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fannishlissHere is a Supernatural meta to introduce you to one of my favorite bands of all time, King Swamp.
King Swamp released two albums "King Swamp" (1988) and "wiseblood" (1990).
The membership of King Swamp is stellar. First off, the band was formed by Dave Allen, legendary bass player (and as my husband points out, general awesome guy who transforms your band from competence to genius) from master punk band Gang of Four, bassist for such kickass punk classics as "Anthrax" "Capital it Fails us Now" "Cheeseburger" and my personal favorite "To Hell with Poverty (let's get drunk on cheap wine!") Dave Allen left Gang of Four to join sadly unknown yet sublimely perfect intellectual dance band Shriekback, fronted by Barry Andrews who had once been in XTC. The two great classic albums of Shriekback are Oil and Gold (1985) and Big Night Music (1986). Shriekback have more of an atmospheric, English sound, are super intellectual, and talk about all sorts of cool things in their songs... but they don't necessarily sound like Supernatural. Though Sam would have loved them at Stanford on college radio. :)
Eventually, Dave Allen and Steve Halliwell left Shriekback, found guitarist Dominic Miller who would go on to have a long career as guitarist for Sting, and lead singer Walter Wray, the most gothic southern rock singer to be found anywhere in England. What is super disappointing is the dearth of King Swamp to be found on the internet.
King Swamp albums may be purchased from amazon, but only on CD, LP or cassette!
King Swamp is NOT available on itunes!!!
Here is a tribute website: http://www.kingswamp.com/ ; with short audio teasers and links to three videos.
I was able to find this playlist -- which was clearly mastered from LP. But better than nothing!
http://oneplaylist.fm/playlists/king-swamp
Here is another playlist you might actually prefer :
http://val.fm/king-swamp/
So anyway, I thought I would talk about the songs and let you all know which ones might be of greatest interest to Supernatural fans.
These songs are all from the first album, King Swamp, 1988.
Year Zero -- this has a good hard rock sound. Who will give me shelter? who will keep me warm? long night beneath the storm? --Well hand me that shovel, gonna make my stand, In the shadow of a mountain, in the belly of the land,
And who's gonna be there, at my side, When the river breaks in the face of the rising tide? -- this song sets up the tone that pervades across King Swamp, of an apocalyptic landscape, the lone hero fighting the good fight against terrible odds. Year Zero, my husband points out, was a phrase that came from the Killing Fields of Cambodia. So yes, very scary.
The playlist then goes to an extended remix of "Is this Love?"
Not a Supernatural song, but pretty good for Firefly, because of the mixed diction. :)
look at the Val FM playlist for the original version. I think it is better.
well a certain chemical is released into the bloodstream when we meet, inducing a feeling of well being, and everything's complete, yeah. Well I cannot abuse or refuse the feeling of the rush. It's coming on so strong when we kiss, and ooh, when we touch. Is this love? hooked by the pusher in the small black dress, I say yes Oooh, yes!
Next up is Blown Away, another great one, and one with a video, so you can see Walter Wray in his English Goth look, belting Southern Rock. :D With a bit more of the old Shriekback sound tbh. Well I told you when it started,
I would never be betrayed, Words are cheap to the cold hearted, Still there's a price you have to pay. and it's over now, love like flesh and blood, soon turned to dust and blown away. Again very much with the apocalyptic tone but more personal.
The Sacrament: this is the slow dance of the album. :P in the blackest night shines the brightest star, in the darkest fear beats the bravest heart, in the cry of a child is the power of us all, who will answer when you hear the call?? There's something kind of Dean/Anna about this song. The kind of wounded Dean who still is clinging to some kind of hope. Then again, it is kind of Dean/Sammish: Walk with me through the long black night, we keep the unholy out of sight, I get the sacrament from your lips, I get redemption at your fingertips. The apocalyptic tone of this whole album pervades even during the slow dance!! :D
Widders Dump. Okay, this song is a huge melange of a million influences, very typical of Shriekback, given a strong King Swamp treatment. First off when you hear the song there is the definite soundscape with the heavy riff, the slide guitar, and the harmonica of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks." But then laid over that is an homage to an SF novel! Widder's Dump is a scene from a post-apoc novel Riddley Walker (1980) by Russell Hoban. bonus wikifact: "The Rapture of Riddley Walker" is the eighth song on the Clutch album From Beale Street to Oblivion (2007), well awesome! Beware, the novel is written in futuristic dialect. o_O
When the rain and the gravity falls, it will surely crush us all!
