Song info:
"Deadman" is a track in which Mercury Rev provide backing music to spoken word by Alan Vega (similar to their colaboration with Robert Creeley in "So There"). Alan Vega was in the band Suicide, which came out of New York in the early '70s. The track is about 10 minutes long and rather dark and disturbing. The music sounds like it's out of an old black & white foreign murder mystery film or something. On the CD, shortly after the track ends, there's a 25 minute recording of Jonathan and his parents when he was very young, circa '69-'71. Pretty odd stuff consisting mostly of Jonathan goofing off and singing songs. If you can sit through the whole thing more than once, you may need to seek counseling.
Here's a fan review of Deadman from Mark O.: This is one of my favorite songs of theirs! I'm not just saying that to be weird. Musically, they accomplish more in this song than most bands did in the 20th century. A beautiful sweep across the history of music, incorporating blues, New Orleans funeral marches and the Rev's own style. For the first listens, go ahead and block out Alan Vega's spoke word stuff and thrive on the sound. Eventually, you'll probably be quoting Vega. I was actually disappointed when 'See You On The Other Side' came out and it didn't sound more like this song!
Release info:
notes: "Everlasting Arm Taken from the forthcoming Mercury Rev album due contractually this fall"
The US (big cat) and UK (beggars) CDs are a bit different. They have a different picture of Alan Vega on the inside and the CDs themselves are totally different. The US one has the buffalo/poughkeepsie/kingston logo, the UK one an old fashioned looking painting of a woman.
There is also a 12'' limited edition white vinyl. On the run out track on side A is written: "6 hats 5 snowshoes 4 squeak-squeaks." And in the same place scratched into the vinyl again on side B: "3 angels 2 chop -chops and 1 zenith." Everything else seems to be the same as the cd single.
http://members.cox.net/divercity/rev/disco/disco.html
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