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For
some bizarre reason everyone hated the cover of this album, but
like they say all publicity is good publicity. To be fair it's not
the cover that was objected to - after all who would not want a
12" picture of the gorgeous Miss Hepburn (Audrey that is, not
any of the others) to satisfy one's own 12"? No, furore was
sparked by the juxtaposition of Hepburn and the title "Piss
Elegance". People could see the elegance but not the piss,
but that is my raison d'etre - to show the real, animal side of
the celebrated. For all her charming beauty she needed to powder
her nose (note to her lawyers - I am not inferring she had a habit
of any sort you understand) like the rest of us do. And yes, she
probably farted at the same time. One can be elegant and piss -
hence piss elegance. As I phrased it at the same "Hepburn would
look elegant even when supping on warm wazz". A truism if ever
I heard one.
Cover
aside, this was our debut album for fuck's sake! Self-financed what
else is a band to do but court publicity for the sake of it? The
one thing of which I am proud is that throughout Ganja Force's history
each album has been recorded with the same band (save obviously
for "More Fun…" recorded, for the most part after
Emma was cruelly taken from us - whilst not with us bodily (something
I missed particularly) a number of her previous collaborations were
used). Thus, this album began the classic dual duo-ism of myself,
Emma, Quimberry and Imogen - just think Abba. Only with more of
the sex. And drugs. And less marriage/divorce/musicals. And of course
we rocked. Hard. Sometimes.
Most
of the stuff we used on the album had been honed during our live
sets and that can plainly be heard. Absolutely no post-production
on this album, friends, all of the production having been done in
the toughest environment in the world - the pubs and clubs of Wiltshire,
England. After several repeated requests for tapes from an avid
fan we took the plunge and camped in my flat (The Moon Base) for
a few days in that crazy February of 1988. The actual decision to
commit to tape/vinyl was a difficult one for the band - having started
out as installation artists we felt we'd feel confined by the corporate
bullshit that is the modern-day recording industry. Believe me it
is an industry - very hard work indeed - you try being in a band
where the female constituents, having known each other for some
time had begun menstruating concurrently - guess which week we chose
to record in? But it made for interesting creative flow, if you
will.
Opening
the album we chose "Table of milk, saucer" but chose to
go only with Pts 1 & 2 primarily because 3 & 4 were recorded
without my knowledge or consent, involving as they did a private
rehearsal with Emma which, owing to the lack of finance available
to properly soundproof my flat, was picked up by the microphones
during a lengthy silent jam by Quimberry as he strove, no doubt,
to enlighten us all to the idea of bongo and silence being but differing
sides of the same coin - I tried to avoid interrogating him too
much on these sorts of issues. Sanity is a fickle mistress and to
this day I'm still not convinced where he stood. I think he swung
both ways, dallying occasionally with Mister Fickle too. But never
Master or Mistress Fickle - noncing being a no-no in MY bands. He
was though a free spirit and in that we should rejoice - let us
not tame him, no matter what the psychiatrists say. His percussion
was first-rate of course. Perhaps the two are linked?
So,
"Table of milk, saucer parts 1 & 2" were very much
bongo-led and bong-driven if truth be told, and actually opened
the album in precisely the manner I intended. It said "Look,
here we are - 4 artists pissing elegantly on corporate bonfires".
If no-one grasped the concept of piss elegance and saw the meaning
behind the cover art after listening to the opening track then we
could not be at fault - it was as plain as the hatred that would
engulf myself and Quimberry in years to come. But then we were wide-eyed,
metaphorically at least, and legless (in actuality) and the world
was our oyster, us reaching for the stars, climbing ever higher
to artistic nirvana, with rock-driven bass lines."Green Sea",
another Quimberry track was written before recording but never played
by the band, so production lay in his head, although it was my job
to try and tease it out. Imogen and Emma helped greatly in that
department in helping to relax him to such an extent that the juices
veritably gushed forth. I liked it, as I did with the next track
"Pedestrian Man". So much so that I tried to segue the
two songs together but Quimberry refused stating he wanted at least
some credit for this "poxy fucking album" as he described
it. I always encouraged this antagonistic approach to writing and
felt nothing but love for him as he tried to take my head off with
a 10" Zildjan."Piss Elegance", the bands tour-de-force
at that time was written by the band on the road (the A40). It was
our moments of happiness made flesh - this was a band deeply in
love with each other (though not in a sexual way between the men)
and reflecting that ideal of free love with someone else's partner(s).
- the opening stanza saying it all - "Gave my baby a pearl
necklace/So she had something to wear/While she nibbled on wild
berries/To go with the cream that was in her hair"."Don't
mess with my toot-toot" came about as myself and Emma bounced
creatively off each other - it has been accused of being overlong,
but if creativity is not a tap, or rather if it was we could not
turn it off once turned on. There didn't seem to be too many complaints
from Imogen and Quimberry at the time - they too bouncing off each
other frequently during the recording of the album. I wanted something
a little more earthy, more dirty than the songs hitherto had been
and my original idea was to record it live in the nude atop a hill,
Instead I just dropped my trousers in the studio and let Emma take
control. From the console at the time all I could hear were moans
of assent which I took as a compliment. If I remember rightly though
Quimberry laid down his triangle part straight into the desk during
that session and there is some marvellously earthy, tribal syncopation,
which whilst occasionally threatening to dwarf that which it was
meant to enhance did get tempered in the final mix. I think Imogen
may have a copy of the original demo.
To
"Tor-King…" then. I have credited the writing of
the track to all bar Emma, but until her premature release she insisted
on a writing credit for the outstanding voicing she added. There
are some fans who have mistakenly accused me of megalomania in this
regard. But with all due respect they are talking shite. How am
I to credit anyone with writing the word "Yes"? Inspired
by a heavy session one afternoon the three of us found her, Emma,
straddling a snowman the couple downstairs had built for their children
on the lawn screaming "Yes! Yes! Oh Yes!" Originally I
was inspired to write a song called "Talking to the snowman"
but since what Emma came out with was not talking in any conventional,
or unconventional, sense, talking, I opted, with the bands assent
for creating the surreal figure the Tor-King. Imogen agreeing that
we'd both (Quimberry and I) like to King of those particular peaks
(tor being an ancient word for hill). And that in reality it was
only a lack of testosterone in serious quantities that prevented
her (Imogen) from becoming king too (Tor-Queen lacking the necessary
reference to the afternoon's snowman-related happenings). Once again
I wanted people to be confused by the sexual undertow within the
band.
Whilst
the album failed to sell in the quantities we'd hoped (I for one
was planning to record the next album in Goa - anticipating in advance
the resurgent popularity of that destination with the dopeheads)
it still did enough to get us noticed by a small independent Dutch
label (operating from an apartment in Amsterdam) - THC. They signed
us up for a 4 album deal after quite lengthy negotiation in a coffee
house in the city.
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PISS
ELEGANCE (FB1)