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Post by LostCause on Mar 1, 2022 18:38:28 GMT -5
That is some awesome storytelling! Even funnier that it is true. I'm probably too uptight to just bust loose like that now. It feels good to laugh and smile. That obit was very nice. Tributes up the wazoo.
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Post by pilgrim on Mar 2, 2022 11:58:12 GMT -5
Hello everyone, I am new to the forum. I love Mark Lanegan's voice, I find it very moving. I have been listening to him since the days of the Screaming Trees and his artistic journey since that time has only reinforced my admiration for him. After reading "Devil in a coma", I thought he had managed to cheat death once again. But I was wrong. Around me, few people appreciate this great singer and songwriter as much as I do.That's why I joined this forum... To have the opportunity to share my admiration and my sadness with other fans. In the past few days I have read many articles and tributes. Some were really touching (Barret Martin's one for example). This obituary, signed Will Burns, rings very true, I find: heavenlyrecordings.com/mark-lanegan-1964-2022-an-obituary-by-will-burns/And then I read all your this message in this topic and wanted to thank you. As Eddie Vedder and others have said, we will always have his voice to listen and his words to read. Mark Lanegan had a gift and was able to use it to benefit many people. For that I want to thank him.
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Post by WeirdO on Mar 2, 2022 16:06:18 GMT -5
I had the chance to met him twice. One time in a Paris street by chance. One time, always in Paris 2 years ago, during a signing. I got him to smile when I said that I was not going to auction the 7" Down in the Dark sleeve that I was carrying with me. "Wait a few years if you want to buy a new car"...Words ring differents since last week. In almost every piece I've read till today, there's the word humor in it...We talked a little bit about the name of thé Jury project and the obscure reasons why the Screaming Trees never achieved to play a gig in France
To me, Mark Lanegan was full art. It's so weird to feel so much pain for someone who's not a relative. At the beginning, I got into his music because Kurt Cobain went away and I listened to every music which had a link to Nirvana at this time. There was a second hand record store in my town which was selling Whiskey for the Holy Ghost with a sticker on it which mentioned 'Solo adventure of Kurt Cobain's best friend'. Not the music I was expected to be honest...but right from this moment, Mark Lanegan entered my life. On a daily basis or so for the 25 last years.
I did not cry when he died because tears were not enough to express what I feeled. And I was thinking to his true relatives, his wife, all of his musical buddies that he made music with. Among all of them I have special feelings for Mike Johnson who I think was a key player in Mark's solo career.
Thanks to Raeni who gathered all of us here for years. I can't imagine the pain.
I hope that his music and his writings will keep the flame on this board for a while and far beyond his death.
Cheers everyone
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Post by calm ocean on Mar 3, 2022 11:22:56 GMT -5
This is my tribute to the late Mark Lanegan who passed away on Tuesday February 22, 2022. Words re-imagined based on ML's Lyrics & Writings. This is meant to be sung to the music of Resurrection Song. I used to be able to play Resurrection Song on acoustic guitar, but it was a hobby I didn't stick with, so instead of me singing and strumming poorly in a video tribute, I am only posting the words I have written. RIP Mark.
"UGLY TUESDAY"
Daylight is coming Each night's revival Gaze from the shore In my house there's silence
Goodbye to heaven thank you for the dream Remembering the sunrise wasted on me I sing and weep bad words too Hide while I'm free I want to be there by your side In a wound up sheet we might be tied When I hear a resurrection song
Cry and the night gets wasted When I can't catch the train because they saved me To sing that ugly Tuesday song
Stay, like the rain Dance like a child, Horses or train? The mockingbird went silent. Nod at the sad night porter He's grown to be the lone wolf for her And the street's not where it should be I'm so lonesome in my traction. Thought I wouldn't want to say this time. Thought I called it a day this time
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Post by kingdomsofrain on Mar 3, 2022 13:21:04 GMT -5
It’s not getting any fucking easier is it. I want to listen but I don’t have the resolve at the moment. I’m sure Mark would tell me to stop being a pussy!
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Post by mickyjesus on Mar 3, 2022 14:04:26 GMT -5
Lauren laverne(BBC6music DJ) played Lanegan 1/2 hour tribute on Tuesday morning due response from her Twitter.You listen on catch up! I didn't to the songs, but to her words. The last song was Revival and that would have done me! Stay nice n safe people's.
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Post by tripledistilled on Mar 3, 2022 16:25:22 GMT -5
Hello everyone, I am new to the forum. In the past few days I have read many articles and tributes. Some were really touching (Barret Martin's one for example). This obituary, signed Will Burns, rings very true, I find: heavenlyrecordings.com/mark-lanegan-1964-2022-an-obituary-by-will-burns/And then I read all your this message in this topic and wanted to thank you. As Eddie Vedder and others have said, we will always have his voice to listen and his words to read. Mark Lanegan had a gift and was able to use it to benefit many people. For that I want to thank him. Howdy Pilgrim - I'm just back like many others here, and it's been really heartening to read others' feelings and illuminating thoughts about Mark and his music. Thanks for the obituary link. Loved the tone and style - the writer got Mark in ways I hadn't seen too. Regards.
