DOG MAN STAR

A lot has been written about this album over the years. There have been salacious tales of feudsand splits and dark goings on, rumours and Chinese whispers, gossip and hearsay but sadly,inevitably, predictably the songs and the music of this period have never been able to completelyextricate themselves from the miasma of their genesis.

If I could choose to be remembered for just one musical document it would be this. All the earlypromise and ambition of the band matured in this record as we took the initial vision andstretched it, travelling as far away as possible from the parochial, jingoistic cartoon that wasforming in British music at the time. The album was conceived as one long love song; a lamentfor lost love and a fracturing life, a glimpse into the cold, plastic sea of the modern world; cashmachines and alienation, pornography and solitude, the scream of the dispossessed, the solitarybuzz of nothing.

The elements that went into making it have become legendary, the scrambled brains and thefracturing inter-band relationships... it was a dark time, yes, but also strangely wonderful. Thehours, days and months I spent writing, writing, writing in self-imposed isolation in Highgate aremy prevailing memory. Bernard would send me a cassette of demos in the post and I would setabout sabotaging them, twisting them into my scorched vision of the paranoid, frightened world Isaw outside my window. I’ve never before or since experienced the apogee of ecstasy that I didwhen I finished ‘The Wild Ones’. I knew it was very special even when it was just a fewfragments of melody, a scratchy little 4 track demo prosaically titled ‘Ken’ that would go on tobecome my favourite single moment in the band’s history.

The ambition that pushed us on to want to make something truly special was rushing through therecording sessions, which like the debut album, were conducted at Master Rock in Kilburn. Thealbum was going to be a monumental statement; simultaneously meditative and menacing, sadand sexual. Instead of the pop format we were going to use the idiom of the avant-garde; lengthyinstrumental sections like in ‘The Asphalt World’, a metallic, Eastern-influenced mantra in‘Introducing The Band’, cut-and-paste lyrical imagery, a stream of musical and literaryconsciousness inspired by anything from Lewis Carroll to Marlon Brando. More at home withstudio techniques, we started to experiment in a way that a band playing live at the CamdenFalcon every week could never do. Can you imagine songs like ‘Daddy’s Speeding’ or ‘Black OrBlue’ being part of a new band’s set? This was an opportunity to take the whole thing somewhereelse. The first time I heard the 4 track demo to what became ‘Introducing The Band’ I couldn’tsee how it could possibly become a proper song but then realised it could just be the first part ofa suite of songs, a component of the whole almost like the first line of a story. And so the holisticvision of the album was born and we went about structuring it as a complete experience with abeginning, a middle and an end; a journey through our ravaged emotional landscapes.

We all know what happened next. It was so sad what happened to the band during the album’sgenesis but maybe something that extreme could only be born from such an unholy catharsis andfrom that restless white hot energy the band mutated and changed and became a different bandbut the document remains; twisted, restless, dark and beautiful.

Brett Anderson, 14th January 2011

ALTERNATE ‘DOG MAN STAR’

Listening back to all this stuff makes me want to re-write history. If I could do it all again I‘d doit slightly differently:

Introducing The Band This Hollywood LifeWe Are The Pigs New GenerationHeroine Living DeadThe Wild Ones The 2 Of UsDaddy’s Speeding Asphalt WorldMy Dark Star Still LifeKilling Of A Flashboy

DOG MAN STAR NUDE 3CD, 10 October 1994

The London Suede: Brett Anderson – Singing Bernard Butler – Guitars & Things Simon Gilbert – Drums Mat Osman – Electric Bass

Produced by Ed Buller for 140dB Engineered by Ed Buller and Gary Stout Assisted by Tracii Sherman Recorded at Master Rock Studios

Phil Overhead – percussion Simon Clarke – trumpet Roddy Lorimer – saxophones, flute Richard Edwards – trombone Andrew Cronshaw – cimbalom, bawu fluteTessa Niles – additional vocals

Orchestra – Sinfonia of London Arrangements – Brian Gascoigne Conducted by Brian Gascoigne Recorded at CTS Studios

Children from The Tricycle Theatre Workshop

Sleeve concept and art direction – Brett Anderson Sleeve design – Brian Cannon for microdot Sleeve co-ordination – Karen Davies Sleeve photography – Joanne Leonard © 1971 Additional photography by Jo Spence/Terry Dennett, Karlheinz Poll, David Loehr, Philip Jones Griffiths, Della Grace, Christian Vogt 1971

