I don’t know man, it seemed to give revco punk rock cred you know? Sure it’s diffrent than the serious big sexy…but personally i think that record sucks though "you often forget’ is a good song (38/attack are good) but yeah they kind of changed to a party band and touring with the mentors or gg allin gives them punk cred.If you haven’t got the book el duce hit w.rieflin sister suposedly.Also exlplains why eld. was in the nin video clouser because Trent was on the revco tour (the rest of the band,nin, was like what the fuck?)
Yep. I love that they toured with The Mentors too. For me part of the allure and sexiness of the world of Ministry was the danger, unpredictability, and trainwreck chaos of it all. Throwing Duce into the mix seems like an obvious move to me. I have to also admit, though, that I always had a soft spot in my heart for both Duce and the Mentors. One of my very first penpals, actually, once the internet got launched, was Steve Broy (“Dr. Heathen Scum”). I have no idea if he remembers me, but back around ‘94, we had these very primative chat board things (anyone remember PINE?) and he took a shine to me because on alt.punk I was the only one who had the nerve to defend the Mentors while everyone else slagged them mercilessly. El Duce was practically retarded. A complete moron and a drunken barbarian clown. But there was no frontin’ with the guy. With the three or four brain cells he had the guy was a comedic genius, and an absolute master at inciting aggravation in those around him. Anyway, I wish I could have witnessed the devastation of that tour. I think it must have been glorious.
I read this over the last couple of days, and apart from a couple of “oh for fuck’s sake” moments where i wondered if even Al really believed what he was saying (like the most recent alien visit a few years ago part), i thought it was a fantastic read. It definitely could have been proof-read a bit more strenuously, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that this is a seriously entertaining book.
I laughed out loud at least once per page, and was surprised at how much he actually remembers, in spite of what he’s put himself through. The “interventions” shed a lot more light on the man, hearing from another person who’d either back up what he was saying or give their own take was interesting, especially Mrs J’s version of Al’s relationship with Barker. As someone said above, she refutes that Al always hated him and so on. She says Al loved Barker, was devastated when they parted ways and puts up a front of always having hated him because he can’t acknowledge how hurt he was at what happened between them. She says she knows Al would like to speak to Paul again, and maybe vice versa, but she thinks too much has happened for that to ever be a possibility.
It’s a great book full of hilarious stories and some pretty sad ones. It didn’t make me feel sorry for Al, he’s made his own choices, and i’m sure other people who were actually there would take issue with some of what he says, but for telling one side of the Ministry story it’s a great read. I never expected to hear so much about someone who was a total enigma when i started listening to them, before the internet got big and information got easier to find (whether it be true or not). Al comes out as a seriously fucked up person, sometimes vindictive, sometimes generous (he definitely helped the careers of a lot of people), but in the end as someone who basically wants to be normal and have a normal life. The only way he can do it, in his mind, is making Ministry music, and forcing himself back into another self destructive cycle of touring and promotion, which he hates.
I read Chris Connelly’s book and enjoyed his version of events. If Paul Barker wants to tell his side i’d definitely read that too. It’d be interesting to see what he says about the accusations made against him in the book, because they’re pretty shocking. If you have any sense of humour and aren’t go to moan like fuck at every page about how much you fucking hate Al, i’d recommend it. If you still can’t get over the fact that “Paul is no longer with us” and that Ministry has turned into a metal band, then avoid it.
My feelings exactly.
My feelings exactly.
The injuries and health problems from the last few years that he talks about, which i’d never heard about previously, certainly explain his onstage decrepitude the last couple of times i saw them. He seemed to be trying but not being able to give it the full 100%. Anyway, fair play to the guy, i enjoyed reading the book in spite of the small complaints i mentioned above. Looking through the back of the book i counted 37 (i think) releases that i’d bought, he’s one productive motherfucker. Scaccia made a good point about people thinking Paul was as much Ministry as Al, he pointed out the number of releases Al’s been involved in compared to what Paul’s put out and says basically “What the fuck has Paul done?”. Quantity obviously doesn’t outweigh quality, true, but i’d put Al’s post 2003 stuff far above Paul’s meagre output since then in terms of enjoyment and quality if i’m being honest. Not saying it’s not good, i loved Flowering Blight, but USSA was not fantastic and the Fix This album was pretty much total bollocks, unfortunately. And i doubt that we’d be lauding Paul if he hadn’t joined Ministry; would The Blackouts have hit it big and given him a career? I’m not saying he’s not a hugely talented guy, just that a lot of people are quick to write off Al’s importance in the careers of a few ex-Ministry guys.
