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I Meat Puppets sono uno di quei gruppi per cui i superlativi non bastano mai.
Si formano all'inizio degli anni '80 e assieme ad uno sparuto numero di bands di emarginati scrivono musica totalmente estranea alle mode del tempo e alle logiche di mercato. Rileggono in chiave punk la musica dei loro genitori, corrompono armonie pop con psichedelia sbilenca. Retrospettivamente possiamo chiamarli padrini dell'alternative music, fondatori dell'indie rock, precursori del grunge, antesignani dello stoner.
Si citano spesso come ispiratori dei Nirvana gruppi quali Pixies, Sonic Youth, Husker Du, Wipers e Replacements, ma alla fine quelli a cui devono di più sono indubbiamente i Meat Puppets. Per quale altra ragione altrimenti, all'apice del successo, la band di Cobain li avrebbe invitati a suonare dal vivo tre loro canzoni ("Plateau", "Oh Me" e "Lake Of Fire"), performance poi immortalata nello splendido "Unplugged In New York"? Dopo un lungo periodo passato con la storica indie SST anche i Meat Puppets firmarono per una Major (con "Forbidden Places") ma la qualità dei loro lavori rimase immutata toccando l'apice in "Too High To Die".
Per una volta non seguirò i consigli di zio Frankie e nella lotta tra me e il mondo difenderò la mia posizione: "Too High To Die" è l'album più completo dell'intera discografia Meat Puppets-iana, battendo la concorrenza di gemme quali "II", "Huevos", Forbidden Places" e "Up On The Sun". Quando il disco uscì la stranezza della loro musica non era più percepita tale da milioni di adolescenti che aspettavano con impazienza il nuovo cd dei Pearl Jam. Avrebbero potuto tranquillamente replicare se stessi. E invece non c' è puzza di autocelebrazione in questo cd, né tanto meno di immobilità artistica. Si confrontano con il grunge (in "Flaming Heart") uscendone vincitori, rendono la psichedelia ancora più acida in "We Don't Exist" (con un riff di chitarra allucinante). Rileggono il country ("Shine", "Comin' Down"). Aggiornano i Byrds in "Never To Be Found", gli ZZ Top in "Station", se stessi in "Lake Of Fire". Rendono presentabili i Violent Femmes, meno lagnosi i R.e.m. Agguantano la perfezione in "Roof in a Hole", "Evil Love" e in "Things".
Lenti, veloci, allegri, ubriachi, eclettici: ecco i Meat Puppets. Per dirla alla Pirandello: "Uno, nessuno, centomila".
VOTO 9
Elenco tracce testi e samples
03 We Don't Exist (03:46)
We don't exist
We eat our time
We don't resist
It's not alright
What I want out of this
What I need out of this
Cayenne
We don't exist
Night after night
We fall apart
It's quite alright
04 Severed Goddess Hand (03:01)
The horizon breaks to pieces
And the mainline is the twilight
And the giant net has a perfect window
Passage through has the ticket screaming
I want a mind
I'll tell you what I find
No severed goddess hand
No plaster in my eye
No picture of a lamb
No goddess hand have I
I'm a picture of a goddess
Of a planet in the window
Through a tiny hole in the giant curtain
I have watched as it stood undressing
I want more more eyes
I want to see more lies
In the silence of the neurons
Where the pathway has been printed
There's a gleaming hope for an understanding
Timing's gone and there's been no planning
Twho heads, one dream
Twho-thirds a crowd it seems.
05 Flaming Heart (04:51)
Praise the sight
Someone dropped a ball on me
Damn the wind
Giving life to sails
Human sin
Couldn't stir a fire in me
Damn the night
As the powders fail
And one beam of light is falling
From a single crazy eye
And it sweeps the inside sky
From east to right
Flaming heart, burning out
Pray tonight
Someone burns a name on me
Damn the sight
Painted on my eyes
Back to life
Passing through the wall to me
Feel the fire
Violet, black, and white
Late tonight
Someone pinned a tail on me
Later on
Someone robbed me blind
Took my life
Took my box of chicken teeth
Take the blame
Trusted enemy
07 Backwater (03:41)
And when I wake up in the morning
To feel the daybreak on my face
There's a blood that's floating through the feeling
With a knife to open up the skies veins
Some things will never change
It is standing looking backwards and from conscious full of pain
It may seem rearranged
In the backwater swirling there is something that will never change
And when I should have been done a long time
Laughs and says I'll find ways
Just when we shelter under paper
The rockets come at a sideways
Some things will never change
It is standing looking backwards and from conscious full of pain
They may seem rearranged
In the backwater swirling there is something that will never change
It may imply
Good vibes
Flow from time
Oh loosed on
And when I wake up in the morning
To feel the daybreak on my face
There's a blood that's floating through the ceiling
With a knife to open up the skies veins
Some things will never change
It is standing looking backwards and from conscious full of pain
They may seem rearranged
In the backwater swirling there is something that will never change
Some things will never change
They is standing looking backwards and from conscious full of pain
They may seem rearranged
In the backwater swirling there is something that will never change
14 Lake of Fire (03:10)
Where do bad folks go when they die?
They don't go to heaven where the angels fly
They go to a lake of fire and fry
see 'em again till the fault that you lie
I knew a lady who came from Duluth
Got bit by a dog with a rabid tooth
She went to her grave just a little too soon
flew and laid down on the yellow moon
Where do bad folks go when they die?
They don't go to heaven where the angels fly
They go to a lake of fire and fry
see 'em again till the Fault that you lie
people cry and people moan
look for a dry place to call their home
try to find some place to rest their bones
While the angels and the devils
Try to make 'em their own
Where do bad folks go when they die?
They don't go to heaven where the angels fly
They go to a lake of fire and fry
see 'em again till the Fault that you lie
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