Hello, Goodbye
Recorded at: Kingways Studios, New Orleans in 1994-1995
Featuring: Kermit Ruffins and The Little Rascals Brass Band invited by Rogers Stevens
I'm entering a frame bombarded by indecision
Where a man like me can easily let the day get out of control
Down this far in the quarter
I'm pushed hard upon the border
But, I'd rather be caught 'round
now rather than, oh say, 'round the mouth of June
If I can leave, with a little bit of explanation
Then any where in the world I choose to go I'll have it made
Kermit Ruffins
“...Kermit Ruffins is sort of thereigning king of the brass bands. He was in a thing called the ReBirth Brass Band and they tour in Europe. There’s so many brass bands in New Orleans that there’s someone playing pretty much every day of the year..."
Glen Graham (Drum Media - 1995)
"...I wrote these horn parts and got this New Orleans brass band to come in and do this whole conceptual thing where the album starts out with the horns and finishes up with the horns, like a jazz funeral type thing. We had all listened to a lot of Beatles' records, over the years, and we liked all those little touches they had, the sound effects, the studio tricks, the unusual instruments..."
Rogers Stevens (1995)
Galaxie
Recorded at: Kingways Studios, New Orleans in 1994-1995
Highest Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart Position: #25
Highest Billboard Modern Rock Chart Position: #8
Is this the place that I want to be
Is it you who I want to see
Holding on, hold it high, show me everything
And you're leaving me, yeah you're leaving me
you're leaving me with a hated identity
But I keep on a comin' here and standing in this state
And I'm never really sure if you'll take
What I'm saying the right way
But I'm not appalled or afraid
verbal pocket play
Is as discreet as I can muster up to be
Because the Cadillac that's sittin' in the back
It isn't me
Oh, no, no, no it isn't me
I'm more at home in my galaxie
Can I do the things I wanna do
That I don't do because of you
And I'll take a left and I'll second
guess into a total mess
And you're leaving me
You're leaving me with a hated identity
No no no no it isn't me
No it isn't me
I'm more at home in my Galaxie
Galaxie was the first single from Soup, it refers to the 1964 Ford Galaxie Shannon bought in New Orleans while recording the Soup aalbum.
"...this is a song about my first love..."
Shannon Hoon (Live At The Meto - Sept 27, 1995)
"...[The car] was just my escape, my comfort zone from a lot of places that I found myself during my stay down there-I think a lot of people probably think that [in the song] I'm talking about the galaxies, as in the universe. And I've always liked the idea of wordplay and ambiguously writing about something so simple and making it sound so far out..."
Shannon Hoon (Billboard, August 12, 1995)
"... It’s an easy first track – it’s quick and it’s powerful. When viewed on the video, it has this added sense of humour. Actually it’s hard to pick singles because when it’s your stuff, you like them all. We consciously made a decision that we didn’t want to come up with something as acoustic as 'No Rain'. We wanted to state the fact that we were a rock band, or whatever you wanted to call us. Not a bunch of hippies standing out in the fields . We wanted to show to the hundreds of thousands of people who bought the previous record and liked 'No Rain' that there was something else they could check out.
Glen Graham (Big O magazine, 1995)
2x4
Recorded at: Kingways Studios, New Orleans in 1994-1995
I'm talkin' I'm talkin'
I'm talkin' to myself more
Needle, fetal
Someone's pouring warm gravy all over me
And you see that synthetic therapy
Don't you know it seems to be so unappealing
But, oh what a feeling
I wish that you would stop spitting when
you're talking to me
And inside, air dry
I might want to go another way
But you see now I'm too pale to get out
Into the lovely light of day
Oh, I'll do anything that you say
But I wish you would stop spitting when you're talking to me
I'm talkin' to myself more
1x1
Man to man
Stand to stand
2x4
Talkin' to myself
("2x4" live at the Metro, Chicago
on September 27,1995)
Letters From A Porcupine DVD
Watch the Woodstock performance
Vernie
Recorded at: Kingways Studios, New Orleans in 1994-1995
Is it the way you're speakin'
Is it because I'm peakin'
Twistin' your face, thumb in hand, but you
Gotta have your own space to play in
A collection of glass chickens
Oh Vernie,what a garden you have
Maybe its the snuff under your lip
Or maybe caramel cake covered Christmas
Oh a flower you are to my land, but I
No I cannot deny the beauty
If I had a heart I would want it to be like Vernie's
Oh what a heart that she has
Roaming through the cupboard jar of
pickles never opened since 1983
Peanuts in a pile and Elvis down the aisle Singing gallantly
I wish I could be
A little more like Vernie
Oh, I wanna be
I wanna be a little more like Vernie
This song is about Shannon's grandmother Vernie.
