Stupid Dream
Encyclopedia
Stupid Dream is the fifth studio album
by British
progressive rock
band Porcupine Tree
, first released in March 1999. It became the band's best selling album up to the time of its release.
The album was recorded at Foel Studios in Llanfair Caerinon, Wales
, and at No Man's Land Studios at Hemel Hempstead
, England
. The production cost only £15,000. Strings were arranged by Chris Thorpe and Steven Wilson and performed by the East of England Orchestra. The Korea
n edition of Stupid Dream additionally included the "Piano Lessons" video. It was re-released on 15 May 2006 as both a 2 disc CD/DVD-A set, and double vinyl
LP, but the double vinyl LP was only available through Burning Shed
, the official Porcupine Tree store. The CD contains a new mix of the album by Steven Wilson, and the DVD-A contains a 5.1 surround mix, two bonus tracks and the video for "Piano Lessons".
DVD-A Edition
The DVD-A, and the new vinyl release of the album also contained the following tracks:
On the DVD-A these tracks are only in 5.1 format.
:
Richard Barbieri
:
said of the album:
Wilson:
said of "Even Less": "That track originally was seventeen minutes long and was recorded as a seventeen minute long track, and it had everything on it. Just ridiculous amounts of overdubs on that track."
The song was first released as a one-track promo tape delivered to record stores in order to promote the album. The promotional cassette came in a plain white sleeve with the words "Who Is This?" written in ink and a number 1 in the top right hand corner.
Eventually, Wilson only used the first half of the song on the album. The second part of the song was added as a bonus track on the CD single
of "Stranger by the Minute", and the full-length version can be found on the Recordings
album, the Stupid Dream 2006 DVD-A reissue (in 5.1 Surround Sound
) and the 2LP reissue. The demo version of the song could only be found in the special edition of the "Four Chords That Made a Million
" single
and was around 15 minutes long with quite different lyrics.
At the end of the track a woman can be heard repeating the pattern of numbers: "0096 2251 2110 8105". About these numbers, Wilson stated: "The counting in 'Even Less' is taken from a recording of a shortwave numbers station
. It is understood that these stations are used by intelligence agencies to transmit coded messages to overseas operatives, although no government agency has ever acknowledged the existence of these stations or what their actual purpose might be. They are virtually impossible to decode without the key since the message and its key are generated at random."
Even Less was played live in 1998 as a 15+ minute epic. Later performances were of similar length to the album version. The track has been performed at most Porcupine Tree shows between 1999 and 2005. It also made occasional appearances on the 2007 tour. More recently, the full-length version found on the Recordings
album was performed live at a handful of shows in 2010 during The Incident
's world tour. During these shows, the second half of the song was performed live without touring guitarist John Wesley
. Live versions can be found on Warszawa, XM
, the Arriving Somewhere... DVD and the Atlanta
download-only album. A version performed by Steven Wilson solo was released on We Lost The Skyline
.
Steven Wilson
has described Piano Lessons as "the most psychedelic
Porcupine Tree recording since the early days."
The bizarre music video for the song shows the band shambling around in weird masks and holding up signs with obvious marketing terminology. It therefore fits in quite well with Wilson's concept for the album, as did the lyrics for this first single from the album, "Forget your own agenda, Get ready to be sold (...) I come in value packs of ten (in five varieties)."
The song was performed live only in 1999. No live versions have been released officially.
from the album. This track featured acoustic guitars, close harmony vocals, glockenspiel, pastoral piano and lyrics. The CD single also featured a live version of "Tinto Brass", another track from Stupid Dream.
Also, the lyrics make a reference to Radiohead
's album The Bends
: "You keep me hating, You keep me listening to 'The Bends'."
The track had been performed live regularly between 1999-2003. It was also performed in an acoustic setup during their headlining gigs at Radio City Music Hall and at the Royal Albert Hall in 2010. A live in studio version can be found on XM II. A live recording from Shepherd's Bush Empire from 2001 was planned to be released on a live album in 2001, which was subsequently abandoned.
said of Slave Called Shiver: "It's a very perverse love song, yeah. I mean, it's an unrequited love song. It's a love song with somebody who's obsessed with someone else, but none of that affection is returned. It relates very closely to 'Don't Hate Me', which is a song again about someone who's obsessed with someone from afar. 'Don't Hate Me' is an even more extreme version, because here this person actually begins to follow and make phone calls and, you know, it becomes very unhealthy. 'Slave Called Shiver' is slightly less extreme. It's about someone who's very much in love and obsessed with somebody else. That love is not returned and so there's a slightly violent perverse undercurrent. 'Pure Narcotic' also is very much the same subject".