Dean would like this song, a, because it clearly reveres Led Zeppelin; b, because it has a heavy stripper beat, and the chorus is "shake it shake it shake it, tell me what your name is!" and c, it is so post apoc. It's gonna crush us all!!
This song also hits me in my Firefly bone, it has that kind of sound to it.
Original Man: so it's pretty awesome that Cain is alive and well on Supernatural, and now Dean has the mark of Cain. This is the most Apocalyptic of all the songs. From Genesis to Revelation, The story now unfolds, Six Six Six and the Beast is rising, Love was the Law but love grows cold. Can't you feel it burning underneath your skin?
You can't shut me out, you've got to let me in. And the kingdom come in the twilight days, and the kingdom come, in the sweet decay!! At the Ceremony of Innocence There stand the hollow men,Their eyes are blank and pitiless As it moves towards Bethlehem!.>> okay maybe a little more Yeats and Eliot than is common on SPN, but only to be expected from Shrieks.
This track on the playlist also proves that it was mastered from LP. You can hear the needle tick at the beginning, and then there's an actual skip!!! aha ha ha! I have this album on LP but also on CD. I am so sorry guys. PM me if you'd like a CD by snailmail, or if you can let me know where best to drop this stuff on line.
I finally found Man Behind the Gun !!! http://val.fm/king-swamp/
This is the song that started me off on this meta in the first place, because of the awesome picspam and icon set by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
milly_gal. :D
In the dog days of our lives when time goes slow,
You forget your name and you can't find your way home.
Now I think I need some place to hide, now I need someplace to run
The man behind the smile, behind the gun.
I get what I need at the counter of the surplus store,
It was you that played rough, it is me that'll even the score,
And if you want to play soldiers you'd better expect a war.
They say the keys to the kingdom are the keys to the automobile,
The keys to the kingdom are the keys to the automobile,
The King is dead with his hands still tied round the wheel.
Motherlode: one of my favorites. Another Shriekback song, set to a Firefly beat. :D In the city of dreams all that shines isn't gold. in the city of reason all that shines isn't gold. we go high on a mountain to find the motherlode.
In the marketplace, how we're bought and we're sold. we go high on a mountain to find the motherlode.
Here I stand in the heart of the nation (ie LAWRENCE KANSAS!!)
Well the government got my money, you demand my soul, I go high on a mountain to find the motherlode.
I wake up in the morning, and I'm outta control -- send me high on a mountain to find the motherlode.
well you can't take away what I made with my own hands (ie this very Impala) :D
.... and track 9 is the Sacrament again. curses, triple slowdanced! OMG guys. The Mirror is actually a pretty good song. So sorry. Also not available at Val fm as far as I can see. :(
These flowers of evil and these gods without grace, you took the mirror, now you're pushing it in my face.
This is kind of a John Winchester song. Now here's what Shrieks sound like when they get on a roll:
It's the American way into the twenty first century, It rides a motorbike alone down the interstate,
It wears dark glasses and dates thin girls, Uses strong arm tactics all around the world,
It's the noble savage at the edge of the forest With Oedipus eyes and Icarus wings,
It's a Soul Train coming, it's savage and keen, And it's spitting Coca-Cola from the barrel of an M16.
