The Escaped Fetal Pigs - "Mutilate A Baby Doll"

This was a fun one to play. I got to play guitar on it while Mark would tear apart a baby doll. Essentially, this seemed to be a parody of all those violent heavy metal songs. I am not quite sure why the camera focuses on me playing guitar instead of following Mark into the audience, but at least we have the dancer on stage to keep us entertained. I have no idea who she was, but she seemed to be having fun. This was another one of Mark's songs. He remains creative today. He just wrote a novel called 'Twas The Week After Christmas, which I quite enjoyed reading.

The Escaped Fetal Pigs - "Exxon Beach Party"

Mark enjoyed writing songs about current events. In addition to this one, we also played songs about The Berlin Wall coming down and Rob Lowe's sex scandal. The songs were always humorous but also made some salient political points. I also like that he made it a bit of a surf rock song. If you aren't familiar with what this song is about, then let me explain that it concerns the wreck of an oil tanker that polluted quite a bit of the Alaskan coastline. Greg Palast probably explains it best. On the recording, I think I played harmonica, but on this live version, I just sing along with Mark. At the beginning, you can hear us call for something to drink. It was hot in those little clubs that we played, especially when a lot of people were there, and, based on the video, this was a pretty packed place.

The Escaped Fetal Pigs - "Ed McMahon"

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it seemed as if one could not turn on a television screen without seeing Ed McMahon on it. In addition, to being Johnny Carson's second banana on The Tonight Show, he hosted Star Search and other shows and appeared in numerous commercials. I have nothing against someone trying to make a buck, but his ubiquity seemed to be verging on pure greed. He seemed to me like university or company presidents who moonlight on corporate boards for obscene amounts of money, considering the amount of work they do for it.  I certainly don't believe these people put that much effort into their boardwork. Why not hire someone who would actually oversee the company? But, of course, that is probably not what the company's managers want. In any case, back to Ed, who probably wasn't a bad sort but seemed to me to be a poster child for the ills of American capitalism. Supposedly, he later had financial problems, which is mindboggling, but that's right in keeping with his symbolism of why greed stinks. How much was he spending of the money he was bringing in? Better to have brought in less, Ed, and spent less. Also, maybe I wouldn't have found your yesman shtick so annoying.

Moving on to other aspects of the video, The Pigs are playing The Good Tymes Pub, which was for a time our favorite venue in town. All the cool bands played there. It was run by an eccentric older party dude named Dick. Eventually, something happened to Dick--jail? death? I don't remember-- and the new management was not as cool, so we stopped playing there.

In the video, you can see me wearing a Pogues t-shirt which I bought in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA in 1989. I later sold it on eBay, so someone out there may still be wearing it. It was a cool shirt even if the concert wasn't. Shane MacGowan had apparently been drinking all day, so when the band came on, he made it through the first song, which was great. The second was pretty good. The third he didn't make sense at all. Then he held up a Batman 7-11 slurpee, filled with who knows what, shouted "Fuck you Americans and your fucking Batman!" and passed out. They dragged him offstage, and the band played instrumentals and songs that the others sang on. After that, Spider Stacy filled in, a preview of The post-Shane Pogues, on a few songs with help from the audience. After that, no one knew the words to any more of the songs, and the show ended. Pretty disappointing at the time, but in retrospect a quinnessential Pogues performance and one of the few concerts, out of many much better ones I saw/heard in that time period, that is memorable.

Is Mark wearing a New Kids On The Block shirt?  He must have lost a bet . . .

At the end, I throw in a backwards phrase.  You will have to play it backwards to get the special message.

Also, at the end, Mark speaks with our buddy Scott of XHOA, who was doing sound that night.  He often added cool effects to the sound, whether we wanted them or not.  Annoying at the time often, but in retrospect, a pretty cool touch.

New Song!: "Bomb The Bombs!"

It's a bit amazing that we have had nuclear weapons for about 75 years now, and we have pretty much refrained from using them aside from testing since World War II. Much of this is due to sheer luck as there were a number of instances, particularly during The Cold War, in which we came close to heading down the disastrous path of nuclear warfare. Our luck won't last forever; it is time to get rid of these things. The hope that we can finally be free of the threat of nuclear extinction inspired this song. The lyrics are below.  It's the same deal as always.  If you like a song, then feel free to cover it if you're in a band or whatnot.  I love to hear covers of my songs, so please let me know about your version.  If you start making money, then send me a check/we can work out a deal.  Similarly, if you want to use a song for your Youtube video or whatnot, then just let me know.  It's usually fine by me unless it's a commercial product or whatnot (and then it's likely fine as well--I just want my cut).  Find out first though.  Write me at wredfright ATATAT yahoo DOTT com.

When the wise choose not to lead, then it's left to the fools, and the fools love to play, but their toys are deadly tools.
And so they play their games, and they have so much fun, pulling the pin on a grenade and pulling the trigger on a gun.

Bomb the bombs

So they pile up the bombs, and they say they will never be used, but as they stack them higher, they must be confused.
Because if you listen closely, you can hear the ticking of a clock, and it's getting ever closer to its final tock.
And the bombs will explode, and the genie will be out of the bottle, and it's not going back in, no matter how we try to throttle.
And neither will the flames or the fallout radiation, nuclear winter across the entire nation.

Bomb the bombs before they bomb us all.
Bomb the bombs or the bombs will fall.

And so before this all comes to pass, you and I should get off our respective ass.
And make sure the fools never have the power to bring us all closer to the doomsday hour.

Written April 2019
Recorded April 2019