All songs written by Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler (Universal Music Publishing Ltd/Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd)

INTRODUCING THE BAND 2.37

Dog man star took a suck on a pillAnd stabbed a cerebellum with a curious quillEurope, America, WinterlandIntroducing the band

Chic thug stuttered through a stereo dreamA fifty knuckle shuffle heavy metal machineThe tears of suburbia drowned the landIntroducing the band

So steal me a savage, subservient sonGet him shacked up, bloodied-up and sucking on a gunI want the style of a woman, the kiss of a manIntroducing the band

And as the sci-fi lullaby starts to buildSee them whipping all the women cracked governments killedOh let the century die to violent handsIntroducing the band

WE ARE THE PIGS 4.20

Well the church bells are callingPolice cars on fireAnd as they call you to the eye of the stormAll the people say “Stay at home tonight”

I say we are the pigs, we are the swineWe are the stars of the firing line

And as the smack cracks at your windowYou wake up with a gun in your mouthOh let the nuclear wind blow away my sinsAnd I’ll stay at home in my house

I say, we are the pigswe are the swinewe are the stars of the firing line

But deceit can’t save you so

We will watch them burn

HEROINE 3.22

She walks in beauty like the nightDiscarding her clothes in the plastic flowersPornographic and tragic in black and whiteMy Marilyn, come to my slum for an hour

I’m aching to see my heroineI’m aching, been dying for hours and hours

She walks in the beauty of a magazineComplicating the boys in the office towersRafaella or Della the silent dreamMy Marilyn come to my slum for an hour

I’m aching to see my heroineI’m aching, been dying for hours and hours

been dying for hours and hours

She walks in beauty like the nightHypnotising the silence with her powersArmageddon is bedding this picture alrightMy Marilyn come to my slum for an hour

I’m 18, I need my heroinesAching, been dying for hoursOh and I’m never alone nowNow I’m with her

THE WILD ONES 4.50

There’s a song playing on the radioSky high in the airwaves on the morning showAnd there’s a lifeline slipping as the record playsAnd as I open the blinds in my mind I’m believing that you could stay

And oh if you stay I’ll chase the rain-blown fields awayWe’ll shine like the morning and sin in the sunOh if you stayWe’ll be the wild ones, running with the dogs today

There’s a song playing through another wallAll we see and believe is the DJ and debts dissolveAnd it’s a shame the plane is leaving on this sunny dayCos on you my tattoo will be bleeding and the name will stain

But oh if you stay we’ll ride from disguised suburban gravesWe’ll go from the bungalows where the debts still grow each day

And oh if you stay I’ll chase the rain-blown fields awayWe’ll shine like the morning and sin in the sun oh if you stayWe’ll be the wild ones, running with the dogs todayWe’ll be the wild ones, running with the dogs today

DADDY’S SPEEDING 5.21

Whiplash caught the silver sonTook the film to No. 1Crashed the car and left us hereBroken glass for teenage boys trapped in steel and celluloidCrashed the car and left us here.

And daddy burned a million eyesDared the dogs to criticiseHe crashed the car and I was born

And daddy turned a million headsTook the teenage dream to bedHe crashed the car and left us here

With dreams of gasoline drying our eyesGreen fields of destiny high in the skyBut oh can you see him?Oh Daddy’s speeding

Whiplash caught the silver sonKilled the sad AmericanCrashed the car and left us here

And sorrow turns his eyes to mineCome with me now it’s your timeLet’s crash the car and I’ll be born

And sorrow breaks the silent dayTakes the teenage boys awayThey crash the cars and leave us here

With dreams of gasoline drying our eyesGreen fields and death machines high in the sky

But oh can you see him?Oh, when Daddy’s speeding

THE POWER 4.31

Through endless Asia, through the fields of CathayOr enslaved in pebble-dash grave with a kid on the wayIf you’re far over Africa on the wings of youthOr if you’re down in some satellite town and there’s nothing you can do

Just give me, give me, give me the powerAnd I’ll make them bleedGive me, give me the power(Although I’m just the common breed)

You might live in a screen kiss, it’s a glamorous dreamOr belong to a world that’s gone, it’s the English disease

