Track listing
Show track credits
- A1 The Long Walk Home 2:34
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- A2 Use of a Dog 3:17
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songwriter
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- A3 Petrified 2:16
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songwriter
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- A4 Stormy Weather 3:20
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songwriter
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songwriter
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- A5 West Side Story 2:46
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songwriter
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- A6 Thoughts That Go by Steam 3:47
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songwriter
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- B1 Big Ed's Used Farms 2:24
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- B2 A Day Such as This 7:17
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- B3 The Vulgar Boatman Bird 2:49
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songwriter
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- B4 My Hat 1:19
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songwriter
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- B5 Horns Are a Dilemma 4:21
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songwriter
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- Total length: 36:10
Rate/Catalog
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Set listening
Review
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6 Issues
- Release view [combined information for all issues]
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Song of the Bailing Man [p] 45 rpm
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Song of the Bailing Man 33 rpm
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Song of the Bailing Man CD Sized Album Replica, Gatefold, Remastered
9 Reviews
Song of the Bailing Man is a turning point for the Ubu in that it begins to lay to rest that nervous tension and urban angst that characterized their first group of albums. While still deliberately off-putting, noisy, arty, and outright strange, here David Thomas started to merge it with a sense of whimsy and a love of sounds sometimes conquering the words they represent, and of all things, the creeping, almost unbelievable indications of an emerging pop sensibility. This makes Song of the Bailing Man the lunatic fringe of the Ubu's pop adventure, which means that fans of both ends of the band's output should dig it, but those who prefer one or the other may find it too compromised. It is also their most jazz-oriented album, with twinkling jazz interludes prone to giving way to chromatic noise or bursts of galloping nonsense.
'Who would question the worth of a dog?' Thomas asks on the second track as peculiar electronic water-noises cascade down the two stereo channels and a brass section kicks up in the background, but it's still almost a normal sort of song apart from that, with a wiry guitar part you'd expect to hear on perhaps a Talking Heads record. That's more or less how this album works. Ecstatic rhythms, shimmering guitars, David Thomas wildly going on about things just a few inches shy of childlike delirium and through the looking glass from logic, while all manner of peculiar sounds pass through the song. "Stormy Weather" proves an apt title for a song full of windy ambient noise and tootling whatevers and Thomas talking about weather systems moving in, creeping piano parts exhibiting dread and cold, and "Thoughts Go by Steam" is similarly keyed, with wind and waves (and, I guess, submarines) and words chosen more for percussion than meaning ('Tooting horns! Tooting horns! Ss-ss!'). The circus-y "West Side Story" starts the trend of the Ubu appropriating familiar names for highly unfamiliar music. "Big Ed's Used Farms" features Thomas making animal noises. Best of all is "A Day Such as This" with crazy rhythms and wind and metallic noises and exotica keys in the first section then bleeping, bass-heavy clambering in the second, but "The Vulgar Boatman Bird" with its cricket-noises and guitar-flaying is a close second.
With Ubu, weird is usually a positive, and Song of the Bailing Man is certainly one of their oddest albums, and their first reinvention (of which they have since had many), and to my noise-baptized ears, one of their greatest works.
'Who would question the worth of a dog?' Thomas asks on the second track as peculiar electronic water-noises cascade down the two stereo channels and a brass section kicks up in the background, but it's still almost a normal sort of song apart from that, with a wiry guitar part you'd expect to hear on perhaps a Talking Heads record. That's more or less how this album works. Ecstatic rhythms, shimmering guitars, David Thomas wildly going on about things just a few inches shy of childlike delirium and through the looking glass from logic, while all manner of peculiar sounds pass through the song. "Stormy Weather" proves an apt title for a song full of windy ambient noise and tootling whatevers and Thomas talking about weather systems moving in, creeping piano parts exhibiting dread and cold, and "Thoughts Go by Steam" is similarly keyed, with wind and waves (and, I guess, submarines) and words chosen more for percussion than meaning ('Tooting horns! Tooting horns! Ss-ss!'). The circus-y "West Side Story" starts the trend of the Ubu appropriating familiar names for highly unfamiliar music. "Big Ed's Used Farms" features Thomas making animal noises. Best of all is "A Day Such as This" with crazy rhythms and wind and metallic noises and exotica keys in the first section then bleeping, bass-heavy clambering in the second, but "The Vulgar Boatman Bird" with its cricket-noises and guitar-flaying is a close second.
With Ubu, weird is usually a positive, and Song of the Bailing Man is certainly one of their oddest albums, and their first reinvention (of which they have since had many), and to my noise-baptized ears, one of their greatest works.