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Post by tripledistilled on Mar 3, 2022 16:27:50 GMT -5
This is my tribute to the late Mark Lanegan who passed away on Tuesday February 22, 2022. Words re-imagined based on ML's Lyrics & Writings. This is meant to be sung to the music of Resurrection Song. I used to be able to play Resurrection Song on acoustic guitar, but it was a hobby I didn't stick with, so instead of me singing and strumming poorly in a video tribute, I am only posting the words I have written. RIP Mark. "UGLY TUESDAY" Daylight is coming Each night's revival Gaze from the shore In my house there's silence Goodbye to heaven thank you for the dream Remembering the sunrise wasted on me I sing and weep bad words too Hide while I'm free I want to be there by your side In a wound up sheet we might be tied When I hear a resurrection song Cry and the night gets wasted When I can't catch the train because they saved me To sing that ugly Tuesday song Stay, like the rain Dance like a child, Horses or train? The mockingbird went silent. Nod at the sad night porter He's grown to be the lone wolf for her And the street's not where it should be I'm so lonesome in my traction. Thought I wouldn't want to say this time. Thought I called it a day this time Um, I didn't know I was chopping onions when I read that. Holy shit, calm ocean, those are beautiful words. Yeah, I see how you made them fit the melody. Love your references. Lanegan poetic geek heaven. Jim Morrison has Paris, but Lanegan... Lanegan has feckin' KILLARNEY ME BOYOS [imagine exhuberant Kerry accent]. Nice one for the words. I feared they'd be cheesey but damn, I'm moved, truly. x
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Post by tripledistilled on Mar 3, 2022 18:35:22 GMT -5
It’s not getting any fucking easier is it. I want to listen but I don’t have the resolve at the moment. I’m sure Mark would tell me to stop being a pussy! Sorry for your continued grief, mate. We all process differently, right? [deep husky and firm Mark's voice] You fucking pussy. Tbh, I put on side 3 of WFTHG earlier this evening and I swear a bright breeze of joy came over me, like a disbelief that THIS VOICE actually existed, and WE were here to witness this mad wolf do his thang and thrive. Fuck, even now I'm revelling in the muse of Lanegan. Some people were lucky to be around and see, say, Led Zeppelin or Hendrix. But come folks, we have Lanegan - and every other person he worked with. How many, eh?!! doubt I'll here and appreciate all his side-projects for years. So much already in the main canon, like. Apart from his many solo gigs, it was QOTSA 2002 SFTD tour in Dublin which was like, this is one of the greatest rock and roll bands ever. For that alone, and all his records which now have a supernatural sheen, I'm fucking delighted to have heard, seen and met Mark Lanegan while on this planet, this time around. As a fan, I have that luxury sooner than those closest to him. And sadly we all know too many who left too young. OK enough from me. See you all in a week or so. Off to do a job on the isle of Skye, and plenty of Lanegan SBDs coming with me yo. (and the new Robert Plant/Alison Krauss album - breathtaking stuff). Take care folks. Trip fantastic. x
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Jim Dead
Novice
It's day 89 of my 365 days in Hell ...
Posts: 88
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Post by Jim Dead on Mar 4, 2022 6:49:01 GMT -5
Hey. Hope you're all holding up okay. I'm still finding it hard to process... still hasn't really sunk in properly. I've been listening to pretty much everything of his that I own and thinking of all the moments those songs and albums are attached to. Detours to buy albums before going to work... taking release days off... waiting for the mail (and sometimes cursing when it doesn't arrive - or when an album arrived early and was left w/a neighbour only for it to sit there for a week as they went on holiday!). The commutes w/Lanegan's words and music as my companion - stocking shelves, typing, and greeting folks with one earbud in. Conversations w/pals, etc.
There's a heavy sadness kicking in now, but I'm still finding the comfort deep in the grooves of Lanegan's albums. Just as I always have.
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Post by goldrush on Mar 4, 2022 9:11:23 GMT -5
Barrett has posted his next story…
Story #2 (Remembering Mark Lanegan) “Mark On A Moped” By Barrett Martin
I remembered something after posting Story #1 that bears a continued spinning of the yarn, and then I’ll jump into the next story, "Mark On A Moped." The memory is about the time Mark did finally have a beer bottle chucked in his direction, but it happened in the most surreal way.
During the time we were making Sweet Oblivion in NYC, we had the opportunity to play an opening slot for the band Dinosaur Jr. at the legendary Roseland ballroom, where swing bands from the WWII era used to play. We played our opening set, which was a ripper, and then hung out backstage with Lenny Kravitz, who was there to check us out, or rather, to check me out as a potential drummer for his new band. Lenny offered me the job, but I declined because honestly, the Trees were the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me at that point in my life and I thought the ride was going to go much, much longer.
We watched Dino (as the hipsters called them) play their headline set from the side of the stage, and for some reason Mark decided to heckle them a bit, being that they were good friends of his and heckling from the Trees was a badge of honor. The bass player for Dino was Mike Johnson, who was also Mark’s longtime friend and the guitarist in his solo band. At some point Mike had had enough of Mark’s heckling and he spun around on his wing tipped loafers and kicked an empty beer bottle towards our side of the stage. At this point, the spirit of David Beckham entered the game, and the bottle did a supernatural arc through the air, spinning like a UFO as it curved towards the Trees. All of a sudden the bottle zeroed in on Mark, striking him exactly in the middle of his forehead, making that unique sound that only bottles on skulls make. Mark staggered backwards, but never went down – he held his footing, albeit in shock. Mike Johnson didn’t even miss a note on his bass and we were all flabbergasted at the accuracy of his kick. Mark sported an enormous goose egg on his forehead, which seemed to last for months, and well into the tour we were about to undertake. It was now the summer of 1992 and the Trees were doing the summer festivals of Europe, or rather, the festivals that would have us. This was a traditional thing that most bands did back then, right before they were about to release an album in the fall. The strategy was, we played to the biggest audiences possible (the festivals), we did some interviews about our new album (Sweet Oblivion) to get the buzz started, and we got the band's live show warmed up for major touring in the US and beyond.