!!! :)
the Floating World. Not gonna lie, this is a thinly veiled Shriekback song, and probably the least Supernatural of the songs on this album. Also reminiscent of the great 1980s album Boomtown (1986) by David + David, which is beautiful apoc-rock in its own right. Guys, the 80s were very bleak to those who lived through them, am I right? we Xers were kind of scarred by being teenagers the 80s imho, Thatcher, Reagan, yuppies, not to mention actual deadly epidemics that were decimating populations. Just watch Velvet Goldmine sometime, it says it all.
bonus: outright mention of Smith and Wesson. :D Very bleak though.
we are nothing, nothing more than shadows, and we hide our face, we hide our face from tomorrow, oh!!!
The second album, wiseblood (1990) takes its title from the novel by Flannery O'Connor. (Shriekback also has a song called Everything that Rises Must Converge, also a story by O'Connor.) The second album is Shriekier, because Dominic Miller got hired by Sting and more Shrieks came over to play for King Swamp. Apparently the second album was critically panned, but critics are dumbasses, it is just as good if not better than the first album.
see the Val fm playlist for these songs from the second album.
http://val.fm/king-swamp/
wiseblood: fantastic lyrics. A great hybrid demonstrating where Shriekback ends and King Swamp begins:
At the heart of the matter where the diamond shines, At the centre of empire, at the bottom of the mine,
The hunters and hunted, the girls and the boys, Puppets of chemistry, God's own toys.
Wiseblood in the whispering night, Fold me into the whispering night,
There's a ripple in the silence, It's Wiseblood Pumping in the whispering night.
Can't be Satisfied: this is another great Supernatural song. Great southern rock sound.
Like the howling wind, I travel these roads cause I hurt inside And I can't be satisfied.
Nightfall over Eden: -- this is another straight up apocalyptic song, with reference to Cain and everything. I have superloved this song since 1990. Very smooth, nicely orchestrated hard rock sound. :D
you poison the heartland like you poison the dream, in the days before the flood we are children of the rain!
Cain built a city on the open plain, now his heart is broken and he wants to be home again.
Follow me down to the rock of ages, Bring your car, your money and your clothes,
We'll stand naked as the day we were born, Then we'll fly like avenging angels Down into the valley below.
Walk on gilded splinters: A very, very awesome cover of the great voodoo classic by Doctor John. Very shriek. I am pretty sure those are Shriekback's girl singers doing the backup.
oh yay, I found it online!!! Je suis le grand zombie. I can melt your heart like butter, I- I- I- can make you stutter.
http://val.fm/walk-on-gilded-splinters-king-swamp-mp3/
Kiss the Sun -- you are probably really tired of the slow dances by now. So I'll just say, this is a very good song, good heartfelt rock and roll.
Well Castiel shows up as "the drunken Angel on my shoulder." But it has one of my favorite choruses:
I will go down to the edge of the world, and I'll dive down in the ocean. I will sing a song to break a siren's heart, and I will kiss the sun, one time for you. Still more apocalyptic than you mgiht expect: black stars flickering as the sky turns red.
Some Kind of Love: VERY LUCIFER.
Listen here the night is singing, Like a voltage through the ground,
Bony white the moonlight shining, You could hold it in your hand.
And the Devil wears a rosebud, Stands on the clifftop by your side,
Get him on his sad obsession, He'll keep you talking all through the night.
Talkin' bout, Some kind of love, Is there anybody out there Looking for a true believer?
Passes through like radiation, Kill or cure it doesn't care,
And it passes all understanding, Like the music of the spheres.
Press your wishes to the wheel, Feel the passion burning, Blood red and real.
Pray it lead you into glory, For ruin hurries close behind,
Could be your new discovered freedom Or the spider in your mind.
Walk the Knife: this song is 100% pure Winchester: this is just the third verse:
Twilight falls on gods and men, The shadow stalks the fields again,
Innocence dies on a city street, Lies broken like a doll underneath the feet,
Hold my head and you lift me up With the bitterness of your empty cup,
Shine like a blade, let me know where you are
With your eyes full of diamonds from the evening star.
Why, Is this my life, To walk the knife?
If nothing else, do go to val fm and give this one a listen. :)
Here is Lousiana Bride on youtube! :D
This is a great one: Zombies, hex bags, witchslaves
"I'll be your zombie, you will be my bride!!" :D
This meta took hours of my life. I hope someone will enjoy it!!