Slave Called Shiver has been performed live at nearly all gigs between 1999 and 2002, and made regular appearances in 2003. Live versions can be found on Warszawa and XM
. It is notable that during live performances the chorus of the song was sung an octave higher than on the studio version.
.
The song was performed live regularly in 1999 and made only rare appearances in the set in 2000 and 2001. It was also performed regularly during the second leg of the Deadwing
tour in 2005. A live recording of such performance was released on the DVD "Arriving Somewhere...". During live performances Theo Travis' flute and saxophone solos have been replaced by Richard Barbieri's keyboard and Steven Wilson guitar solos respectively.
Steven Wilson
said of "This Is No Rehearsal": "This song was directly inspired by a tragic UK event a few years ago. A child was taken from a shopping mall while his mother was momentarily distracted and was later found dead and tortured near a railway track. The most disturbing thing about the story was that the two abductors/murderers turned out to be children themselves."
Wilson was referring to the 1993 murder of James Bulger
.
track and sounds a lot like early Pink Floyd
, especially the rare Floyd track Embryo and the middle piece of Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. Colin Edwin does not appear in this track, Steven Wilson plays the bass instead.
Steven Wilson
has said of "Baby Dream in Cellophane": "The baby in the song is basically singing the song: 'I am in my pram'. And it's quite a cynical song because he's basically saying that the boy's life is almost mapped out already as the child is born, it's already predetermined by society and the baby's kind of singing from the pram if you like, saying 'well, actually no, I'm not going to go down this path that's been laid out for me. I'm gonna break out.' It's almost like a very surreal teen rebellion song. If you imagine Nirvana, if they wrote about rebellious teenagers, I write songs for rebellious babies."
This track was only performed live in 1999, usually in exchange of Pure Narcotic.
from the album. The CD single of this song is a very interesting item since, not only does it contain the second part of "Even Less", but an enhanced PC section with the promotion video of "Piano Lessons" as well.
The song itself features a poppy harmonization in the chorus, featuring drummer Chris Maitland (which is his only vocal performance on the whole album). Steven Wilson plays the bass on the song, Colin Edwin does not appear.
Stranger By The Minute has never been performed live by the whole band until their headlining gig on September 24, 2010 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The band performed it in a stripped down setting, with Steven Wilson playing acoustic guitar and vocals, Colin Edwin on acoustic double bass, Richard Barbieri on a small keyboard setup, Gavin Harrison playing a small acoustic drum kit and touring guitarist John Wesley on electric guitar and backing vocals. Wilson has also performed it as a solo guitar/voice number on a couple of occasions.
returns to a topic he has touched on before in "Radioactive Toy" (a track from their first album, On the Sunday of Life...
.) The lyrics deal with a sole survivor after a possible nuclear war that gets picked up by an exploring spaceship.
The song has been performed regularly live in 1999 and made few appearances in 2000. It was brought in back to the live set in 2002 and 2003 but only performed occasionally. Then it became a regular during the first leg of the 2005 tour and has been performed quite often during the second leg of the 2007 tour. A live version was released on Atlanta
.
It is Opeth
frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt
's favorite Porcupine Tree song. During the final show of the joint Porcupine Tree - Opeth tour (3rd Aug 2003 - Showbox, Seattle, WA) Åkerfeldt joined Porcupine Tree to sing A Smart Kid.
director
Tinto Brass
and starts out with some Japanese
spoken text.
Regarding the Japanese spoken part of the song, Steven Wilson
said: "Oh, yes, it's spoken in Japanese! It's my girlfriend who's Japanese and she's got a film book. I tell you it's so difficult to find anything on Tinto Brass in England. He's completely unknown. I mean, I didn't know who he was. I just saw his name by accident on a video cover. So I'm gradually finding out more and more about him. I kept looking for stuff about Tinto Brass on English film-books and film-guides, but I couldn't find anything at all. And then my girlfriend has some Japanese film-books and so I asked her to have a look in them to see if she could find Tinto Brass' name. And she did. She found this little biography: where he was born, the films he made. So she said 'well, should I translate that for you?' (Because I wanted it to be spoken in the track) and I said 'No, it's great' - I thought - 'I'll have it in Japanese'. So she just read it in Japanese. But it's just a list of his films and where he's from... It's nothing interesting".
