Well, dip me in doo-doo and call me stinky.
Swine have been flying all over the place for the last couple of days around here…I haven’t even been able to get though them to reach my keyboard!
To say the least, I’m shocked and awed. Still not certain if I think the recording’s been dubbed on or not. You can still hear the tape hiss at the beginning, I noticed. And Uncle Al did start recording a bit more snarly stuff around this time, so maybe those vocals were just like that originally…
–SKot
Yup I said it didn’t sound recent on FB and YT
“Well I love the track but the vocals sound more 1990/2000’s Ministry. I was under the impression Arse-rista(Arista)Records had control over recordings/releases during the With Sympathy record so Al was unable to release anything from that. And I know some WS tracks made it to the Twitch album but the vocals don’t even sound like Twitch era either. This track ‘may’ have been written during the the WS years but the vocals, etc have been reworked and re-recorded recently in my opinion”
Some people can tell the vocals. etc are not recent but according to Ministry HQ on Facebook…
… “nope, recorded in 1983”
Hmmmm!
I find it amusing that the number of unique posters on this thread is much greater than on any other thread I’ve seen here recently…all because Al simply relented and made at least SOME kind of partial peace with his past.
Another thing I am noticing as I ‘jam’ this track - mid-80s Al was much sharper lyrically, even if the lyrical subject matter was simple romance-related stuff that will not cause any revolutions in anybody’s thinking. The change from witty / biting lyricism to the ‘bludgeon you over the head with an endlessly repeated slogan’ thing goes down worse with me than the changes in the Ministry ‘sound’.
Al was much sharper lyrically, even if the lyrical subject matter was simple romance-related stuff that will not cause any revolutions in anybody’s thinking. The change from witty / biting lyricism to the ‘bludgeon you over the head with an endlessly repeated slogan’ thing goes down worse with me than the changes in the Ministry ‘sound’.
I really loved “Relapse”, but to enjoy it properly, you really do need to take your brain out of your head, soccer kick it across the room, and then toss it in the garbage can.
“Surgeons they cut to heal you. Axe murderers cut to kill you. Well, I’m filthy rich and I’m horny. But you just fuckin’ bore me.”
“Let’s put 'em all away. Let’s put 'em in handcuffs. Throw away the key, 'cause enough is enough!”
That’s just two actual lyric lines amongst hundreds that are equally cringe worthy.
I really loved “Relapse”, but to enjoy it properly, you really do need to take your brain out of your head, soccer kick it across the room, and then toss it in the garbage can.
Trust me, there are times when I wish I could burn whatever bridges connect me to any kind of ‘responsibility’, and just throw on ‘Relapse’ while inhaling a variety of industrial solvents. A la my avatar and hero, Charlie Kelly. I think maybe I need to get this out of the way before mid-life crisis really kicks in.
The song “Get Up, Get Out, and Vote” is really stupid.
But the music (especially Mikey’s axework) is just awesome.
I try to hear the lyrics as “get out and smoke” or something, because, seriously, a rock and roll song telling me to vote? Give me a break. Did “Don’t Do Drugs, Stay In School” and “Brush After Every Meal” not make the stringent selection criteria?
“99 Percenters” takes the prize for me. Worst lyrics/song.
And yet, I’ll take it over anything on With Sympathy.
And from the Wax Trax FB Group: [url https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152954795957700&set=p.10152954795957700&type=1&theater]Update denial!
Does this mean “Do You Even Like It?” or “So So Life” might be next??
Anything is possible I guess.
“Never Asked For Nothing” and “I See Red” should be next.
And the plot thickens. . . from Aaron Rossi’s (current drummer for Ministry) FB page:
(RE: release of With Sympathy era track “I’ll Do Anything For You”)
“Check this out!! I re-worked an old pop song with Al that he wrote when I was 3!! I programmed a new drum beat, played keyboards, and whistled for 13 tracks haha. Re-Mixed by the awesome Sammy D’Ambruoso!! The song is about being in military boot camp!! I sing this song to my Son Remo ENJOY!! FREE DOWNLOAD!!”
I like the music to 99%ers, but hate the lyrics.