I was actually surprised at Sascha Konietzko’s warm words for Al as well, he gives him full credit for his career.
yeah alot of good points here and there, but whole book for me was just “i was high all the time, i hate (almost) everyone i’ve worked with, i did it all by myself, me me me and my next fix, high, drunk, etc”.
i was hoping to get at least a little bits and pieces of information about the making of albums, yes maybe it was kind of expected that there would be very little.
but ok, the chapters are sort of divided by album titles, understandably. but only ‘new’ info about the albums i’ve got out of the book for example, was that “it was mike scaccia’s riffs that made psalm 69”. really?.. besides some of the other stuff that every ministry fan knows, that he was fucked up the most during filth pig and dark side, etc - there’s like no info about those albums at all.
after hearing the ostrich story and seeing him getting more and more paranoid in the “FIX” movie, sticking a dick in a chicken, shooting up, etc etc, i mean yeah he’s no longer the ‘enigma’ i remember seeing in a couple of videos and in sphinctour live footage when i first got into ministry.
and that sucks because now i know he’s just a wanabe biker/redneck/whatever constantly drunk who is releasing same album over and over. i mean its hard now to take him seriously. the book, along with “FIX” should be released in 2002 with Sphinctour. that would’ve been awesome. now, it’s like, “oh, ok, he was high all the time”.
i’m sure the book has plenty of bullshit though. not as much as famous manson’s “long hard road out of hell”, but still.
i mean, ok, ye, ministry is long done, yadda yadda.
it would be great if the book could focus more on the music, not to the point of being super-boring and technical, but to keep a nice balance to the “i hate that guy” / “needless to say, i was high” fest.
because hey, i think ministry inspired other bands (and fans) mostly with the music, right? the quotes from the people just confirm that, when they heard such and such ministry album. not the “scary doped out guy with glasses and in the cowboy hat singer” thing.
it would be great if the book could focus more on the music, not to the point of being super-boring and technical, but to keep a nice balance to the “i hate that guy” / “needless to say, i was high” fest.
Haha, yeah, it definitely does repeat itself quite a bit on those two points. To be honest i expected him to bash the ex-members a lot more than he actually does, so i was pleasantly surprised that he doesn’t go into that too much. With Mrs J’s comments about how Al loved Barker and trusted him until they fell out, i can see throughvhis macho bullshit about how he despises him and he’s a mediocre bassist, etc. He even lets the mask slip a couple of times himself, mentioning that when he came to do Houses of the Molé and had to do all the programming because Barker wasn’t there, he found it tough. It sounds like he’s almost admitting he hadn’t thought about how much Paul contributed.
Got my copy today. First Ministry related thing I have sort of (partially paid for) bought in a while. The bits I read on Amazon were the selling point for me.
I just got to the part where they’re replacing Wempathy.
I’m taking all these stories with a grain of salt (or a lot of grains of salt), but it’s still entertaining. So far, I like his encounter with Robert Plant.
I’m starting chapter 4. I’m not real sure what to think about this book. Like you guys are saying… Def a grain if salt. And they make no bones about it. In the preface you hear about how al called the writer and how he said he was wasted and his face was tattoo’d but when he talked to Angie the tats were actually temp tats. Then the bit where al tells his story and then they get Al’s step dad interview right after to tell"what really happened". I have to say guys… , I may change my mind. But the writer of this book is good.
