1994 James album Wah Wah.
Details
Pray down within your home
Smile
Lay down and in your home
Lay down in your home
Smile
Lay the law down in your home
Lay the law down in your home
Smile
Lay the law down in your home
Lay the law down in your home
Smile
Song: | Lay The Law Down |
Released: | 12th September 1994 |
Main Associated Album (or Single): | Wah Wah |
First Heard Live: |
- Wah Wah promo tape :Promo, Album, 1994
- Wah Wah :Studio, Album, 1994
- The Gathering Sound (full promo) :Promo, Box Set, 2012
- The Gathering Sound :Compilation, Box Set, 2012
- Laid / Wah Wah Super Deluxe Edition :Compilation, Box Set, 2015
- Can't find any records of performances.
Taken from the album Wah Wah
Written and performed by James & Brian Eno
Riff 1:
e-------------------------------------------------------
B-------------------------------------------------------
G-------------------------------------------------------
D--5/7-7------------------------------------------------
A-------------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------
Riff 2:
e-------------------------------------------------------
B--85-6---3--------------------------------------------
G--------5----------------------------------------------
D-------------------------------------------------------
A-------------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------
Song Structure:
Riff 1 appears right at the start. Riff 2 appears right after Saul's violin solo.
The song follows an Am Em Dm chord progression during the "chorus" when Tim sings "Smile." During the "verses" the song is just a chord of Dm.
Lyrics/Chords:
Dm
Pray down within your home
Pray down within your home
Am Em Dm
Smi-iii-ile
Lay down and in your home
Lay down in your home
Am Em Dm
Smi-iii-ile
Lay the law down in your home
Lay the law down in your home
Am Em Dm
Smi-iii-ile
Lay the law down in your home
Lay the law down in your home
Am Em Dm
Smi-iii-ile
Transcribed by Alex Carter 2001.
alex@shandy3000.fsnet.co.uk
Building A Fire
Building A Fire is track nine on the 1994 James album Wah Wah.
It has never been played live.
Details
A flame for always
I'm living on fire
A flame for always
I'm living like fire
A flame for always
I'm building a fire
A flame for always
I'm living like fire
A flame for always
How long to go
Before this flame dies
How long to burn
Before I blaze away
I blaze away
So long to all my friends
And those who taunted me
To those who lead me on
To those who lead me on
I'm building a fire
A flame for always
Song: | Building A Fire |
Released: | 12th September 1994 |
Main Associated Album (or Single): | Wah Wah |
First Heard Live: |
- Wah Wah promo tape :Promo, Album, 1994
- Wah Wah :Studio, Album, 1994
- The Gathering Sound (full promo) :Promo, Box Set, 2012
- The Gathering Sound :Compilation, Box Set, 2012
- Laid / Wah Wah Super Deluxe Edition :Compilation, Box Set, 2015
- Can't find any records of performances.
Low Clouds
Low Clouds is track eight and seventeen on the 1994 James album Wah Wah.
It is a very short instrumental, lasting less than 30 and 20 seconds, comprising of the sound of clouds.
Details
Song: | Low Clouds |
Released: | 12th September 1994 |
Main Associated Album (or Single): | Wah Wah |
First Heard Live: |
- Wah Wah promo tape :Promo, Album, 1994
- Wah Wah :Studio, Album, 1994
- The Gathering Sound (full promo) :Promo, Box Set, 2012
- The Gathering Sound :Compilation, Box Set, 2012
- Laid / Wah Wah Super Deluxe Edition :Compilation, Box Set, 2015
- Can't find any records of performances.
Burn The Cat
Burn The Cat is the sixth track on the 1994 James album Wah Wah.
It is a mostly instrumental track with a middle section containing sampled excerpts from the shipping forecast.
It has never been performed live.
Details
Oh shit
Never no reason, never no reason
Never no reason, never no reason
For a short sharp shock
Never no reason, never no reason
Never no reason, never no reason
For a short sharp shock
What kind of message do you think you're giving your generation?