The track was performed at most Porcupine Tree gigs between 1999 and 2003. Recently, it was performed in 2010 during their special headlining gigs at Radio City Music Hall in New York, and at the Royal Albert Hall in London during The Incident
's world tour. Three live versions are available: a 1999 board recording on the "Pure Narcotic
" single and the 2001 limited German version of "Lightbulb Sun
", a live-in-studio recording from 2002 on "XM" and a 2001 version as a free download from the band's official download store (this version is taken from the same concert as the "Warszawa" live recording, but was cut to fit a single CD).
"This is a very sad song, but if you're like me, I always find the saddest music is also the most beautiful and this is one of my favorite songs that I've ever written" (from Warszawa album)
Although the song was never a regular number in the setlists, it appeared on and off on the band's concerts between 1999 and 2002. A live version is available on the album "Warszawa".
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
by British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band Porcupine Tree
Porcupine Tree
Porcupine Tree is a progressive rock band formed by Steven Wilson in 1987 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. Their music is difficult to categorise, being associated with both psychedelic rock and progressive rock, yet having been influenced by trance, krautrock and ambient due to Steven...
, first released in March 1999. It became the band's best selling album up to the time of its release.
The album was recorded at Foel Studios in Llanfair Caerinon, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and at No Man's Land Studios at Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead is a town in Hertfordshire in the East of England, to the north west of London and part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2001 Census was 81,143 ....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The production cost only £15,000. Strings were arranged by Chris Thorpe and Steven Wilson and performed by the East of England Orchestra. The Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
n edition of Stupid Dream additionally included the "Piano Lessons" video. It was re-released on 15 May 2006 as both a 2 disc CD/DVD-A set, and double vinyl
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
LP, but the double vinyl LP was only available through Burning Shed
Burning Shed
Burning Shed is an independent record label established in April 2001 by musicians Tim Bowness and Peter Chilvers, in association with duplication company manager and former Noisebox Records boss, Pete Morgan....
, the official Porcupine Tree store. The CD contains a new mix of the album by Steven Wilson, and the DVD-A contains a 5.1 surround mix, two bonus tracks and the video for "Piano Lessons".
Track listing
All songs written by Steven Wilson except as indicated.- "Even Less" – 7:11
- "Piano LessonsPiano Lessons (single)"Piano Lessons" is a single by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, from their album Stupid Dream, released in April 1999. It came in two formats: a regular CD and a 7" vinyl...
" – 4:21 - "Stupid Dream" - 0:28
- "Pure NarcoticPure Narcotic"Pure Narcotic" is a single by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, released in November 1999, from the Stupid Dream album. It came in two formats: a regular CD and a 7" vinyl .-Track listing :...
" - 5:02 - "Slave Called Shiver" - 4:40
- "Don't Hate Me" - 8:30
- "This Is No Rehearsal" - 3:26
- "Baby Dream in Cellophane" - 3:15
- "Stranger by the MinuteStranger by the Minute"Stranger by the Minute" is a single by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, released in October 1999, from the Stupid Dream album. It came in two formats: a regular CD and a 7" vinyl which features "Hallogallo", a Neu! cover...
" - 4:30 - "A Smart Kid" - 5:22
- "Tinto Brass" (Wilson/Barbieri/Edwin/Maitland) - 6:17
- "Stop Swimming" - 6:53
DVD-A Edition
The DVD-A, and the new vinyl release of the album also contained the following tracks:
- "Even Less" (full version) – 14:07
- "Ambulance Chasing" – 6:41
On the DVD-A these tracks are only in 5.1 format.
Writing and recording
Steven WilsonSteven Wilson
Steven John Wilson is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
:
"The main source of the shift in sound came from a natural move into the realms of songwriting and away from the more abstract instrumentally based material of previous albums. I was particularly under the spell of Brian WilsonBrian WilsonBrian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
, but also listening to artists like Jeff BuckleyJeff BuckleyJeffrey Scott "Jeff" Buckley , raised as Scotty Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was the son of Tim Buckley, also a musician...