Published
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In 1982, Pere Ubu, with the loss of Krauss and the addition of drummer Anton Fier from The Feelies and The Lounge Lizards, enter the studio once more to record 'Song of the Bailing Man.' The album continues the progression away from the impact and complexity of the past. The sound of the band has grown ever more fragile and melancholic. Each musical element is tightly controlled, the contribution of each member limited. The collapse of the rhythm section has changed the group's personality. Fier brings a flavouring of jazz syncopation to a number of tracks. The reduction of amphetamine dosage sees Pere Ubu return to a more cohesive, softer and orthodox format.
Fier's basis in jazz flavours The Long Walk Home that ends with a bebop finale of drums and piano.
Use Of A Dog demonstrates the new form of Pere Ubu. Thompson's animal psychedelia continues although the complexity is reduced for ease of listening. Electronics bubble behind the jazzy trumpet of Eddie Thornton.
The childish rhyming of Petrified is manic and tuneless whilst Ravenstine's synth whirrs throughout.
Stormy Weather is a schizophrenic mess of Thomas' vocals over a variety of recorded sounds and melodies.
Suggestive of the work of Frank Zappa, West Side Story blends Fier's jazz with the more standard stylings of rock and accelerates it beyond comprehension.
Sombre and martial, Thoughts That Go By Steam is a remnant of the industrial fear of the previous period. The aquatic synth bubbles and echoes within the depths.
Big Ed's Used Farms is a collection of expressionist sketches. It confuses through its sheer variety.
The tropical drums and marimba of Fier ground A Day Such As This. Waves beat against the sand as Thomas questions his environment and the use of hyperbole. Metaphysical and pounding electronic instruments break free of the drums for a moment.
The Vulgar Boatman Bird sets cricket chirps to music supported by guitar strums and Thomas' shouted lyrics.
My Hat centres on the variety of vocal styles available to Thomas.
Horns Are A Dilemma is a twitchy tribal frenzy, a final fragment of the past. The distant trumpet of Eddie Thornton returns behind the jamming guitar, bass and synth.
Fier's basis in jazz flavours The Long Walk Home that ends with a bebop finale of drums and piano.
Use Of A Dog demonstrates the new form of Pere Ubu. Thompson's animal psychedelia continues although the complexity is reduced for ease of listening. Electronics bubble behind the jazzy trumpet of Eddie Thornton.
The childish rhyming of Petrified is manic and tuneless whilst Ravenstine's synth whirrs throughout.
Stormy Weather is a schizophrenic mess of Thomas' vocals over a variety of recorded sounds and melodies.
Suggestive of the work of Frank Zappa, West Side Story blends Fier's jazz with the more standard stylings of rock and accelerates it beyond comprehension.
Sombre and martial, Thoughts That Go By Steam is a remnant of the industrial fear of the previous period. The aquatic synth bubbles and echoes within the depths.
Big Ed's Used Farms is a collection of expressionist sketches. It confuses through its sheer variety.
The tropical drums and marimba of Fier ground A Day Such As This. Waves beat against the sand as Thomas questions his environment and the use of hyperbole. Metaphysical and pounding electronic instruments break free of the drums for a moment.
The Vulgar Boatman Bird sets cricket chirps to music supported by guitar strums and Thomas' shouted lyrics.
My Hat centres on the variety of vocal styles available to Thomas.
Horns Are A Dilemma is a twitchy tribal frenzy, a final fragment of the past. The distant trumpet of Eddie Thornton returns behind the jamming guitar, bass and synth.
Published
My favorite Ubu album. Not only does it feature one of my heroes, Mayo Thompson of The Red Krayola but it's also their jazziest collection of songs and it lacks the boring experiments that often plagued their early albums. Main highlights: "West Side Story", "Long Walk Home", "Day Such As This" and "Petrified".
Published
This album is as weird as the previous one in sound, but not as successful. As Art of Walking was an example of a complete avant-garde project gone right, this was the complete opposite. Songs of the Bailing man tries to infuse jazz and surf rock up on a platter to be reconstructed and destroyed, and while destroyed it is, what is put back together is a jumbled mess that for the most part, is unlistenable. There are some songs that work, like the sole great song here "Use of a Dog", with its lovely trumpet solos, and the good experiments "Petrified", "The Vulgar Boatman Bird", and "Stormy Whether". These songs are like Art of Walking in that they are all different, and for the most part, listenable.
