by Mary Dolan

Episode 272: The Flaming Lips

“Do You Realize??”

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The Flaming Lips formed in Oklahoma City in 1983. Over the last four decades, they’ve put out 16 albums. In 1999, they put out their album The Soft Bulletin, and that brought them a new level of success. And then, in 2002, they followed it up with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which was their biggest album to date. Pitchfork named it one of the top 5 albums of the year, Stereogum called it one of the best albums of the decade, and they won a Grammy. And the biggest song from the album was “Do You Realize??” So, for this episode, I talked to Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd about how that song was first imagined. You’ll hear the very first demo Wayne recorded for the song, and the demo he and Steven put together later, on their way to making the final version with producer Dave Fridmann.

You can buy or stream “Do You Realize??” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
“We Can’t Predict The Future”
Mercury Rev
Jane’s Addiction
“Slow Motion” – Origin of the “Do You Realize??” drum fill
Adam Clayton fromU2

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by Mary Dolan

Episode 271: War

“Low Rider”

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The band War formed in 1969, in Long Beach, California. “Low Rider” is from their 1975 album Why Can’t We Be Friends? The song was a hit as soon as it came out. It went to #1 on the Billboard R&B charts, and it’s just had tremendous lasting power ever since. Besides being in the movie Dazed and Confused, where I heard it, it’s been sampled by the Beastie Boys, it was covered by Korn, and it was the theme song for all six seasons of The George Lopez Show.

For this episode, I talked to War’s bandleader Lonnie Jordan, and their producer Jerry Goldstein. The two of them told me how “Low Rider” was made in the studio, through a combination of improvisation and meticulous editing.

You can buy or stream “Low Rider” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
“Low Rider” personnel: Lonnie Jordan, Papa Dee Allen, B.B. Dickerson, Charles Miller, Harold Brown, Howard Scott, and Lee Oskar
“Low Rider” as seen in the movie Dazed and Confused
Crystal Studios
Jerry Goldstein’s prior credits included “Hang on Sloopy” and “My Boyfriend’s Back”
Tito Puente
Lowrider cars
Stevie Wonder
Sound City Studios
“Low Rider” is sampled on “G.D.F.R.” by Flo Rida
Flavor Flav

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by Mary Dolan

Episode 270: Shania Twain

“You’re Still The One”

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Shania Twain is a singer and songwriter from Ontario, Canada. She’s the only female artist to have had three consecutive Diamond albums  —  albums that have each sold over ten million copies. Actually, her 1997 album Come On Over is the best-selling album by a female solo artist of all time. One of the most iconic songs from that iconic album is “You’re Still The One.” It was co-written and produced by Mutt Lange, who had previously produced some other classic albums, like AC/DC’s Back in Black and Def Leppard’s Pyromania. He had also produced Shania Twain’s previous album, The Woman in Me. For this episode, Shania told me the story of writing “You’re Still The One.” She told me about what the song meant to her when she was making it, over 25 years ago, and what it means to her now.

You can buy or stream “You’re Still The One” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Paul Leim – drums
John Hobbs – organ
Bruce Bouton – steel guitar
Mutt had also produced albums for Foreigner and The Cars
Shania’s childhood repertoire included Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette and George Jones

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