Hairway to Steven cover

Hairway to Steven

Released

The songs on Hairway To Steven originally had only small stick-figure drawings for titles, but they were eventually titled in a more conventional manner. The opening “Jimi” is a nearly 13-minute showcase for guitarist Paul Leary’s post-Hendrixian wailing, as Gibby Haynes roars “What do you know about death? I am death” and the like in an electronically lowered voice. If you don’t listen to the lyrics, “Ricky” and “Rocky” (and “I Saw An X-Ray Of A Girl Passing Gas”) could almost be conventional college rock (as it was known back then), but “John E. Smoke,” with its dubbed-in applause and waves of post-Beat nonsense from Haynes, is the album’s moment of peak Butthole-ism, bafflingly hilarious while still obviously the product of people who know exactly what they’re doing.

Phil Freeman

Suggestions
Steppenwolf cover

Steppenwolf

Steppenwolf
Sankofa cover

Sankofa

Amaro Freitas
Komorebi cover

Komorebi

Context Chameleon
Supercollider cover

Supercollider

Supercollider
 Old and New Dreams cover

Old and New Dreams

Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell
Morton Feldman: Trio cover

Morton Feldman: Trio

Marc Sabat, Rohan de Saram, Aki Takahashi
Dirt…and More Dirt cover

Dirt…and More Dirt

Henry Threadgill
Sister cover

Sister

Sonic Youth
Horizontal Structures cover

Horizontal Structures

Moritz von Oswald Trio
Receivers cover

Receivers

Parts & Labor
Schema cover

Schema

Schema