(SHIPPING FORECAST)
Burn the cat, burn the cat......
Burn the cat, burn the cat.....
What are you going on about?
What are you going on about?
What are you going on about?
What are you going on about?
What are you going on about?
Kill her, kill her, kill her
Song: | Burn The Cat |
Released: | 12th September 1994 |
Main Associated Album (or Single): | Wah Wah |
First Heard Live: |
- Wah Wah promo tape :Promo, Album, 1994
- Wah Wah :Studio, Album, 1994
- The Gathering Sound (full promo) :Promo, Box Set, 2012
- The Gathering Sound :Compilation, Box Set, 2012
- Laid / Wah Wah Super Deluxe Edition :Compilation, Box Set, 2015
- Can't find any records of performances.
Maria / Maria’s Party
Maria is track seven on the 1994 James album Wah Wah and that version is sung by Larry Gott. A live version from the Alton Towers 1992 show appears on the live disc of the 2012 The Gathering Sound boxset, whilst a live acoustic version appears on the 2016 Record Store Day release of the 1992 Greenpeace Palace concert.
Another acoustic version from a US radio session appears on The Adventure Club sessions compilation. An as-yet-unreleased demo version appeared on a very rare Mercury in-house cdr entitled B-Sides.
Maria began life as a track called Maria’s Party in the summer of 1992 and was often cited by Tim in interviews as the key track in James new direction after the Seven LP. It featured throughout the acoustic tours of the US and UK in 1992, but failed to make the final cut for the Laid LP.
The party referred to in the song apparently took place at a large house in Belgium.
Details
Some Siamese twins from a broken home
Maria's party, what a show going on
Maria loves her life, she'll show you how
There's a strong man tearing himself into pieces
A magician who will spin you on the end of his spindly fingers
There's a show going on
Maria loves her life, she'll show you how, how, how
There's a high wire act on the telephone wire
And another Buddhist monk has set himself on fire
There's a fakir outside being buried alive
Maria's mad aunt has yet to arrive
A dog that dances, and a frog with wings,
A bear in a tutu that just loves to sing the karaoke
There's a show going on
Maria loves her life, and that's all, and that's all, and that's all.
La La La La La La La .....
You will love her forever when the scene hits your town
La La La La La La La .....
You will love her forever
You will love her forever
Maria's party
And that's all, that's all, that's all, that's all
Song: | Maria |
Released: | 12th September 1994 |
Main Associated Album (or Single): | Wah Wah |
First Heard Live: | Morlaix Tamaris Festival, France – 18th July 1992 |
- The Adventure Club Sessions :Compilation (non James), Album, 1993
- Selections From Wah Wah (US promo) :Promo, Album, 1994
- Wah Wah promo tape :Promo, Album, 1994
- Wah Wah :Studio, Album, 1994
- B-Sides (CDR promo) :Promo, Album, 2001
- The Gathering Sound (full promo) :Promo, Box Set, 2012
- The Gathering Sound :Compilation, Box Set, 2012
- Laid / Wah Wah Super Deluxe Edition :Compilation, Box Set, 2015
- The Greenpeace Palace Concert :Live, Album, 2016
- Manchester Castlefield Bowl – 2nd July 2022
- Warrington Parr Hall – 29th June 2022
- Manchester AO Arena – 3rd December 2021
- Dublin 3arena – 1st December 2021
- Wolverhampton KK Steel Mill – 23rd November 2021
- Scarborough Open Air Theatre – 9th September 2021
- London Metropolis Studios Session – 24th August 2021
- Southampton Guildhall – 14th March 2019
- Nottingham Royal Concert Hall – 12th March 2019
- Bath Forum – 7th March 2019
- Margate Winter Gardens – 6th March 2019
- Cleveland Agora Theatre – 21st May 1994
- Toronto Ontario Place Forum – 20th May 1994
- Atlanta 99x – 28th March 1994
- Chicago Vic Theatre – 20th February 1994
- Milwaukee Marquette University Varsity Theatre – 19th February 1994
- Washington WUST Music Hall – 14th February 1994
- Washington WDST – 14th February 1994
- Philadelphia Trocadero – 12th February 1994
