Nothing's Shocking turns 30

[bman]

Time to blast some Ocean Size.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/not ... 47723.html

https://www.billboard.com/articles/colu ... nniversary

[Six7Six7]

You know what I want to do?

I JUST WANNA CELEBRATE

[creep]

https://www.billboard.com/articles/colu ... nniversary

Interesting article.

Perry is so generous

Farrell: I remember speaking with my lawyer, Owen Sloan, who was supposedly the best lawyer to do this. He had been getting people huge deals, and he got us a huge deal. We were talking about publishing, and he said, “Do you know how the splits work?” “No I don't.” He showed me how the splits generally work, and how you change the split anyway you want. Different bands do it differently. Some bands — you'd be surprised — their members get no publishing.

After learning about this, I said in my mind, “Well, okay, I'm writing lyrics, melody, and music, but I don't want to be one of those bands where the other guys get no publishing.” Some of the members do write songs, contribute to the songs. And the other members are great, so I want everybody to have some as well, even if they didn't write anything. But then it gets very funny, because the idea of them not writing anything, that's not real. Let’s just say I wrote all of a song. Once I get into rehearsal, they're writing, they're being creative, so they should get some too.

So that's how I factored the songs. I said, “By the way, if anybody wants to write an entire song, we'll sit down and we'll all listen to it. If we all decide it's great, we'll record that one.” I was not telling anybody they couldn't write songs, but this was my band.

Avery: To be fair, I could see how he wanted more than an equal split, certainly. And where we wound up was, we gave him twice as much as any other member, and then we split what was left amongst the rest of us. That was consistent with Perry always going forward to this day. When it comes to money and stuff like that, he's pretty aggressively self-interested.

I remember famously Dave played one of our shows after that and put on a t-shirt that said “12%” or something, because that was the amount that was going to be left for him in Perry's system. So it left some resentment, for sure.

[Six7Six7]

I sat around the pile
I sat and laughed
I sat and laughed and waved it into the air!
And I did it just like that
When I want something, I don't want to pay for it
I walk right through the door
Walk right through the door
Hey, all right!
If I get by, it's mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.

[Hokahey]

I assume the oral history quotes from those articles is pulled from stuff like Whores? It all looks familiar, but I only skimmed.

[creep]

my memory is crap but according to the article it's new stuff.

For the 30th anniversary of the album's release, Billboard spoke to all four band members, along with producer Dave Jerden, about the history of the band leading to their major-label debut, the dispute that almost broke them up before they could even get into the studio and what the album – cited by '90s alternative stalwarts like Dave Grohl and Tom Morello as a major influence – did to shake up the music industry in the late ‘80s.

[farrellgirl99]

still such an amazing album. when i listen to it, i forget perry is such a fucking idiot now.

[Pandemonium]

It still holds up well but I’ve always thought the late 80’s production kind of lets it down.

[Mescal]

It still holds up well but I’ve always thought the late 80’s production kind of lets it down.

Yeah, plus one on that one. Ritual sounds a lot better

[panicparty]

It still holds up well but I’ve always thought the late 80’s production kind of lets it down.

Specifically the drums - If they re-recorded the drums it would sound great. The album as it is sounds nothing like Perk.

[Bandit72]

I know a lot on here prefer NS to Ritual but I’m in total agreement with the 80’s production and poor drum sound. Obviously still immense though.

[SR]

As for production, I heard the album completely differently; the production bothered me upon first listen, but the thing is the album dropped in 88....and to begin, the production starts with the cover. Shocking, for real. The music was raw, dangerous, angular, and brand new. It was like an atom bomb. In 88 we were inundated with cock rock (which barely warrants mentioning), U2's Joshua Tree, Steve WInwood, REM, The Smiths, George Michael, The Cure, and to a lesser degree Siouxsie…..all high production value (to the detriment of some). I think Jerden nailed it with this group of songs....so different, just unleashed power and elegance. It's splitting hairs between the 2 albums, but I stand by NS as the superior album. As for the drums, I love the mix too, particularly on Beach, Dad, Sumertime, Thank You, JS, and Pigs. Drums on Summertime remind me of what Ringo did for a few Beatles classics like Let it Be and many more. Though I think far less of Perk's ability than I used to (he's light years ahead of Ringo, lol), his parts on NS fit perfectly within the total compositions.

[Juana]

NS is beautiful a lot of people prefer Ritual but for me if I had to choose its always going to be NS, I just remember jamming it and then going out surfing and the streak of Ted/Thinking/Summertime/Mountain song is just perfect.

[bman]

Well, I'd love to see how other bands from that era were splitting publishing royalties. I have no idea but doesn't the lyricist get a certain % in addition to being 25%? Let's say for example that Perry and Eric wrote the basic structure of most of the songs, would they automatically receive more than Dave/Perk? I wonder how bands like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam did it back in the day. But yeah, Perry definitely had a cut throat businessman side to his personality.

And I blasted the OceanSize Demo a few times yesterday. I still think even after 30 years those songs of NS still punch you right in the gut. There's no fucking band like Jane's Addiction. I still hope to see a couple more of their shows in this lifetime.

[SR]

RHCP divides equally with every member....25% each. .It's worked out really well for all of them.

[kv]

SR and Juana just saved me a lot of typing...NS is my fav for all their reasons

[Hokahey]

How anyone could put any album above one containing Three Days and Then She Did is beyond me. Beyond that, Ritual flows perfectly, is better produced, and is for my money the best album I've ever fucking heard.

Nothing's Shocking is incredible, but Ritual is Jane's Addiction perfected.

[Matz]

couldn't agree more

[Stickyfingers]

How anyone could put any album above one containing Three Days and Then She Did is beyond me. Beyond that, Ritual flows perfectly, is better produced, and is for my money the best album I've ever fucking heard.

Nothing's Shocking is incredible, but Ritual is Jane's Addiction perfected.

+1

[Pandemonium]

How anyone could put any album above one containing Three Days and Then She Did is beyond me. Beyond that, Ritual flows perfectly, is better produced, and is for my money the best album I've ever fucking heard.

Nothing's Shocking is incredible, but Ritual is Jane's Addiction perfected.

I think Ritual has greater highs and I much prefer the production as it sounds more organically "live," but NS is simply a more consistent, better overall album.