, SoundgardenSoundgardenSoundgarden is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984 by singer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto...
and (the incredibly over rated but still rather good) RadioheadRadioheadRadiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
.
Also for the first time the album was recorded in one extended period (rather than sporadically as with previous albums) in a remote residential studio in Wales, where the band were able to experiment and collaborate on a cohesive sound for the album. Consequently the album contains our most vertically complex music, as opposed to horizontally complex (whereby the tracks comprise simple sections, but many of them strung together). Here the songs are relatively tightly structured but much more layered than anything we had attempted before."
Richard Barbieri
Richard Barbieri
Richard Barbieri, is an English synthesiser player, keyboardist and composer. He was educated at Catford Boys' School, Catford, South East London...
:
"A much more sophisticated sound and meticulous attention to detail defines my approach on this album. Steven came up with a strong selection of songs and a long process followed during which we attempted to condense as many ideas, flavours and colours into the arrangements as possible. Orchestra, flute and saxophone added further to the eclectic mix and I also feel that we started to focus more of what each other was contributing. Nearly all my work was completed within an intense 7 day session in Wales. Before the sessions we had decided that the keyboards used would be analogue only. Much of my work was spontaneous performance recorded onto hard disk, which allowed me to adopt an approach whereby multiple takes and parts could be recorded and edited and compiled later on - a much more creative way of working than always looking for the one "perfect" take. But the other side to the recording was getting the pre-written parts worked out and played as well as possible, things like the mellotron and Hammond organ parts."
Concept
Steven WilsonSteven Wilson
Steven John Wilson is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
said of the album:
"I just wrote about myself this time, certain insecurities and feelings - all the usual miserable singer-songwriter stuff. I've come round to the idea that the most affecting lyrics are always written from a personal point of view."
"When I was writing some of the songs of the album I was very much aware of this contradiction between being an artist, being a musician, trying to be creative and write songs and, then, at the point you finish an album, the music is finished, the creative side is finished, you then have to go out and sell and market and promote. And that's like a completely different experience. It's not a very creative process. It's quite - in some ways - a cynical process going on having to sell your music. But you have to do it. I mean, if a modern musician is going to survive as a musician, you have to - in a sense - 'prostitute yourself' to try and sell your music and your art. And I was very much aware of that contradiction. If you think about that too much, it can drive you crazy, you know. It's an absurd thing to be doing. That kind of led me thinking about when I was a teenager, when I was just starting out and I was interested in being a musician. And I think a lot of teenage kids have this dream of being pop stars, of being a professional musician. This 'stupid dream' of being famous and 'life is a ball and everything is wonderful'. And, of course, actually the reality is that being a professional musician is a very hard work. It can be very heartbreaking, there's a lot of disappointment, there's a lot of hard work, there's a lot of travelling."
Cover art
The album cover photography, taken by Robert Harding, is linked to the album's concept as well.Wilson:
"Like sitting down with the record company to discuss how we're gonna market this album. And at that point your record becomes a product. And I just had this image of these CDs just coming off this conveyor belt. And obviously it's at complete odds with the music. But I wanted to have this kind of contradictory feel to the color. The bottom line is, the people that get into Porcupine Tree know that we're exactly not the kind of band that ever consider our music in terms of product and shifting units. So I thought it would kind of be fun to put an image on the album which is a comment on that. What could be a more stupid dream than wanting to make music and sell it."
Even Less
Steven WilsonSteven Wilson
Steven John Wilson is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
said of "Even Less": "That track originally was seventeen minutes long and was recorded as a seventeen minute long track, and it had everything on it. Just ridiculous amounts of overdubs on that track."
The song was first released as a one-track promo tape delivered to record stores in order to promote the album. The promotional cassette came in a plain white sleeve with the words "Who Is This?" written in ink and a number 1 in the top right hand corner.
