The Reality of My Surroundings
Encyclopedia
The Reality of My Surroundings is the third full-length album
by Fishbone
, released on April 23, 1991. It was the first Fishbone album to include former Miles Davis
music director John Bigham (guitar, keyboards), who joined in 1989 during the Truth and Soul
tour.
, booking two months of studio time in which to record the album. Fishbone, David Kahne
and Dave Jerden
produced the album, which includes the singles, "Fight the Youth", "Everyday Sunshine
" and "Sunless Saturday
".
The album's title comes from a line in track 3, "So Many Millions", which reads "I cannot get over legitimately, the Reality
of My Surroundings do not point to the sky".
on May 18, 1991. The album is widely considered by fans and critics as the creative peak of the band. Fishbone experienced a large growth in concert tickets and record sales during this period, making two memorable television appearances: performing "Sunless Saturday
" and "Everyday Sunshine
" on Saturday Night Live
, and "Everyday Sunshine" on The Arsenio Hall Show
. (The SNL performance of "Sunless Saturday" has been re-edited in reruns. The original television broadcast showed a brief glimpse of Angelo Moore
doing a backflip on stage. The re-edited version simply switches the camera angle, making it possible to see the full flip right after signaling "Special K" (Kendall Jones) to do his guitar solo.)
Music writer Piero Scaruffi
called the album "ambitious and amusing", giving it a 7.5 out of 10 and placing it at #6 of his greatest funk albums of all time list.
Singles - Billboard (North America)
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 Fishbone
Fishbone
Fishbone is a U.S. alternative rock band formed in 1979 in Los Angeles, California, which plays a fusion of ska, punk rock, funk, hard rock and soul. Critics have noted of the band: "Fishbone was one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the late '80s...
, released on April 23, 1991. It was the first Fishbone album to include former Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
music director John Bigham (guitar, keyboards), who joined in 1989 during the Truth and Soul
Truth and Soul
Truth and Soul is the second album by alternative rock band Fishbone. It was released on September 13, 1988. The album features a wide array of genres including punk, ska, reggae, soul, hard rock, funk, blues and heavy metal...
tour.
Album information
Fishbone took the rest of 1989 off before beginning to write songs for the follow-up to Truth and Soul. The project was plagued by production delays until November 1990, when the band entered Ocean Way RecordingOcean Way Recording
Ocean Way Recording is the name of a series of recording studios in Hollywood, California and Nashville, Tennessee. Ocean Way Studios is well known in the recording industry due to the award-winning albums that were produced there....
, booking two months of studio time in which to record the album. Fishbone, David Kahne
David Kahne
David Kahne is an American record producer. Kahne started his musical career as a working musician and then became notable for his role as in-house producer and engineer at 415 Records, the first American new wave music label, and for his subsequent roles as Vice President of A&R at Columbia...
and Dave Jerden
Dave Jerden
Dave Jerden is an American record producer, engineer and mixer who mostly works with artists in the alternative rock, punk rock and metal genres....
produced the album, which includes the singles, "Fight the Youth", "Everyday Sunshine
Everyday Sunshine
"Everyday Sunshine" is a song by the alternative rock band Fishbone from their 1991 album The Reality of My Surroundings.Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone is also the title of a documentary about the band.-Track listing:A Side...
" and "Sunless Saturday
Sunless Saturday
"Sunless Saturday" is a song by the Alternative rock band Fishbone from their 1991 album The Reality of My Surroundings. It remains, to this day, the band's highest charting single....
".
The album's title comes from a line in track 3, "So Many Millions", which reads "I cannot get over legitimately, the Reality
of My Surroundings do not point to the sky".
Release and reception
With this album, Fishbone obtained critical and commercial success with a ranking of #49 on the Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
on May 18, 1991. The album is widely considered by fans and critics as the creative peak of the band. Fishbone experienced a large growth in concert tickets and record sales during this period, making two memorable television appearances: performing "Sunless Saturday
Sunless Saturday
"Sunless Saturday" is a song by the Alternative rock band Fishbone from their 1991 album The Reality of My Surroundings. It remains, to this day, the band's highest charting single....
