HATEFUL BOAT



performed on:
The song that essentially launched the FUN GOLDFISH TOYS aesthetic, this was played several times in 1981 before being expanded in the studio. It is a dissonant, gothic fixture at live shows. When it is played, it usually opens the show. The band comes out all clutching acoustic guitars as a drum machine plods along. The guitars become faster and faster until the tempo of the mechanism can scarecely keep up, and that's when the bloodcurdling, incoherent screaming starts. Much of the time, Parker is just singing "half empty" over and over.

The studio version is similar except a claustrophobic intro which consists of fourteen drum machines being turned on simultaneously and keeping different beats. The guitars come in after thirty seconds; in this version, Parker screams a few more things; our best guesses are below. Live, the only arrangement change has been the addition of more drum machines on the Science Tour, and even then not half as many as there are on the EP.

A remix from the "Hot Glass" single with the tongue-in-cheek billing of "swing lounge version" is, if anything, more nightmarish than the original, with the simple change that it uses live drums (all members sat on drums and did two overdubs) and electric guitars (again, with all members), and of course there's feedback. Janet Kieran: "We would only play that version live if we wanted to empty the house." They never have, but the engineer at the session did walk out in disgust.

As if the song could use any more intensity, it is two minutes longer on the PROJECTION CONSISTENCY best-of, featuring a haunting section of screeching from Nick; on a roll, fifty seconds before the sudden end he goes to the reel-to-reel and simultaneously turns on unfinished takes of "Wet" and "Rock Around the Clock," resulting in, to say the least, a mind-boggling way to open a greatest hits collection.


PESTICIDES? RESIDENT? MARTIN LUTHER KING? LOVE? FATHER? NEW? JUSTIFICATION?
HALF EMPTY?
HALF EMPTY?
HALF EMPTY?