''Hairway to Steven'' is the fourth full-length studio album by American

experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with ...

band

Butthole Surfers Butthole Surfers are an American rock band formed in San Antonio, Texas, by singer Gibby Haynes and guitarist Paul Leary in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been ...

, released in April 1988. All songs were written by Butthole Surfers, co-produced by Butthole Surfers and Ric Wallace, and mixed by Wallace. The album was recorded at January Sound Studio in Dallas. The album was originally released on Touch and Go, and was reissued on

Latino Buggerveil Latino Buggerveil is an independent record label and publishing company that was founded by psychedelic noise-punk rock, punk band the Butthole Surfers. The label's first release was the 1987 in music, 1987 album ''A Texas Trip'', a various artists ...

in 1999. Some of its tracks make allusions to famous musicians, such as

Julio Iglesias Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (; born 23 September 1943) is a Spanish singer, songwriter and former professional footballer. Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and one of the top record ...

Music

The last full-length Butthole Surfers album of the 1980s marked a midway point in the band's career, straddling their psychedelic-noise roots and the more accessible recordings that would follow. Like Butthole Surfers' previous releases, ''Hairway to Steven'' uses nontraditional instrumentation, extensive tape editing, and sound modulation. Unlike its predecessors, which relied almost exclusively on a foundation of

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

, bass, and dual

drummers A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western bands that play rock, pop, jazz, or R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeeping and embellishing the musical timbre. The drummer's ...

, it makes equally heavy use of the

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

. This was drummer Teresa Nervosa's final studio recording with Butthole Surfers. Live performances of all of the album's songs, with the exception of "Julio Iglesias", were included on 1989's '' Double Live''. "Rocky" and "Fast" continue to be regular features of their concerts.

Song titles

This album used no actual song titles when originally released; each song was represented by an absurdist, often scatological cartoon printed on the

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

's label and in the CD's packaging. In the years since, fans have extrapolated the songs' actual names by cross-referencing this album with official and bootleg recordings of the Surfers' live performances, particularly 1989's '' Double Live''. Many online music services use these widely accepted titles (see "

Track listing Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the short ...

").

Background

''Hairway to Steven'' was recorded at one studio in a relatively short period of time. According to bassist

Jeff Pinkus Jeff 'J.D.' Pinkus is an American bassist best known for his work with American punk band Butthole Surfers from 1985 to 1994 and the 2009 reunion. In 1990, he and Butthole Surfers' lead vocalist Gibby Haynes released ''Digital Dump'', the only ...

, the band had been performing most of these songs for years before recording them for this album. Many of the band's previous releases had been piecemeal affairs, recorded over several months in numerous studios, and their songs underwent far more in-studio development. Butthole Surfers opted to follow this album's blueprint on future recordings, entering the studio with more fully formed songs than they had in the past. Pinkus has expressed the opinion that these better-organized recording sessions stifled much of the spontaneous creativity that had propelled the group's previous albums.Ken Lieck, "Reissuing the Butthole Surfers," ''The Austin Chronicle'' Newspaper Vol. 18 Issue 52

Track listing

All songs written and co-produced by Butthole Surfers. The following titles were extrapolated by matching the songs to those found on 1989's '' Double Live'', with the exception of "Julio Iglesias", which is inferred from the song's oft-repeated mention of the singer's name.

Side 1

Side 2

Personnel

Gibby Haynes Gibson Jerome Haynes (born September 30, 1957) is an American musician, radio personality, painter, author and the lead singer of the band Butthole Surfers. Early life and career Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Gibby Haynes is the son of actor ...

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

Paul Leary Paul Leary Walthall (born May 7, 1957), known as Paul Leary, is an American musician and music producer from Austin, Texas, best known as the lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist for the American rock band Butthole Surfers. He is also th ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

– bass *

King Coffey King Coffey (born Jeffrey Coffey; 1964) is an American drummer, known for being the drummer of the psychedelic/noise rock band Butthole Surfers. He began drumming in a Fort Worth hardcore punk band called The Hugh Beaumont Experience in high ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

* Teresa Nervosa – drums

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hairway To Steven 1988 albums Butthole Surfers albums Touch and Go Records albums Blast First albums Au Go Go Records albums