Eventually, Wilson only used the first half of the song on the album. The second part of the song was added as a bonus track on the CD single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
of "Stranger by the Minute", and the full-length version can be found on the Recordings
Recordings (album)
Recordings is a compilation album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released in May 2001. It is a collection of b-sides from the albums Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun along with one new song, "Access Denied". Recordings was originally a limited pressing release, limited to only...
album, the Stupid Dream 2006 DVD-A reissue (in 5.1 Surround Sound
5.1 surround sound
5.1 is the common name for six channel surround sound multichannel audio systems. 5.1 is now the most commonly used layout in both commercial cinemas and home theaters. It uses five full bandwidth channels and one low frequency enhancement channel . Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, DTS, and...
) and the 2LP reissue. The demo version of the song could only be found in the special edition of the "Four Chords That Made a Million
Four Chords That Made a Million
"Four Chords That Made a Million" is a single by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, released in April 2000, a month before the release of the album Lightbulb Sun, in order to promote it...
" single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
and was around 15 minutes long with quite different lyrics.
At the end of the track a woman can be heard repeating the pattern of numbers: "0096 2251 2110 8105". About these numbers, Wilson stated: "The counting in 'Even Less' is taken from a recording of a shortwave numbers station
Numbers station
A numbers station is a shortwave radio station of uncertain origin. In the 1950s, Time magazine reported that the numbers stations first appeared shortly after World War II and were using a format that had been used to send weather data during that war.Numbers stations generally broadcast...
. It is understood that these stations are used by intelligence agencies to transmit coded messages to overseas operatives, although no government agency has ever acknowledged the existence of these stations or what their actual purpose might be. They are virtually impossible to decode without the key since the message and its key are generated at random."
Even Less was played live in 1998 as a 15+ minute epic. Later performances were of similar length to the album version. The track has been performed at most Porcupine Tree shows between 1999 and 2005. It also made occasional appearances on the 2007 tour. More recently, the full-length version found on the Recordings
Recordings (album)
Recordings is a compilation album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released in May 2001. It is a collection of b-sides from the albums Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun along with one new song, "Access Denied". Recordings was originally a limited pressing release, limited to only...
album was performed live at a handful of shows in 2010 during The Incident
The Incident (album)
The Incident is the tenth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. It was released on September 14, 2009 by Roadrunner Records. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album and reached the Top 25 on both the US and UK album charts.-History:The band...
's world tour. During these shows, the second half of the song was performed live without touring guitarist John Wesley
John Wesley (guitarist)
John Wesley is an American singer, songwriter and guitar player. John Wesley's professional music career began in the early 1980s in the Tampa, Florida area where he founded 1991 Southwestern Music Conference's showcase act Autodrive along with drummer/producer Mark Prator...
. Live versions can be found on Warszawa, XM
XM (album)
-Band:* Steven Wilson - Guitar, Lead Vocals* Colin Edwin - Bass* Richard Barbieri - Keyboards, Synth* Gavin Harrison - Drums* John Wesley - Guitar, Backing Vocals -Credits:* XM Recording Engineer – Quinton Roebuck...
, the Arriving Somewhere... DVD and the Atlanta
Atlanta (album)
-Personnel:*Steven Wilson – keyboards, vocals, guitar*Colin Edwin – bass guitar*Richard Barbieri – keyboards, synthesizers*Gavin Harrison – drums*John Wesley – backing vocals, guitar...
download-only album. A version performed by Steven Wilson solo was released on We Lost The Skyline
We Lost the Skyline
We Lost the Skyline is a live recording by Porcupine Tree, recorded during an in-store performance at Park Avenue CDs in Orlando, Florida, with 200 fans in attendance. Although it was originally planned that the full band would play, lack of space dictated that only the two guitarists/singers...
.
Piano Lessons
"Piano Lessons" was the first single for the album and was released just a week prior to the release of it.Steven Wilson
Steven Wilson
Steven John Wilson is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
has described Piano Lessons as "the most psychedelic
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
Porcupine Tree recording since the early days."
The bizarre music video for the song shows the band shambling around in weird masks and holding up signs with obvious marketing terminology. It therefore fits in quite well with Wilson's concept for the album, as did the lyrics for this first single from the album, "Forget your own agenda, Get ready to be sold (...) I come in value packs of ten (in five varieties)."
The song was performed live only in 1999. No live versions have been released officially.
