The book - Go Tell The Mountain
Currently out of print, but we are in the process of re-publishing (coming soon)
Go Tell The Mountain - Written by Jeffrey Lee Pierce
Page 89 from the book - 1989-1991
Getting Disentangled From The Sticky Mess our U.K. label Red Rhino left behind when they folded,
I got it into my head that I could relocate back to America and negotiate with labels over there.
We just ended up going nowhere.
We had a demo agreement with Island. It lasted eight months.
We were forbidden to play London or any major cities until we were out there promoting their product.
We made a series of demos and played some showcase gigs, but it was all leading nowhere.
I was asked at one point, Why do you write such morose songs? Why do you write such depressing material? Can’t you do something more like the Rolling Stones? How do you feel about pursuing a
Direction where you are kind of like The Fabulous Thunderbirds or Dire Straits? They imagined
Me with a perm, a beard and a $300 suit.
We played every gig for no money. We were sitting around trying to scrounge bucks off each other
All the time. Everything went into the expense of hiring a back-line, hiring a sound man and a roadie
And paying the manager. It was horrible.
I wrote the material for Pastoral Hide And Seek when I was probably at my worst and lowest bad luck
Period that I could possibly had in my life. I had no money, I was completely addicted to alcohol.
My band was doing nothing. We had no record deal and I was extremely depressed all the time and somewhat suicidal. And I made up all these songs.
We wanted to break with the punk rock connection. We were tired of playing the early records and we were into obtuse guitar arrangements and different rhythms. I was listening to a lot of Hendrix, Coltrane
And Eric Dolphy at the time. So I went from extremely subtle moods to overbearing moods and everything in between. This was the first one since Las Vegas Story where I really concentrated on specifically distinctly different kinds of songs. Lot of color to it. A colorful sound.
When I finished recording, I went to Southeast Asia. I thought Vietnam would really be interesting and it was. I caught something, I don’t know what, something from mosquitoes. I’d gotten hepatitis, and it caused so much internal destruction that I basically have no immune system, so I just pick up everything.
You know, I can’t believe it. Every time I go to the far east I meet some huge strapping Australians who seem to relish disease. They just say like, “What’s dysentery? No problem-I had it last week.
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
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