And welcome back to 35,000 Watts, the podcast. My name is Michael Millard. I am here with Scott Mobley and Keith Porterfield. We are three ex college radio DJs and executive staffers, and we are on this podcast because we love to talk about college radio stuff and specifically college radio music. And, also, you know, there’s a film called 35,000 watts, the story of college radio.
If you listen to the podcast, probably means you like college radio. Maybe you know about the film, but if you haven’t seen it yet, it is available right now on Amazon Prime or Google Play. You can go and search 35,000 watts and find it or look on our website for a link. It is available to rent or buy right now. Last week, we talked about, cover songs.
And and once again, sometimes we get going and we start talking about stuff a little bit longer than we intended. So we’d actually chosen a whole set of of cover songs to talk about. We didn’t get all the way through the list. So we’re gonna kinda continue last week’s episode. We’re gonna go around the horn again talking about some of our favorite college radio cover tunes.
So we’re gonna go ahead and kick it off this week with Scott Mobley. So, I have chosen the song Istanbul Not Constantinople by They Might Be Giants. I have, kind of a long winded story behind this one, and so, I’ll I’ll make it as short as I possibly can. But, to go into the song a little bit, this is a novelty song. It was originally from 1953.
It was written by two fellers named, Nat Simon and Jimmy Kennedy, and originally recorded by a group called The Four Lads. It is a goofy little song that was written to commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans. I am not making that up. My story with this song is when I was a kid, a young kid, my parents had a collection of albums that they purchased when they were living on an air force base or an army base in Germany during the late sixties. Apparently, their criteria for buying an album on the base was it was there because they had the wildest collection of all this weird music that they know a lot of it was European and whatever.
But one of the things they had was this album. It sort of had like a red curtain on the cover and this guy sitting at a piano, and he looked like the vaudeville guys from the family guy. Yeah. You know, the those he looked exactly like those guys. He was at the suspenders and the little hat, you know, and he was sitting at a piano.
And he had a funny name like Jimmy Slick Fingers Johnson or something like that. And this album was basically him playing the piano for nine tracks, instrumental covers of popular songs on the piano. That’s all it was. And then at the end, track 10, you know, fifth song on side b was Istanbul, not Constantinople, done by this singing group. It sounded like so it thinks thinks sort of like the, you know, the the singers groups of the the sixties, the folk music thing.
It was sort of that. And when I was a kid, I loved this song. I thought it was so catchy and fun and whatever, and I never really thought about it much. So in doing this, I went back to listen to the original again. If you listen to the version by the four lads, which is the considered the sort of signature version of this song originally, it is very slow.
It’s much slower than what they might be giants do with it. It’s kind of you know, the the novelty of it and the goofiness of it is still there, but it’s a much different song. This might just be my memories. It might just be, you know, something else. But the version of it I knew when I was a kid, this weird cover version on this piano album sounded like the they might be giants version.
It was that fast. It was that upbeat. It had the same kind of weird, you know, vocal things that they do or whatever. That was interesting to me that I think I can’t prove this, and I never will be able to prove it. I think They Might Be Giants heard the version I did and not the original because their version is so much closer to this version that I knew when I was a kid.
So They Might Be Giants records this album in 1990 for their album Flood. It was their biggest album, their most successful album. This was released as a single. It was a mild hit for them, and it is a staple of their live shows. I am not the world’s biggest They Might Be Giants fans.
I like them. I really like the album Lincoln, which is a couple albums before this. I love the song Anna Ng, which has always been kind of my favorite They Might Be Giants song. I like what these guys do, but I I find it tiresome after a while, maybe. But when they decided to cover this song, I really enjoyed that because this was a song that I really thought I was the only person on earth that knew.
And when they covered it, I was really taken aback by the fact that somebody knew this song and and enjoyed how catchy it is and how fun it is and and all of that. So the interesting thing about this is that I don’t think a lot of people knew this was a cover. There’s two reasons for that. The verse is the original’s pretty old. It’s pretty obscure.
Fans of alternative music in the early nineties probably hadn’t heard it. The second, and this is the bigger reason, I think that even though it was written forty years before, this is a They Might Be Giants song. It fits into everything they do. It sounds like like, if someone told me if I didn’t know it was a cover and someone said that They Might Be Giants wrote this, I wouldn’t argue that for a second. It sounds like them.
