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Rating: The Gun Club played incendiary punk while firmly rooted in American tradition: country, blues, and music of the deep South, with a particular nod to Jim Morrison and his visceral interpretative style.
Death Party is an EP from '83, the third work after the incredible debut (one of the greatest masterpieces of rock music) and the half misstep of Miami. It marks a return to a rawer style and a more cursed atmosphere that had been somewhat lost and blah blah blah. . . . . Yes, but how does it sound?
Well, when you put it in the stereo. . . it catches fire. Literally.
"Death Party" is a clattering six-minute blues with incredible energy. It starts with a burst of feedback and launches headlong into the most psychotic repetitiveness; when the guitar solo comes, it's a blast that razes the room to the ground. Calling it a solo might be misleading, it has nothing to do with the banal refinements of Clapton; it's simply a machine-gunning, a frenzied flurry.
Just enough time to catch your breath and "The Lie" sets the wallpaper, the carpet, and the desk on fire until everything around you is nothing but rubble and smoking ashes. "The House On Highland Ave." is the only moment of respite, an old-fashioned song with a more than memorable motif that brands itself into your brain. Then it returns to more insistent blues territories, between psychobilly and roots-rock, with a vague post-punk flair indebted to Pere Ubu. But enough with the descriptions, Death Party is fantastic, everyone knows it!
J.L. Pierce had a cursed charisma, the allure of someone who sold his soul to the devil. And with such a magical voice and exceptional talent, I bet he really did. Probably in some sort of voodoo ritual.
He was a sorcerer, a shaman, and a cowboy. He ventured fearlessly into the dark side of the human soul, into the mysteries of the jungle, stared the devil straight in the eyes. There are others who have done it, but no one has ever translated that journey into music with such explosive passion. And Jeffrey Lee Pierce was out of his mind, oh yes he was. Yet he had an enviable mental clarity and a supernatural, mysterious clarity of purpose. Unfortunately, over the years he lost his vision and succumbed to excess, as if tormented by a curse. He fought against drugs, against alcohol, against the world; again and again, he took heavy blows, but eventually he fell. He passed away on December 31, 1996, from a cerebral hemorrhage.
My heart is broken so I'm going to hell, he sang in '81. Could it be true?
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 She's Like Heroin to Me (03:08)
I cannot get a look at it
so, I'm burning them on the deal anyway
I see her come down from the top of the stairs
I guess that I'd be cool, but there's a tickle in my veins
I've been a real good tombstone, but now I'm blowing away
She is like an eye-blue swimming pool
but, she will never know that she is there
we sit together drunk like our fathers used to be
I'm looking up and God is saying, "What are you gonna do?"
I'm looking up and I'm crying, "I thought it was up to you!"
but now
She's like Heroin to me
she's like Heroin to me
she's like Heroin to me
she cannot miss a vein
don't let her take her love to town
they will never fill her heart
she needs a passion like her father's used to be
I know, because I'm like the train shooting down the mainline
I know, because I'm like the Indian wind along the telegraph lines
and she's like Heroin to me
she's like Heroin to me
she's like Heroin to me
she cannot miss a vein
So mainline it!
I cannot get a look at it
so, I'm blowing back my trouble to the east
while we sit together sad like our fathers used to be
I know a perfect run by the sleep it puits in my heart
I know my special rider, I can feel her in the dark
she feels like Heroin to me
she feels like Heroin to me
she's like Heroin to me
she cannot miss a vein
04 Jack on Fire (05:03)
I am like Jack, I am from southern land
I'm holding your happiness in my hand
the sun behind me is a sexual red
and all your bounty-hunting ghosts are dead
I am like Jack and I tell you this
I will be your lover and exorcist
In the stillness of the mosquito sunset
you will make love to me to your very best
Hey, hey, I'm a Jack On Fire
hey, hey, your lips kiss Jack on Fire
Way back in the Indian days
nothing could drive the heat away
drive the search and murder of lost enemies
drive deep into what is never seen
And like Jack, there is a heat to the fight
like a moth detects a heat to the light
and like Jack, I will covet everything that is you
because, the heat in you will temporarily do
Hey, hey, I'm a Jack On Fire
hey, hey, your lips kiss Jack on Fire
When you fall in love with me
we can dig a hole by the willow tree
then, I will fuck you until you die
bury you and kiss this town goodbye,
it will be unhappy, it will be sad
but, it will be understood that I am BAD!