But the majority of the record is another matter entirely, whether the problem be the length of a song ("A Day Such as This") or just the plain unorganized, incomplete thoughts of "West Side Story", "Horns are a Dilemma", "My Hat", and the worst Pere Ubu song of their original line up, "Big Ed's Used Farms", in which Thomas sings like a rabid three-year-old and the results are just awful! With Herman and Krauss, the original guitarist and drummer (respectively), gone, the band had kind of put itself in a corner, were weary ideas surfaced and the music had to be "the weirdest thing imaginable". Anton Fier is a great drummer (having worked with The Feelies, Bob Mould, and The Golden Palominos in his career) but he just doesn't do what Scott Krauss can do for the band, and it is not the same without him. As an obvious result, the band produced an album that lacked the greatness of its four predecessors, prompting Pere Ubu to split up for a time. Songs of the Bailing Man was a swan song for a group that had exhausted their ideas and needed a break.
But the majority of the record is another matter entirely, whether the problem be the length of a song ("A Day Such as This") or just the plain unorganized, incomplete thoughts of "West Side Story", "Horns are a Dilemma", "My Hat", and the worst Pere Ubu song of their original line up, "Big Ed's Used Farms", in which Thomas sings like a rabid three-year-old and the results are just awful! With Herman and Krauss, the original guitarist and drummer (respectively), gone, the band had kind of put itself in a corner, were weary ideas surfaced and the music had to be "the weirdest thing imaginable". Anton Fier is a great drummer (having worked with The Feelies, Bob Mould, and The Golden Palominos in his career) but he just doesn't do what Scott Krauss can do for the band, and it is not the same without him. As an obvious result, the band produced an album that lacked the greatness of its four predecessors, prompting Pere Ubu to split up for a time. Songs of the Bailing Man was a swan song for a group that had exhausted their ideas and needed a break.
Published
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A 36 minute album pressed at 45rpm - nice one Rough Trade (not).
An album with too many words. At least they are printed on the sleeve. If you're going to wibble cryptically you have to let people study it. A lot of the songs here are fast and the album is dominated for me by David Thomas gabbling at 90mph. The band are trying to play tight-as-a-gnat's-chuff stop-start jazz rock but don't really have the chops. However, it's bouncy enthusiasm carries the day at least as far as A Day Such As This, and by then you might as well listen to the whole thing.
An album with too many words. At least they are printed on the sleeve. If you're going to wibble cryptically you have to let people study it. A lot of the songs here are fast and the album is dominated for me by David Thomas gabbling at 90mph. The band are trying to play tight-as-a-gnat's-chuff stop-start jazz rock but don't really have the chops. However, it's bouncy enthusiasm carries the day at least as far as A Day Such As This, and by then you might as well listen to the whole thing.
Published
An improvement over the last record, the energy and effort the band releases here tops everything off Art of Walking, but still drags between tracks.
Published
Change the drummer from the lumberjack -type of Scott Krauss to the more versatile and immaginative type of Anton Fier and the whole thing turns from surrealistic rock to surrealistic art . The record is brilliant and contrary to popular belief one of "Pere Ubu's" finest . Ambitious in form and in context .
Published
Hmmm, Song of the Bailing Man, the first record I've been asked to review for what will hopefully be a fun new game, review challenge (or something). This is disc three of the Datapanik box and one that rarely ever gets put in my CD player and OMG! I have this on vinyl too? dang.
Anyway, there's a good reason why it doesn't make it to my CD player often, or is there? Okay, there's good enough reason, in the Ubu catalogue this surely is a footnote. If somebody asked me about Ubu, I would never send them here first. I notice two big things here, Mayo Thompson (guitar) and Anton Fier (drums etc.). Two things that usually stand out for me are the drums and guitars and here they are the weak link. Thompson just never seems to find great grooves or sounds the way Tom Herman did and when Fier isn't overplaying the drums (often attempting to evoke some sort of intense tribal rhythms and simply NOT pulling them off) he's only half exciting me with his piano playing. A song like "Stormy Weather" is a perfect example, it starts off so well and then sort of meanders about losing continuity and my interest. The rest of the band sounds pretty good with the exception on occasion an apparent lack of interest by Mr. David Thomas. Take "Thoughts that go by Steam" for example. Half of the song he sounds great floating over the lush synths and (thankfully) a bit a rare understatement from Fier and then the other half he simply mimics Thompson's guitar riffs. And some of these songs are just plain bad despite Thomas's powerful voice. Take "Big Ed's Used Farms" in which he's in top form, voicing strange animals or "A day such as this" (all seven painful mintues) with it's blatant and aching attempt at seriousness; both of these songs come off cheesy, lifeless, feeling forced and completely alienating the listener. Lyrically he's not there at all like was in earlier years (I'm thinking "Naavy," "Caligari's Mirror," or "Real Time").
