Black Brook…
It’s a place we passed by in Cape Breton when I was up there on a road trip with Evan Cardwell, way back circa the late aughts when we started this song (prob 2008 or 2009). That would easily make this the oldest song on the Monster docket, albeit it has existed in a variety of lyrical variants.
… that’s the pace where you go, when you really want to kill your girl…
Black Brook did strike me as a good place to murder someone. Which is something I don’t often think about, btw
And so with these beginnings I arrived at the final resting place for Red Earrings. In effect, it became a murder song when previous incarnations had been a bit more lighthearted. I decided to side with Alice Cooper with this one, and I just ran with it. The tracks were already there. I had recorded it all, almost entirely with Jeff Macdonald in Three Fathom Harbour during the Stargazer sessions. Bringing this song to Charles, I told him it was track one from Exile on Main Street. This is what I wanted it to sound like anyway. Rocks off.
…Red Earrings…
Prob a reference to Green Earrings by Steely Dan. I have a weird fetish about inserting random Dan refs into bimbo rock songs.
…Uncle Geraldine…
Uncle Geraldine is a fictional character. She is a woman, but because the family frowned down upon this, she would still allow people to refer to her as uncle. I was hoping that this would also imply some weird familial relationships for our psychotic protagonist as well, as cliche as that may be. Here comes the beast in me, etc.
…Might wind up in the penitentiary…
Tried to sound like Levon Helm on that line, that’s for sure! The slide guitars in the verses are an attempt to sound like Lowell George. And of course the ending is supposed to sound like Neil over a Led Zep riff. Covering all the bases in that one. Maybe a little Lou as well haha
Anyway, the guitars at the end were mixed in real time, which allows me to work the fader and panner to give the Hendrix-like production that you don’t get to hear any more. The pedal point at the end was also a nod to that wicked bass player on Gainsbourg’s Melody Nelson. Had done a bunch of different versions of this song by the time I got to recording it with Jeff, and was determined to get it right this time, Goddamn it! But yes, it all started out as a little riff that I copped from Cardwell when we used to jam in his old apartment. Back in the day when a person could afford to live in downtown Halifax. Cardwell and I had also collabed on Lobsters and Penguins from Kindly Requests. That was the debut to the CD era for me with Jeff Gay and Special Blends from 2008 with this band consisting of Kris Moulton, Cardwell, and myself on that recording. Red Earrings came around shortly after we had cut that album. Had it been started a little bit earlier, it might’ve made the cut and become a completely different song!
…Guess I don’t have that drawl, guess I really ain’t a killer at all…
I guess I’m not really country, so let’s rock out. Guess I’m not really enough of a killer to reference Alice Cooper here, so let’s rock out.
WOO! (I will attest to this, that one of the albums themes is to embrace your real self and let that river flow!