And, yes, they put their kind of touch on it, which makes it more them, but it’s, you know, it really sounds like it belongs to them even though it isn’t theirs. And I have a feeling if the original songwriters heard this version, they would have sat on it and waited till They Might Be Giants came a thing and then let them have it because it really is kind of their tune. It is a silly novelty song. For some reason, it fits this band really well, and it’s just a a fun sort of delightful little novelty song done by a band that’s really good at doing fun, delightful little novelty songs. First of all, I love They Might Be Giants.
I put them in kind of the same category as I do as I do Devo to some degree where it’s just kinda like the, you know, this group that really doesn’t follow a, a standard rock music kinda template. You know, they’re doing their own thing. They’re a little weird. They’re a little intellectual. They’re a little off the beaten track.
Their album sometimes have, you know, some serious some serious curve balls. Yeah. What a fun song. And what and and this, I think, so far in our covers, episodes, both that we’ve talked about and and and some of the ones we haven’t both have put on a list. This is probably the oldest song that has been covered, from 1953.
I don’t know that we’ve gone back quite that far to find a cover version that I can think of. You know, to go that far back and to pull a song out and to have it be a little bit of a minor hit. I mean, this is a song that I remember seeing on MTV because this became this came out right when I this would have been real close to when I first discovered college radio. So there’s a pretty good chance that this is something that I I only maybe knew from MTV and didn’t hear on college radio until later. And, honestly, they might be giants is is part of I I think they could be a part of the theory that I pitched back when we did the, show about Nirvana not necessarily being, like, the sole reason that that alternative music came off.
This song and birdhouse of my soul were were fixtures on MTV and were played even on on commercial radio to some very small degree before, you know, before the before smells like teen spirit came out. So another band that was kinda helping push the envelope, and they were pushing absolutely I mean, again, this is a quintessential college radio band. So they were pushing that that envelope of, what constitutes college radio and what that line is between college radio and and MTV and that line between college radio and commercial radio. They were, like, right at the edge, and they were kinda starting to dip their toe over the line, which, a, which I think is great because it’s, like, they’re the kind of guys that they’re just they’re super nice. They’re super creative.
So, like, they deserve that kind of success. And I think it’s kinda crazy that they had that kind of success because you could easily see these guys just always being like a super, super underground band, but they really did have kind of a moment in the sun with this particular album. I’m with you. I think Lincoln is better. Anna Yang is by far, I think, their best song, but they have a pretty good list.
I mean, don’t let start is great, and, there’s a couple there’s a handful of songs on every album that are good. And then I would say if they have a fault, it’s that the albums maybe run a little long and have, you know, a few a few too many songs and maybe a few that start to lose you if you if you’re doing, like, a long run through their albums. But this is is a great example of a song that just is it’s hard to even get tired of it. It’s fast. It’s quick.
It doesn’t out it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Like you said, it it seems like they might be giant songs, so it was a brilliant choice to cover. And there’s never been a time where it came on that I turned it like, if this song comes on or it comes up in my playlist, because I do have it on like my Apple music playlist, like I’m I’m bopping around the house every time. Like, it it’s just It it’s just that it I I challenge anyone to listen to this and not let it get stuck in your head. It’s so catchy.
And the little elements, like you said, they add little elements of just like some some background stuff and, you know, I think there’s an accordion jamming away away in there and and admit that probably was was in the original as well. I I if I I don’t remember specifically the instrumentation, but they’re able to pull all that off and and make it sound really fun, but also if it fits really well on the album and it fits really well in their repertoire. And that’s, I think, the sign of a good cover song is is when it does it’s something that you can you can fit into your catalog and it and it works for you. And and this is a a shining example of that. So, yeah, excellent choice.
Yeah. I think this is another example where I am not quite the They Might Be Giants fan that you guys are. I know these guys much more just by song than I do by album, and Don’t Let Start actually is my favorite, They Might Be Giants song, so you mentioned that one earlier, it’s a great song. This would be right up at the top of my list too, though. This is a fantastic song, lots of fun, and I went for a long time thinking it was a Day Might be Giant song.
