the beyond tomorrow listening library

albums

Here are pages dedicated to individual albums/performances. Some have only a couple of tracks, and some are complete. Which are which? Only one way to find out!

stan ridgway live, december 16^th, 2000

the way i feel today

music for films sampler 98

car phone

Stan appeared on the 1991 album Back From Rio by Roger McGuinn, on the track Car Phone. Not as a singer, or a musician, just as a "telephone voice". He and Kimmy Robertson, as "Mark" and "Stephanie", have the following gripping conversation:

Stephanie: Hello?
Mark: Hi, Stephanie, this is Mark.
Stephanie: Hi, Mark, how are you?
Mark: I'm fine, I was wondering if you'd like to come over to my house for dinner tonight.
Stephanie: Oh, I can't, I'm on my way to the airport right now.
Mark: What? Are you in your car?
Stephanie: Uh-huh! I put my home phone on call forwarding so it rings in the car. I'm just gonna pick up an old friend who's flying in from Rio.
Mark: Who do you know from Rio?
Stephanie: He's a guitar player, his name is Jim McGuinn, and he's back from Rio.

But sadly that's where it ends. The compelling saga of Mark and Stephanie, and their conversations via the staggering technological advancement known as the car phone, are never continued. Will they have dinner together another night? Will Jim draw Stephanie away from Mark? And who is Jim, anyway? I thought his name was Roger McGuinn. Sadly, these burning questions remain unanswered to this very day.

Car Phone (excerpt)
By Roger McGuinn
Copyright 1991 McGuinn Music (BMI) / Wild Gator Music, WB Music Corp. (ASCAP)

Misspelling count: two, the usual E, and they never spell his name correctly.

excuse / booker tease

Another inadequately explained cameo. Let me take a stab at it, and see what I can infer: Stan Ridgway was supposed to contribute a song to the 1996 Residents tribute album A Stab At The Residents. But he didn't get anything together in time. So he left an apologetic phone message to the organizer (nicknamed "Dread"?). A group called J.E.D. incorporated this phone message into a cover of an instrumental song called Booker Tease, immortalizing Stan's extemporaneous apology.

Here's the text of what Stan said:

Well, Dread, it's Stan Ridgway, and I'm afraid I did not get it together. You probably figured that out... I think I'm going to nail myself to the cross of, uh, the Residents now, and just become a mole-man. But I didn't get anything together. I'm just not happy with what I had. I wish you good luck with your record, and um, maybe there were other people that, uh, this happened to. I tried, but it just wasn't in the season, or something. Sometimes music is, is, is seasonal. Maybe if this, this'd, uh, started, uh, now, we'd-a had it by summertime. You see how these things go. But, um, let's keep in touch, and um, once again, I'm afraid you're going to have to count me out. It's kinda like I wish I could, but, it's, it's just not appearing. Like a, like a slight-of-hand magic act that suddenly, is not happening. But, well, good-luck-to-you, and the giant ant farm. We'll talk soon. Bye.

excuse / Booker Tease
By Stan Ridgway / J.E.D.

rio greyhound (edit)

For reasons that have never yet been explained, one of the releases of the album The Big Heat had an alternate mix of Rio Greyhound. Instead of the 3:12 version that I'm sure you're all familiar with, it had a 1:59 edit mix. Why? Who knows? It's not like they were short on space on the vinyl (my original theory), as this release was CD and cassette only. Anyway, here it is, in all its stunted glory, for you to puzzle over.

Rio Greyhound
By Stan Ridgway
Copyright 1986 International Record Syndicate, Inc.
Published by Mondo Spartacus / Illegal Songs, Inc. (BMI)

crack the bell: tom shane

(252k, 15 seconds, stereo, cd-quality mp3 encoded)

You just can't find good bells anymore!
Yah! Yah! Sure!
Tom Shane's a friend of mine!
I really like him—

call of the west: somebody

(285k, 17 seconds, stereo, cd-quality mp3 encoded)
This one isn't actually Stan Ridgway, it's Joe Nanini.

