the beyond tomorrow media library

albums

Here are pages dedicated to individual albums/performances. Some have only a couple of tracks, and some are complete. Which are which? Only one way to find out!

*new!* sr lives again!: stan ridgway live, june 2^nd, 2001

*new!* the song stylings of jackie "teak" lazar

*new!* stan ridgway music videos

stan ridgway live, december 16^th, 2000

the way i feel today

music for films sampler 98

toyota conquistador

30 seconds, 320x240, 4,852KB
Stan narrated and composed the music for this commercial for Toyota's racing division, advertising Ivan "Iron Man" Stewart's participation in the 1999 Baja 1000 offroad race. My understanding is that the spot mainly ran on ESPN during racing season.

toyota secrets

30 seconds, 320x240, 4,820KB
This commercial also features music and narration by Stan; the narration is new, but the music is actually the track Ivan's Walk For Food from the soundtrack to The Drywall Incident, Stan's 1996 film with Carlos Grasso.

Here's a bit of trivia for you: the guy who produced these ads for Toyota is the bass player for Gadfly, the band that opened for Stan at his Anatomy release party / concert in June of 2000. They met through this series of commercials, and that's how Gadfly eventually came to the enviable position of opening for Stan.

opel zafira

30 seconds, 6,688KB
This one is a lot of fun. Stan supplied the music (he and Pietra did the "whoo-hoo"s at the beginning) for this Opel Zafira ad. The ad was by Mccann-Erickson, and ran mostly in Germany. And look! I've got the mp3 file too. (Thanks, Stan!)

dirt (web)

42 seconds, 240x180, 1,501KB
Stan put together this ad for 2002's Holiday In Dirt all by himself. It features no narration... just the track Garage Band '69. French cinema auteur Jean-Luc Godard said "All you need for a movie is a girl and a gun." But what about a CD in a jewelcase, a head-bobbing toy dog, and an expanding-sphere-wipe?

streamin' dirt

51 seconds, 240x180, 3,127KB
Stan's second wacky net ad for 2002's Holiday In Dirt; very, very similar to the first one above.

bongo beatniks (demo)

1 minutes 56 seconds, 1.77MB
In Stan's own words:

Bongo Beatniks
recorded 1977 on my trusty sony 2 track TC 630 and the trusty Rhythm Ace I got from Daws Butler... before Wall Of Voodoo "the band" really got together. I had another band that played the Masque called Model Citizens. This was for them but before we could put it together we broke up...

two guys with a lot on their minds (demo)

3 minutes 3 seconds, 2.8MB
In Stan's own words:

Two Guys With A Lot On Their Minds
a song written for "Mosquitos" that featured Bert and Charlie from "Can't Complain". This one came first I think. I figgered I really didn't need two songs about these guys. A kind of schizoid song really...This could be two guys or maybe just one talking to himself. The Great Esccape meets One Flew Over the Cooku's Nest..."hide the beer" gee...I forgot about that one...somehow a cousin of "Wake Up Sally" ..funny how things get used even years later..

roadblock (original mix)

7 minutes 5 seconds, 6.49MB
In Stan's own words:

Roadblock (Original Mix)
When I was making Partyball, this was the first version of Roadblock i cut. I dug it this way ( kinda Doc Watson meets David Lynch with Goddard cranking the camera..) but then I worked out the other version which I thought was a little more straight foward musically and maybe a lettle more "friendly" . I dunno.  This one is I consider the "real" one though cuz it was the first one. Pretty crude but oh well..i'm a primitive at heart. This would have also been a short film for the record if Geffen had put up the dollars but at this point they had pegged me "crazy ridgway..what's he up to?.." and I was getting shown the back door..I'm playing everything here and using my old Prophet 5 keyboard for most of it. Sound efx and all. Can ya hear the tires screech?

kurt weil show

8 minutes 44 seconds, 8MB
In Stan's own words:

Live mp3 of stan and band at Symphony Space
The Kurt Weil Centiniel Performance in NYC 2000..? A fun show and we got to meet and follow Kitty Carlise, famous and gracious NYC socialite and celeb..(married to Moss Hart..)she sang a very sweet version of September Song and then we came on...a couple of older attendees stood up in the front row when Rick King's guitar came in and shouted "turn the thing down..now!"..it was like we were the kids crashing the adult party but I think we won them over in the end..fun.