Stupid Dream
Stupid Dream is a little, instrumental mood piece of 28 seconds with a tuning orchestra and some sound effects.Pure Narcotic
Pure Narcotic is the third singleSingle (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
from the album. This track featured acoustic guitars, close harmony vocals, glockenspiel, pastoral piano and lyrics. The CD single also featured a live version of "Tinto Brass", another track from Stupid Dream.
Also, the lyrics make a reference to Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
's album The Bends
The Bends
The Bends is the second studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 13 March 1995 by Parlophone. The Bends was produced by John Leckie at EMI's studios in London, and engineered by Nigel Godrich, who would go on to produce all future albums by the band...
: "You keep me hating, You keep me listening to 'The Bends'."
The track had been performed live regularly between 1999-2003. It was also performed in an acoustic setup during their headlining gigs at Radio City Music Hall and at the Royal Albert Hall in 2010. A live in studio version can be found on XM II. A live recording from Shepherd's Bush Empire from 2001 was planned to be released on a live album in 2001, which was subsequently abandoned.
Slave Called Shiver
Steven WilsonSteven Wilson
Steven John Wilson is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
said of Slave Called Shiver: "It's a very perverse love song, yeah. I mean, it's an unrequited love song. It's a love song with somebody who's obsessed with someone else, but none of that affection is returned. It relates very closely to 'Don't Hate Me', which is a song again about someone who's obsessed with someone from afar. 'Don't Hate Me' is an even more extreme version, because here this person actually begins to follow and make phone calls and, you know, it becomes very unhealthy. 'Slave Called Shiver' is slightly less extreme. It's about someone who's very much in love and obsessed with somebody else. That love is not returned and so there's a slightly violent perverse undercurrent. 'Pure Narcotic' also is very much the same subject".
Slave Called Shiver has been performed live at nearly all gigs between 1999 and 2002, and made regular appearances in 2003. Live versions can be found on Warszawa and XM
XM (album)
-Band:* Steven Wilson - Guitar, Lead Vocals* Colin Edwin - Bass* Richard Barbieri - Keyboards, Synth* Gavin Harrison - Drums* John Wesley - Guitar, Backing Vocals -Credits:* XM Recording Engineer – Quinton Roebuck...
. It is notable that during live performances the chorus of the song was sung an octave higher than on the studio version.
Don't Hate Me
Don't Hate Me featured the first use of saxophone in the music of Porcupine Tree, courtesy of Theo TravisTheo Travis
Theo Travis is a British saxophonist and flautist.Travis received his degree in flute and saxophone from the University of Manchester and has worked among others with Robert Fripp, Gong, Porcupine Tree, The Tangent, Bill Nelson, Bass Communion, No-Man, Steven Wilson, David Sylvian, Harold Budd,...
.
The song was performed live regularly in 1999 and made only rare appearances in the set in 2000 and 2001. It was also performed regularly during the second leg of the Deadwing
Deadwing
American edition10. "Shesmovedon " – 4:59DVD-A edition10. "Revenant" – 3:04 11. "Mother and Child Divided" – 4:59 12. "Half-Light" – 6:20 13. "Shesmovedon " - 4:59 LP edition...
tour in 2005. A live recording of such performance was released on the DVD "Arriving Somewhere...". During live performances Theo Travis' flute and saxophone solos have been replaced by Richard Barbieri's keyboard and Steven Wilson guitar solos respectively.
This Is No Rehearsal
This Is No Rehearsal is a mixture of semi-acoustic segments with desperate vocals and punk rock raves, this number was already played live during the 1998 European tour.Steven Wilson
Steven Wilson
Steven John Wilson is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
said of "This Is No Rehearsal": "This song was directly inspired by a tragic UK event a few years ago. A child was taken from a shopping mall while his mother was momentarily distracted and was later found dead and tortured near a railway track. The most disturbing thing about the story was that the two abductors/murderers turned out to be children themselves."
Wilson was referring to the 1993 murder of James Bulger
Murder of James Bulger
James Patrick Bulger was a boy from Kirkby, England, who was murdered on 12 February 1993, when aged two. He was abducted, tortured and murdered by two ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables .Bulger disappeared from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, near Liverpool, while...
.
Baby Dream in Cellophane
Baby Dream in Cellophane is a short psychedelicPsychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
track and sounds a lot like early Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
, especially the rare Floyd track Embryo and the middle piece of Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. Colin Edwin does not appear in this track, Steven Wilson plays the bass instead.