(Picture taken by Marika - September, 2006)
Skinned
Recorded at: Kingways Studios, New Orleans in 1994-1995
You know the local made ones would be nice
to see a little Dahmer like you
walking around with a couple of hammers like that
At least Ed Gein would
Ed Gein was a very good fellow you know
I'll make a shoehorn outta your skin
I'll make a lampshade of durable skin
And oh, don't you know that I'm always feelin' able
When I'm sittin' home and I'm carving out your navel
When will I realize that this skin I'm in
Hey, it isn't mine
And when will the kill be too much meat for me to hide on
Hey, I could really use a couple of hands
To complete one hell of a plant stand
Oh, don't you know that I'm caught here in the middle
Making rib cages into coffee tables
And when I realize that this skin I'm in
Hey, it isn't mine
And when will the thrill be too much meat for me to find anymore
Oh, because you know I can't hide
But oh how hard I try
But this is just the shape I'm in, oh yeah
And though you know I can't hide
But oh how hard I try
But this is just the shape I'm in
from the documentary of
Letters From A Porcupine DVD
"...Skinned is a happy, skippy kinda song which my Mom loves. This guy, Ed Gein, used to make full-bodied suits from women’s skin, which he’d dance around in. He’d also make lampshades and coffee tables from their remains..."
"...It’s disgusting, but the world creates these subjects and I’m just reporting on them.It’s just stuff that fascinates me, even thought it horrifies me at the same time. How do you explain the core of evil that makes people, or even a race of people, wish to perpetrate such acts or barbarism? It’s just tongue in cheek. There are two sides to the same coin, and you can’t take Skinned too seriously. After all, it even features a kazoo solo!..."
Shannon Hoon (Kerrang! August 1995)
“...Shannon has this encyclopedia of serial killers. He’s just fascinated with people who are that freaked out that they feel the need to kill people. Especially the Ed Gein thing. That was bizarre. He’s interested in these kinds of people – who are they, what happens to them to make them want to do these things? It’s one thing to kill someone, I guess, and it’s quite a deal different to do something like that to them, to make furniture out of their body parts. That’s unbelievable..."
Glen Graham (Drum Media - 1995)
Toes Across The Floor
Recorded at: Kingways Studios, New Orleans in 1994-1995
Doesn't anybody feel
That all these killers should be killed
All these healers should be healed
So all these beggers can be filled
Now tell me why am I to lie
If I'm holding firm and feel the right
to lie down beside this dog of mine
And let that perverted though really run through my mind
I'd scrape my toes across the floor
This day's the same as those before
And though inside I'm feeling giddy
Always wrong for never giving myself an uninvaded door
So now I'll take a little glue
I'll put together a new glittered room for you
So I can start sitting so pretty
Instead of sitting here not seein' clear
Just sitting here not fittin' here
No things ain't fittin' here
I'll just lay my head down beside this God of mine
And let that perverted thought burn a hole in my mind
And if I can't lay my head beside this God of mine
Maybe the hunter's dog called God
Could be a friend in time
(from the "Toes Across The Floor" video)
Letters From A Porcupine DVD
Watch the video clip
This song was about to be released as a single when Shannon died.