“MINISTRY: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen”
Reviewed by Gunnar
After reading a bit of the sample excerpts posted on Amazon, as well as some of the chitter chatter on the boards, I must admit I approached this book with skeptical caution. There were more than a few claims that Al was just spouting a bunch of bullcrap and that 90% of the book was focused on the Bush era Ministry up to present day with a massive overlooking of any early stuff. There was also rampant bellyaching regarding Al slagging off some of the more known (and widely loved) past Ministry contributors such as Chris Connelly and Paul Barker. As for the claims or fears that the Al story doesn’t cover his whole career and spectrum of life, well, that’s completely off base. And for the slagging, yes, it is present, but it is also explained and put into context.
For one thing, the book’s intro by Wiederhorn does a good job of explaining what the book is (in case one completely ignored reading the TITLE). It is Al’s version of the history of Al Jourgensen and Ministry and a recounting of his life. It is not a third party’s investigative study, carefully weighing everyone’s account of everything and fact checking each peace of recollected minutia. And Al is quite open about his extensive drug and alcohol abuse, so a few inconsistencies or discrepancies should come as no surprise to the reader. That being said, though, the book includes an “Intervention” after each chapter. The interventions are interviews with Al’s close peers and colleagues (Jello, Gibby, his wife, his father, etc.) and they openly give an alternate take on things which help illuminate Al’s feelings and memories as a whole and put the larger Ministry story into context. The great Barker mystery, as an example, is made much clearer when we are given input from his wife Angie and from his longtime friend and bandmate Mike Scaccia (R.I.P.).
Sex, drugs, and rock and roll debauchery and excess? Of course. I don’t know why anyone would have an issue with this. Al has been a rock and roll nightmare for as long as I can remember, and that is one of the things that attracted me to him almost 25 years ago. I don’t see how you could have an authentic book about Al without plenty of the tales of shenanigans, madness, and mayhem. Al has been a nihilistic rebel from the get go, and while we’ve gotten little tastes and samples of this over the years, usually through other people’s (journalists, tour mates, and anyone else caught in his path of wreckage) reporting, it was good to hear a lot of this straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth. He’s pretty up front also with how his choices in life have led him to at times be a less-than-exemplary friend, husband, father, etc. Even in his most rotten condition, there is still the prevailing theme of him doing things his way on his own terms and not caring about the consequences.
I, for one, am a complete junkie for the rock and roll autobiography genre as a whole and have wanted this book to be written for the last 10 years. I am very pleased with what we’ve been given. It is a really fun ride and it is actually far more in depth and open than I expected it to be (and, no, there is no mention of the ostrich). If someone wants to know a bunch of geeky music stuff about the instrumentation in songs and albums and hear all the nerdy mechanics about tape loops and drums and samples and 50 gigawatt processors and megatronic voice distortion, tough luck. But there is great insight into some of the relationships and contracts, as well as a more than healthy dose of crazy narratives and complete lunacy. For those who want destruction and rock and roll mayhem, it’s here (and much of it is downright hilarious). And for those who are hoping that the book will help give them some understanding as to who Al is and why he is the way he is, I think they will be pleased as well. However, if someone is a bleeding heart Connelly, Rieflin, or Barker sympathizer and gets butthurt that these men aren’t sweetly praised or given credit by Al, well, I guess they’ll just have to wait for the Book Club to write their own book.
My favorite parts of the book: as Jay noted, Angie’s rebuttal in regards of Al claiming he always hated Paul. It made me think a bit too–a lot of people seem convinced that Paul was always the “good guy” and had no ulterior motives. If what Angie said about the publishing situation and the life insurance policy was true, I bit pretty pissed if I were Al. (And as we have seen on this board–Barker’s credibility also takes a hit for marrying such a nutjob).
I also enjoyed Al talking at length about that first album he did. In every other interview I’ve read or seen he has brushed it off as something foisted on him by corporate suits that he had nothing to do with. But in here, he clearly wrote those songs and crafted that sound. It wasn’t what he ultimately wanted to do, but it was extremely successful and the majors wanted to sign him up immediately because of it. I know Al wants to be this tough metal dude, but he should be proud of the fact he is talented enough to make successful music in completely different genres.
