Copyright 1991-1997 by Larry Hastings. Free to redistribute, provided it is redistributed intact including this copyright notice.
Okay, I admit it. I am a GIANT Stan Ridgway fan. I went to his show at the Oasis (in San Jose, CA) on Monday night (4/23/90). Since he was hanging out at the back of the club (on the second floor) before the show, I went and got his autograph, and asked if he was going to play "Newspapers" that evening... which got a smile out of his bass payer, and Stan said "You know, you're the _first_ person to ever say that..." Anyway, I am such an ingrained geek that I took _notes_ during the show (mainly so that I could keep a list of the songs he played, and so I could put his better quotes into my fortune database, Lfortune). Here are the bulk of my notes, mixed in with the song list: SONG LIST -- songs played by Stan Ridgway at the Oasis in San Jose, CA, 4/25/90 (songs marked with a * are new songs) *Future Bound (monologue) This "song" was actually an 8 or 10 minute monologue Stan read from a piece of paper, while the musicians played "technological" sounds in the background (lots of beeps and sliding tones from the synthesizers, assymetrical unmetered weird drumming, and long super-overdriven super-fuzzed chords from the bass player). It was mostly about Stan's concern for how we are hurtling into the future without paying much attention, and featured quotes like: "We are in a shotgun marraige with technology" and "The real world is not like the Nightly News, and the real world was never 'Leave It To Beaver' or 'Rosanne' or 'Green Acres' or 'The Beverly Hillbillies'..." *Talk Hard This was passible -- pretty repeative... The Big Heat *Jack Talked The bulk of this song was the chorus, which went: 1 2 3 4 "Jack talked (thump) (thump) Jack talked, why (thump) Jack talked like a man on fire" repeated four times, followed by "man on fireeeeeee...." There were some other lyrics about how Jack sang his heart out and told all, but for the most part of the evening Stan wasn't audible enough to make out the words (unless you already knew them) so I wasn't able to figure out much of this. Callbox Last Honest Man Like last time he played, he changed the second stanza (about "the man who moves the masses") to the following (or something pretty close): "There's a man who spins the records In a big city place like here It broadcasts to three whole states And they say he has an ear But he never seems to listen And he never taps his toes (line missing) He listens with his nose" *Come To Sleep Stan introduced this song as being "about a nightmare... something for all you Jung fans" (or something like that). This song was _great_. Salesman I noticed that the bulk of this song was carried by the sequencer. Ah, but for days gone by, when stage musicians played their own instruments. There was an extra little bit right at the end of the song, which went: "I'm sick and tired Of this rotten job -- And I'm sick and tired Of all these barbecues and eatin' corn-on-the-cob" Rumblefish He seems to love doing this live -- he played this last time I saw him (in late August of last year, I think). Big Talk (Longarm) This was labeled "Big Talk" on the songlists that were on the stage. Draw your own conclusion. Mexican Radio A perfunctory performance... no little radio to give his voice that tinny sound, no particular interest... after he was finished, he called it "A fun little song... sure, it's stupid, but it's fun, isn't it?" *Uba's House Of Fashions This song is about a place that's supposedly on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, "where we get dressed". Stan said the song was "obscure, maybe, but fun for us to play", and I get the impression that he probably won't put it on any albums. However, it _was_ a fun song. (The chorus went: "Uba--- Uba--- Uuuuuuuuubaaaaaaaaaa--- Uba--- Uba--- Uuuuuuuuubaaaaaaaaaa--- Fashions... Fashions....") *I Wanna Be A Boss Or, at least, I _think_ that's the title of this song. It was mainly about how some poor slob wants his boss's job, because his boss doesn't do anything, and has three secretaries, and he wants a limo, and a yacht, and so on. It was alright. Goin' Southbound Drive, She Said which went into *Beyond Tomorrow (closing monologue) More of the same of the opening monologue, warning us about technology and asking us to make a happier world to live in: "Wouldn't it be nice to live in a world where you could go up to your next-door neighbor and say 'Hi there' and they didn't pull a knife on you? I've got knives too... but I don't pull 'em." "So, right now, I want you to turn to the person next to you, and get up close to 'em, and look right in their eye, and say: 'YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE, GET OUT OF MY PERSONAL SPACE! YOU'RE INFRINGING ON MY PERSONAL SPACE!'" I get the idea that this may be on the next album... Stan signed his name "Beyond Tomorrow! Stan Ridgway" At this point, Stan and company left the stage, so that we could call them out for an encore. What a wild, wacky, spur-of-the-moment thing. *Katie, Is That You I'm not sure if that's the right name or not. This is a song originally by Chuck Berry. The chorus asked "Katie, is that you" and finished up with "What are you doing?"... Stan ended the last chorus with "Just what the god-damn hell are you DOING, _anyway_?" *Beyond Tomorrow, continued (closing monologue) This went on for another minute or two. Then, Stan and company left the stage, and they turned the house music back on. Players: Stan Ridgway (vocals, harmonica -- no guitar all evening) M.J. 12: (the new name for his back-up band... the name was Harry Truman's "Majestic Twelve", and Stan said 'look it up') Pietra Wexstun: keyboards Joe Ramirez: bass Joe Berardi: drums Mark Schultz: guitar Bernard Hall: keyboards Also... during one of the songs, someone handed him a "Wooly Willy" -- one of those toys with a little picture of a face and some iron filings under plastic, where you rearrainge the filings with a magnet and draw moustaches, hair, etc. Between two of the songs, he brought it out, and started talking about it: "And, you know, when you give a gift, it's always nice to take off the price tag... you see here, this 'Wooly Willy' cost a dollar and thirty-nine cents. I'll black it out, here, but I'll remember that price for the next twenty years..." "This is an important memento in the Ridgway family. One night in San Jose, a nameless person gave me a worthless toy... and it touched me in a way I could not quite articulate."