so don't you go and lie to me
'cause everyday is judgement day with me
06 Sex Beat (02:12)
Johnny's got a light in his eyes and Shirley's got a light on her lips
Jakes got a monkeyshine on his head and Debra Ann's got a tiger in her hips
they can twist and turn they can move and burn
they can throw themselves against the wall
but they creep for what they need
and they explode to the call and then they move
move
Sex beat, go
They're stupid like I told ya, very stupid like ya saw
very stupid as the simple thought of ever thinking at all
and all their mind, all their souls all their bodies all we know
all we know all the things that should a made us whole
all the colourless security was all that someone could go and move, move
Sex beat, drop
and yes you do look cool and by the floodlights so blue
you make my tropical apartment bed, your sacrificial pool
my body in the water and my heart is in your hand
so this is the way you choose to send me to the judgement land
so you can't move, move oohh..sex beat, go
and every day I agree you throw me down by the christmas tree
I watched your lights blink on and off while you start your fun with me
I, I know your reasons and I, I know your goals
we can fuck forever but you will never get my soul
just so you can move
so you can move
so you can move
so you can move so you can
oohh... Sex beat
08 Goodbye Johnny (03:02)
Look what's been done, John
It's coming out of the east like rain, Johnny
Look, what's been done, John
It's coming like a God with no name, Johnny
I'm out near Santa Fe
Hitching out for the warmer days
I'm all broke up, Johnny
It all just beat me down
Look, down the line, Johnny
There's flashlights on the backroads, Johnny
Look, down the line, Johnny
Of the American unknown, Johnny
I'm out there in the desert
All your dreams lie dead in the desert
I'm all torn up, Johnny
It all just beat me down
Look at the girl, Johnny
Yellow hair a shine, indian eyes to see, Johnny
Look at her, Johnny
Her love is like anything to me, Johnny
What slipped so deep into me
I can never get it out of me
I'm all broke up, Johnny
It all just beat me down
09 Preaching the Blues (04:40)
I was up this morning, blues walking like a man
I was up this morning, blues walking like a man
worried blues, give me your right hand
And the blues fell mama's child, tore me all upside down
blues fell mama's child, tore me all upside down
travel on ol' Jeffrey Lee, ya know, can't seem to turn him around
So, Preach the Blues
Preach the Blues now
Blues, is low down shaking chill
Blues, is low down shaking chill
you ain't never had them, I don't believe you will
Blues is an achin' old heart disease
Blues is an achin' old heart disease
it's like consumption, baby, killing me by degrees
So, Preach the Blues
Preach the Blues now
I had religion, Lord on this very day
I had religion, Lord on this very day
but, the women and the whiskey, they would not let me pray
Gonna get me religion, gonna join the Baptist church
Gonna get me religion, gonna join the Baptist church
Gonna be a Baptist preacher, so I don't have to work
10 Watermelon Man (03:23)
See the Watermelon Man ah' come
see the Watermelon Man ah' come
see the Watermelon Man ah' come
see the Watermelon Man ah' come
Haiyo! Haiyo yah!
See the man put on a smiley face
See the man put on a smiley face
See the man put on a smiley face
See the man put on a smiley face
Haiyo! Haiyo yah!
He no dead, he no dead he dea' yah!
See the Watermelon Man ah' come
See the Watermelon Man ah' come
See the Watermelon Man ah' come
See the Watermelon Man ah' come
See the man put on a smiley face
See the man put on a smiley face
See the man put on a smiley face
See the man put on a smiley face
Haiyo! Haiyo yah!
He no dead, he no dead he dea' yah!
Haiyo! Haiyo yah!
12 Promise Me (02:36)
Promise me,
outside in the trees, they're waiting tonight
Promise me,
while the searching light moon has found me
you know it feels like the very last time again
Promise me,
someone who will promise me, stand in the dark and fight like me
through eyes like fireflies,
turn around and tell me, it'll be alright
is it alright?
Promise me,
don't cheat my soul when it returns to me
Promise me,
give me the vision I was born to see
you know it feels like years since they burned me away
you know it feels like years since they burned my heart away
you know it feels like years, feels like years
you know it feels like years since they took my eyes away
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