Faith No More released The Real Thing 30 years ago today, and, in tribute, here’s a look back on the album as told by the band members in Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More.
From Out of Nowhere
Bill Gould: “That song came from Roddy. That’s completely Roddy’s melody, so maybe it was deliberately pop. But it was originally called “The Cult Song”, because it reminded me of The Cult.”
Epic
Mike Bordin: “Quickly, Bill and I wrote the grove, the rhythm for ‘Epic’. We knew it was cool, and it was good, and it was fun, and it was natural. We’d played it and said ‘Wow, that’s just so massive’, it’s just this huge broad, wide, open powerful thing, it’s epic.”
Bill Gould: “The name has to do with how it felt to play. It was epic because of the horns. The parting of the Red Sea. That was the visual imagery.”
Bill Gould: “The video is horrible. I’m embarrassed about it. I never liked it. The ending is Las Vegas shit.”
Falling To Pieces
Roddy Bottum: “We called it “Madonna”, because it seemed to have pop potential. I always like to steer things in that direction.”
“Surprise! You’re Dead!”
Mike Bordin: “It’s important to look at “Surprise! You’re Dead!” in terms of a song that it just came after. Faith No More isn’t just about “Surprise! You’re Dead!” It’s also about “From Out Of Nowhere” and “Falling To Pieces”. The heavier stuff is getting heavier, the aggressive stuff is getting more aggressive, and the melodic stuff was getting more properly melodic. The variety was working well.”
Zombie Eaters
Mike Bordin: “It is highly, highly creative; it’s maybe that’s the first instance of Mike playing characters. A song from the point of view of an infant—Who does that?”
The Real Thing
Matt Wallace: “What Patton did lyrically was well beyond his years as a nineteen-year-old. There’s a tremendous amount of wisdom. It is visceral. Resonant.”
Underwater Love
Matt Wallace: “For me one of the biggest challenges with Patton, and probably that he had with me, is that there’s a lot of darkness in the stuff. When he brought “Underwater Love” to me, I think out of concern, I said, “Oh, you can’t have all these songs about death, and killing people.”
The Morning After
Mike Patton: “Patton said: ‘Fear is a big part of it, a real influence for me. It’s probably the most important emotion there is. Why do you walk down a certain side of the street?”
Woodpecker from Mars
Bill Gould: “It started with Roddy just playing the violin part on keyboard and me and Puffy just coming up with rhythms that went with that. I like that song, it never gets old for me. It’s a really cheesy violin sample too, but that’s all right. It works.”
War Pigs
Bill Gould: “We were waiting around for something to start, and Roddy hadn’t shown up yet, so we just started playing “War Pigs”. We played it through without having to rehearse it. We didn’t think of it as a thing, like it was going to be a hallmark of the band. It was kind of a joke.”
Edge of the World
Roddy Bottum: “There were so many different colours or characters on this record. A lounge bluesy one for this song seems crazy now but we liked the idea of focusing the piano in a spotlight. It seemed audacious.”
Read the definitive guide to the making of The Real Thing as all Faith No More’s music in Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More, out now on Jawbone Press.
Get it here:
Amazon: http://geni.us/YdG3
Waterstones
Hive
Fishpond
Barnes and Noble
Indiebound
Indigo
Foyles
Wordery
Faith No More Followers have marked the anniversary with a Q and A with the band and an in-depth interview, complete with new photos from the studio, with Matt Wallace.
And, of course, this post marks a return for the blog and me after a long hiatus. I’m also back on Twitter with a new handle of @AHarte6
Well Adrian , the next time you see them ? Would you by any chance let me know in advance if you meeting up with any of them ?
Iv never met any of the band and If it wasn’t too much hassle I’d have some questions i would forward to you that perhaps they wouldn’t mind trying to answer at their own volition of course.. If it was a case of they being sick to the teeth of being burdened with the chore of politely having to answer every question put to them by the normal Norman’s of the world that’s ok ..
It seems like there’s not as much humour or general wackiness evident these days “For the first few years you put humour first, everything’s a big joke and so on. But then you look back and see that the humour is overshadowing other things, and you realise it can’t be that way all the time. There’s so many things about this band that have never made it to print or photos, people haven’t seen there’s a lot of dimensions here. It’s easy to talk about what a bunch of smart arses we are, how our ‘funky grooves’ or ‘metal’ clashes – there’s so many single angles that it can get a little tiring.” Billy says.
Bloody iPhone spellcheck —*sounds like*
The laugh SOUNDS like his laugh . I always wondered where the origins of that laugh came from because it always sounded familiar as if from a particular tv show or film character. Maybe it’s roddy but it kills me not knowing … “The world is yours” is another massive musical sample jigsaw .
Hi Col
No idea but will ask next time I see them. I know that some of them watched Rocky and Bullwinkle.
At the start of phoenix 93 – the intro to caffeine they used “Spikes” laugh as a sample . Season 1 episode 5 —- 6mins17secs in approx . As far as i know it’s the only time they used this particular sample onstage and i think most if not all of their samples are credited or at least noted by fans … I always wondered about this particular one because it was a fantastic and strange intro – almost bungle like
Geez…I’ve never heard that. I’ve never seen it myself…is there some link you are thinking of or was that some random goofy question to start a conversation? Maybe they watched Fraggle Rock too?
I know Patton used to record the evangelist Robert Tilton when you was writing Angel Dust lyrics…and Bill loves The EastEnders!
When I say WATCHED i mean actually a fan of the show —
My reason for this random question is because i never actually heard any fnm fan or interviewer point out the link and ask the band members — maybe Adrian could have the answer to this of little or no relevant query —
And when i say WATCH – I’m trying to find out if they were actual fans of the show – it’s a question I’ve always wanted to know the answer to for a long time and actually never heard any fnm fan do an investigation into the reason behind my unusual question —
Maybe Adrian might have the answer but because the link is of little or no relevance it was never pointed out –
Ok benrun , iv a question – did the band or any of its members watch the tv show ‘the power rangers’? Strange question eh
Was the site down or was it my fat fingers palming in the wrong interweb codes ?
Thanks Ben and thanks to you and King Col for keeping the site alive!
There are many places to learn about the world’s greatest band…but only 1 book (and 1 website) is The Real Thing.