The Trees didn’t have a tour bus at that time, and we still didn’t have any kind of budget to support the shows and tours we had just begun, most of which were done with an equipment van and, in a rare splurge of decadence, a chase car rental. Our manager, Kim White, had a credit card (which none of us had yet) and she had rented a very nice Peugeot sedan in Europe, which I happily drove as the chauffeur/drummer. We followed the equipment van from gig to gig all around Europe and we had just played a show in Ljubljana, Slovenia, which at the time was a brand new country that had separated from the former Yugoslav republic, declaring itself a free, independent nation. I had played in Ljubljana the previous year, 1991, with my band Skin Yard, and it was perhaps the best show on our tour. The Trees had an equally great show, and I reconnected with some college students that I had met the previous year at the Skin Yard show.
Well, the next morning we had to drive a couple hours to the city of Trieste, just inside the northeast corner of Italy. It’s a beautiful seaside city and our show was inside a castle that had it’s interior removed and replaced with a huge, green lawn, with the stage at one end, and seating across the lawn for the audience. It was a nearly ideal place to play a show, although it was an open-air show and storm clouds were approaching – an ominous sign. I and the two brothers and Kim White had arrived in the early afternoon in the Peugeot, with plenty of time to see the city, have lunch, and a leisurely sound check. But Mark wasn’t there.
We all thought he had ridden in the equipment van, which he often did because, well, he didn’t want to be around the rest of us. When the equipment van arrived with no Mark inside, the driver said that he thought Mark was with us. Apparently Mark had stayed behind in Ljubljana to party with the locals after the show, under the premise that he would get a ride from someone who was also coming to the Trieste show the next day.
Sound check came, and the band played a few songs without Mark, with Van and Lee singing lead vocals, and I sang occasionally too, because we had developed a series of cover songs that we could play during the encores. Then we saw the storm clouds, much darker and closer now, with lighting bolts shooting down from the sky. This is a very dangerous situation for a band to play in, especially on an outdoor stage where you could easily be electrocuted. Then things got weirder.
You see, back then if you played a show in Italy, the promoters all seemed to be mobsters, as they alluded to their extended “families” across Italy, and making the bands feel more like hired restaurant employees than artists. That’s why I hate mobsters in general – they really have no class and are just glorified hillbillies dressed in Armani suits. They're very much like Russian oligarchs, for that matter - hillbilly gangsters in cheap suits. Anyway, these Italian hillbilly mobsters started to threaten us, saying that we had to play in the lightning storm with or without Mark or else there would be trouble at the rest of our shows. Well, the four of us Trees were well over 6 feet tall and had a combined weight of over 1,000 pounds so these mobsters were puny by comparison and we were not intimidated in the least. All the same, we wanted to play the show, collect our fee, and then get the hell out of there and move on to the next city. We just needed Mark.
The time ticked by, our start time came and went, and we were getting ready to play as a trio when all of sudden here comes Mark, riding through the castle gates straddling a moped, and still quite drunk. Let me reiterate, it was a moped – not a Vespa scooter or a motorcycle - it was a moped. Can you imagine that spectacle? No you can’t, because it’s an absurd and ridiculous scenario that is completely incongruous to Mark’s image – the brain cannot imagine this. Yet there he was, his long red hair blowing in the wind, laughing all the way to the stage as the moped pulled up behind the drum riser. And who do you think was driving the moped? None other than the college student I had met in Ljubljana a year earlier on the Skin Yard tour. He had randomly found Mark drinking in a bar on the way to the show and offered him a ride.
Well the show went off without a hitch, although lightning was striking all around us. We ended our set at exactly the amount of time agreed upon in our contract, and went back to our hotel for the night. The next night we would play Rome, a 7-hour drive that could not be driven on a moped. We made sure Mark was inside the equipment van when we left the hotel the next morning.
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Post by pilgrim on Mar 6, 2022 15:05:47 GMT -5
Hello, tripledistilled : thanks for your answer. Gary Lee Conner ("Screaming Trees" Facebook page) :"In honor of Mark Lanegan I will be posting some of the Screaming Trees songs we wrote together where the lyrics were completely his. The first one is Pictures In My Mind, we wrote this one just a couple of months after we all first played together in the summer of 1985. This may very well have been the first song he ever wrote…" www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf2NeLvE3JQ"ScreamingSounds-Another song with all Mark's lyrics is "Strange Out Here" from our first album, Clairvoyance. Mark, Van and I wrote a lot of songs together during the first year we were a band (1985-86). A few of them got recorded for Clairvoyance but many didn't so there was much of his writing that went unheard except by us. Mark's lyrics, in those songs, frequently dealt with escape, especially getting out of Ellensburg. He really seemed to want out of that small town badly. He even tried to join a circus that had come to town as a laborer. They told him he had to cut his hair and shave and that stopped him from going. If he had gone, it seems likely Clairvoyance would have been the only Trees album and his solo career would never have happened. Escape seems to be what this song is about. His middle section, if I remember right, was almost a stream of consciousness thing. We were all floored by it at the time. He also played the treated violin on here as well. Altogether this is a very "Mark Lanegan" song and certainly hints at his later greatness. All the Screaming Trees did manage to escape Ellensburg (although Mark Pickerel later returned.) Lanegan made it over the big mountains to the sea, so to speak. He extensively toured America and Europe over the years. He lived in Seattle, Los Angeles, Ireland and now he resides in Heaven. Rest easy man, you deserve it..." www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4F9cSN648U"ScreamingSounds-Straight Out To Anyplace is another song about escape that Mark Lanegan and Van wrote together. There are quite a few early songs like this written by Mark, Van and Myself in different combinations where Lanegan's were the primary lyrics. I guess he was unsure of his writing at the time because we recorded very few of these in the studio, if we had the sound of the band might have been quite different. In late 1986, after we finished and released Clairvoyance, our plan was to combine the songs from the Other Worlds cassette with some new songs we had been working on and release them on vinyl with Velvetone Records again. This was to be the track list; SIDE A-Other Worlds, Barriers, Cold Rain, World Painted White, Girl Behind The Mask, Now Your Mind Is Next To Mine, SIDE B-Pathway, Like I Said, You Know Where It's At, Pictures In My Mind, I Live In The Forest, Theodorus' Lantern. Well a few things happened in early 1987. We had interest from indie labels Bomp! and Pink Dust to release our next album but just in time a call came at New World Video, in Ellensburg where we worked and practiced, from Greg Ginn asking us to sign to SST Records. We, of course, said yes. In the meantime more songs came along like, Transfiguration, Straight Out To Anyplace, Don't Look Down, Flying, Other Days And Different Planets and Back Together. Our first album on SST, Even If And Especially When was born. The photo is right from that time in early 1987, taken right across the street from Velvetone Studio where the cover for Clairvoyance was shot..." www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhVU_czNL2k
