Note from Mick: I came across these rough notes when I was going through the website deleting some old pages that were no longer needed.. they were clearly written after I'd had a glass of something, but I think they're amusing. I've tidied up some of the really stupid stuff, but here's the rest of it.. my contemporary thoughts on the album "Zero Tolerance".
Burnout
How do you introduce a band like Killing Floor again after 30 odd years? You need a riff. And I thought this was it.. sitting in our little yard outside our one week holiday git place in Brittany listening to the cacophony of hens and cockerels from the field next door (which we had yet to realise was actually ours, long after we had spent the week going next door to buy eggs from the bemused farmer... anyway....)sitting in our little yard outside our one week holiday git place in Brittany listening to the cacophony of hens and cockerels from the field next door, this riff seemed like the one to open the album. And it is.
Prozac Blues
Bill's song. Perfectly formed and performed by Bill on his Beltona Steel National Guitar the first time that we got together again to see if there was any tread left on the old KF tyre. Son House is alive and well and living in Twickenham. Divided into a "Thorndycraft/Clarke" composition under the terms of our Lennon/McCartneyish songwriting agreement. I set the song to a rock arrangement and we put it down. Bill launched into the boogie at the end and we followed. Rocks.
Calm Down
Whoaaa.. live music in the 21st century...The original KF drummer Bazz Smith flew in from his home in Switzerland to contribute the album. (We'd originally not been able to find him, so Chris Sharley had been asked to play on the album. Chris did a fantastic job (as you know) and Bazz eventually turned up to add the authentic original kf touch). Anyway....Bazz flew in from his home in Switzerland and arrived at the Moat Studio in Brixton, South London, like a tornado. Once we'd tied everything down and redecorated the place we put Bazz on a drum kit. The result was "Calm Down".(No message intended). After a couple of minutes I signalled to Lee the engineer to ask him to turn the tape on... he already had.
For drummers out there I should point out that Bazz started playing without the snare on his snare drum. (that's the metal chain under the drum that gives it the sharp percussive sound). I don't know why Bazz didn't have the snare switched on, you'll have to ask him. Anyway, the resulting sound is unusual but SOLID...really SOLID.(Touch of the Bonham's in one place?) I think the resulting jam is a great track and hope you agree.
Sperm Bandit
With a little help from our friends.. in this case a friend we've never met, one Mr. Dotan Atabyou we have a title "Sperm Bandit". A poignant tale of stolen spunk. Well it happens, I believe.. and our song is a testament to the act.
I think "Sperm bandit" is another great track. The original inspiration was the early Taj Mahal stuff with Jesse Ed Davies on guitar.. very tight and funky with Jesse's Telecaster laying down a spartan rhythm guitar. In fact our original demo adhered very much to that sound....but the master adopted a feel of its own, inspired by a riff from Big Maceo and Tampa Red. By the way, Bill's vocal went down live with the track. This is live funk, as it happens!
The Big Issue
back on the "Uranus" album Bill introduced a "Call for the Politicians"... well the politicians names have changed but they still need a sharp word or two in their assorted ears.. hence "The Big Issue". Calling Mr Bush and Mr Blair...
Have to mention that we've already had some stick from people who find the lyric offensive.. particularly the line about trouble and strife on the streets of Palestine. I can well understand that people who have lost friends or relatives on the streets of Israel would find the lyric one-sided, (although it was never meant that way), and as the producer of the record I'm truly sorry if anything that I have helped to create has caused hurt or offence.
Bill wrote the song, as he saw it, as a complaint against the indifference of politicians to "drugs, guns, homelessness, mental illness, the obsession with cars, violence and intolerance of difference..." I heard it as an anti-war song... I mean wars in general, not specific conflicts. Anyway, you must make up your own mind. All hate mail to: Bill Thorndy...
Anyway, Bill's song. Perfectly formed and performed by Bill on his Beltona Steel National Guitar the first time that we got together again to see if there was any tread left on the old KF tyre. Bob Dylan is alive and well and living in Twickenham. I indulged in some over the top freakout guitar which I thoroughly enjoyed playing.... Lou I'm SORRY!!! There was some great piano on the last verse which got accidentally left out in the final mix. You'll have to imagine it.
Strange Love
Strange song! I'd never heard of it before, until Bill played me the Slim Harpo album. So I thought well, it's bit average but if Bill wants to to do it I suppose I'd better make an effort... but it turned out great. It's got a real feel of its own, and with the strong acoustic rhythm guitar, "back in the mix" Big Walter Horton type harp and the rest... it's come out great.
Zero Tolerance
Now don't you think this could be a backing track from a recent Stones album.. raw guitars, tight drum track? Can't you hear Jagger's vocal on it? OK then it's just me.
Anyway....this was another riff from the farmyard, and Bill wrote most of the lyric. Powerful track. And a mean lyric delivered with meanness. you don't want to meet up with Bill in a back alley do you?
Run On
Bill runs. No Bill really runs! Bill runs in real races. Bill runs in races round the world. Bill wins things. Bill's wife Barbara is a champ. She wins lots of things. They've got medals and everything. Hey I'm just jealous ....I used to round around Tooting Bec Common a few times but I got bored. Run On!
So this is a song about running.
Spot the quotes..."Hall of the Mountain Kings"... well I've been doing that bit bit for years, I couldn't help myself. "Move it".. Cliff Richard.. rocking!!!..and at the end a nice taste of Mel Torme. "Comin' home.. da da da da da da da da.."
Iron Ewe
Couldn't resist it - sorry. Surely this is in the great KF tradition.. titles like Fido Castrol... Out of Uranus... I got my "iron ewe"... written in the depths of the Welsh countryside a little ewine influence surely had to creep in? Mac and Jan's song... my suggestion for a warped version of the title. They took a little time to consider, but the local cider eventually took effect. "Iron Ewe" rocks along with an unusual original riff from Mac opening it up. mainly live, it's ZERO TOLERANCE's foot in the earth. A 12 bar shuffle and lord luv it.