Steven Wilson
Steven Wilson
Steven John Wilson is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
has said of "Baby Dream in Cellophane": "The baby in the song is basically singing the song: 'I am in my pram'. And it's quite a cynical song because he's basically saying that the boy's life is almost mapped out already as the child is born, it's already predetermined by society and the baby's kind of singing from the pram if you like, saying 'well, actually no, I'm not going to go down this path that's been laid out for me. I'm gonna break out.' It's almost like a very surreal teen rebellion song. If you imagine Nirvana, if they wrote about rebellious teenagers, I write songs for rebellious babies."
This track was only performed live in 1999, usually in exchange of Pure Narcotic.
Stranger by the Minute
Stranger by the Minute became the second singleSingle (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
from the album. The CD single of this song is a very interesting item since, not only does it contain the second part of "Even Less", but an enhanced PC section with the promotion video of "Piano Lessons" as well.
The song itself features a poppy harmonization in the chorus, featuring drummer Chris Maitland (which is his only vocal performance on the whole album). Steven Wilson plays the bass on the song, Colin Edwin does not appear.
Stranger By The Minute has never been performed live by the whole band until their headlining gig on September 24, 2010 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The band performed it in a stripped down setting, with Steven Wilson playing acoustic guitar and vocals, Colin Edwin on acoustic double bass, Richard Barbieri on a small keyboard setup, Gavin Harrison playing a small acoustic drum kit and touring guitarist John Wesley on electric guitar and backing vocals. Wilson has also performed it as a solo guitar/voice number on a couple of occasions.
A Smart Kid
With A Smart Kid Steven WilsonSteven Wilson
Steven John Wilson is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
returns to a topic he has touched on before in "Radioactive Toy" (a track from their first album, On the Sunday of Life...
On the Sunday of Life
On the Sunday of Life is the debut album of English progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released in July, 1991. It compiles tracks that Steven Wilson produced and recorded for two cassette-only releases, Tarquin's Seaweed Farm and The Nostalgia Factory...
.) The lyrics deal with a sole survivor after a possible nuclear war that gets picked up by an exploring spaceship.
The song has been performed regularly live in 1999 and made few appearances in 2000. It was brought in back to the live set in 2002 and 2003 but only performed occasionally. Then it became a regular during the first leg of the 2005 tour and has been performed quite often during the second leg of the 2007 tour. A live version was released on Atlanta
Atlanta (album)
-Personnel:*Steven Wilson – keyboards, vocals, guitar*Colin Edwin – bass guitar*Richard Barbieri – keyboards, synthesizers*Gavin Harrison – drums*John Wesley – backing vocals, guitar...
.
It is Opeth
Opeth
Opeth is a Swedish heavy metal band from Stockholm, formed in 1990. Though the group has been through several personnel changes, singer, guitarist, and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt has remained Opeth's driving force throughout the years...
frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt
Mikael Åkerfeldt
Lars Mikael Åkerfeldt is a Swedish musician who achieved fame as the lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter of progressive death metal band Opeth as well as the lead vocalist of death metal band Bloodbath. He was the vocalist and guitarist for the band Sörskogen and the guitarist of the band Steel...
's favorite Porcupine Tree song. During the final show of the joint Porcupine Tree - Opeth tour (3rd Aug 2003 - Showbox, Seattle, WA) Åkerfeldt joined Porcupine Tree to sing A Smart Kid.
Tinto Brass
Tinto Brass is the only band composition on the album. This typical piece of instrumental Porcupine Tree was seemingly inspired by ItalianItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Tinto Brass
Tinto Brass
Giovanni Brass , better known as Tinto Brass, is an Italian filmmaker. He is noted especially for his work in the erotic genre, with films such as Così fan tutte , Paprika, Monella and Trasgredire...
and starts out with some Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
spoken text.