1. What keeps Mankind Alive?
2. The Cannon Song
3. Mack The Knife

car phone

Stan appeared on the 1991 album Back From Rio by Roger McGuinn, on the track Car Phone. Not as a singer, or a musician, just as a "telephone voice". He and Kimmy Robertson, as "Mark" and "Stephanie", have the following gripping conversation:

Stephanie: Hello?
Mark: Hi, Stephanie, this is Mark.
Stephanie: Hi, Mark, how are you?
Mark: I'm fine, I was wondering if you wanted to come over to my house for dinner tonight.
Stephanie: Oh, I can't, I'm on my way to th' airport right now.
Mark: What? Are you in your car?
Stephanie: Uh-huh! I put my home phone on call forwarding so it rings in the car. I'm just gonna pick up an old friend who's flying in from Rio.
Mark: Who do you know from Rio?
Stephanie: He's a guitar player, his name is Jim McGuinn, and he's back from Rio.

But sadly that's where it ends. The compelling saga of Mark and Stephanie, and their conversations via the staggering technological advancement known as the car phone, are never continued. Will they have dinner together another night? Will Jim draw Stephanie away from Mark? And who is Jim, anyway? I thought his name was Roger McGuinn. Sadly, these burning questions remain unanswered to this very day.

Car Phone (excerpt)
By Roger McGuinn
Copyright 1991 McGuinn Music (BMI) / Wild Gator Music, WB Music Corp. (ASCAP)

Misspelling count: two, the usual E, and they never spell his name correctly.

Update! June 5th, 2002: I got this note from Kenn Scott (thanks Kenn!), clearing up the last little mystery:

Roger McGuinn was initially known to the world as Jim McGuinn on the first few Byrds releases. He then changed his first name to Roger because he felt that the mystical, spiritual properties of having a name that started and ended with "r" would better put him in touch with the forces of the universe. (I'm not making this up. It was the sixties, and this was considered perfectly rational behaviour for a rock star.)

In any event, a widely-reported rumour sprung up that 'Roger McGuinn' was actually Jim McGuinn's brother. 'Roger' had been drafted into the Byrds to replace Jim, who had fled to Rio, possibly to avoid drug charges. Not true, of course, but the rumour kept resurfacing, and McGuinn would have to deny it every few years. Hence, McGuinn's eventual solo album with the tongue-in-cheek title "Back From Rio", and the reference to Jim McGuinn.

excuse / booker tease

Another inadequately explained cameo. Let me take a stab at it, and see what I can infer: Stan Ridgway was supposed to contribute a song to the 1996 Residents tribute album A Stab At The Residents. But he didn't get anything together in time. So he left an apologetic phone message to the organizer (nicknamed "Dread"?). A group called J.E.D. incorporated this phone message into a cover of an instrumental song called Booker Tease, immortalizing Stan's extemporaneous apology.

Here's the text of what Stan said:

Well, Dread, it's Stan Ridgway, and I'm afraid I did not get it together. You probably figured that out... I think I'm gonna nail myself to the cross of, uh, the Residents now, and just become a mole-man. But I didn't get anything together. I'm just not happy with what I had. I wish you good luck with your record, and um, maybe there were other people that, uh, this happened to. I tried, but it just wasn't in the season, or something. Sometimes music is, is, is seasonal. Maybe if this, this'd, uh, started, uh, now, we'd-a had it by summertime. You see how these things go. But, um, let's keep in touch, and um, once again, I'm afraid you're going to have to count me out. It's kinda like I wish I could, but, it's, it's just not appearing. Like a, like a slight-of-hand magic act that suddenly, is not happening. But, well, good-luck-to-you, and the giant ant farm. We'll talk soon. Bye.

excuse / Booker Tease
By Stan Ridgway / J.E.D.

rio greyhound (edit)

For reasons that have never yet been explained, one of the releases of the album The Big Heat had an alternate mix of Rio Greyhound. Instead of the 3:12 version that I'm sure you're all familiar with, it had a 1:59 edit mix. Why? Who knows? It's not like they were short on space on the vinyl (my original theory), as this release was CD and cassette only. Anyway, here it is, in all its stunted glory, for you to puzzle over.

Rio Greyhound
By Stan Ridgway
Copyright 1986 International Record Syndicate, Inc.
Published by Mondo Spartacus / Illegal Songs, Inc. (BMI)

crack the bell: tom shane

(252k, 15 seconds, stereo, cd-quality mp3 encoded)

You just can't find good bells anymore!
Yah! Yah! Sure!
Tom Shane's a friend of mine!
I really like him—he's in the industry!

call of the west: somebody

(285k, 17 seconds, stereo, cd-quality mp3 encoded)
This one isn't actually Stan Ridgway, it's Joe Nanini.