I didn’t actually realize it was a cover song. I can’t remember how I found that out now. I did at some point or another. It got, you know, pointed out to me that this was a cover, but I had not heard the original or or any other version of it until, you know, getting ready for today. And so I I didn’t hear the one, Scott, that you you were talking about that’s on this piano record.
The only one that I heard was the four lads version, and it’s still a good song. It’s good back then when the four lads did it in ’53. I thought what was really fun about that and and something that I just, you know, just really appeals to me anyway is that it’s still a weird song. I mean, you know, the They Might Be Giants version is delightfully weird. And it turns out the four lads version is pretty weird too.
And so it just is fun to me to think that somewhere, you know, back in the fifties, when you would think even rock music was a little more buttoned down and not quite, you know, the Wild West in the way that it would later on become that, there was a band out there that was willing to put some kind of, you know, bizarro, half novelty song out there that’s just really bizarre and and not quite, you know, in line with anything else that was going on. Just hearing the four lads version of it, it’s not I didn’t think it was as good as the They Might Be Giants, but, but it did do my heart good to know that even back in the fifties, there were weirdos out there that wanted to put out fun music that might be considered weird by anybody that would would hear it. So, yeah, that was cool. I enjoyed it. There was sort of a thing in the in the fifties, I think, the novelty song thing, you know, the the Spike Jonze stuff and, stuff like, I was try the the song shaving cream and, you know, hello, hello, hello, and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah. It’s a there was a there was sort of a genre of that in the fifties. This song certainly fits into it. You know, it’s it it’s a slide whistle away from being one of those songs. Yeah.
The four lights version is good, and it it is definitely sort of, you know, still celebrates the novelty of the song. I just what struck me was how much slower it was and how much, you know, just sort of different it sounds. When when I first heard they might be giants do this, it sounded like I remembered it to me, you know, with obviously, with more polish on the production and whatever, but it it had the same tempo and rhythm and sort of feel as the version I remember hearing when I was a kid. It could be that my memory is bad, and maybe I’ve turned the They Might Be Giants song into the original in my head. But I I swear that it it was it was a little more upbeat than the four lads version.
But I think that they they might be giants must have heard the four lads version, though, because even, like, some of the little vocal things like, the the deeper vocal, I think it’s on the lyric that’s nobody’s business about the Turks. That’s on the four lads version too. Like, a different singer comes in on that and and sings, like, a deeper version there. So I think they must have heard it at one point or another. Oh, I’m sure they did.
I I just I in my head, I keep thinking that maybe they they they heard both and then went with the faster one or so. I don’t I don’t know. I I could be making all of this up in my head. You know, my memory ain’t what it used to be. It would be interesting to see if, like, two separate entities, the person that did the album you’re talking about and they might be giants both heard the original or both knew the original, and we’re like, you know, this is good, but we just need to we need to crank this up a little bit tempo wise and, you know, just had, like, the same idea.
Maybe. I don’t know. I’ll go ahead and talk about my my cover for this episode. I feel like Keith does a better job of this than I do. So at this time I really tried to take Keith’s lead and like pick a song that was absolutely really tied to my time at KTXT.
And it’s a song that I only heard on KTXT. I never heard it anywhere else. I don’t know that it ever was was really played anywhere else unless said maybe more in clubs. I think it probably got more club play than anything. But it’s by a band called Utah Saints, which is a UK electronic act.
The cover they did was of simple minds, new gold dream, ’81, ’80 ‘2, ’80 ‘3, ’80 ‘4. So Utah Saints released an album in ’92 that was kind of their they’d been doing some recording before that, but this was really their debut, full length album. They’re a UK band, but oddly enough, this album was released in The US in ’92, and then it was released in The UK in ’93. But probably some of the singles were trickling out, in The UK in in terms of, like, club singles and stuff before that. They’re kinda known, and the album is the the hits on the album, what can you do for me and something good are are really sampled songs.
So they’re, they’re really a dance electronic act. They’ve got a little bit, somebody described them as like a a stadium or an arena electronic act, which I think is kind of a good explanation because it’s not stripped down house music. It’s not, like, really club focused big beat music. Like, it’s got more layers on it. It’s got guitar.