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Post by pilgrim on Mar 7, 2022 10:05:58 GMT -5
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Post by LostCause on Mar 8, 2022 16:55:01 GMT -5
I always thought that Barrett's mane was quite outstanding back in the day...and I guess he did drink a little whiskey. Story #3 (Remembering Mark Lanegan) “Beneath The Underdog: The Making Of Sweet Oblivion” By Barrett Martin This next story is a bit of a back track, as it’s about the actual making of the album, Sweet Oblivion, which took place exactly 30 years ago this month. Part of this story was originally used as the liner notes for a limited edition repress of the vinyl in 2013. However, few people have ever read it and I always thought it was a great description of how to make a rock album, regardless of who the band might be. Sweet Oblivion was only the 3rd album I had made at that point in my life and I was only 24 at the time. But for me, it still stands as one of the greatest rock albums I was ever a part of. So for all you grandchildren out there, this is how you make a right proper, cracking rock album. It’s hard to forget the first time you ever saw the Screaming Trees - or the last time, for that matter. They always left a lasting impression that a person didn’t soon forget. I first saw them in 1989, when they played a show at my former college, Western Washington University, in Bellingham, WA. The Trees were already a well-known Northwest band by then, having formed in 1985 and releasing a handful of critically acclaimed indie rock albums on the legendary SST label. My very first rock band, Thin Men, was picked to be the opener for the show, and we did our punk rock best against the rising tide of what was fast becoming known around the world as grunge. When the Trees finally took the stage that night, I remember being awed at the sight of the Conner brothers, as they book-ended the tall stoic figure of Mark Lanegan, all of which was propelled by the bombastic playing of their original drummer, Mark Pickerel, as the Trees threw down lightning bolts of sonic fury. The following year I was playing drums for proto-grunge veterans Skin Yard, with producer Jack Endino on guitar. Jack had produced Nirvana’s Bleach album, as well as the Screaming Trees’ superb album Buzz Factory. By the autumn of 1991, Skin Yard was returning from our first (and only) European tour and we essentially called it quits on the flight home from London. About two weeks later, I got a call from Van Conner asking me to audition for the Trees. It was December of 1991 and my audition was at a place called the Olympic Foundry in south Seattle. It was literally a place where they forged iron, and still do to this day, but the owner of the foundry also loved rock & roll, so he made some rooms available for local bands to rehearse. My audition was essentially a jam session with Van on bass and Gary Lee on guitar and the three of us had a wonderful, creative time working on new songs that were still in their infancy. We played early versions of “Shadow Of The Season,” “Dollar Bill,” and “Nearly Lost You,” as well as several other skeletal ideas that later evolved into songs. Our musical chemistry was immediate and the next day Van called to offer me the gig, which I immediately accepted. We began to rehearse regularly at the foundry, getting the new songs arranged and tightened up, until one day when the brothers visited me at my warehouse loft on Jackson Street, in the international district. They decided on the spot that they wanted to move the band’s backline into my loft and start rehearsing there instead of the foundry, largely because I had a kitchen, a bathroom, and a refrigerator for cold drinks. I have said more than a few times over the years that a drummer can usually get a gig if he has a great rehearsal space, because the bands will flock to him. In my case, that loft on Jackson Street had been the perfect rehearsal space for Thin Men, Skin Yard, and now the Screaming Trees as we honed our musical ideas. The rehearsals at the loft had a fiery, energetic quality to them, which I think was partly due to my influence as a new drummer, but also because we had exceptionally good songs that were really taking shape. We continued to rehearse diligently for another month, as Mark Lanegan added his evolving lyrics to the mix. We would methodically go through the songs, arranging and perfecting them as we went, and we also talked about our influences and the musical direction we wanted to take when it came time to finally record the album. Sometime after the new year of 1992, we had a meeting with Bob Pfeifer, our A&R from Epic Records. He flew to Seattle to observe us as we recorded demos for all the new songs in a whirlwind one-day session at Seattle’s Avast Studios, which was produced by Jack Endino. The next day Bob sat us down and told us that because the Trees’ previous album Uncle Anesthesia hadn’t sold well (even though it is a great album), and because bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam were now selling albums by the millions, we were really in a make or break situation. In other words, if we didn’t make one hell of a great album that got some serious attention – and sold well, we would likely be dropped from the label and that would be the end of the band. This was to be the first major label album I had ever played on, but it was also looking like it could be my last. Thus, I joined the Screaming Trees with the odds of an underdog, a metaphor that I have always kept close to my heart and which very aptly applied to the Trees. And that’s because when the underdog has the odds stacked against him, he has to work twice as hard to overcome them. Everyone is betting against him, yet they are also secretly hoping he will win, and that’s the true power of the underdog. About a month later we got the official green light from Epic Records that our demos and recording budget had been approved, so we packed up our gear and had everything shipped to New York in giant wooden crates. I put my personal belongings in a small storage unit, I gave up my lease on the Jackson Street loft, and I said goodbye to the space where so many great songs and albums had been written, and so many friendships forged. It was now February of 1992, and I was only 24 years old. It was the end of the early grunge era, however it was also the beginning of an entirely new era in Seattle rock history. We flew to New York and the next day we met up with our producer Don Fleming and our engineer John Agnello. We converged at the studio Don had picked out for us called “Baby Monsters,” located on 14th street in the Chelsea district of Manhattan. The studio was small and rustic, as warehouse studios tend to be, but it also had many vintage guitars and amps, and enough space to get a good, cracking drum sound. We set up our gear on the first day, and by the second day we were tracking the first basic tracks. The sessions were “hot” as they say, very focused and inspired with an intense energy that surrounded us. We’d work for many hours throughout the