“2nd Skafish Demo Tape”
Recorded October 12, 1977

Robin McBride really took note of the fact that the band and I had drawn beyond-capacity crowds of wildly excited kids to our shows in the summer of 1977.  Robin also saw the musical and conceptual vision I held, and really believed that the project could go somewhere if the right record company got behind it.  So he made an offer to produce 4 tracks in the studio, and see if Mercury Records might be interested.  When we went in to record, I wanted to capture a mixture of hard rock and disorienting passages that were tonally abstract and jazz-oriented.  We cut almost everything in one take as usual, and the band’s musical discipline really came through in the studio.

After the tape was so unanimously rejected by Mercury Records, it seemed obvious to me that no record executive or businessperson would even consider releasing this session. When I listened to the tapes for the first time in over 20 years, I was really amazed at how I perceived the songs as sounding current. Certain of these tracks would still be too shocking for radio even today. The energy level on “You Invited Me” is from some unknown, frenetic, other galaxy somewhere...

You Invited Me:  I went to this stately, posh party in a mansion with the Winners and some of my strange friends.  The party was infested with these pretentious Zsa Zsa Gabor-esque ladies my mother knew.  But I was dressed like them-wearing high heels, an old-fashioned woman’s shell, and their equilibriums were wrecked.  They wanted the freak to LEAVE - so I blew them a good-bye kiss, and wrote "You Invited Me."

Please will you show me through your house
Yes I’ll pretend I’m not a louse
I got my eye on all your things
All of the doom I’m gonna bring
Yes I will ruin your time
Then I will wreck your life
Then I will know your party flopped
Drag for your friends’ hostess
You are a dope
You didn’t know what I would do
You invited me
I’m gonna wreck it for you

© Copyright 1977 Skafish Music - All Rights Reserved

Tattle Tale:  I started ditching school, hiding in my parents’ garage just to avoid the day-by-day physical attacks from other kids.  In the midst of all of this, the school counselor called me into her office, sat me down, pointed her witch-like finger at me and cynically asked, “Jim, can you pleeease tell me why everyone in this school hates you?”  Can you believe someone with a college degree would say such a thing?  The lyrics are my Dear Diary.

Push me and my books down the stairs
I run to the nurse for care and a band-aid
Nurse is laughing ha! ha! ha!
Even she’s down on me
They didn’t give me therapy
Just lots of slapping and pushing around
Therapy was later when they all lost hope
In washing out my mouth with soap. . . .
The truant officer was out and looking all around for me
I don’t care I’m going to leave
My mouth is bleeding my clothes are ripped
I’m in hell
Everyday I’m hit

© Copyright 1977 Skafish Music - All Rights Reserved

Sign of the Cross:  Years before Madonna, Marilyn Manson, and a slew of artists who dabbled in questionable religious and sacrilegious statements, I wrote “Sign of the Cross” as a good, reverent, Catholic teenage boy.  Here’s a verse that wasn’t performed in the live version of 1980 for "Urgh! A Music War:"

I would have killed myself today
I would have smeared myself away
I would have been so glad to die
But in the midst of all my strife
I did the Sign of the Cross
It made me feel real boss
Do a genuflection
Oh maybe you’ll get an erection
Doin’ the Sign of the Cross

© Copyright 1977 Skafish Music - All Rights Reserved

No Liberation Here:  While other 20 year olds were discovering the joy of sex, I was completely ostracized, romantically and sexually.  Other people were making free love and  I wasn’t.  There was nowhere I could go with an imaginary sweetheart and be celebrated.  I felt so guilt-ridden for having any sexual feelings at all.  For a while, I didn’t want anyone even touching me.  These verses were deleted and replaced for the 1st LP version recorded in 1979:

Bury my head and face in crappy toilet water in shit
Let me kiss the one with bad breath that reeks
Let my tongue caress the rotted brown teeth
I can’t walk with my head held high
No liberation here. . . .
There’s a couple who wear fry boots today
And they make good love in the outdoors today
Love in the great outdoors
How does it feel to be free in the great outdoors?

© Copyright 1977 Skafish Music - All Rights Reserved

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