What is it about you
Bill's song. Perfectly formed and performed by Bill on his Beltona Steel National Guitar the first time that we got together again to see if there was any tread left on the old KF tyre. Francis Rossi is alive and well and living in Twickenham.
Didn't think much of this at first but it grew on me. As soon we routined it with the band it developed a New Orleans feel..(Chris I think, thanks) and started to get an identity. Lovely piano..rich harp. Mac's off-the-cuff verdict at the end of the one take session "Mungo Jerry!" was too good to leave out.
Road of Diamonds
My song. imperfectly formed and performed by myself on a demo which I gave to Bill early in the rehearsal process. Well I had to unload the song somewhere. Actually I really liked the song but couldn't hear it on a MC album... I thought it would work with KF. Bit like an Allmann Bros track perhaps...I always wanted to be Dicky Betts with the cowboy hat ever since we met him one time after a gig in Portland Oregon and he was signing autographs from the doorway of his nightlinerrider thing. Now that's rock'n'roll.
Road of Diamonds... the grit on the road in Switzerland sparkles in the sunshine.. (you have to be a bit hung over).
The Radnor Rumble
Apparently.... Mid Wales is prone to the occasional earthquake.... and there's Mac and Jan, sitting there hobbit-like in their rustic cottage deep in the Welsh hinterland, sharing a bit of lava bread and listening to an early take of this instrumental one evening when the earth started moving around them....the mighty Rumble was at hand. So "Radnor Rumble" it was ...(well Mac and Jan wrote it they can call it what they want). I preferred "psycho-blues boogie balls-out" but I was, basically, wrong.
The equally mighty Bazz blasted us through this first take live. Great track. Catch the "East-West" thing when Bill comes in towards the end calling the cattle in with his harp. Yeahh!!!
Fred McDowell
Oh my lord! This album's getting real! A great chunk of McDowell inspired Mississippi-comes-to-Brixton-electro-Delta-grunge-blues-funk-attack...we should have played this back at the Blues Loft High Wycombe except that we were there thirty years before it had been written. (They would've enjoyed it though). Great live powerhouse four-piece rock blues r'n'b rave-up jam.
And we appreciated Fred himself taking time out from being dead to contribute a few words in the right places. Thanks Fred... and I have to agree!
Bring it on Home
Well... this was another of Bill's ideas where I thought... " do we have to?" "Aren't there enough versions of "Bring it on Home" in the world...do we need to contribute more when there are barely enough homes for the ones already out there?
But...guess what? yes! I'm bloody wrong again! It's great! The track is basically built in three bits.. the first being a reasonably accurate facsimile of the original Sonny Boy version. (Fun doing a straight cover.. not something I'm used to. Quite relaxing).
Then in to a real corny Zeppelin sixties prog blues lets stick a riff in here classic KILLING FLOOR arrangement...(which I love) and then... The Boogie...
Bill used to invite me round to his house in the sixties, stick a joint in my face and put Canned Heat's boogie on the mock-teak stereogram. No more words would be spoken until the Great Bear had finally ceased to exhort us not to forget to do what we were already doing. So this is our revenge. Killing Floor's Canned Heat boogie.
Linda tells me that somebody's bought her a herd of goats for Christmas... they're out in Africa.. I don't know when they'll be arriving here, but I think it's time I wound up this account / diatribe.
Hope you enjoy the album. After listening to it recently for the first time in several months I think it's f...... great.
And Don't forget to boogie..
Mick.
Tech stuff...
The album was recorded mainly live at the excellent Moat Studio in Brixton, South London. Engineer Lee Bowman did a fantastic job, always helpful, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. If he did get stuck on anything he called in the wisdom of studio manager Toby, who basically has been everywhere, done everything, and made a damned good recording of it. So we felt in safe hands.
The piano was a real upright... It was played live with the band and the drum sound spilled all over it, which is why all the bottom end had to be removed from the sound. The result is excellent though..very honky tonk. Even a bit Flash Harry. And Lou can play.
Bill put down a live vocal with most tracks, and parts of this have remained on the album, including the whole vocal track of "Sperm Bandit". I dubbed mine. I prefer to hide behind technology. Mac played live, only patching a few bits later. The drummers were real, over excited and prone to drummerisms. Bless 'em.
Overdubs were recorded by myself on primitive personal equipment at "various locations" in South London. These sessions involved setting up intricate arrangements of monitor speakers, mike stands and headphone extensions in strange places which shall never be revealed. Yes, some of it did involve blankets held in place with cornflake packets, but these secret locations shall never be revealed.
Subsequently Bill and myself flew to the Arizona desert to record atmosphere, and then on to the Okeefenokee Swamp in Florida to record moisture. Smoke was added in the blues clubs of Chicago and sweat in a sleazy little dive somewhere near Clarksville. The final touch was added in the Gents toilets at the George IV on Streatham Hill.
Mixing was a tortuous process which went on for ever. EVER!! We mixed in my front room, we mixed in Bill's front room, we listened to mixes in Mac's front room in Wales, we listened to mixes in the car, we listened to mixes jogging down Twickenham High St.... we EVEN listened to mixes back at the Moat Recording Studio. the result...I believe...was that we got it right. I think it's a great mix. I think it rocks.
The album was expertly mastered at The Moat by Lee and Toby. When the result was delivered the record company's reaction was encouraging.."better than we expected"... That'll do for a start, and subsequent reactions have been equally positive. I'm very proud and pleased to have produced this..the first new KILLING FLOOR album for 32 years.
Keep Rockin'
Mick.