Walk
Recorded at: Kingways Studios, New Orleans in 1994-1995
Find myself singing the same songs everyday
Ones that make me feel good
When things behind the smiles ain't ok
Around and over and in-between the seas
I need to be on top of a mountain
Where I can be see everything
Cause this paranoia's getting old
Now as I open my eyes to start another day
I'm in a pile of puke
Empty bag of execuses
My love for friends and family
you know I need them
And under a sun that's seen it all before
My feet are so cold
And I can't believe that I have to bang my
Head against this wall again
But the blows they have just a little more
Space in-between them
Gonna take a breath and try again
Dumptruck
Recorded at: Kingways Studios, New Orleans in 1994-1995
New York City soothing my itchy itchy month of May
Time has passed for Ms. Onassis, decay on display
I don't want to go down
I don't want to go down like she did
And I can't understand why something
good's got to die before we miss it
Mumbled talk through pigeon park
And Hastings is wasting away
religiously they seem to sin
Buy, sell or trade for amens
I just don't want to feel
I just don't want to feel like they feel
Hollow body for sound, trade a coat for a gown
Way up in my arms you know
I love you just a little bit more
Raisin' nose down to chin
Smoke after smoke they all trickle in
Anything, for anything, and ending up with nothing
Simple pimpled young man
Sores all over his hands
He's sleeping, not so silently
I'll mop the floors for you all
I'm a fly on the wall
Really big and listening
Burned a hand of a friend of mine
And Bub I know that you could fly a mile high
You told me nothing's ever gonna come between
Nothing's ever gonna come between
My dumptruck and me
Car Seat (God's presents)
Recorded at: Kingways Studios, New Orleans in 1994-1995
Tongue tied, nerves as big as boulders
Why Mom, I thought I was your soldier
My brother sits by me
Buckled into the carseat
Feel the thirst, it's time for pulling over
Into the truckstop on my daddy's shoulder
Out back where they plant all the trees
ten feet away my daddy buries me
- God's Presents -
If my path be smooth or rugged
If with thorns or roses strewn
Where I go the Father seeith
And He will leave me not alone
If I take the wings of morning
far within the giant sea
Even there His hand will leave me
Even there my God will be
Though the gloom of night be round me
Though I cannot see my way
Yet the Lord will see and guide me
Because unto Him the night is day
If my thought are good or evil
Set me think to hide them not
there is one above all seeing
And He beholdth every thought
And ever more my eyes beholds me
And all my ways to Him are known
And His loving arms enfolds me
He will leave me not alone
This song is about Susan Smith who was sentenced to life in prison after she murdered her two children (by locking them in a car and rolling it into a lake) in 1994 and claimed they have been kidnnaped by a black man.
"... there's a part of me that can kind of laugh at everything. I can find the horror and the humor. But when people kill children, I cannot find anything but sheer horror. I believe that anybody who kills children should die.
Because children are too pure, too vulnerable, and not in any way at fault. I just can't comprehend it..."
Shannon Hoon (Toronto Sun, August 1995)
"...our drummer Glen Graham wrote all the music to Car Seat, which is my favorite song on the album..."
Shannon Hoon (Kerrang! August 1995)
The second part of the song is God's presents poem written by Blanche Bridge (Shannon's great great grandmother) on February 11, 1884.
Shannon had the whole poem tatooed on his arm.
Wilt
Recorded at: Kingways Studios, New Orleans in 1994-1995
Hair raising shake you're much too late
you should have jumped a couple of cars before
Now if I may I'll walk away
I'm selling Silly Putty door to door
Up on the roof it seems to help
If I can keep a little bit of disease
As its feeding on me
You see it's bringing me to my knees
As we all wilt
Watching you wilt
Come right away and help me bathe away
the filthy feeling, frigid and cold
Biting my nails to the fairy tales
About the magic monkey's total control
I got Indian Ken anis fleabag friends
With their buckets full of elephant ears
And he's breathing on me
His breath is bringing me to my knees
As we all wilt
Watching you wilt
Wilt is a song about one of
their bus driver who had bad breath!
" ...his breath is bringing me to my knees..."