I used to be somebody!
I used to be somebody, do you hear me?
Do you hear me? I've—I've been there!
I used to be somebody, god damn you!
I've been there before!
Don't walk away!

call of the west: unleaded

(106k, 6 seconds, stereo, cd-quality mp3 encoded)
This one is at the very end of the song, when it has almost completely faded out. I had to strengthen the signal a couple of times as it fades, which is why the volume keeps jumping around.

What, y'—you wanted unleaded?
Unleaded—that's next pump over, so keep on movin', okay?
Naw, it's out of order.

drive she said: anchorage

(625k, 39 seconds, mono, cd-quality mp3 encoded)
Here's the conversation from the end, when the cab driver talks to his fare. The album/CD mix cuts out a little early, but thanks to John Trivisonno (thanks, John!), you can now hear the whole thing. The part in italics was left off the CD.

Hey, hey, uh—
Hey, y'all, get outta my way!—all ya sunday drivers!
Hey, you want one of these, ah, Slim Jims? They're good!
What?—what? You don't—you don't want one?
Well they're 100% meat!

Haven't I seen you somewhere before?
I know, I know, Anchorage, that's where I seen ya, Anchorage.
Well, where you goin'?
I'm sorry, I don't go in that part of town anymore.
I don't need my windows washed.

the engineer talked

(50k, 3 seconds, stereo, cd-quality mp3 encoded)
Just at the end of Jack Talked (Like A Man On Fire) from Partyball, you can hear somebody (the recording engineer? the producer?) talking on the left channel. Artists have been known to leave in this sort of thing on purpose— for instance, listen to the end of Silk Pyjamas by Thomas Dolby. But this is so faint that it was probably a mistake.

Here we go—same kind of arrangement, right?

uba's house of backwards

(661k, 41 seconds, stereo, cd-quality mp3 encoded)
Right at the end of this track from Partyball, right in the middle of a bit of solo guitar work, it artfully switches into reverse. The lyrics from the backwards section aren't exactly a revalation, but it's nice to hear it the right way round. For reference, here is the exact same section of the song, forwards (661k, 41 seconds, stereo, cd-quality mp3 encoded), so you can compare:

'Cause she's hangin' out there still! At—
Uba's, Uba's, Uba's, Uba's, Uba's
Fashions

foggy river: original mix

(639k, 39 seconds, mono, cd-quality mp3 encoded)
This was also sent in by John Trivisonno. Apparently, the original version of Foggy River (the B-side track on the The Big Heat single) had a very different sounding vocal mix. John feels it is more polished, and is convinced that the version on the reissue of The Big Heat was a mistake. Me, I think the original vocal mix was a bit plain, and I'm not surprised at all that Stan made it, ah, rather more complicated. That is, I don't think the reissue version is a mistake, just a bit of experimentation.

doubledrive

doubleDrive is a hard-rokin' guitar band. Their 1999 album 1000 Yard Stare has eleven songs, then eighty-seven tracks of silence (five seconds apiece), and finally a ninety-ninth track: a cover of Mexican Radio. Given its extra-super-dooper-secret hidden-track nature, they didn't include proper credits, but they did at least tack writing credits on.

To give you a sense of what the cover is like, I've ripped a 45-second chunk of it. You can find it here:

Mexican Radio (excerpt)
as performed by doubleDrive
from their 1999 album 1000 Yard Stare
Copyright 1999 MCA Records, Inc.

celtic frost

If you thought doubleDrive rocked, wait'll you hear Celtic Frost. Why, they're a German speed metal band, and they're the rockinest, hard-core-est, heaviest metal band since I don't know when. (Not quite my cup of tea, either, but as your Stan Ridgway librarian it is my duty to seek out these things.)

At least they can be said to have some taste in covers. Here's a 30-second excerpt of their speedy, wailin', difficult-to-understand cover of Mexican Radio:

Mexican Radio (excerpt)
as performed by Celtic Frost
from their 1999 collection Parched With Thirst And I Am Dying
Copyright 1992 Noise International

larry hastings

Yep, that's me. I'm a middling composer/pianist/musician guy, and this was one of my experiments that I thought came out pretty listenable. It's a cover of Stan Ridgway's Drive She Said, done in an ambient new-age-y style.

By the way, even though this should only be considered an "excerpt", this is really all of the song I ever did. I like it as it is, and I'm not sure I could sustain something interesting for the length of the original piece... so sorry, but this is all yer gettin'.

Drift She Said (excerpt)
as performed by Larry Hastings
Copyright 1998 by Larry Hastings