day and late into the night, and around midnight we’d start breaking off into groups to take a car back to our hotel, the Gramercy Park Hotel. Now, back in 1992, the Gramercy Park Hotel was not the glamorous hotel it is today. It had been glamorous in the 1920s, but by the 1990s, it was a rather grimy and rundown affair. Van Conner and I roomed together and we joked that we might catch Legionnaires disease as we languished in our dank, sweltering room. Thus, we rarely spent any time there except to sleep, choosing instead to walk the late night streets of Manhattan every chance we got. Conveniently, the Gramercy’s best feature was its downstairs bar, which was a watering hole for every rock musician who was passing through New York on tour. Everyone made a stop at the Gramercy Hotel Bar, it was a destination point, and every night Van and I would return from the studio to have a nightcap before retiring to our room of gloom. Almost every night we’d run into someone from some other band that we had known from our previous time on the road, and this would lead to a long night of highly animated, exaggerated storytelling and outright lying. I remember a lot of laughing in that bar, the clinking of glasses, and a room so thick with cigarette smoke that it seemed more like a cowboy saloon from the Wild West than a hipster bar in Manhattan. And when I look back at the month we spent recording in New York, I mostly remember the inside of Baby Monsters Studio, the Gramercy Hotel bar, and the pizza joint across the street, on whose $1.00 slices we survived. Perhaps the most important thing in the making of the album was the philosophy we took as we approached each song. We believed that it was our highest goal to serve the song first, whatever that meant, and whatever the song needed. Usually that meant simplifying our parts and playing with more feel and emotion, rather than a technically perfect performance. I remember that Don Fleming didn’t want me to use a click track for any of the songs, and instead the band would follow my natural tempos as they ebbed and flowed. This made the music come alive, and you can hear that feeling in the songs - breathing, waiting, and then accelerating with explosive power like a sprinter at the starting gun. We recorded the rhythm tracks live as a band, with Mark singing a scratch vocal, which he would later re-sing after we had picked the final takes. We usually got the basic track within the first 3-4 takes because we were so well rehearsed. Sometimes it was even the 2nd take that had the magic that we wanted. We’d often keep a take even if there was a slight mistake in it, and that’s because we were recording onto 2” magnetic tape. With tape, you have to make a decision after each performance and decide if that was “the one”, and if not, you took the chance that you’d lose the take when you recorded over it. A great basic track, even with a slight mistake or flaw, always has more life and character than a technically perfect performance with no soul. And that’s because a great song represents life itself, full of mistakes and flaws and soul. And as every Screaming Trees fan knows, the Trees were all about the soul. That became our benchmark – does the song have soul or not? After the basic tracks were finalized, Lee would do a few guitar overdubs, but not too many, and usually not more than a second rhythm guitar with a lead or solo. I would record some simple hand percussion like tambourine or shaker, and then Mark would sing his final vocal performance after drinking a small amount of whiskey that Don Fleming would measure out in small doses. Don’s theory was that whiskey warmed the vocal chords and put a little hair in the voice. Mark didn’t like whiskey, and he only drank gin, but his vocal performances on Sweet Oblivion are arguably some of the best in his long and varied career. That, combined with the band’s ferocious musical delivery, is what gave the album its classic, timeless quality. As we were finishing the last few overdubs on the album, the final mixes started coming back from Andy Wallace’s studio across town. Andy had mixed Nirvana’s Nevermind, Jeff Buckley’s Grace, and a slew of other brilliant albums that had been hugely influential in the previous year. Andy definitely had the golden ear, and when we heard his first mix for the song “No One Knows” we knew right away that we had a very special album on our hands. Andy mixed about one song per day over the next two weeks, including all the B-Sides, and they were immediately sent over to Epic’s office for final approval. Word came back that the label was very excited, the band was relieved, and it seemed like the hangman of doubt would not be getting his silver coin after all. A few weeks later, Van and I returned to New York to master the album with Howie Weinberg, who liked to master rock albums at full volume. Needless to say, that methodology suited our music very well, and I’ll never forget how good our album sounded that day in Howie Weinberg’s mastering suite. We gave our album the title of Sweet Oblivion because of a line in the opening track “Shadow Of The Season” in which Mark sings, “Oh sweet oblivion feels alright!” I think it was also because we had been living that lifestyle for the last few months jetting back and forth between Seattle and New York and it was deeply embedded in the feeling of the album. In the spring of 1992, Epic Records decided on a September release date, which gave them the opportunity to release our first single, “Nearly Lost You” for the Singles soundtrack. This turned out to be our first and biggest hit, cracking the top 10 in the rock charts, and even President Bill Clinton used the bridge of “Nearly Lost You” as the soundtrack for his inaugural entrance onto the global stage. It was a surreal time to say the least, and we hit the road for two straight years of touring around the world, a story that would require many more words than this story can accommodate. When I listen to Sweet Oblivion today, I hear the rise and fall of the tempos, the ferociousness of the musical delivery, and the emotional tension and release of the songs. Mark’s vocals roar and howl with the wisdom of a man much older than the 27 years he was at that time. He tells stories that are both majestic and spiritual, as well as haunting and ephemeral. Gary Lee’s guitar work is highly original and inspired, even brilliant in places. And the rhythm section work of Van’s bass and my drumming makes the band swing like a battleship in a hurricane. Now in the 21st century, most albums are recorded to click tracks or they are programmed with drum machines, so the rhythmic feel is linear, extremely sterile, and utterly lacks swing. I tend to think that a great album, like a human being, should be a fluid, living, breathing entity. The body inhales and expands, and then it exhales and contracts. So too should the feel of a song move like the expansion of the human body. It is life, after all. This is also why when we hear a great rock band we all feel it in a much different way. It reminds us of our early origins, when live, organic music kept us warm and safe around the embers of the collective fire. That was the power of the Screaming Trees when we made Sweet Oblivion in the deep New York winter of 1992. We brought the fire and we captured it on magnetic tape, in real time, with swing and soul. It’s an album about love, hope, the possibility of the future, with a fearless abandon that says, I will go for it all, right here and right now, because I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. We were the total underdogs, but we were also the champions of the people, and that is why we are still in their hearts.