The Duke
Recorded at: Kingways Studios, New Orleans in 1994-1995
Out here in nothin' engulfed by the sea
And there's no one here except these fishes and me
I think I could die here
Then I'm hit, leveled hard by the rising tide
Oh, I'm hit hard by the tide,
I'm just livid, all alone
Sunny, so funny, not funny to me
Because, I'm bearing the scars from it burning on me
But I feel so revived, just sittin', here thinkin'
Then I'm hit hard, really hard by the tide
I'm hit hard by the tide, I'm just livid
And I'm livin'
Yeah, I'm hit hard by the tide
I'm livid, livid
Hard by the tide I'm livin'
Paoa Kahanamoku (the Duke)
(Surfer, Champion Swimmer,
Hollywood Actor, "Father of Surfing")
St Andrew's Fall
Recorded at: Kingways Studios, New Orleans in 1994-1995
Big stretch and not much sleep
I got a couple of palm trees on each side of my cheek
And it's a bright blue Saturday
And the rummage sellin' the rubbish to me
But if I could buy the sky, that's hanging
over this bed of mine
If I could climb these vines
and maybe see what you're seeing
If you were standing on the corner staring straight
into the eyes of Jesus Christ
One porch, one dog, one cockroach only one way to be
I got sewage fruit and it's growing out back from roots
I don't know if they belong to me
But if I could buy the sky that's hanging
over this bed of mine
And if I could climb these vines
and maybe see what you're seeing
Sitting at the edge of this building,
Twenty stories below, twenty stories below
Twenty stories below
I can't tell you, how many ways that I've sat
and viewed my life today, but I can tell you
I don't think that I can find an easier way
So if I see you walking hand in hand in hand
with a three armed man, you know I'll understand
But you should have been in my shoes yesterday
You should have been in my shoes yesterday
(Background of last verse)
Oh,I can pull the crappy things we did together
In my day so I posed myself some questions
Maybe this week's gonna get me into shape
Hey, I got my head buried 'neath the pillow,
I got my head beneath my pillow so low
(St Andrew's Fall live at
Muchmusic Intimate&Interactive
on September 12, 1995)
Letters From A Porcupine DVD
"We were all sitting there arguing about a monitor mix and that happened (a woman jumped from a building in Detroit) -it made me realize how much the monitor mix has nothing to do with the big picture."... "You learn so much about yourself through tragic scenarios.... I think it just made me realize things that you take for granted."
Shannon Hoon - 1995
New Life
Recorded at: Kingways Studios, New Orleans in 1994-1995
Suddenly everything is fainting
Falling from a broken ladder's rung
There's a jolt exhilarating from the phone I'm holding
I hear the words of what I'll become
How eager the hands that reach for love
'Cause now there's a new life to behold
And its the biggest part of my life to unfold
'Cause now she's telling me she'll have my baby
And a faithful father I am to be
When I'm looking into the eyes of our own baby
Will it bring new life into me?
Deep inside must defy arrangement
I've been a stumblin' from the startin' blocks 'til now
And I'll always try to justify the way I've been behaving
Should I teach one not to know how?
How to live in a world we live in now
'Cause there's a beautiful life to behold
And its the biggest part of my life to unfold
'Cause now she's telling me she'll have my baby
And a father figure I am to be
When I'm looking into the eyes of our own baby
Will it bring new life into me?
Oh please
Bring new life
Bring new life into me
Shannon showing her daugther's
ultrasound picture
"...she has my eyes..."
Letters From A Porcupine DVD
Mouthful Of Cavities
Recorded at: Kingways Studios, New Orleans in 1994-1995
Mouthful of cavities
Your souls a bowl of jokes
And everyday you remind me
How I'm desperately in need
See, I got a lot of fiends around
And they're peaking through nothing new
They see you
They see everything you do
See everything on the inside, out
Oh, please give me a little more
And I'll push away those baby blues
Cause one of these days this will die
So will me and so will you
I write a letter to a friend of mine
I tell him how much I used to love watch him smile
See I haven't seen him smile in a little while
Haven't seen him smile in a little while
But, I know you're laughing from the inside out
Laughin' from the inside out
I know you're laughing from the inside out
Laughing from the inside
From the inside
From the inside out
Jena Kraus and Shannon, New Orleans
Letters From A Porcupine DVD
Watch the video clip
Check out Jena's website here
"..It´s probably about the convoluted nooks and crannies of Shannon´s brain. I am not really sure what that one's about to be honest with you ... "
Rogers Stevens (Circus Magazine 1994)
Lemonade
Recorded at: Kingways Studios, New Orleans in 1994-1995
There's such a thing as self opinion
And this far down South I have no self-control
If anbody else feels like a nobody
Well then your gonna have to look out for you
I'll colour green everything believed in
But I keep screaming for my glass of lemonade.
I walk around and it feels good to be movin'
The breeze that's blowin' through cannot be found
Jump on the trolley that's headed for all the hollering
And then you're gonna have to look out for you
In desperate need of a little more religion
To nurse your God like point of view
Fool on the sheetroof you gotta lay down in your ruins
The river flowin' by, is way too big to bound
If I should speak up, and say hello Mr. Uppercut
Oh, how nice to have avoided you
I'll bloody bleed on everything I'm seeing
But I keep screaming for that glass of lemonade
Too much, too much, too much lemonade
All songs written by Blind Melon as one