hey now, give the stinkin’ scotsman some respect!
(nice turn on the outfit tho–bet connelly’s got that outfit or something just like it in the gigantic walk-in closet at his groovy pad in chicago)
Hey your picture reminds me how happy Chris’ numerous Dr. Who references throughout the book made me. My favorite was when he was comparing the English Drummer’s interview-time pontifications as sounding like Davros. That made me endlessly happy as I’m a Who nerd since a very young age.
Just watched the Stowaway video again.
Separated at birth?
Oh, MAN…
Too funny.
i read it a while back so i’m a little distant from memory on it… but did chris ever tell the story on what al did with a lydia lynch idea that pissed him off so? i know he alluded to it early in the book, but i forget if it was ever decribed in full later on
IIRC correctly it was just an unauthorized sample use (“No pain baby no gain, no pain no gain!”).
true dat
only did one video
videos are expensive and usually worthless
You know I really disagree. I mean I am a perfect example. I read your book and was intrigued. Wanted to learn more about you. Searched you on YouTube and now I watch that video now and again. Gave my friend your book and showed him the video as well.
Whereas with the live stuff of you on YouTube, I am less inclined to watch all of them for various reasons (audio quality, visual appeal etc.). Music videos are just great promotional tools. Yes, they often fail at conveying the message of the song, but as promos for the band they are great.
My band Nursing Home’s “M.W.A.T” video generated a lot of controversy on both sides of the fence on this and other message boards. It really turned people on to our music and what we were about. Sure it was low budget and looked it, but it was def. worth it for the exposure. Plus it was a lot of fun to make!
hey green death
I met Tom Baker in december of 1976, he signed my “pyramids of doom” book, it changed my life!
What a great book! Ive read it twice (so far). I grew up in Chicago in that era. I was one of those VERY messed up people that showed at WT once in a while after the old EXIT or Neo closed. Im buying a second copy to send to my sister. Id love to get it autograghed CHRIS if your still at the record store. Its 12:30 on a sat. and Im doing paperwork. Man Im getting old.
hey green death
I met Tom Baker in december of 1976, he signed my “pyramids of doom” book, it changed my life!
Meeting Tom Baker back in the scarf and curls days is a true notch on the belt. You still have the book or has it been lost to the ages?
I was also pleased with your love of Can. Strangely enough, you introduced me to Can with your cover of “More”. I saw the video on the Wax Trax video comp and I fell in love with the song. It wasn’t until years later that I found out it was a Can cover. Can is definitely one of best and brightest of the 20th century.
Several years ago I had a lucid dream / halucination that Irmin Schmidt was standing about three feet away from me, he was like the Can version of Bob from Twin Peaks. Freaked me out for weeks and it was another month or two before I could listen to “Future Days” again.
I always loved that Fini Tribe video, the expression on Scorpio’s face when getting the switchblade in the leg is classic. I remember bits of it being nicked by Mtv for the opening credits of 120 Minutes, but don’t recall ever seeing the actual video on there.
wow.
This was a great read. Very funny. And the conversational tone really moved things along.
The book really explains a lot of things. When I was in high school in the early 90s all of us who liked ministry thought that Al did everything, both writing and performance. We all thought that he played every instrument because that is what a lot of the press (I’m looking at YOU guitar magazines) led us to believe, and the lack of detailed credits in the album art (mind has more) didn’t help.
My favorite ministry period is the Filth Pig DSOTS eara (I think DSOTS is quite underrated), followed by the pre psalm 69 stuff. Psalm 69 and the post Paul stuff doesn’t get me that excited (and the last sucker, etc. is just crap).
When Paul left the band and new ministry albums came out that I didn’t like I began to realize that it was actually most likely Paul’s work that I liked so much (this opinion was bolstered by Al in the press saying that the period I liked the most was a lot of Paul meddling (I guess that was his way of shifting the blame for the falling album sales during this time)).
Rey Washam said in a post ministry interview, after al had claimed that houses of the mole was 100% written by him, that the album had been written together as a group and that what Al was actually good at was assembling a group of good musicians and picking stuff that he liked from their output, but that his claims of writing the material were bunk. (Washam is awsome by the way, Scratch Acid are a band that everyone should listen to).
And now, post read of Concrete, it seems that was I liked so much about the pre psalm 69 era comes from the same sort of place.
I always liked Chris’ contributions to ministry and the Cocks and his solo stuff (Shipwreck was the first one I bought, around the time filth pig came out). The solo stuff has a great Bowie-meets-folk vibe that I dig and dig and dig. And Paul’s solo stuff (Lead into Gold) is fantastic too. But Al’s stuff without these people has been really weak. Just the sort of monotonous computer generated super-fast ™ chugging and machine-gun ® drum programming ©. That is everywhere and so easy to do.
It’s funny though that even though, like KMFDM for instance, ministry seems to have been very much a group effort, yet what was and is broadcast to the fans (I’m thinking about myself and others who were in highschool when psalm 69 came out, but also more generally) was/is this auteur sort of myth that “industrial” music is made by a single mastermind (depictions of ministry and especially nine inch nails can be added here).
This seems to not only have been cultivated by certain egos but also as part of marketing strategy (“listen to the masterwork of the solitary genius”).
The “Ministry is al and paul” and “additional personell” in the album liners didn’t help.
I actually quite like it when song by song credits are given (especially if they are like the credits in most Neubauten albums that give instrument by instrument details). It gives one a sense of how these things come together.
Anyhoo…
The book was great, I highly recommend it.
Also, check out Chris’ solo work. Very cool stuff.
Al’s stuff without these people has been really weak. Just the sort of monotonous computer generated super-fast ™ chugging and machine-gun ® drum programming ©. That is everywhere and so easy to do.
this, my friends, is a golden nugget of truth!!!
When I was in high school in the early 90s all of us who liked ministry thought that Al did everything, both writing and performance. We all thought that he played every instrument because that is what a lot of the press (I’m looking at YOU guitar magazines) led us to believe, and the lack of detailed credits in the album art (mind has more) didn’t help.
That was the same thing for me. Silly was I.
-al
I interviewed Irmin Schmidt for a magazine a few years ago, he was really amazing to talk to
connelly, you’re outta control man!
(what’s up with all this kraut action in your life anyway?.. thankfully you didn’t name the boy franz or johann…)
“Irmin Schmidt”? Cool!
Can are great.
Irmin came across as a very intelligent man in the interviews I’ve read with him. Is your interview available online anywhere?
you can get the book on amazon
we need a sequal…“out of the cockpit and into the pigpen”
hey now, just got off the phone with connelly, who’s still ailing, but good.
hilarity ensued.
( uh…i mean, we had a sobering experience, as usual)
out of the cockpit and into the pigpen’s pretty good. later…