I used to be somebody!
I used to be somebody, do you hear me?
Do you hear me? I've—I've been there!
I used to be somebody, god damn you!
I've been there before!
Don't walk away!

call of the west: unleaded

(106k, 6 seconds, stereo, cd-quality mp3 encoded)
This one is at the very end of the song, when it has almost completely faded out. I had to strengthen the signal a couple of times as it fades, which is why the volume keeps jumping around.

What, y'—you wanted unleaded?
Unleaded—that's next pump over, so keep on movin', okay?
Naw, it's out of order.

drive she said: anchorage

(625k, 39 seconds, mono, cd-quality mp3 encoded)
Here's the conversation from the end, when the cab driver talks to his fare. The album/CD mix cuts out a little early, but thanks to John Trivisonno (thanks, John!), you can now hear the whole thing. The part in italics was left off the CD.

Hey, hey, uh—
Hey, y'all, get outta my way!—all ya sunday drivers!
Hey, you want one of these, ah, Slim Jims? They're good!
What?—what? You don't—you don't want one?
Well they're 100% meat!

Haven't I seen you somewhere before?
I know, I know, Anchorage, that's where I seen ya, Anchorage.
Well, where you goin'?
I'm sorry, I don't go in that part of town anymore.
I don't need my windows washed.

the engineer talked

(50k, 3 seconds, stereo, cd-quality mp3 encoded)
Just at the end of Jack Talked (Like A Man On Fire) from $italic{Partyball}, you can hear somebody (the recording engineer? the producer?) talking on the left channel. Artists have been known to leave in this sort of thing on purpose; for instance, listen to the end of Silk Pyjamas by Thomas Dolby. But this is so faint that it was probably a mistake.

Here we go—same kind of arrangement, right?

uba's house of backwards

(661k, 41 seconds, stereo, cd-quality mp3 encoded)
Right at the end of this track from $italic{Partyball}, right in the middle of a bit of solo guitar work, it artfully switches into reverse. The lyrics from the backwards section isn't exactly a revalation, but it's nice to hear it the right way round. For reference, here is the exact same section of the song, forwards (661k, 41 seconds, stereo, cd-quality mp3 encoded), so you can compare:

'Cause she's hangin' out there still! At—
Uba's, Uba's, Uba's, Uba's, Uba's
Fashions

foggy river: original mix

(639k, 39 seconds, mono, cd-quality mp3 encoded)
This was also sent in by John Trivisonno. Apparently, the original version of Foggy River (the B-side track on the The Big Heat single) had a very different sounding vocal mix. John feels it is more polished, and is convinced that the version on the reissue of The Big Heat was a mistake. Me, I think the original vocal mix was a bit plain, and I'm not surprised at all that Stan made it, ah, rather more complicated. That is, I don't think the reissue version is a mistake, just a bit of experimentation.

doubledrive

doubleDrive is a hard-rokin' guitar band. Their 1999 album 1000 Yard Stare has eleven songs, then eighty-seven tracks of silence (five seconds apiece), and finally a ninety-ninth track: a cover of Mexican Radio. Given its extra-super-dooper-secret hidden-track nature, they didn't include proper credits, but they did at least tack writing credits on.

To give you a sense of what the cover is like, I've ripped a 45-second chunk of it. You can find it here:

Mexican Radio (excerpt)
as performed by doubleDrive
Copyright 1999 MCA Records, Inc.

larry hastings

Yep, that's me. I'm a middling composer/pianist/musician guy, and this was one of my experiments that I thought came out pretty listenable. It's a cover of Stan Ridgway's Drive She Said, done in an ambient new-age-y style.

By the way, even though this should only be considered an "excerpt", this is really all of the song I ever did. I like it as it is, and I'm not sure I could sustain something interesting for the length of the original piece... so sorry, but this is all yer gettin'.

Drift She Said (excerpt)
as performed by Larry Hastings
Copyright 1998 by Larry Hastings