But give me, give me the powerAnd I’ll make them bleed

Give me, give me, give me the power(Although I’m just the common breed)

NEW GENERATION 4.37

I wake up every day to find her back againScreaming my name through the astral planeAnd in this catalogue town she takes me downDown through the platinum spiresDown through the telephone wiresAnd we shake it around in the undergroundAnd like a new generation rise

And like all the boys in all the citiesI take the poison, take the pityBut she and I, we soon discovered

we’d take the pills to find each other

Oh but when she is calling here in my headCan you hear her callingAnd what she has said?Oh but when she is calling here in my headIt’s like a new generation callingCan you hear it call?And I’m losing myself, losing myself to you

I wake up every day, to find her back againBreeding disease on her hands and kneesWhile the styles turn and the books still burnYes it’s there in the platinum spiresIt’s there in the telephone wiresAnd we spread it around to a techno soundBut like a new generation rise

Cos like all the boys in all the citiesI take the poison, take the pityBut she and I, we soon discoverWe’d take the pills to find each other

Oh but when she is calling here in my headCan you hear her calling?And what she has said?Oh but when she is calling here in my headIt’s like a new generation calling

Can you hear it call?

And I’m losing myself, losing myself to you

THIS HOLLYWOOD LIFE 3.50

“She-rocker you’re wasting your timeCos you’re only a girl”She-rocker sacked the factory line for a chance of a dance in a surreal world

She said, “come rescue, rescue me from this Hollywood lifecome rescue, rescue me from this Hollywood life”

She-rocker hear the audience scream for the death of the kingBut a hand-job is all the butchery bringsCos fame ain’t as easy as him (how sad)

Oh come rescue, rescue me from this Hollywood lifecome rescue, rescue me from this Hollywood life

Come take this Hollywood life

THE 2 OF US 5.45

Lying in my bed, I think of youThat song goes through my head, the one we both knewIn each line lies another line full of sacred soundBut you’re outside where the companies dream and the money goes round

Lying in my bedWatching my mistakesI listen to the band they said that it could be the 2 of us

The snow might fall and write the lines on the silent pageBut you’re outside making permanent love to the nuclear ageTwo silhouettes by the cash machine make a lovers danceIt’s a tango for the lonely wives of the business class

Lying in my bedWatching my mistakesI listen to the bandLying in my bedWith nothing much to say so I listen to the manHe said that it could be the 2 of us

I heard you call from across the city through the stereo soundAnd so I crawled there sickeningly pretty as the money went round

Lying in my head watching my mistakesI listen to the bandAnd the drums beat in my headPianos chime the sound in this prison of the houseAnd as the illness comes again can you hear me through the rainAs I listen to the band?As I sing the silent songMime each lonely wordPlease listen to the man he said that it could be the 2 of us

Alone but not lonely, you and me, Alone but loaded.........

BLACK OR BLUE 3.48

There was a girl who flew the world from a lonely shoreThrough southern snow to Heathrow to understand the lawThere was a boy who loved the noise of the undergroundHe left the coast and overdosed on that London sound

He said“I don’t care if you’re black or blue

me and the stars stay up for youI don’t care who’s wrong or right

and I don’t care for the UK tonight so stay, stay”

And then one day she moved away from those garden wallsShe left some flowers, he smoked for hoursShe understood the law

I don’t care if you’re black or blueMe and the stars stay up for youI don’t care who’s wrong or rightAnd I don’t care for the UK tonightSo stay, stay, stay, stay..................there was a girl who flew the world

THE ASPHALT WORLD 9.25

I know a girl she walks the asphalt worldShe comes to me and I supply her with EcstasySometimes we ride in a taxi to the ends of the cityLike big stars in the back seat like skeletons ever so prettyI know a girl she walks the asphalt world

But where does she go?And what does she do?And how does she feel when she’s next to you?And who does she love in time-honoured fur?Is it me or her?

I know a girl she walks the asphalt worldShe’s got a friend, they share mascara I pretendSometimes they fly from the covers to the winter of the riverFor these silent stars of the cinemaIt’s in the blood stream, it’s in the liverI know a girl, she walks the arse felt world

But where does she go?And what does she do?And how does she feel when she’s next to you?And who does she love in time-honoured fur?Is it me or her?

