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In Your Arms
Will Shatter
I want to be with you
I want to hear your breath
Keeping time with mine
I want to hold you
I want to smell your body
Blending into mine
When I reached out for you
You could not be found
When I needed you to comfort me
You said you were too busy
You were already holding
A needle in your arms
Oh the needle in your arms
It left you breathless
It’s fluids rushing to your heart
To use is no vice
Look at my life
I would never try to judge you
I hate to play the fool
But when one pleasure
Excludes, dilutes, and pollutes
All the others
I don’t find that any fun
No not any longer
When I reached out for you
You could not be found
When I needed you to comfort me
You said you were too busy
You were already holding
A needle in your arms
Oh the needle in your arms
It left you breathless
Its fluids rushing to your heart
Black beauties,white cross, white tops, dexadrine, methadrine,amphetamine,preludin, disoxin, chicken crank, benzadrine, bennies, speed, coke, snow, blow, cron, codeine, morphine,percodan,heroin, H, horse, dilaudid, dope,PCP, Angel Dust, STP, DMT, MDA, Anything! Everything you got
Yeah the needle in your arms
It left you breathless
Its fluids rushing to your heart
© 1982 Will Shatter Insect Music/BMI
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Subterranean Subversion (draft)
In August of 1979, Steve Tupper made a decision that would carry Flipper’s (along with many bands’) music to the hinterlands of America and cause their influence to spread. He was hanging out with Mike Fox, the guitarist for the Tools, discussing the difficulty for underground bands to get records out. Fox was ready to release the first Tools single (“Smoke-Filled Rooms”) , which he had recorded on his own 4-track. He had already recorded other bands’ demos, but this was his first attempt to make a record. Steve Tupper said, “I had long been thinking in terms of a better distribution network for new punk records, as well as how music, visual art and design and social change worked together, so we decided to start a label”. Thus, Subterranean Records was born.
Mike suggested Steve check out Flipper for possible inclusion on their first project, “S.F. Underground”, a four-band 7” compilation. Steve “cornered” Ted Falconi after the show about making a recording. “A big ear-to-ear grin is what I remember”. Flipper recorded a demo session in Mike’s garage, and the result was the song “Earthworm” being included in the first Subterranean release, which was actually recorded on an 8-track in a rec room studio in El Cerrito.
After the 7”comp. Flipper had three songs included on a live lp, “Live at Target”, another compilation. After that came out, the band asked Steve Tupper to work with them on a long-term basis. No contracts were signed back then; it was all done in good faith. Steve would take care of all the label type chores, and in turn have “exclusive license to the recordings”.
The first Flipper 7” record, “Love Canal” (b/w “HaHaHa”) came out February 1981 to rave reviews in the underground rags at the time. October of 1981 saw the release of the “Sex Bomb” (b/w ) single, followed by Flipper’s first full-length album in March of 1982, referred to as “Generic”, but simply titled “Album”. The rest of Flipper’s releases on Subterranean are as follows:
December 1982 – “Get Away” single.(b/w “The Old Lady Who Swallowed The Fly”)
August 1984 – “Gone Fishing” LP
October 1986 – “Public Flipper, Ltd.” Double live LP
September 1988 – “Sex Bomb Baby” LP
January 1991 – “Some Day” single
Flipper sold well for an underground group, especially “Generic”. The first 5,000 copies sold out, and Subterranean had to “scream at the pressing plant to make another 5,000 in record time to fill the demand”. After “Generic”, sales of Flipper slowly declined over time, each release selling about half of what the previous did.
Steve spent a lot of time with Will, even outside of recording. “He’d come over to the Subterranean storefront on Valencia to work on the game cards for the live album” or to hang out. “He was somewhere between total, tear-your-hair-out screwup and total genius, in some ways unpredictable and in others totally predictable”. Steve also wrote that Will was “almost always very relaxed and friendly. He seldom took offense at anything though he could also easily just sneer at a person or situation he considered contemptible for one reason or another.” Will sneered a lot, but not necessarily in anger.
“One thing though is that he did think quite deeply about what he was doing and how it fit into life in general; he just neglected to follow his own advice.”
Mike suggested Steve check out Flipper for possible inclusion on their first project, “S.F. Underground”, a four-band 7” compilation. Steve “cornered” Ted Falconi after the show about making a recording. “A big ear-to-ear grin is what I remember”. Flipper recorded a demo session in Mike’s garage, and the result was the song “Earthworm” being included in the first Subterranean release, which was actually recorded on an 8-track in a rec room studio in El Cerrito.
After the 7”comp. Flipper had three songs included on a live lp, “Live at Target”, another compilation. After that came out, the band asked Steve Tupper to work with them on a long-term basis. No contracts were signed back then; it was all done in good faith. Steve would take care of all the label type chores, and in turn have “exclusive license to the recordings”.
The first Flipper 7” record, “Love Canal” (b/w “HaHaHa”) came out February 1981 to rave reviews in the underground rags at the time. October of 1981 saw the release of the “Sex Bomb” (b/w ) single, followed by Flipper’s first full-length album in March of 1982, referred to as “Generic”, but simply titled “Album”. The rest of Flipper’s releases on Subterranean are as follows:
December 1982 – “Get Away” single.(b/w “The Old Lady Who Swallowed The Fly”)
August 1984 – “Gone Fishing” LP
October 1986 – “Public Flipper, Ltd.” Double live LP
September 1988 – “Sex Bomb Baby” LP
January 1991 – “Some Day” single
Flipper sold well for an underground group, especially “Generic”. The first 5,000 copies sold out, and Subterranean had to “scream at the pressing plant to make another 5,000 in record time to fill the demand”. After “Generic”, sales of Flipper slowly declined over time, each release selling about half of what the previous did.
Steve spent a lot of time with Will, even outside of recording. “He’d come over to the Subterranean storefront on Valencia to work on the game cards for the live album” or to hang out. “He was somewhere between total, tear-your-hair-out screwup and total genius, in some ways unpredictable and in others totally predictable”. Steve also wrote that Will was “almost always very relaxed and friendly. He seldom took offense at anything though he could also easily just sneer at a person or situation he considered contemptible for one reason or another.” Will sneered a lot, but not necessarily in anger.
“One thing though is that he did think quite deeply about what he was doing and how it fit into life in general; he just neglected to follow his own advice.”
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