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Thrifty Tunes 05.23.09: Jane's Addiction
Posted by Paul Hollingsworth on 05.23.2009

At the height of hair-metal's reign, one band dared to put the funk back into rock. Jane's Addiction debut disc gets a new listen in this week's Thrifty Tunes



In 1988, popular music was dominated by hair, glam and sleaze. The children of Kiss and (for the more high-minded bands) Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie ruled the airwaves, the album charts and MTV. If you started a high school garage band, like me, your guiding lights were albums by Ratt , Motley Crue and The Scorpions.. Punk music's rebellion against the excesses of prog-rock in the late 70's had already begun its decent back into the underground, and it was replaced by the even more extreme excesses of the Sunset Strip. Bands weren't good unless they had a mountain of hair, a guitarist (or three) who could tap guitar necks so fast that the notes stopped sounding like music and resembled an angry bee, and a wardrobe full of neon tiger striped pants and ripped up sleeveless shirts. (I have pictures of myself in such outfits, but they will never, ever see the light of day.) It was during this time, at the very height of it's pop culture dominance, however, that the first cracks in hair-metal's armor began to show. The arty/college bands like R.E.M. and Sonic Youth were gaining notice, but Jane's Addiction was one of the first bands to successfully assault the reigning gods of rock.

The first time I heard this record I did so at the request of the lead guitarist of our band. Aside from his impressively awesome stage name of Kris Kardinal, he also was light years ahead of the rest of us in regards to musical tastes.(We were called Heaven's Edge, by the way, and we thought we were being very clever with our stage names. I was Richard St. Paul, the drummer was simply B. Bishop and our rhythm guitarist, a very sweet girl who was in love with Bret Michaels,was Mary Motherless.) Aside from some of the bass lines, which I thought were great, the album didn't leave much of an impression on me. The only song I grudgingly admitted to 'not-minding' was "Mountain Song," which sounded the most like the stuff I liked at the time. I couldn't quite decide why I didn't like it. Lead singer Perry Farrell's voice wasn't that far removed from some of the grittier bands of the time, and Dave Navarro's lead guitar work was obviously good if Kris liked it, but the whole package just didn't work for me. Despite Kris' devotion and near constant pushing of the band on us, we never tried to incorporate them into our sound. We needed more Aqua net and more bandannas, not musical pretentions. Of course, a few years later, after Heaven's Edge had died its brutal, whimpering death, I heard "Been Caught Stealin'" on my college radio station. Soon, Jane's Addiction were seen as one of the forefathers of alternative-rock and I rushed out and bought Ritual de lo Habitual like everybody else. I never got back around to their first album, though, until I recently found it among a stack of other late 80's albums at a flea market over in Jacksonville. After paying twenty bucks (with just a bit of haggling on my part), I took home my latest finds. The first record I played, after a bit of self-debate, was Nothing's Shocking

The first song "Up the Beach" starts off the record with a bang. I immediately knew why I didn't like it twenty years ago. It wasn't simplistic, or easily digestible. The music has layers and textures which just didn't exist in most of the music I listened to at the time. Its loud and abrasive, but there's an undeniable sense of rhythm to the whole song, mostly due to bass player Eric Avery's amazingly funky bass line. Since listening to this record again, I've spent lots of time with tabs trying to figure out the bass line on my own bass, (sadly, my Heaven's Edge bass, Kiss Army sticker and all, was lost a long time ago thanks to an overly jealous girlfriend.) Album opening songs, good ones anyway, draw you in, but don't give everything away. "Up the Beach" with its simple repeated lyric of 'Here we go now/home/home/home.' does everything right. It sets the stage without overshadowing what is to come.

What comes next, of course, is about the most perfect side one for a debut album ever. "Ocean Size", "Had a Dad," "Ted, Just Admit It..." and "Standing in the Shower. . . Thinking," are all incredibly great songs, with "Had a Dad" being a particular standout. When hair bands of the time tried to write songs like this, such as Faster Pussycat's "House of Pain" or "Hide Your Heart" by Kiss, the songs came off as forced or insincere. Not so with Jane's Addiction. "Had a Dad" about Avery's discovery, as an adult, that the man he called his father wasn't his biological father, was not the sort of song most bands of the time could pull off. The music and lyrics all combine to create a sense of depression, betrayal and anger and it's that emotional depth which sets the band in opposition of what was popular in music at the time.

Side two opens with "Summertime Rolls" which, at least for now, is my favorite Jane's Addiction song. I'm older and a bit mellower now, I suppose, but the song, which in a way, foreshadows Perry's other band, Porno For Pyros , hits all the right buttons for me. The lyrics, which follow a strange dream-logic which Perry is adept at writing, deal with, maybe, a lost love and a lost summer, but its up to you to decide the fate of the lovers involved.

"Mountain Song" follows and aside from "Been Caught Stealin'" is Jane's Addiction most well known song. It's still a great song, but it's probably my least favorite on the album. It doesn't sound dated in a bad way, but it's definitely of its time. The riff, although turned up, is straight from the hair-metal guitarist playbook, which is probably why I liked it when I first heard it. I'd like to think the band was saying, 'Look, anybody with a guitar can create a pop song around a riff. You don't have to have a mountain of hair to play a kick-ass riff.' The lyrics, about 'cashing in' only add to my suspicions about the song.

After "Mountain Song", the entire mood of the album changes. There are horns, (supplied by Flea no less, and these horns have nothing in common with Aerosmith's horns, which was the only other band to dare use brass in their songs. These horns are funky, not brassy, and "Idiots Rule" is a hint of the way the band would turn on its next, and final album. (The less said about 2003's Strays , the better.) The album almost ends perfectly with "Jane Says," which was another one of the band's almost hits. The final track "Thank You Boys" is just a small sound bite, and at 16, I would have hated it (and probably did, although I don't remember it) with a passion, but to my 37 year old ears, it ends the album on a solid note.

Complete Track Listing: (1988 on Warner Brothers Records)
Side One:
1. Up the Beach
2. Ocean Size
3. Had A Dad
4. Ted, Just Admit It . . .
5. Standing In The Shower. . . Thinking

Side Two:
1. Summertime Rolls
2. Mountain Song
3. Idiots Rule
4. Jane Says
5. Thank You Boys

I'm not sure what place Jane's Addiction will have in the history of rock music, but their first two albums deserve some sort of award for being so completely out of step with the times. This is one of the best debut albums ever and it's sad, (or perhaps fortunate, depending on your view of a band's shelf-life), that they only released one more album. No other band, before or since, sounds like Jane's Addiction. In the pop music world, that's a rare feat.

Pickett Stars : Five out of Five (My 16 year old self just disowned me.)

Next Week : White Witch by White Witch