I also liked that Jello Biafra seems a little afraid of Al. Those stories about them making the Lard albums are hilarious.
I just got to the part where they’re replacing Wempathy.
I’m taking all these stories with a grain of salt (or a lot of grains of salt), but it’s still entertaining. So far, I like his encounter with Robert Plant.
Ha, i loved the Robert Plant bit, “that guy owes me an ass-fuck”.
Gunnar, good review, exactly what i thought myself but much better put, haha. To start off with i was reading it, for the first few pages, pretty much at arm’s length with gritted teeth, like you’d hold something that was going to explode or bite you. I didn’t want to hear a full length attack on people i’d respected for years. By the end of it, i certainly had a lot more background on the split and why he might not care for those people. I don’t buy the whole “Connelly was a fucking parasite it took me years to shit out of my bowels” bit, there must have been more to him than that to have him around for so long, but you can surmise by yourself here and there where Al’s talking shit.
And beneath all the anger and bits of tragedy, it’s a hilarious book if you can get through the 3 way with a wheelchair-bound, colostomy bag-wearing midget and other such lovely stories. But there’s some truly scary health problems there for Al, a tumour in his nasal cavity, wow.
I’ll read your review once I’ve finished it, Gunnar.
So far - and I only got it last night - I’ve noticed that it’s definitely a page turning and hard to put down, which is obviously great. There is a lot of stuff where it’s Al blowing smoke up his own ass (like all the shit about his family being rich and being the writers of some famous songs or some shit, amongst other things).
It is pretty better so far than I’d have thought a Jourgensen bio would’ve been.
Oh, and I’m sure you guys new this but since I’ve practically been out of the recent Ministry loop since TLS I audibly mumbled, “Well that fucking explains it” when Al stated that Angie wrote the lyrics to “Git up Git out and Vote”.
Also, Al attempts to portray himself as strong willed and stubborn but he really just comes across like a dumbass. Ulcers, blood out of every hole in your body, yeah… just drink red wine to get a buzz instead.
Oh, and I’m sure you guys new this but since I’ve practically been out of the recent Ministry loop since TLS I audibly mumbled, “Well that fucking explains it” when Al stated that Angie wrote the lyrics to “Git up Git out and Vote”.
It seemed like as far as that’s concerned he’s saying she helped him out because he was totally empty at that point and couldn’t come up with anything, lyrically. As far as his grandfather being the inventor of that cattle-sperm-injecting unit, i think that’s mentioned by one of the interventionists at some point. There’ so much i thought “Hmm, that’s bullshit”, but then it gets confirmed by someone else. Bizarre shit!
There is a lot of stuff where it’s Al blowing smoke up his own ass (like all the shit about his family being rich and being the writers of some famous songs or some shit, amongst other things).
That’s actually pretty likely. Poor people didn’t leave Cuba after Castro - it was the rich and powerful who did that.
There’ so much i thought “Hmm, that’s bullshit”, but then it gets confirmed by someone else. Bizarre shit!
Exactly. I actually called out shenanigans on a particular episode in the book (“Can Trent Reznor do THIS?”) but actually got confirmation from a VERY intimate source that Al could indeed perform the acrobatic stunt.
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There’ so much i thought “Hmm, that’s bullshit”, but then it gets confirmed by someone else. Bizarre shit!
Exactly. I actually called out shenanigans on a particular episode in the book (“Can Trent Reznor do THIS?”) but actually got confirmation from a VERY intimate source that Al could indeed perform the acrobatic stunt.[/reply]
Not to, ahem, blow my own trumpet, but i can do it myself given the right circumstances and enough booze. Not in front of other people though, that would be a step too far. It’s not about the length, more about flexibility of the spine. Or maybe i just imagined it, i’m 99% certain i’ve done it when extremely drunk, could be wishful thinking, but it might explain why my neck’s always so sore…
I’m now avoiding this thread until i complete the book.