With ice in her bloodAnd a Dove in her headWell how does she feel when she’s in your bed?When you’re there in her armsAnd there in her legsWell I’ll be in her head

Cos that’s where I goAnd that’s what I doAnd that’s how it feels when the sex turns cruelYes both of us need her, this is the asphalt world

STILL LIFE 5.19

This still life is all I ever doThere by the window quietly killed for youIn the glass house my insect lifeCrawling the walls under electric lights

I’ll go into the night, into the nightShe and I into the night

Is this still life all I’m good for too?There by the window quietly killed for youAnd they drive by like insects doThey think they don’t know meThey hired a car for you

To go into the night, into the nightShe and I into the night

And this still life is all I ever doThere by the window quietly killed for youAnd this still life is all I ever doBut it’s still, still life

DEMOS

SQUIDGY BUN (INTRODUCING THE BAND) [four track demo] 2.34

KEN (THE WILD ONES) [four track demo] 5.37

A MAN’S SONG (HEROINE) [four track demo] 2.52

BANANA YOUTH (THE POWER)[four track demo] 4.15

THE 2 OF US [four track demo] 6.42

THE B-SIDES (and an A-side)

MY DARK STAR 4.24 Originally released as a b-side of “Stay Together”

In a hired car she will come to England from the seaAnd as the tide flows the London snows will comeAnd from the skyline shines the lies of the government’s singular historySo in a hired world she will buy a gun

And she will come from India with a love in her eyesThat say, oh how my dark star will rise

In rented gear 2000 years we waited for a manBut with a tattooed tit she’d die for us all tonight.

And she will come from India with a gun at her sideOr she will come from ArgentinaWith her cemetery eyes that sayOh, how my dark star will rise

...and she will rise

THE LIVING DEAD 2.48 Originally released as a b-side of “Stay Together”

Where’s all the money gone?I’m talking to youAll up the hole in your armIs the needle a much better screw?But oh, what will you do alone?‘Cos I have to go

Where is this life of fun that you promised me?Nothing here works but your works and I mean itI have to leaveBut oh, what will you do alone?‘Cos I have to go

If I was the wife of an acrobat would I look like the living dead, boy?You’re on the wire and can’t get back, let’s talk about the living deadCould have had a car, could have had it allCould have walked in the sky but we stare at the wall

I know where the money’s goneI know what you do‘Cos I’ve seen the hole in your arm andThe needle’s a much better screwBut oh, what will you do alone?‘Cos I have to go

STAY TOGETHER [LONG VERSION] 7.24 Issued as a non-album single

Come to my house tonightWe can be together in the nuclear skyAnd we will dance in the poison rainAnd we can stay a while in Heaven today

Let’s stay togetherLet’s stay, these days are oursLet’s die together?Two hearts under the skyscrapers

There’s a time bomb in the high riseThere’s a blue suburban dreamWill I see you up in paradiseOr have you come to catch me?

Come to my arms tonightJust you and me together under electric lightAnd she will dance in the poisoned denJust you and me forever by the motorway there

There’s a time bomb in the high riseThere’s a blue suburban dreamWill I see you up in ParadiseOr have you come to catch me?

Come to my arms I’m lostJust you and me together in the year of the horseSingle file in the nuclear nightAnd we could feel a little closerAs we tumble through the sky

Let’s stay together, let’s stay in this broken down loveLet’s stay together, two hearts under the skyscrapers

KILLING OF A FLASH BOY 4.05Originally released as a b-side of “We Are The Pigs”

All the white kids shuffle to the heavy metal stutterAnd go shaking on the scene like killing machinesAnd they know that when she’s stacked up topShe’ll be a sucker for the shotgun showShaking obscene like killing machines here we go

It’s the same old show, he’s a killer, he’s a flash boy ohHe’s a killer, he’s a flash boy oh

Oh if you shake your fake tan thru aerosol land you’ll knowThat you’ll suffer your sex by the caravanettes oh noAnd that shitter with the pout won’t be putting it about no moreOr shaking obscene like a killing machine here we go

...oh and Athena loves your bodySo think of the sea my darlingThink of the sea as you murder me, murder me, murder memurder me, murder me...