It they’re kinda more fully formed songs than a lot of things that you might consider, like, club or electronic music. But certainly, you know, there were versions of these songs that were played in clubs, and you could theoretically play an album cut in a club, and I don’t think anybody would, like, kick you out or anything. But, certainly electronic act and and songs like something good, which sampled Kate Bush oddly enough, were the ones that really hit off the album. But New Gold Dream was was something they wanted to do. They wanted to do a cover song.
They wanted to do a simple mind song oddly enough. And they actually tried a couple versions of different simple mind songs that for one reason or another didn’t work, and they kind of were going back and forth on on one. And then they hit on new gold dream, and I think it, it really works in this scenario. It has a a really great intro that really sucks you into the song, and they decided that that would be a really cool thing to start their sets with and start their concerts with. If they did a live show, this was gonna be kind of like the opener, which is why even the album version has, like, it has some crowd noise mixed in, and it’s got, like, the you you you Utah, like, kind of kiss, you know, kiss army style, like, here comes the greatest band of the world type introduction.
So that was why the album has that because they are ready. We’re kind of thinking of it as like an opener to to their sets. And then it it settles into something that’s it’s not a million miles away from the original. It’s the tempo is slightly faster. It’s a little more rough around the edges, I think, than the original version.
They did rerecord the vocal. I had to actually go back and double check to make sure that this wasn’t another sampled song because of so much of the Utah Saints album is sampled. I went back and, like, I actually and and it’s hard to find a lot of information about this particular song. I could only find one interview that they did about it, and it was very short. So I went back and compared vocals, and I I verified that, yes, they did rerecord the vocals for it.
So it’s not, like, just a straight up sampled version of of New Gold Dream, but it is equally theatrical, I would say, in the vocal delivery. So it’s it it almost makes you think that it is the original sometimes because they both have, like, a very theatrical delivery in the way they, like, pronounce the words and the and the way they deliver the lines. Overall, yeah, it’s not like a million miles from the original, but it it definitely ramps up the, everything to just just like another level to make it kind of a I I like the description of it as like an arena electronic song because it does sound like something that you should just crank up in, like, a huge club, or I I could totally see going to an arena show and seeing these guys do this live. But so, yeah, I’m kinda curious, like, if, a, if you guys were familiar with the song, the original, because it is really a a a good simple mind song, but not one that I think most people when they think of simple minds are obviously thinking more about, like, don’t you forget about me or whatever.
But also, if you guys remember Utah saints, we we played the hell out of them at KTXT, but mostly it was the singles and and this one well, this one was a single, but mostly it was the two big ones, something good. And and what have you done for me? But so, yeah, I’m curious what you guys thought about it. I had an interesting reaction to this one because I when you when you sent it that this was the one you were gonna do, I my first reaction was I I’ve never heard this. I don’t know what this is.
I I never heard the original. I never heard the Utah Saints version. I went back and listened to both. I’ve and the Simple Minds song, I had definitely heard before. I I just didn’t I I guess I didn’t know that was the title of it, but I I knew that song.
In in digging into this a little bit, I didn’t realize it was news to me that Simple Minds career arc is nothing like I thought it was. You know? I I thought they sort of burst onto the scene with don’t you forget about me and whatever. They might had a single before that. I can’t remember.
But the fact that, you know, this album is before that and the song is before that, and this apparently was a beloved album in England when it came out. And this song particularly was beloved. You know, like, there there were quotes I read online of, like, the members of Depeche Mode declared this the greatest album of all time and, you know, stuff like that. I I didn’t know it existed, honestly. I mean, in going back and listen to it, I heard I had heard the song before.
So the Utah Saints version, I had never heard, but I gotta tell you, man, this is an absolute banger. This is a fantastic song, cover or not. And I I love the the Utah Saints shouting out their own name at the beginning. I there’s something I just love about it. Like, every man should just do that.
Just start every song, you know. R e m. R e m. But then, it it’s all it is, you know, in in the difference between the two is is quite simply the early eighties version and the early nineties version, and and the the tweaks are just that. You know, the the original sounds like an early eighties British electronic dance song or pop song, and and the Utah Saints version sounds like an early nineties British electronica song, you know?