Regarding the Japanese spoken part of the song, Steven Wilson
Steven Wilson
Steven John Wilson is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
said: "Oh, yes, it's spoken in Japanese! It's my girlfriend who's Japanese and she's got a film book. I tell you it's so difficult to find anything on Tinto Brass in England. He's completely unknown. I mean, I didn't know who he was. I just saw his name by accident on a video cover. So I'm gradually finding out more and more about him. I kept looking for stuff about Tinto Brass on English film-books and film-guides, but I couldn't find anything at all. And then my girlfriend has some Japanese film-books and so I asked her to have a look in them to see if she could find Tinto Brass' name. And she did. She found this little biography: where he was born, the films he made. So she said 'well, should I translate that for you?' (Because I wanted it to be spoken in the track) and I said 'No, it's great' - I thought - 'I'll have it in Japanese'. So she just read it in Japanese. But it's just a list of his films and where he's from... It's nothing interesting".
The track was performed at most Porcupine Tree gigs between 1999 and 2003. Recently, it was performed in 2010 during their special headlining gigs at Radio City Music Hall in New York, and at the Royal Albert Hall in London during The Incident
The Incident (album)
The Incident is the tenth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. It was released on September 14, 2009 by Roadrunner Records. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album and reached the Top 25 on both the US and UK album charts.-History:The band...
's world tour. Three live versions are available: a 1999 board recording on the "Pure Narcotic
Pure Narcotic
"Pure Narcotic" is a single by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, released in November 1999, from the Stupid Dream album. It came in two formats: a regular CD and a 7" vinyl .-Track listing :...
" single and the 2001 limited German version of "Lightbulb Sun
Lightbulb Sun
-2008 Reissues:A reissue of Lightbulb Sun was released on April 21, 2008 through Kscope as 2 disc set; or a 3 disc set for the first 5,000 pre-ordered copies. Disc one is a CD containing a remastered version of the original album album, while disc two is a DVD-A containing the album remixed into...
", a live-in-studio recording from 2002 on "XM" and a 2001 version as a free download from the band's official download store (this version is taken from the same concert as the "Warszawa" live recording, but was cut to fit a single CD).
Stop Swimming
Wilson said of this song: "I found that when I was writing the music for this album a lot of the songs were about me and my relationship with the music industry and how I felt about where I was going in the music business and all that. Things like 'Stop Swimming'... maybe it's time to stop swimming... and this kind of whole impulse to just give up and go with the flow can be very strong sometimes. I mean I've never given into it. I never will.""This is a very sad song, but if you're like me, I always find the saddest music is also the most beautiful and this is one of my favorite songs that I've ever written" (from Warszawa album)
Although the song was never a regular number in the setlists, it appeared on and off on the band's concerts between 1999 and 2002. A live version is available on the album "Warszawa".
Personnel
- Richard BarbieriRichard BarbieriRichard Barbieri, is an English synthesiser player, keyboardist and composer. He was educated at Catford Boys' School, Catford, South East London...
– Analogue Synthesizers, Hammond Organ, Mellotron, Piano on "Even Less", glockenspiel on "Pure Narcotic" - Colin EdwinColin EdwinColin Edwin is a member of the British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, where he plays both fretted and fretless bass guitar as well as double bass and guimbri. He joined the band in December 1993...
– Bass Guitar, Double Bass on "Stop Swimming" - Chris MaitlandChris MaitlandChris Maitland is an English drummer.After being the drummer for No-Man on their Autumn 1993 tour , Maitland was asked by the band's Steven Wilson to join his other main project, the progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
– Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals on "Stranger By The Minute" - Steven WilsonSteven WilsonSteven John Wilson is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
– Vocals, Guitars, Piano, Samples, Bass on "Baby Dream In Cellophane" and "Stranger By The Minute" - Theo TravisTheo TravisTheo Travis is a British saxophonist and flautist.Travis received his degree in flute and saxophone from the University of Manchester and has worked among others with Robert Fripp, Gong, Porcupine Tree, The Tangent, Bill Nelson, Bass Communion, No-Man, Steven Wilson, David Sylvian, Harold Budd,...
– Flute on "Tinto Brass" and "Don't Hate Me", Saxophone on "Don't Hate Me" - East of England Orchestra – Strings (conducted by Nicholas Kok)
External links
- Porcupine Tree Official Website
- Stupid Dream at Snapper MusicSnapper MusicSnapper Music is an independent record label founded in 1996 by former head of Castle Communications Jon Beecher, Dougie Dudgeon and funded by the late Mark Levinson from Palan Music Publishing. In 1999 Snapper broke away from its parent company in an MBO in association with ACT and CAI venture...