" and "Everyday Sunshine
Everyday Sunshine
"Everyday Sunshine" is a song by the alternative rock band Fishbone from their 1991 album The Reality of My Surroundings.Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone is also the title of a documentary about the band.-Track listing:A Side...
" on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, and "Everyday Sunshine" on The Arsenio Hall Show
The Arsenio Hall Show
The Arsenio Hall Show is an American variety/talk show that aired late weeknights in syndication from January 3, 1989 to May 27, 1994. The show was created and hosted by comedian/actor Arsenio Hall.- Background :...
. (The SNL performance of "Sunless Saturday" has been re-edited in reruns. The original television broadcast showed a brief glimpse of Angelo Moore
Angelo Moore
Angelo Christoper Moore is an American musician, best known for his work as the founding member, lead singer and saxophonist for the Los Angeles alternative rock band Fishbone. Moore also performs and records spoken word poetry under the stage name of Dr. Madd Vibe.-Biography:In 1993 he released a...
doing a backflip on stage. The re-edited version simply switches the camera angle, making it possible to see the full flip right after signaling "Special K" (Kendall Jones) to do his guitar solo.)
Music writer Piero Scaruffi
Piero Scaruffi
Piero Scaruffi received a degree in Mathematics in 1982 from University of Turin, where he did work on the General Theory of Relativity. For a number of years he was the head of the Artificial Intelligence Center at Olivetti, based in Cupertino, California. He has been a visiting scholar at...
called the album "ambitious and amusing", giving it a 7.5 out of 10 and placing it at #6 of his greatest funk albums of all time list.
Track listing
Accolades
| Year | Publication | Country | Accolade | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Rock de Lux | Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula... |
"Albums of the Year" | 2 | |
| 1991 | OOR Muziekkrant OOR Muziekkrant OOR is the oldest currently published music magazine in the Netherlands. The name "OOR" is the Dutch word for ear.-History:The magazine was first published on 1 April 1971, being founded by Barend Toet . Of the first issue 20,000 copies were printed and paid for by Berry Visser, one of... |
Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... |
"Albums of the Year" | 40 | |
| "*" denotes an unordered list. | |||||
Fishbone
- Angelo MooreAngelo MooreAngelo Christoper Moore is an American musician, best known for his work as the founding member, lead singer and saxophonist for the Los Angeles alternative rock band Fishbone. Moore also performs and records spoken word poetry under the stage name of Dr. Madd Vibe.-Biography:In 1993 he released a...
– saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
, vocals - Walter A. Kibby II – trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
, vocals - Kendall Jones – lead guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Chris Dowd – keyboardElectronic keyboardAn electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...
s, tromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
, vocals - John Bigham – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, keyboard - John Norwood FisherJohn Norwood FisherJohn Norwood Fisher is the bass player and founder for the band Fishbone. Fisher has played bass in the band throughout its history, even as other members have departed and returned...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, vocals - Philip "Fish" Fisher – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
Additional
- Sam Mims – programming
- Fenando Pullum – trumpet
- T-Bone – percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
- Greg Bell, Vicky Calhoun, Aklia Chin, Katherine Cederquist, Jeff Conners, Larry Fishburne, James Grey, Kyva Holmes, Nadja Holmes, Wendell Holmes, Natalie Jackson, Gaz Mayall, Sultana Muhammad, Susan Rogers, Clip Payne, Susan Stoval, Kristen Vigard, Byron West – background vocals
Charts
Album - Billboard (North America)| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | The Billboard 200 | 49 |
Singles - Billboard (North America)
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | "Sunless Saturday" | Modern Rock Tracks | 7 |
| "Everyday Sunshine" | Modern Rock Tracks | 14 |