And it’s just enough of a of a turn of the dial to to make it just into an absolute banger. This is this is a great great cover and a great song, that I was, honestly very unfamiliar with both versions, but, it was a nice discovery. This was a a good choice. I was in the same boat, actually. I don’t think I had heard either version of this, song up until now.
And what’s kind of funny about that about the, Simple Minds version of it is that I played Simple Minds on retro radio back in the day. And in fact, I used to play Promise You a Miracle off this very album, but I don’t think I’d ever heard the entire album. I’d only ever heard a few handful of songs off of it. And so I hadn’t heard the the title track until now. And and so I listened to it, listened to the Utah Saints version, and and you’re right.
They’re they’re both pretty similar. Yeah. I agree completely. I mean, I can’t really have don’t really have a whole lot to add to that just because this is just a serious, banger of a of a cover. Great for a club song or an arena song.
It would work in any, you know, either of those venues. You know, if I had to pick just one to listen to, I’d probably pick the Simple Minds version just because I think it’s a, you know, their version is a little slower, a little prettier, a little more kind of the, traditional, you know, rock or pop song, rather than just kind of the the four on the floor banger that the cover is, but man, both of them are gray. Couldn’t go wrong either way. And, yeah, I can imagine, being in a club or, you know, a big arena when this one comes on and and everybody losing their minds. I that’d be a lot of fun for sure.
They’re a interesting group. Like, they definitely don’t get the cultural awareness that like chemical brothers or fat boy slim or crystal method, you know, there’s a lot of, and I, I realize that I’m naming these bands. A lot of people are like, well, I don’t know those people either, but like in the club world, you know, those, those bands prodigy, but they really didn’t get big until the mid nineties. And and it was really ’96, ’90 ‘7, ’90 ‘8 that you had this explosion of of music and people you know, the average person might have been exposed at that point to, like, Fatboy Slim or Chemical Brothers. Utah Saints, you know, this is, like, 9192 that they’re recording these songs.
So they were a little ahead of the curve on some of this some of the transition from eighties dance music and also the the house music that was going on. Like, I I feel like they saw what was gonna happen a little later on with bands like the Prodigy where there were more guitars. They were more fully fleshed out. They were still dance tracks, and they still allow those songs to be remixed into more pure club tracks. But there were songs that you could listen to on an album or just listen to, like, in driving around your car, and you didn’t feel like you were listening to, you know, like, a nine minute just don’t don’t don’t kinda dance song.
Like, they were songs. They were they felt more fleshed out, and I feel like the whole album, their their debut album, which is, eponymous. So if you ever are looking for it, it’s just Utah Saints. It’s it’s it’s all like that. It’s it’s very listenable.
It’s it’s dance music from I don’t I don’t wanna say dance music for people that don’t like dance music, but it’s dance music if you don’t wanna listen to, like, a nine minute just drum track over and over again. I think what it is is they they’re not this, but they they lean more towards the that early British early nineties British pop rock music like your EMFs and your Carter the Insolpable Sex Machines and your Happy Mondays. They lean more towards that than they do towards pure electronically. They’re they’re kind of the bridge between those two things maybe. That makes it a little more accessible.
It’s more radio friendly than your pure dance music is. The fact that they did this four or five, six years before the the real explosion of electronica, they they have to maybe be credited with some of that. Taking these these dance y pop songs, adding in the samples, adding in all that other stuff, and sort of making it what it becomes. I don’t know. I’d have to really dig into the the family tree of that to see where the influences are and stuff.
But I think that they’re they lean a little closer to that stuff, even though they’re not that than they do to something like Prodigy. They’re definitely lurking between those two things somewhere. I agree. It it felt a little ahead of its time for me or certainly like, they were kind of hitting on something that was a little different. There was a band.
I keep calling them bands. I don’t even know what you call it. You know, these collectives or whatever, called Messiah that came out around this time that was kind of a similar type thing. And I think there was that was happening in The UK. It was built off the backs of, like, you were talking about your, you know, Carter unstoppable sex machine and stuff like that.
They don’t really get talked about. I don’t remember, you know, lots of people really knowing about Utah Saints. So if you haven’t heard of Utah Saints, the debut album’s a good place to start. And, yeah, if you haven’t heard the simple minds version, go listen to new gold dream, and my favorite simple mind song, just apropos nothing is alive and kicking is one of my favorites. One of my favorite eighties tracks actually in general.
