Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Ted, Just Admit It... (1988)
In mid-'80s Los Angeles, you couldn't throw a can of AquaNet on Sunset Strip without hitting a hair metal band: Motley Crue, Ratt, Poison, Dokken and many, many others were at the height of their popularity. Sure, there were other scenes: Punk, "college rock," the Paisley Underground, alt-country were all bubbling under. But the hard rock scene was starting to change, thanks to bands like Jane's Addiction.
Frontman Perry Farrell put the band together in 1985 after his previous band Psi Com broke up. After teaming with bassist Eric Avery, Jane's found their drummer in Avery's sister's boyfriend, Stephen Perkins, who then recommended Dave Navarro as their guitarist. The band built an audience playing LA clubs and soon attracted major label attention, eventually signing with Warner Bros. Records. Despite that, they released their self-titled debut in 1987 on indie Triple X Records; it was recorded live at the Roxy.
The main difference between Jane's and their hard rock contemporaries were influences; the other bands were into Zeppelin, Van Halen, AC/DC and Aerosmith, while Jane's was into post-punk acts like Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Cult and Bauhaus.
Jane's went into the studio in January 1988 to record their major label debut, working with producer Dave Jerden. The album almost didn't happen because Farrell announced one day that he wanted 50% of the band's publishing royalties because he wrote all the lyrics, plus a quarter of the remaining 50% for writing music, which would give him 62.5%. The other members of the band were understandably upset and Jerden arrived at the studio one day to find the band leaving, with Farrell telling him the band had broken up and wouldn't be making an album. Warner Bros. held an emergency meeting and Farrell was given what he wanted, which didn't sit well with the others. In addition, Farrell and Avery had a falling out over the latter's new sobriety and other stuff.
Still, the band soldiered on and created Nothing's Shocking, which came out in August 1988 and featured a striking cover created by Farrell that was a sculpture of nude female conjoined twins on a rocking chair with their heads on fire. Nine of the 11 leading record store chains at the time refused to carry the album because of the cover art, so it was released covered with brown paper.
The band's sound straddled the worlds of hard rock sleaze and artsy alternative, full of Navarro's fluid guitar soloing and speed riffage, Perkins' thunderous drumming and Farrell's high-pitched vocals about sex, drugs and yes, violence. "Mountain Song," "Ocean Size" and "Had a Dad" were uptempo riff rockers, but Jane's had other tricks up their sleeve, including the iconic "Jane Says," which is probably the band's best-known song.
But there was also a sense of danger around the band that gave Jane's an edge that most other hard rock acts wished they had; Guns 'N Roses had it, too, for other reasons, but other bands like, say, Dangerous Toys did not. Farrell was unpredictable and was able to convey a sinister vibe when he wanted to; in the early days of the band, you were never sure what you were getting.
The creep factor was turned up to 10 on "Ted, Just Admit It...", a song about Ted Bundy, the serial killer who kidnapped, raped and murdered dozens of young women and girls in the 1970s. He became infamous for multiple escapes and the savage nature of his crimes. The song, which hangs on an Avery bass line and includes a recording of Bundy himself proclaiming his innocence in the most threatening way possible, runs over 7 minutes. Farrell calls out the media for sensationalizing the case and desensitizing the public to Bundy's horrific acts.
"Camera got them images/Camera got them all/Nothing's shocking/Showed me everybody/Naked and disfigured/Nothing's shocking/And then he came/Now sister's/Not a virgin anymore/Her sex is violent/The TV's got them images/TV's got them all/It's not shocking/Every half an hour/Someone's captured and/The cop moves them along/It's just like the show before/The news is/Just another show/With sex and violence."
This isn't exactly breaking news, even for 1988. Hell, people were watching "Faces of Death," a movie that pretended to show footage of real deaths, for years. There's always been a fascination with death and violence and sex. Farrell howls "Sex is violent!" throughout the song, but it's the music that really drives it home, with Navarro's guitar building around the bass line as it snakes along.
"I am the killer of people/You look like a meatball/I'll throw away your toothpick/And ask for your giveness/Because of this thing/Because of this thing/Because of this thing/That's in me/Is it not in you?/Is it not your problem?"
Nothing's Shocking ended up hitting #103 on the Billboard 200, but it laid the groundwork for future success. Bundy was executed in Florida five months after Nothing's Shocking came out. The band started working on their follow-up album in mid-'89, with Ritual de lo Habitual coming out in August 1990. It's a majestic album with some epic songs, but the big hit was "Been Caught Stealing," which helped propel the album to #19 on the Billboard 200 and double platinum status. It also had another controversial cover featuring Farrell-created art (which included male and female nudity); a "clean cover" that just includes the band and album name and the First Amendment was created to go in stores that were too skittish to sell the original version.
But the album also helped usher in the alternative wave that took over a year later when Nirvana, Pearl Jam, et al., hit it big. As part of their tour for Ritual, Jane's headlined the first Lollapalooza festival, which was created by Farrell and Marc Geiger. It spotlighted other alternative artists including Siouxie and the Banshees, Nine Inch Nails, Butthole Surfers, Living Colour, Rollins Band and Ice-T with Body Count. It was a huge success, but by the end of it, the members of Jane's couldn't stand each other and the band split up. Farrell formed Porno for Pyros with Perkins and Navarro ended up joining the Red Hot Chili Peppers for an album. Jane's reunited with Flea on bass (because Avery refused) and played a short tour to go along with the Kettle Whistle compilation album. There have been several reunions since then (a few including Avery) and two studio albums with another on the way. The band is about head out on a tour with Love and Rockets.
Jane's Addiction has always been a polarizing band; some folks, like my good buddy Dave Brigham, can't stand 'em. I've never seen them live; I still regret being out of town when the first Lollapalooza rolled through Mansfield, Mass. As the years passed, Farrell became less mysterious and more cartoonish, especially when a song from 2003's Strays became the theme for HBO's uber-stupid show Entourage. Nevertheless, those first three Jane's albums still rule.
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