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Post by kingdomsofrain on Mar 9, 2022 4:25:44 GMT -5
Ok I think I’m ready to listen to Mark again. I’m I’ll with Covid and stuck at home so a long lanegan session awaits. Gonna start with TWS and work all the way through. Now the dust is settling a fresh personal appraisal of Mark’s output seems fitting.
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Post by LostCause on Mar 10, 2022 22:34:36 GMT -5
Mark Lanegan - 1998-11-19 Seattle, WA (Full Concert)
Was watching this today. The video is not as good as the sound. It is certainly a great show. Mark is in very good voice.
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Post by goldrush on Mar 11, 2022 8:46:46 GMT -5
Story #4 (Remembering Mark Lanegan) “The Classroom In The Back Of The Bus” By Barrett Martin
For the rest of 1992, all through 1993, and well into 1994, the Trees were on the road. Sure we had some time off here and there, but when you have a break and head home for a rest, you know in the back of your mind that you’ll be starting another tour in two or three weeks, so psychologically it feels like you are perpetually on the road. The good side of all that touring was that we had so many shows booked, and Sweet Oblivion was a growing success, that the label finally decided we should have a tour bus. Or maybe our manager, Kim White, and her ballsy approach to the music business forced them to give us one. We also had a top ten hit with “Nearly Lost You” and the follow up single, “Dollar Bill” was climbing the chart behind it. Whatever the case, the label finally saw that we had the potential to sell albums and grow our base substantially, so they gave us enough tour support that we could afford to rent one tour bus, a small crew of 4 guys, and a trailer for our gear, which the bus towed behind us. All eight of us rolled together in that bus, and all eight of us made it home alive.
The back of the bus became a kind of musical sanctuary, because we didn’t get hotel rooms unless we had a day off (which almost never happened), so most nights we rolled out of town after the show and drove through the night to the next city. During those all-night drives, I would sit in the back with Mark, along with my drum tech, John Hicks, and sometimes Van or Lee would join us, although the Conner brothers tended to hold court in the front of the bus watching classic cult movies – on VHS tape. The Conner family famously owned the main video rental business in their hometown of Ellensburg, so the brothers were exceptionally well-versed in all the classic and cult films. Sometimes a member from the opening band might joins us, and we would all sit there in the back of the bus and listen to every album imaginable, all night long as we crisscrossed the lower 48 states and Canada (and later Europe). That’s when the back of the bus because a classroom for me.
You see, I must preface all this by saying that my musical background was quite different from the Trees, in that I had gone to college and music school where I studied studied jazz and classical music. I could sight read sheet music and play multiple instruments: drums, upright bass, vibraphone, marimba, and even a little piano. I was the “schooled” member of the band, however I was also unaware of much of the American and European underground music that was also happening, or had already happened. Looking back on it, I was extremely naïve to be joining such a band as the Trees and Mark alluded to this in his book, Sing Backwards And Weep” where I was this big goofy kid with a huge jazz collection, but no knowledge of the Velvet Underground. This is true, I mean, I had heard of the Velvet Underground and I knew of their NYC origins, but to be totally honest, I didn’t really like their droning, lo-fi music and I didn’t own any of their albums. I just wasn’t a music hipster - and I never became one either.
My tenure in Skin Yard had exposed me to most of the bands that were on our sister label, SST, and of course Sub Pop and the Seattle music scene had exposed me to many other indie bands around the US and Europe. But I was decidedly unaware of a lot of the American punk and alternative underground, especially the old stuff from the 1960s and 1970s. It was Mark who started playing those albums for me, schooling me about the music I wasn’t taught in music school.
Now it’s also important to remember that in 1992, every classic album was being reissued on CD, so we bought CDs constantly, every time we stopped the bus anywhere near a record store. We bought CDs from both new bands and all the classic reissues, of every musical genre imaginable. A lot of what Mark played for me and everyone else listening in the back of the bus was what I would call songwriter music. So we listened to Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, Gordon Lightfoot, Townes Van Zandt, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen, Tim Buckley, Tim Hardin, Patti Smith, and of course, a lot of classic outlaw country, and a lot of the blues, particularly the delta blues.
Blues was something Mark and I connected on at a spiritual level, and many years later I would work with some actual delta blues legends. In fact, the very last thing I was working on with Mark in 2021 is a blues documentary that I’ll talk about in a later story. So blues was our go to music, especially the old spooky delta stuff. We also went through all the classic rock, and to be honest, I hadn’t even listened to most of the Led Zeppelin catalog, even though everyone was comparing my drumming to John Bonham. I hadn’t even studied Zeppelin yet, so the first Zeppelin album Mark played for me was “Physical Graffiti” and then I became obsessed with Zeppelin at the ripe old age of 25, which is about the same age the members of Zeppelin were when they made that album.