So also maybe check that out while you’re while you’re digging through the simple minds catalog. It was very refreshing to know that Simple Minds had this entire career sort of or at least one that was building into something pre becoming John Hughes’ animals in the eighties. But Yeah. And and and music’s really good. It’s interesting when that happens because, you know, as as somebody who prides myself in knowing a lot about music and stuff like that, I when something like that gets by me, I’m always kinda blown away.
Like, how did I not hear of the simple minds before I saw The Breakfast Club? Right. Yeah. Because apparently, they were a thing and a pretty big one. Maybe not here in The States, but, you know, that they they were definitely on they were definitely on to something before Don’t You Forget About Me.
I was gonna say there are a handful of their songs that I used to play on retro radio, and I would play them instead of Don’t You Forget About Me, you know, so that I didn’t have to play Don’t You Forget About Me every single week, you know. I mentioned Promised You a Miracle up on the catwalk, is a good one. Yeah. I’m not real familiar with the Simple Minds, but I I was aware that they had some other songs, and they got some other great ones out there for sure. Alright.
So, yeah, go check it out. Utah Saints’ debut album is a fun one to listen to. And we’ve got one more cover to go. We’re going over to mister Keith Portfield. For today’s, I have picked a song called Superknot done by the band A Thousand Homo DJs, which is a terrible band name, but we’ll forgive them that for for the moment.
Supernaut is a Black Sabbath song, came out on their, 1972 album called Volume Four. Most of these cover songs that I have done, I’ve had have been saying, you know, one of the things that’s different with the cover versus the original is that the band rocked it up a little bit. We will rock up a Black Sabbath song. It’s it’s rocking enough as it is. So, this one I would not say was more rocking, but it’s a pretty, pretty true cover, to the the Black Sabbath song.
The the Homewood DJ version came out in 1990. This is a band that’s a side project for ministry. Al Jorgensen was the main guy, involved here. Paul Reiflin, Jello Biafra, Paul Barker, some of the other, guys that were kinda in the ministry orbit are also involved with this band. They were put out a couple of singles, a couple of 12 inch singles.
This one had a a b side on it called Hey Asshole, which is about as good as a song you would expect, as you would expect it to be for a song called Hey Asshole. It’s nothing that you really need. But, yeah, this cover of Supernaught is really, really fantastic. It’s maybe a little bit faster. The dorms are much more to the forefront, in the thousand Homer DJ’s version than they are in the Black Sabbath version.
It has also got some samples tacked onto the end of it and in the middle of it. It starts off with a little drum beat going and, a guy and I don’t know where they found this. I’m sure it was from some, like, nineteen sixties, seventies, eighties, anti drug, anti rock and roll, PSA kind of thing. But it’s a guy talking about how all the, the rock and roll lyrics and covers of the albums are supposed to make the kids wanna drop acid and take a trip and all this terrible stuff, and then the guitar really kicks in. The Black Sabbath version doesn’t have that.
You know, it just goes right into the into the song. Pretty true cover. The one thing that’s different on the thousand homo DJs version that I really like that isn’t on the Black Sabbath version is doing there there’s really no chorus to this song. When it gets through the verse, there’s a a part where on the Black Sabbath song, it’s just just the guitar kicks in and and is really wailing. And I’m sure they moon it that way so you could hear Tony Iommi’s guitar part because it’s really cool.
Put on the the thousand homo DJ’s version of it, Al Jorgensen yells super hot at the top of his lungs every time he gets to that single break. And I heard the thousand homo DJs version before I heard the Black Sabbath version. So, that was familiar with that. When I went back and listened to the Black Sabbath version, I was ready to hear Ozzy scream Supernaut at the top of his lungs when that part of the song came around, and it’s just not there. He he just go and get the guitar, and then he goes back into the, into the verse.
But still a rocking song both ways. Couple of one of the interesting things about this song is is that, there was a rumor for a long time that Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, was the guy that did the vocals on this. And it turns out he actually did. He was part of the the recording sessions for this. But after it was finished, his record label, TVT records, I guess, hold it in some way, got wind of it, and just refused to let the version with him on there be released.