WHIPSNADE 4.18Originally released as a b-side of “We Are The Pigs”

We are only young,But we style our future with a cattle gunAnd we aren’t idle richSo we smile for tomorrow with a bitch of an itch

Cause when the firelight shocks like a cop shop pyreWe’ll sack the politics for premonition and fireAnd we’ll move like Nureyev that nightCoast to coast, side to sideShines the lies of fine enlightened mindsCoast to coast

We are only youngBut we style our future in the shadow of gunsAnd we are not idle richSo we smile for tomorrow with a bitch of an itch

Cause when the stylised kick of the filmstar whipCracks down on the millionsCracks the kids on their hipsThen we’ll move like Nureyev that night‘Cos coast to coast, side to sideShines the lies of fine enlightened mindsCoast to coast, side to side

Feel the steel that shines outside the blindsCoast to coast, side to sideBlades engraved with babies’ namesWhile pylons hide the suicide

THIS WORLD NEEDS A FATHER 3.53Originally released as a b-side of “The Wild Ones”

Hold on, he’s coming...Through the wheels of the star machineHold on, he’s coming...Through the tears of your shit stained dream

In an anthem for the worldLet him waltz you down the riverLet him feel like boy or girlWith his sci-fi lullabyLet the light of the bomb shine from him tomorrowYes this world needs a father for the sorrowSo let’s have one, for the loversAnd one more, for the friends‘Cos drink, to you, is all I can doAs life slips down, down the drain

Hold on, he’s comingWith the screen kissed spine of the pastHold on, it’s all right, he’s comingWith the style of the wormwood star

Sing an anthem for the worldSing a farewell for the riverIf you feel like boy or girlSing a sci-fi lullabyLet the light of the bomb shine from him tomorrowYes this world needs a father for the sorrowSo let’s have one more, for the loversAnd one more, for the friendsFor drink to you is all I can doAs life goes round, round the pill

MODERN BOYS 4.08Originally released as a b-side of “The Wild Ones”

Come unto me my winter sonWe could lie on the railsAnd when the morning comesWe’ll be miles awayMiles away

Slipping away while the city sleepsRunning away from this cruel diseaseMiles away, miles away

Modern boys, modern boysHand in hand, sick of the fearChasing away all the hungry yearsWe’re the modern boys

Come onto me my sickly thingWe could lie on the railsBut to really win we’ll just drive away, drive away

the world calls my internationalSo let the decades die, let the parties fallAnd we’ll be miles away, miles awayBecause we’ll be living likeModern boys, modern boysHand in hand, sick of the fearChasing away all the hungry years

Into the night, under the starsJumping the lights in the silent carsHe’s on your left, I’m on your rightIt’s so easy in the concrete night

ENO’S INTRODUCING THE BAND 16.05Originally released as a b-side of “The Wild Ones”

EXTRA TRACKS

LA PUISSANCE (THE POWER) 1.23Live in Paris, 1994. First issued on the “See You In The Next Life” compilation

THE LIVING DEAD [piano version] 2.47

WE BELIEVE IN SHOWBIZ[previously unreleased] 3.47

It ain’t that hard to find it, it ain’t that hard at all It ain’t to hard to see what’s on your wall From Madagascar to Europe they never get known at allIt ain’t too hard to see what’s in your balls

Cos we believe in showbiz, we believe it all, we believe in showbiz

It ain’t too hard to find it, it ain’t that too hard at allIt ain’t too hard to see what’s on your wallFrom the Eastern Bloc to suburbia they never get known at allIt ain’t too hard to see what’s in your balls

Cos we believe in showbiz, we believe it all

STILL LIFE [orchestral version] 5.13

THE WILD ONES [original unedited version] 7.16

THE ASPHALT WORLD [original unedited version] 11.27

All songs written by Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler (Universal Music Publishing Ltd/Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd)

Project co-ordination – Val Jennings, Brett Anderson, Vanessa Sanders Physical package – Jools at ED&P Ltd Mastering – Chris Potter assisted by Phil Vernolt at Electric MasteringPhotos – Simon Gilbert, Ray Burmiston Special thanks – Bernard Butler, Simon Gilbert, Alan Fisher, Ian Grenfell, Didz Hammondand Dave Akerman

DELUXE EDITIONS ON THE EDSEL LABEL: SuedeDog Man StarComing UpHead MusicA New Morning

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