- Boston Avalon – 10th February 1994
- Boston WFNX – 10th February 1994
- Providence The Strand – 9th February 1994
- Toronto Opera House – 6th February 1994
- Toronto CFNY – 6th February 1994
- Modern Rock Live – 13th January 1994
- Paris, Casino de Paris – 23rd November 1993
- Cologne Live Music Hall – 12th November 1993
- Radio Europe Black Session – 23rd September 1993
- London Finsbury Park – 11th July 1993
- Bath Moles Club – 21st March 1993
- Manchester Free Trade Hall – 17th December 1992
- London Town And Country Club – 16th December 1992
- Leeds Town And Country Club – 14th December 1992
- Glasgow Royal Concert Hall – 13th December 1992
- Los Angeles The Palace Theater – 23rd November 1992
- Chicago World Music Theatre – 18th November 1992
- Milwaukee Riverside Theatre – 15th November 1992
- New York The Ritz – 1st November 1992
- New Britain, CT, The Sting – 25th October 1992
- Chicago Riviera – 13th October 1992
- Pacific Amphitheatre, Costa Mesa, Los Angeles – 25th September 1992
- KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic – 22nd September 1992
- The Other Side – September 1992
- Adventure Club Sessions – September 1992
- Alton Towers – 4th July 1992
- Stockholm Moderna Museet – 27th June 1992
- Glastonbury Festival – 26th June 1992
- Morlaix Tamaris Festival – 18th July 1992
Taken from the album Wah Wah
Written by James, performed by James & Brian Eno
Opening Riff:
e------------------------------------8-7----------------
B--5--3---5-5-5-3/13---5-5-5-3/13------5-3/13--------
G-------------------------------------------------------
D-------------------------------------------------------
A-------------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------
Riff 2:
e-------------------------------------------------------
B--10-10-10--10p8-10p8----------------------------------
G----------------------7-7-7/9--------------------------
D-------------------------------------------------------
A-------------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------
Riff 3:
e-----13-----12-----13-----12---------------------------
B--13-----13-----13-----13----13------------------------
G-------------------------------------------------------
D-------------------------------------------------------
A-------------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------
Song Structure:
The song begins with two guitars playing what basically boils down to the Opening Riff. Parts of this can be heard throughout the song.
When the chord changes to Em Riff 2 is played, and after that when a guitar comes in strumming an A5, Riff 3 is played.
The chord sequence is quite simple, Am for a bit, then Dm, back to Am again the Em Dm Am. Think Just Like Fred Astaire but in Am not A. In acoustic versions the chord sequence is far more noticable, and more consistent; in the album version it occasionally forgoes the Dm in the "verse."
Lyrics/Chords:
Am
There's a Malayan stripper of sex unknown
Some Siamese twins from a broken home
Dm Am
Maria's party, what a show going on
Em Dm Am
Maria loves her life, she'll show you how
There's a strong man tearing himself into pieces
A magician who will spin you on the end of his spindly fingers
There's a show going on
Em Dm Am
Maria loves her life, she'll show you how, how, how
There's a high wire act on the telephone wire
And another Buddhist monk has set himself on fire
There's a fakir outside being buried alive
Maria's mad aunt has yet to arrive
A dog that dances, and a frog with wings,
A bear in a tutu that just loves to sing the karaoke
There's a show going on
Maria loves her life, and that's all, and that's all, and that's all.
La La La La La La La .....
You will love her forever when the scene hits your town
La La La La La La La .....
You will love her forever
You will love her forever
Maria's party
And that's all, that's all, that's all, that's all
Transcribed by Alex Carter 2001.
alex@shandy3000.fsnet.co.uk