ME AND BILLY GOULD, WASN'T THAT TIGHT, BUT WE WAS COOL

                                                       

I'm riding the train to hear my old mate Billy Gould play bass with his band Faith No More. I've known Billy for over 30 years. At the age of 19 I was the elder in our musical network, in late 70's L.A.  He was the youngest, still with 2 years to go in High School.

In some ways he was the coolest and most adventurous of us all. He was the only white kid in a band of black dudes, called The Animated. I was originally in a different band called Pending Spectrum that shared a guitarist with The Animated (Stew, later of The Negro Problem), but I started playing with The Animated when Pending Spectrum's bassist Jon E. Edwards fled the West Coast for Manhattan.



I wasn't that tight with Billy. We would see each other at rehearsals and gigs, and we would hang together as a group socially. We didn't do a lot of one on one bonding, but things were always cool with Billy. For a sixteen year old he was incredibly hip.

It was 1979, the time of Post Punk (though most of us in the US were so late on the bandwagon that many were still having their first taste of Punk).

Billy eventually graduated High School and left L.A. to study in Berkeley. I later left the States completely to dodge Reaganomics, and find out if it was true what I had heard about arty Europe.

Billy and I rarely saw each other, and just kept in touch through mutual friends.

By the time his band got big we had lost touch. Then in 1998  I phoned the Brixton Academy where Faith No More were playing, and left a message backstage, not expecting for it to reach him, or for him to be able to respond to it. 20 minutes later the phone rang.

After all these years Billy was still cool.

Gospel Porn

Gospel music and sex have been connected unwillingly from the beginning of the African American church’s history. The natural sensuality in the culture has always inadvertently seeped through that emotional music form, also referred to as spirituals.

If you have been to any of our gigs during the last year, you will know that we are exploring this link.

When I first wrote the song Can’t Get No Pussy, it was during a very happy but dry time in my life. It was a private joke that I enjoyed singing to myself. When I showed it to members of my Orchestra, they really thought it was a powerful song, and it has led us into this place of spiritual and sexual exploration.

The African American religious imagery we use, mixed with the urban mythical text and song forms, can be confusing if you are expecting something that fits into a pre-fabricated box.

From the Isaac Hayes influenced orchestrations, to the preacher pussy infused raps, the fantastic musicians and artists I am working with are creating a post-urban music experience that seems to speak to those who remember where soul music came from; those that want to feel the spiritual conviction of the Black church coupled with the carnal relevance of their life experience.