The deal is this though, this is a Pere Ubu record and there are great moments on it albeit sometimes in tandem with the more boring ones. Tony Maimone and
Allen Ravenstine sound great. This seems to be more of a cerebreal flip flop, unlike the visceral tone that proceed it ("I've got these arms and legs...") that sounded so swell. Pere Ubu has always been (and continues to be) a very, uhmm, "intelligent" band. By that I mean they take risks, play out of earshot of the box and are more than a little literate (Pere Ubu himself is a character from Ubu Roi, a play that premiered in 1986 and gets a lot of the blame for things like Surrealism, Dadaism, Aburdism, are we boring you yet?). However, all that was always so natural and inviting, here not so much. The best part of the record is then end for two reasons.
1. The album is over.
2. They saved the best for last. As a reward for you hard earned 40 minutes spent you recieve "Horns are a Dillema" which as an absolute gem and actually features horns! (is that tension I hear? oh what a relief!)
Bottom line, don't start here, don't even look here unless you really like Pere Ubu. Three stars and I'm not budging.
Anyway, there's a good reason why it doesn't make it to my CD player often, or is there? Okay, there's good enough reason, in the Ubu catalogue this surely is a footnote. If somebody asked me about Ubu, I would never send them here first. I notice two big things here, Mayo Thompson (guitar) and Anton Fier (drums etc.). Two things that usually stand out for me are the drums and guitars and here they are the weak link. Thompson just never seems to find great grooves or sounds the way Tom Herman did and when Fier isn't overplaying the drums (often attempting to evoke some sort of intense tribal rhythms and simply NOT pulling them off) he's only half exciting me with his piano playing. A song like "Stormy Weather" is a perfect example, it starts off so well and then sort of meanders about losing continuity and my interest. The rest of the band sounds pretty good with the exception on occasion an apparent lack of interest by Mr. David Thomas. Take "Thoughts that go by Steam" for example. Half of the song he sounds great floating over the lush synths and (thankfully) a bit a rare understatement from Fier and then the other half he simply mimics Thompson's guitar riffs. And some of these songs are just plain bad despite Thomas's powerful voice. Take "Big Ed's Used Farms" in which he's in top form, voicing strange animals or "A day such as this" (all seven painful mintues) with it's blatant and aching attempt at seriousness; both of these songs come off cheesy, lifeless, feeling forced and completely alienating the listener. Lyrically he's not there at all like was in earlier years (I'm thinking "Naavy," "Caligari's Mirror," or "Real Time").
The deal is this though, this is a Pere Ubu record and there are great moments on it albeit sometimes in tandem with the more boring ones. Tony Maimone and
Allen Ravenstine sound great. This seems to be more of a cerebreal flip flop, unlike the visceral tone that proceed it ("I've got these arms and legs...") that sounded so swell. Pere Ubu has always been (and continues to be) a very, uhmm, "intelligent" band. By that I mean they take risks, play out of earshot of the box and are more than a little literate (Pere Ubu himself is a character from Ubu Roi, a play that premiered in 1986 and gets a lot of the blame for things like Surrealism, Dadaism, Aburdism, are we boring you yet?). However, all that was always so natural and inviting, here not so much. The best part of the record is then end for two reasons.
1. The album is over.
2. They saved the best for last. As a reward for you hard earned 40 minutes spent you recieve "Horns are a Dillema" which as an absolute gem and actually features horns! (is that tension I hear? oh what a relief!)
Bottom line, don't start here, don't even look here unless you really like Pere Ubu. Three stars and I'm not budging.
Published
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Catalog
20 Dec 2023
19 Dec 2023
15 Dec 2023
14 Dec 2023
12 Dec 2023
29 Nov 2023
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A1 The Long Walk Home
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A2 Use of a Dog
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A3 Petrified
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A4 Stormy Weather
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A5 West Side Story
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A6 Thoughts That Go by Steam
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B1
Big Ed's Used Farms
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B2 A Day Such as This
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B3 The Vulgar Boatman Bird
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B4 My Hat
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B5
Horns Are a Dilemma
11 Nov 2023
29 Oct 2023
20 Oct 2023
28 Sep 2023
25 Sep 2023
22 Sep 2023
9 Sep 2023
8 Sep 2023
8 Sep 2023