King Swamp released two albums "King Swamp" (1988) and "wiseblood" (1990).
The membership of King Swamp is stellar. First off, the band was formed by Dave Allen, legendary bass player (and as my husband points out, general awesome guy who transforms your band from competence to genius) from master punk band Gang of Four, bassist for such kickass punk classics as "Anthrax" "Capital it Fails us Now" "Cheeseburger" and my personal favorite "To Hell with Poverty (let's get drunk on cheap wine!") Dave Allen left Gang of Four to join sadly unknown yet sublimely perfect intellectual dance band Shriekback, fronted by Barry Andrews who had once been in XTC. The two great classic albums of Shriekback are Oil and Gold (1985) and Big Night Music (1986). Shriekback have more of an atmospheric, English sound, are super intellectual, and talk about all sorts of cool things in their songs... but they don't necessarily sound like Supernatural. Though Sam would have loved them at Stanford on college radio. :)
Eventually, Dave Allen and Steve Halliwell left Shriekback, found guitarist Dominic Miller who would go on to have a long career as guitarist for Sting, and lead singer Walter Wray, the most gothic southern rock singer to be found anywhere in England. What is super disappointing is the dearth of King Swamp to be found on the internet.
King Swamp albums may be purchased from amazon, but only on CD, LP or cassette!
King Swamp is NOT available on itunes!!!
Here is a tribute website: http://www.kingswamp.com/ ; with short audio teasers and links to three videos.
I was able to find this playlist -- which was clearly mastered from LP. But better than nothing!
http://oneplaylist.fm/playlists/king-swamp
Here is another playlist you might actually prefer :
http://val.fm/king-swamp/
So anyway, I thought I would talk about the songs and let you all know which ones might be of greatest interest to Supernatural fans.
These songs are all from the first album, King Swamp, 1988.
Year Zero -- this has a good hard rock sound. Who will give me shelter? who will keep me warm? long night beneath the storm? --Well hand me that shovel, gonna make my stand, In the shadow of a mountain, in the belly of the land,
And who's gonna be there, at my side, When the river breaks in the face of the rising tide? -- this song sets up the tone that pervades across King Swamp, of an apocalyptic landscape, the lone hero fighting the good fight against terrible odds. Year Zero, my husband points out, was a phrase that came from the Killing Fields of Cambodia. So yes, very scary.
The playlist then goes to an extended remix of "Is this Love?"
Not a Supernatural song, but pretty good for Firefly, because of the mixed diction. :)
look at the Val FM playlist for the original version. I think it is better.
well a certain chemical is released into the bloodstream when we meet, inducing a feeling of well being, and everything's complete, yeah. Well I cannot abuse or refuse the feeling of the rush. It's coming on so strong when we kiss, and ooh, when we touch. Is this love? hooked by the pusher in the small black dress, I say yes Oooh, yes!
Next up is Blown Away, another great one, and one with a video, so you can see Walter Wray in his English Goth look, belting Southern Rock. :D With a bit more of the old Shriekback sound tbh. Well I told you when it started,
I would never be betrayed, Words are cheap to the cold hearted, Still there's a price you have to pay. and it's over now, love like flesh and blood, soon turned to dust and blown away. Again very much with the apocalyptic tone but more personal.
The Sacrament: this is the slow dance of the album. :P in the blackest night shines the brightest star, in the darkest fear beats the bravest heart, in the cry of a child is the power of us all, who will answer when you hear the call?? There's something kind of Dean/Anna about this song. The kind of wounded Dean who still is clinging to some kind of hope. Then again, it is kind of Dean/Sammish: Walk with me through the long black night, we keep the unholy out of sight, I get the sacrament from your lips, I get redemption at your fingertips. The apocalyptic tone of this whole album pervades even during the slow dance!! :D
Widders Dump. Okay, this song is a huge melange of a million influences, very typical of Shriekback, given a strong King Swamp treatment. First off when you hear the song there is the definite soundscape with the heavy riff, the slide guitar, and the harmonica of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks." But then laid over that is an homage to an SF novel! Widder's Dump is a scene from a post-apoc novel Riddley Walker (1980) by Russell Hoban. bonus wikifact: "The Rapture of Riddley Walker" is the eighth song on the Clutch album From Beale Street to Oblivion (2007), well awesome! Beware, the novel is written in futuristic dialect. o_O
When the rain and the gravity falls, it will surely crush us all!