I have to say I owe Mark a lot for playing me all that music (hundreds of individual songs and albums) because it made me think about music as a poetic expression, as opposed to all the fancy ornamentations I had learned in music school. Both approaches are important of course, I mean Miles Davis went to Julliard and studied European classical music before he went on to reinvent jazz, so music school teaches you some very important stuff. But what Mark showed me was how the pantheon of songwriter music was equally important, especially from the lesser known and more obscure songwriters – that’s where the gold was according to Mark.
As I approach my 55th year on the planet, I would say that this is a gospel truth: the best music in almost every genre is the stuff you don’t hear on the radio and doesn’t have mainstream success. Because all the crap you hear on the radio – that’s all paid for in various forms of payola. That side of the business has never really changed, it just keeps finding new and different ways to pay for radio time for the major label artists. But what is also true, is that great artists will always make unique and original records, and the best records are usually the ones that are not on the radio or even on most people’s radar. But the musicians all know who made those records, and we seek them out with a fevered diligence. So that was the atmosphere in the back of the Screaming Trees bus, back in the early to mid 1990s. All that incredible music playing, saturated in every kind of booze and occasionally drugs, as we chain smoked cigarettes and told countless stories, most of which were exaggerated, and some that were outright lies.
I barely slept back then - I was so excited about life and playing music for other people who loved music as much as I did, that being in a real rock band seemed like the greatest job imaginable. But that kind of life can only be survived in measured doses, because even with our young twenty-something bodies (which is less than half the age I am now), it takes an iron constitution to pull it off. And for most of the 1990s, the Trees did pull it off, and rather well, actually.
If I can summarize the most important thing I learned from Mark in those years, it was this: Listen to the spirit of the song. Listen to its spirit and really think about the words that are being sung and what the artist is trying to say. Look for the interesting and unusual production ideas that propel the musical ideas. It’s always about the song, first and foremost, because the song has it’s own life and spirit, and a great artist will always capture that. If you hunt for them, you’ll find other like-minded artists who honor that same credo. Because the song is life. The song is the meaning of life. The song gives people meaning, and the song gives them a reason to believe.
So if you’re courageous enough take up the sacred path of being a musician or a songwriter (or a real producer, for that matter) make god damn sure that if you put a song down on tape for the world to hear - make sure you did everything you possibly could to make that song as great as it can be. The world has plenty of average and mediocre songwriters, that’s for sure. Mark hated mediocrity and you can find plenty of it on the radio right now. But when we’re all gone, nobody cares about your placement on a radio chart – people care about the songs that gave them a reason to live, and that’s what they’ll remember.
There are three songs that I distinctly remember Mark loving enough to sing along with in their entirety. One of those songs was “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by the legendary country artist, George Jones. This is one of the greatest songs ever written, and it’s sung by one of the greatest singers of all time, in any genre.
Another was “Reason To Believe” by Tim Hardin, a rather obscure but brilliant songwriter from the 1960s.
The third song was “Shanty Man’s Life” by Dave Van Rock, which is a classic American folk song that is extremely haunting in it’s original recording. I remember hearing Mark sing along to all of those songs, from top to bottom, perfectly. So if you’d all do yourselves a favor, please listen to those three songs on your music devices and imagine Mark singing along. Because I heard him do it, and it was magical. A true artist knows gold when he or she hears it.
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Post by pilgrim on Mar 12, 2022 3:24:07 GMT -5
"Legendary American musician and songwriter Mark Lanegan passed away in late February.
To honor the life, achievements and memory of a great musician we dug out this archive interview from 2002. Lanegan really knew how to be an interesting interviewee, and you can see it in this clip as well...
Video: Laura Haapala, Henri Andersson and Toni Haaksiluoto"
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Post by flyingv4 on Mar 13, 2022 13:21:02 GMT -5
Hi everyone I'm an old-timer here, but had to re-register as I'd forgotten my log in details. I'm so glad and grateful to Raeni that this place still exists. I'm sharing in everyone's pain at this horribly sad news, and like a few others here I can't bring myself to listen to Mark sing. Not just yet. I've listened to and watched a fair few interviews on YouTube in the last couple of weeks, there was one from 2020 where Mark and the podcaster were just laughing and laughing. That helped, seeing him happy. Stephanie, thank you for your beautiful post a couple of pages back, it truly captured how many of us are feeling I'm sure. I'm happy to see you still here, along with many other names I remember - I used to be flyingv back in the day. My current username is not very adventurous I know. Sending love and good wishes to you all. We are all so lucky to have wonderful memories of Mark, whether they be times we were lucky enough to meet him in person, just seeing him live at a show or just the music. Ah, the music <3
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Post by Stephanie on Mar 15, 2022 14:17:13 GMT -5
I am touched by your kind words, flyingv—thank you ❤️ I couldn't help but write that post as I had to process these feelings somewhere! I'm so glad my words resonated with others, and so glad I found my way back here, too.
