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the bones - Couldn't Get High

from Buy American - 1984: the Year at So​-​So by Joe Harvard

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about

the bones arrangement of a Fugs song.

A live favorite of the bones, who would often close shows with a Fugs medley of "Couldn't Get High" and "Group Grope", both songs in characteristically bone-ified rearrangements. Originally recorded by co-producer Sean Slade as part of 1982's 'Discover: the bones', the song had been left uncompleted, along with some other material from the bones' Contempt sessions, in this case because the four-track master tape had run out well before the song was finished. Two years later, having forgotten there was a second 'Discover' track with saxophones on it, Joe stumbled across a rough mix cassette he had taken home from the first day of those original sessions, and decided the arrangement's brevity was something he could work around.

The unfinished basic tracks were transferred from a stereo cassette mix of the bass, drum, guitar and saxophone parts to 1/4" 8-track tape at So-So, after which Joe added a pair of vocals and an additional guitar, as well as two tracks of the Drunken Mob carousing at the fictional Barca Lounge, and mixed it to a Fostex A-2 1/4" two track.

The Drunken Mob was Shanghai'd at one of the parties that the 117 Columbia Street crew was infamous for (and had been long before Joe arrived there). A dozen or so revelers were coaxed into the second floor living room and given hand cues by Joe, who was wearing headphones and the only one listening to the track. Some of the lyrics commemorate the band's colorful banter, including numerous weed references such as "Yohimbe". Joints were called begonias or birds.

credits

from Buy American - 1984: the Year at So​-​So, released January 4, 1985
produced & engineered by Joe Harvard at So-So Sound Studios, 117 Columbia Street, Cambridge MA. on a Fostex A-8 1/4" 8-track, mixed onto a Fostex A-2 1/4" deck.

Sean Slade - b/u vocals & alto sax
John Dunton-Downer - tenor sax
Andrew Barnaby - b/u vocals
Richie "Cunningham" Maddalo - drums
Dave "Bone" Pedersen - bass
Joe Harvard - Telecasters

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Joe Harvard Asbury Park, New Jersey

"VU & Nico" author, producer-artist-musician
LP creds: Dinosaur, Jr, Pernice Brothers, Throwing Muses etc; spiritual midwife to tons more as co-founder/owner of Fort Apache '85-'93.
An East Bostonian based [One Banned Man, Dub Proof, Doctor Danger, Cockwalkers] in NJ & MOTH NYC Storyslam Champ '01; loves cats. Asbury Music Awards: Top Americana '09/Top Multi-Instrumentalist & Top Avant-Garde '10.
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