And so, they had to go back in and and rerecord the vocals. And the the kind of conspiracy theory for a long time was that Jorgensen didn’t want to rerecord the vocals, so he just, changed some some settings on distortion and delay and that kind of thing and left Trent Reznor’s vocals on there just sounding different. And then there was also the rumor that he re rerecorded the vocals. Nobody ever knew for a long time what it was. As it turned out, both Reznor and Jorgensen have since said that Jorgensen actually did rerecord the vocals and the original version of that song does have Al Jorgensen on vocals.
You can hear the Trent Reznor version of it, though. That got saved and was released on a wax tracks box set at one time or another. So the Trent Rosen Rosenor version of it is still out there floating around, but the version that we played at KTXT and that kinda was the original one that got, as big as the song got and not didn’t get particularly big or anything, did have Al Jornson on the vocals. Although for a long time, that that rumor kind of followed it around that that was actually Trent Reznor. And so like I said, when we did play this at KTXT, it was another one that came in a little before my time there, so it wasn’t like it was a top 35 song when when it was or when I was there.
I’m not exactly sure how I heard it. I imagine it just came up on my playlist at one time or another, but after I did hear it, it was in heavy rotation for my DJ pick choice. And anytime I could throw an extra song in, this was one of my favorites to do because, man, it is just a, just a rip and rocker, man. It’s fast paced, heavy guitar, Al Jorgensen screaming at the top of his lungs. Just everything you want out of a ministry or ministry side project band type song.
And, on top of that, a cover of a great Black Sabbath song. So if you haven’t heard the Black Sabbath version of it, also fantastic. Either version of this song will will do you right. And then, you know, the last thing we’ll say is potentially the worst band name in the history of band names for this. Maybe that played a little better in the late eighties when they came up with it.
It certainly does not play well now. The rumor is that they called themselves this because after they were done with the track, Jorgensen apparently wasn’t real pleased with it. And somebody apparently told him, oh, don’t worry about it. The only people that are ever gonna hear it anyway are a thousand homo DJs. Apparently, the story is stuck in Jorgensen’s mind.
He liked it, and so they released it under the title, a thousand homo DJs. So while I will wholeheartedly immerse the song, the band name, not so much. I like the band name a lot more now that I heard that story. That’s That story makes it better somehow. That definitely helps.
When I saw the song on your list, I hadn’t heard it in probably thirty years. And the two things I remember about it were one just hearing super not yelled over the top of it, which apparently, like you said, it’s not even in the original, but I thought that was like the core of the song at the time, just because that’s all I remember. And also I had it in my my DJ. So I used to DJ in clubs and for a while, and this CD was always in my box that I would bring with me, but I never played this song in a club because I never really DJ in like a a place where an industrial song like this would have played very well. But I used to use that intro occasionally just as like filler just to, you know, just to be edgy or whatever.
So that was I I remember carrying the CD around and seeing the CD all the time, and it was really just because I I used to play that intro. I really didn’t didn’t play the song a lot, and I hadn’t heard it a lot. Even back in the day, I don’t remember listening to it that much, but going back and and listening to it. Yeah. I mean, man, what a it’s a straight up industrial in your face.
Nothing wrong with that. It’s really, really fun. It was really enlightening to go back and and hear the original. I had no idea this was a cover song right up until a week ago when we were discussing this episode and talking about, like, this is one, I I think of all the ones that we’ve talked about so far, this is the only one that I absolutely had no idea was a cover, like, right up into present day. So yeah.
And I probably because I’m not a big Black Sabbath fan. I don’t really know a lot about Black Sabbath, to be perfectly honest. I know a couple songs, but clearly, I’m I’m not or I would have known that this was a a cover. So, yeah, I got to go back and discover that, which is, like you said, straight up Black Sabbath rock song just like you would expect. And then this is kinda like I was saying with New Gold Dream.
It’s not a million miles away from the original, but, actually, like Scott said too, it’s kind of just like an updated, you know, ’70 the ’72 version is proto heavy metal black Sabbath, and then the this late eighties version is kind of I wouldn’t say proto industrial, but it it’s in that industrial vein, but they stay true to what the original was trying to do. So if you are a black Sabbath fan and for some reason haven’t coming across this, I don’t think you’ll be super offended by it or anything. You might be offended by the Al Jorgensen yell and super not over the guitar lick. But besides that, yeah, super super terrible name, but but a really I mean, if you just want a seriously hardcore rock out to an industrial track, you could do a lot worse. I don’t have a whole lot to add to this because I I love this song, and I love the original too.
