''Here Come the Snakes'' is an album by the American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

Green on Red Green on Red was an American rock band, formed in the Tucson, Arizona punk scene, but based for most of its career in Los Angeles, California, where it was loosely associated with the Paisley Underground. Earlier records have the wide-screen psy ...

, released in 1989.

Production

Recorded in Memphis, the album was produced by Jim Dickinson and Joe Hardy. Band members

Dan Stuart Daniel Gordon Stuart (born March 5, 1961, Los Angeles) is an American musician and author best known as the lead singer of the rock band Green on Red (other members included Chuck Prophet, Chris Cacavas and Jack Waterson), his teaming with Steve W ...

and Chuck Prophet were backed by local musicians. Stuart and Prophet used the Sam C. Phillips Recording Studio, where they worked with

Roland Janes Roland E. Janes (August 20, 1933 – October 18, 2013) was an American rockabilly guitarist and record producer, who was active at Sun Records between 1956 and 1963. Biography He was born in Brookings, Clay County, Arkansas, the second youngest in ...

. "

We Had It All ''We Had It All'' is the tenth studio album by the American solo artist Scott Walker. It was released in August 1974 but was unsuccessful on the music charts. It was Walker's final solo album for ten years; in the interim Walker reformed The Wal ...

" is a cover of the song made popular in part by Keith Richards.

Critical reception

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...

'' stated: "Again switching easily among rock, blues and country idioms, what’s left of Green on Red sounds relaxed and confident, a warm and boozy vehicle for Stuart’s amusingly wry regrets and social observations."

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

wrote that "Stuart reemerges on Jim Dickinson's shoulder as Neil Young and Mick Jagger fried into one bar singer." The ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' opined that "things bottom out on 'Tenderloin', a roiling, bluesy affair with a spoken monolog about failed love that, if it were delivered from a barstool by a tavern patron, would lead any saloonkeeper to close up early." The ''

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published s ...

'' noted that "Stuart is still at the top of his art—it's just a little too disturbing for mass consumption." In 1990, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' deemed ''Here Come the Snakes'' the best album of 1989, writing that Green on Red was "the most scandalously overlooked band of the last decade."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

wrote that "from the get-go, Prophet's guitar is the cornerstone to the ''Let It Bleed'' mood that fires this record."

Track listing

Personnel

;Green on Red * Chuck Prophet - guitar, vocals *

- lead vocals, guitar with: *René Coman - bass * Jim Dickinson - drums *Paul Ebersold - piano *Ed Kollis - harmonica *The Zombie Choir - vocals

References

{{reflist Green on Red albums 1989 albums albums produced by Jim Dickinson Restless Records albums