Dean would like this song, a, because it clearly reveres Led Zeppelin; b, because it has a heavy stripper beat, and the chorus is "shake it shake it shake it, tell me what your name is!" and c, it is so post apoc. It's gonna crush us all!!
This song also hits me in my Firefly bone, it has that kind of sound to it.
Original Man: so it's pretty awesome that Cain is alive and well on Supernatural, and now Dean has the mark of Cain. This is the most Apocalyptic of all the songs. From Genesis to Revelation, The story now unfolds, Six Six Six and the Beast is rising, Love was the Law but love grows cold. Can't you feel it burning underneath your skin?
You can't shut me out, you've got to let me in. And the kingdom come in the twilight days, and the kingdom come, in the sweet decay!! At the Ceremony of Innocence There stand the hollow men,Their eyes are blank and pitiless As it moves towards Bethlehem!.>> okay maybe a little more Yeats and Eliot than is common on SPN, but only to be expected from Shrieks.
This track on the playlist also proves that it was mastered from LP. You can hear the needle tick at the beginning, and then there's an actual skip!!! aha ha ha! I have this album on LP but also on CD. I am so sorry guys. PM me if you'd like a CD by snailmail, or if you can let me know where best to drop this stuff on line.
I finally found Man Behind the Gun !!! http://val.fm/king-swamp/
This is the song that started me off on this meta in the first place, because of the awesome picspam and icon set by
milly_gal. :DIn the dog days of our lives when time goes slow,
You forget your name and you can't find your way home.
Now I think I need some place to hide, now I need someplace to run
The man behind the smile, behind the gun.
I get what I need at the counter of the surplus store,
It was you that played rough, it is me that'll even the score,
And if you want to play soldiers you'd better expect a war.
They say the keys to the kingdom are the keys to the automobile,
The keys to the kingdom are the keys to the automobile,
The King is dead with his hands still tied round the wheel.
Motherlode: one of my favorites. Another Shriekback song, set to a Firefly beat. :D In the city of dreams all that shines isn't gold. in the city of reason all that shines isn't gold. we go high on a mountain to find the motherlode.
In the marketplace, how we're bought and we're sold. we go high on a mountain to find the motherlode.
Here I stand in the heart of the nation (ie LAWRENCE KANSAS!!)
Well the government got my money, you demand my soul, I go high on a mountain to find the motherlode.
I wake up in the morning, and I'm outta control -- send me high on a mountain to find the motherlode.
well you can't take away what I made with my own hands (ie this very Impala) :D
.... and track 9 is the Sacrament again. curses, triple slowdanced! OMG guys. The Mirror is actually a pretty good song. So sorry. Also not available at Val fm as far as I can see. :(
These flowers of evil and these gods without grace, you took the mirror, now you're pushing it in my face.
This is kind of a John Winchester song. Now here's what Shrieks sound like when they get on a roll:
It's the American way into the twenty first century, It rides a motorbike alone down the interstate,
It wears dark glasses and dates thin girls, Uses strong arm tactics all around the world,
It's the noble savage at the edge of the forest With Oedipus eyes and Icarus wings,
It's a Soul Train coming, it's savage and keen, And it's spitting Coca-Cola from the barrel of an M16.
!!! :)
the Floating World. Not gonna lie, this is a thinly veiled Shriekback song, and probably the least Supernatural of the songs on this album. Also reminiscent of the great 1980s album Boomtown (1986) by David + David, which is beautiful apoc-rock in its own right. Guys, the 80s were very bleak to those who lived through them, am I right? we Xers were kind of scarred by being teenagers the 80s imho, Thatcher, Reagan, yuppies, not to mention actual deadly epidemics that were decimating populations. Just watch Velvet Goldmine sometime, it says it all.
bonus: outright mention of Smith and Wesson. :D Very bleak though.
we are nothing, nothing more than shadows, and we hide our face, we hide our face from tomorrow, oh!!!