And I I agree with you that the this is not a radically different approach to the song, but def one of them definitely sounds like early seventies heavy metal, and the other one definitely sounds like late eighties industrial. You know? And and but it’s, and they they have the touches necessary for that. But, yeah, you know, you guys know late eighties up to the mid nineties industrial is is my jam. It’s kinda my my wheelhouse.
And so this song was always, you know, in rotation for me. I I think it’s it’s just a perfect example of what Industrial sort of did, you know, like adding in these strange noises and and, you know, mechanized sounds and and samples and and whatever, and the the sort of brutal assault of it, you know, hammering away at you. And the the addition of the screaming of Supernaut, I think, adds to that. Instead of it sort of ebbing and flowing like, like the original does, you know, into this riff or that riff or this chorus or that, you know, verse, whatever, It just sort of relentlessly pounds for the entire duration. And yelling super hot over that guitar, like, does it helps do that.
It helps sort of push that forward. But, yeah, this is a great one. As far as the band name goes, I I don’t hate it. It’s it’s weird, and it certainly wouldn’t play today. But, you know, naming bands, you know, all of these guys, your Al Jorgensen’s, your Gibby Hanes, you know, they they take a lot of pride in in giving their side projects names that are likely to piss off at least a small percentage of the population, and this is no exception to that.
It’s just what they do. You know? This is, it’s no worse of a name to me than revolting cocks is or anything like that. So but, yeah, it’s it’s not a good one. That’s for sure.
This is a this is a great example of of the late eighties industrial thing. If even if you do like the original, I think there’s something to like here. It’s definitely sort of just, an updated version, like we talked about with the Utah Saints. But, yeah, this is a good choice. I I really I really like this this jam.
I think one of the primary differences in it is the the way the drums are out front on the thousand homo DJ’s version, and they’re they’re much, much higher in the mix than what Black Sabbath did. And that’s to, you know, speak to what you were saying, kind of giving it the driving industrial oomph that it’s got. And because of that, you know, and I know Bull Rifling was on this, so there probably are live drums, but, you know, in listening to the Black Sabbath version, the the rhythm track, the the drums and the bass are a little looser, got a little more of a swing to them, to the extent that, you know, you could say any Black Sabbath song has swing to it, but but there you can kind of tell that that one’s got a little more of an organic feel to it, whereas the, the Thousand Home O DJ’s version was definitely more the industrial, like, really loud, banging, you know, drums to to kinda drive it through it. And I think it would have been interesting, Michael. You mentioned, that excuse me, that you had this, in your your club kit, back in the day when you and I were working at at the Palladia together, a club here in Lubbock.
You know, knowing the kind of stuff we played there, I would love to have seen what would have happened on the dance floor if we had dropped Supernaut on them. I don’t think anybody in that building would have known what to have made of it. That would have been really fun, actually. Now you mentioned, the drumming on the Black Sabbath thing. I don’t quote me on this, but I I think, that their drummer, Geezer Butler, was jazz trained.
I think that that was his background, was that he was like a jazz, sort of classically trained drummer and then took that into Black Sabbath. That might explain the, the swingy nature of the original here. Yeah. Yeah. That’s entirely possible.
I I’m a huge Black Sabbath, fan. I I have to admit, I know, you know, a handful of their songs. But, but, yeah, this one, of the Black Sabbath songs I know, man. This is by far one of my favorites. It’s a really good one.
Alright. Three more cover tunes to check out if you haven’t, heard these. I think they’re all definitely worthwhile. Some kinda upbeat jamming stuff in the in our mix today. So, yeah, definitely crank up the volume for Supernaut in particular, but maybe wear some headphones for that one.
Thanks for tuning in. Also, things to check out. 35,000 watts, the story of college Radio is a documentary feature film about college radio, and it is available right now to rent or buy on Amazon Prime or Google Play. Thanks again for tuning in. Thanks to Scott and Keith for joining me.
We will see you all next time on 35,000 Watts, the podcast.