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fix
New Recruit
Posts: 20
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Post by fix on Mar 19, 2022 0:55:08 GMT -5
Gary Lee Conner: I think Mark would have wanted people to read this and hear these songs... Mark Lanegan & Gary Lee Conner’s last conversation… Twitter September 5, 2020 Mark Lanegan Hi Lee. I have moved to Europe, The States feels like a dark and dangerous place and I'm not comfortable there any longer. I have done alot of soul searching and self reflection since the book was released and I feel I owe you a deep apology. I do not expect you to forgive me but I want you to know that I strongly regret the way i portrayed you in it, its to my great shame, and you did not deserve it. We were just kids from a rural town and what we accomplished was a veritable miracle given where we were from. Had it not been for you, none of that would have happened,and despite our juvenile jealousies, individual problems, my addictions, and our likely placements on the autism spectrum, we achieved things those who played the Ranch could only have dreamed of. As I cleaned out my house before coming to Ireland, I came across some hardrives with Trees demos and was blown away by some of the tunes. A song called Hearts and Diamonds hit me in an emotiional place and another called Piano Song actually made me cry. I am scheduled to make a record in London in January and I would like to extend my sincere sorrow for causing you, Janet, and all of your loved ones any pain. I'm just going to throw this out there, but if you are willing, I would like to perhaps record the two songs mentioned for inclusion on my next record, and thereby somehow mend what I've done wrong and show the world that you and I had real power and were a talented team despite my obvious problems Gary Lee Conner You’re lucky to get out of the US as you say it is very fucked up here. Janet and I are both doing quite well. She is teaching online and we have not left the house because of the Pandemic since March. I’m finishing up a new album to get out in a few weeks. I still love writing and recording songs but just do it for fun and art like in the beginning. I found a small label in Italy that does vinyl for me and what I am doing now is very artistically satisfying for me but with no pressure from anyone but myself. Both those songs are great and it would be cool for you to record them. Forget about the stuff in the book. I never read more than a couple pages and just heard other stuff second hand on Facebook and I don’t pay much attention to it anymore now that it’s out there and people have read it. So go ahead and do the songs, I never got to make it to Ireland but it sound like an interesting place to live. Let me know if you need help figuring out the songs, I don’t think they are too hard. Lee Mark Lanegan That makes me very happy, thank you. I would be most happy if you sang the harmony on the piano song with me and played the absolutely bitching guitar outro on it as well. No one can else do it like you Lee and it would show the world that despite my juvenile bullhit, you and I were and are a special partnership. If you have protools at home or logic or reason, you could do it remotely. give it some thought. and thank you for being such a gentleman. RIP Mark...
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Post by jho on Mar 19, 2022 3:34:07 GMT -5
I really like those stories from Barrett. More please Also, the reach-out to Lee surprised me but I am happy that ML apologized and wanted to re-work old material. Thanks to Lee for putting it online; these are by far the best Trees demos I've heard. Piano Song is really something else. I wonder what other material lurks in the archives and if we are going to hear it eventually. Everything is truly appreciated. Not sure if I ever heard of the mentioned album recording in London 2021.
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Post by Cireme on Mar 19, 2022 17:45:43 GMT -5
Gary Lee Conner: I think Mark would have wanted people to read this and hear these songs... Mark Lanegan & Gary Lee Conner’s last conversation… Twitter September 5, 2020 Mark Lanegan Hi Lee. I have moved to Europe, The States feels like a dark and dangerous place and I'm not comfortable there any longer. I have done alot of soul searching and self reflection since the book was released and I feel I owe you a deep apology. I do not expect you to forgive me but I want you to know that I strongly regret the way i portrayed you in it, its to my great shame, and you did not deserve it. We were just kids from a rural town and what we accomplished was a veritable miracle given where we were from. Had it not been for you, none of that would have happened,and despite our juvenile jealousies, individual problems, my addictions, and our likely placements on the autism spectrum, we achieved things those who played the Ranch could only have dreamed of. As I cleaned out my house before coming to Ireland, I came across some hardrives with Trees demos and was blown away by some of the tunes. A song called Hearts and Diamonds hit me in an emotiional place and another called Piano Song actually made me cry. I am scheduled to make a record in London in January and I would like to extend my sincere sorrow for causing you, Janet, and all of your loved ones any pain. I'm just going to throw this out there, but if you are willing, I would like to perhaps record the two songs mentioned for inclusion on my next record, and thereby somehow mend what I've done wrong and show the world that you and I had real power and were a talented team despite my obvious problems Gary Lee Conner You’re lucky to get out of the US as you say it is very fucked up here. Janet and I are both doing quite well. She is teaching online and we have not left the house because of the Pandemic since March. I’m finishing up a new album to get out in a few weeks. I still love writing and recording songs but just do it for fun and art like in the beginning. I found a small label in Italy that does vinyl for me and what I am doing now is very artistically satisfying for me but with no pressure from anyone but myself. Both those songs are great and it would be cool for you to record them. Forget about the stuff in the book. I never read more than a couple pages and just heard other stuff second hand on Facebook and I don’t pay much attention to it anymore now that it’s out there and people have read it. So go ahead and do the songs, I never got to make it to Ireland but it sound like an interesting place to live. Let me know if you need help figuring out the songs, I don’t think they are too hard. Lee Mark Lanegan That makes me very happy, thank you. I would be most happy if you sang the harmony on the piano song with me and played the absolutely bitching guitar outro on it as well. No one can else do it like you Lee and it would show the world that despite my juvenile bullhit, you and I were and are a special partnership. If you have protools at home or logic or reason, you could do it remotely. give it some thought. and thank you for being such a gentleman. RIP Mark... He deleted the video and reuploaded it without any mention of his last conversation with Mark. I wonder why. Was it fake?
And here's the screenshot that he deleted:
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Post by calm ocean on Mar 19, 2022 20:28:57 GMT -5
CiremeGLC explained why on facebook with a brief message: "Songs are back up now, did not want to leave the message up permanently..." GLC is prob one of the only reasons why i even bother with facebook these days. he is worth following if you are a fan of screaming trees. he regularly posts music and comments.
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Post by Psychotropic Snake on Mar 24, 2022 13:57:33 GMT -5
I wonder whether his Twitter page has been hacked or something? I keep receiving email notifications of it tweeting about Mark's death.
Still not over his passing, by the way. The hole he's left in my soul will never be full again.
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