Get Up Get Out And Vote is worse though. Just like It’s Always Christmas Time, you can tell his wife made him write it.
“Die In A Crash” has to be the worst Ministry track IMHO.
And the plot thickens. . . from Aaron Rossi’s (current drummer for Ministry) FB page:
(RE: release of With Sympathy era track “I’ll Do Anything For You”)
“Check this out!! I re-worked an old pop song with Al that he wrote when I was 3!! I programmed a new drum beat, played keyboards, and whistled for 13 tracks haha. Re-Mixed by the awesome Sammy D’Ambruoso!! The song is about being in military boot camp!! I sing this song to my Son Remo ENJOY!! FREE DOWNLOAD!!”
Even if it is re-recorded, it is faithful to the original. Mind you, what we had previously was 2 muddy concert recordings. I compared the new version to one of the 84 live cuts and they sound pretty spot on. The lead synth sounds like a patch and not somebody whistling. Now, I could see them sampling a whistle, but this lead is most definitely played on a synth and not someone vocalizing it.
My take on it is this… Al is finally going through his archive and selected this one first. I’m not sure if it is from an 8 track (there is some hiss at the beginning) or a studio session. Parts of it do sound touched up, probably due to bad parts of the tape. Since this song was eventually discarded, it’s entirely possible that they never completed the studio version, and went in 30 years later and finished the session.
The sounds and vocals are spot on. The vocal take sounds like 1984 and 2014 versions of Al’s voice, but who knows.
Being a fanatic of the early years, this is a dream come true. This song and “Do You Even Like It” had the worst sound quality out of all the unreleased songs in circulation. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for “Do You Even Like It”. (and the dozens of other early songs, of course)
I hope there’s more to come.
One thing about Al, just when you think you’ve got him figured out and assume it’s shitty dubstep remixes from here on out he’ll throw some weird curveball at you like a restored version of a song from 1984.
Who knows? Maybe he’s into this sound again. His last attempt to revive it was those three tracks credited to “Al Jourgensen” from a few years ago and they were mediocre at best, but there’s a lot of promise in cleaned up versions of old songs.
I just don’t understand why he’s lying about it. There’s really no reason to.
The only new insight I can offer after a couple of conversations with insiders who were around in 83/84 is that nobody was aware of any recorded versions of this song back then. A couple of bandmembers remember playing it in late '84 but that’s not news here. And nobody remembers anything about this song from the WS sessions.
I’ll offer my own theory. Al put this one together on his own either in the small 4-track studio he had at the time or at a friends demo studio (or a combination of the two) sometime in '84. Stevo has no recollection of any recording, demo or otherwise…so this tells me that it was Al, a Linn Drum, a couple of synths and somebody to engineer in a low-budget demo studio. Then it was sweetened recently.
And it would make sense that Al would put this one out there knowing that it was he, and he alone, that recorded the original tracks.
The only new insight I can offer after a couple of conversations with insiders who were around in 83/84 is that nobody was aware of any recorded versions of this song back then. A couple of bandmembers remember playing it in late '84 but that’s not news here. And nobody remembers anything about this song from the WS sessions.
I’ll offer my own theory. Al put this one together on his own either in the small 4-track studio he had at the time or at a friends demo studio (or a combination of the two) sometime in '84. Stevo has no recollection of any recording, demo or otherwise…so this tells me that it was Al, a Linn Drum, a couple of synths and somebody to engineer in a low-budget demo studio. Then it was sweetened recently.
And it would make sense that Al would put this one out there knowing that it was he, and he alone, that recorded the original tracks.
This actually makes perfect sense. I assumed it was a 4 track or such, since there is audible noise at the beginning and some odd artifacts buried in the mix (probably due to wear/tear or bleeding from other parts of the tape).
I hope there is more to come!
It does sound like it has some modern production, and I don’t care. It sounds great. I haven’t spent a dime on Ministry since Rio Grande Blood, but I would buy the shit out of an album with studio recordings (new, old, overdubbed, whatever) of Do You Even Like It, Love Change, Dancing Alone, etc. Throw in Same Old Scene too!