The second album, wiseblood (1990) takes its title from the novel by Flannery O'Connor. (Shriekback also has a song called Everything that Rises Must Converge, also a story by O'Connor.) The second album is Shriekier, because Dominic Miller got hired by Sting and more Shrieks came over to play for King Swamp. Apparently the second album was critically panned, but critics are dumbasses, it is just as good if not better than the first album.
see the Val fm playlist for these songs from the second album.
http://val.fm/king-swamp/
wiseblood: fantastic lyrics. A great hybrid demonstrating where Shriekback ends and King Swamp begins:
At the heart of the matter where the diamond shines, At the centre of empire, at the bottom of the mine,
The hunters and hunted, the girls and the boys, Puppets of chemistry, God's own toys.
Wiseblood in the whispering night, Fold me into the whispering night,
There's a ripple in the silence, It's Wiseblood Pumping in the whispering night.
Can't be Satisfied: this is another great Supernatural song. Great southern rock sound.
Like the howling wind, I travel these roads cause I hurt inside And I can't be satisfied.
Nightfall over Eden: -- this is another straight up apocalyptic song, with reference to Cain and everything. I have superloved this song since 1990. Very smooth, nicely orchestrated hard rock sound. :D
you poison the heartland like you poison the dream, in the days before the flood we are children of the rain!
Cain built a city on the open plain, now his heart is broken and he wants to be home again.
Follow me down to the rock of ages, Bring your car, your money and your clothes,
We'll stand naked as the day we were born, Then we'll fly like avenging angels Down into the valley below.
Walk on gilded splinters: A very, very awesome cover of the great voodoo classic by Doctor John. Very shriek. I am pretty sure those are Shriekback's girl singers doing the backup.
oh yay, I found it online!!! Je suis le grand zombie. I can melt your heart like butter, I- I- I- can make you stutter.
http://val.fm/walk-on-gilded-splinters-king-swamp-mp3/
Kiss the Sun -- you are probably really tired of the slow dances by now. So I'll just say, this is a very good song, good heartfelt rock and roll.
Well Castiel shows up as "the drunken Angel on my shoulder." But it has one of my favorite choruses:
I will go down to the edge of the world, and I'll dive down in the ocean. I will sing a song to break a siren's heart, and I will kiss the sun, one time for you. Still more apocalyptic than you mgiht expect: black stars flickering as the sky turns red.
Some Kind of Love: VERY LUCIFER.
Listen here the night is singing, Like a voltage through the ground,
Bony white the moonlight shining, You could hold it in your hand.
And the Devil wears a rosebud, Stands on the clifftop by your side,
Get him on his sad obsession, He'll keep you talking all through the night.
Talkin' bout, Some kind of love, Is there anybody out there Looking for a true believer?
Passes through like radiation, Kill or cure it doesn't care,
And it passes all understanding, Like the music of the spheres.
Press your wishes to the wheel, Feel the passion burning, Blood red and real.
Pray it lead you into glory, For ruin hurries close behind,
Could be your new discovered freedom Or the spider in your mind.
Walk the Knife: this song is 100% pure Winchester: this is just the third verse:
Twilight falls on gods and men, The shadow stalks the fields again,
Innocence dies on a city street, Lies broken like a doll underneath the feet,
Hold my head and you lift me up With the bitterness of your empty cup,
Shine like a blade, let me know where you are
With your eyes full of diamonds from the evening star.
Why, Is this my life, To walk the knife?
If nothing else, do go to val fm and give this one a listen. :)
Here is Lousiana Bride on youtube! :D
This is a great one: Zombies, hex bags, witchslaves
"I'll be your zombie, you will be my bride!!" :D
This meta took hours of my life. I hope someone will enjoy it!!
