''Deserter's Songs'' is the fourth studio album by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Mercury Rev Mercury Rev is an American indie rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York.
Original personnel were British music magazine ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' named ''Deserter's Songs'' album of the year for 1998. Limited edition copies of the album came in a brown cardboard envelope-like package, with a stamp on the cover postmarked with the release date, as well as two art postcards. The success of this album was a pleasant surprise for the band. After the commercial failure of their previous album '' See You on the Other Side'', which frontman

Jonathan Donahue Jonathan Daniel Donahue (born May 6, 1966) is an American rock musician. He is best known as the frontman and a founding member of Mercury Rev, with whom he has released nine studio albums since 1991. He is also a former member of The Flaming Lips ...

considered to be the band's best album, they decided to make one more record entirely for themselves, ignoring commercial influences, and expecting to split up shortly afterward. Surprisingly, ''Deserter's Songs'' was their most successful album, bringing them popularity in the UK and Europe, also making a smaller mark in the US.

Background

When Mercury Rev returned home from touring their 1995 album '' See You on the Other Side'', they were a band in disarray. Sales of ''See You'' had been disappointing and, as a result, the band had requested to be dropped from their label. To make matters worse, the band's manager was gone, longtime drummer Jimy Chambers had left the band, their lawyers had recently been let go, and Mercury Rev was in debt. As frontman

slid into a deep depression, communication between the band members was virtually non-existent. In the depths of his depression, Donahue began listening to some of his favorite childhood records, including ''

Tale Spinners for Children Tale Spinners for Children was a series of stories and novels adapted for young audiences on vinyl records in the early 1960s. They included a collection of old fairy tales, folklore, literary classics such as ''Don Quixote'' and ''Robinson Cruso ...

'', a collection of spoken-word fairy tales set to classical music. Influenced by this decidedly non-rock musical source, the frontman started composing and recording simple melodies on the piano. These demo recordings would prove to be the first steps in the new direction Mercury Rev would take on ''Deserter's Songs''. Donahue was approached at this time by

The Chemical Brothers The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons in Manchester in 1989. They were pioneers (along with the Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method, and other acts) in bringing the big beat genre t ...

and asked to play on a song of theirs called "

The Private Psychedelic Reel "The Private Psychedelic Reel" is a song by The Chemical Brothers. It was the closing track of their second album ''Dig Your Own Hole'' and was released as a numbered limited edition single. The B-side was a live version of " Setting Sun". An ...

". Shocked that someone not only remembered Mercury Rev but also wanted to collaborate, Donahue enthusiastically dove into the project. It would be the boost that he needed to restore his confidence and focus on making music again. Following his Chemical Brothers collaboration, Donahue started talking to Mercury Rev guitarist Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak, and the two began sharing and recording musical ideas. Donahue has since revealed that creating ''Deserter's Songs'' was more about reestablishing his friendship with Grasshopper (whom he considered his best friend) than anything else. Grasshopper also mentioned that both men were struggling with drugs and relationships at the time. "It's a record born out of a certain amount of pain," Donahue told '' Q'', "because, after the last tour, we basically fell apart. Grasshopper checked himself into a monastery, the drummer quit, and I suffered two nervous breakdowns. I lost my girlfriend and hurt a lot of the people I love. It was a pretty horrible time; something I can never wholly rectify."

Writing and recording

By this time, Donahue and Grasshopper had relocated to the

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas c ...

, where the writing and recording of ''Deserter's Songs'' would ensue over the next six months. Two of the first songs written, "

Opus 40 ''Opus 40'' is a large environmental sculpture in Saugerties, New York, created by sculptor and quarryman Harvey Fite (1903—1976). It comprises a sprawling series of dry-stone ramps, pedestals and platforms covering of a bluestone quarry. '' ...

" and "The Hudson Line", referenced their new Catskill surroundings. The latter detailed Grasshopper leaving

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

(and its temptations) to spend a month in a

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retreat house in

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

. The Catskill influence was only solidified when Garth Hudson and

Levon Helm Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012) was an American musician who achieved fame as the drummer and one of the three lead vocalists for the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. H ...

from The Band—who lived in the area—joined the recording sessions. The song "

Goddess on a Hiway "Goddess on a Hiway" is the first single from Mercury Rev's fourth studio album, ''Deserter's Songs''. The single was first released on November 2, 1998, and then re-issued on August 16, 1999. Two music videos were produced for the song, one dire ...

" was originally written by Donahue in 1989 while he was still a member of

The Flaming Lips The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Steven Drozd (guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, vocals), Derek Brown (keyb ...

. The song had been largely forgotten until it was found on an old

cassette tape The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...

during the ''Deserter's'' sessions. Donahue was reluctant to work on the old song, and had to be convinced by Grasshopper to resurrect it for the album. "Goddess" would later be released as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

. Thematically, the songs written and recorded for the album explored the act of leaving—of "walking away", as Donahue explained. And indeed, with the band members sensing that the end was near, the album was intended to be something of a farewell from Mercury Rev. Midway through recording, the band signed to

V2 Records V2 Records (or V2 Music; V2 being an abbreviation for Virgin 2) is a record label that was purchased by Universal Music Group in 2007 and sold to IASin 2013. In the Benelux, V2 operates separately from PIAS, as the label bought itself out from ...

. Their new record label, fully aware of Mercury Rev's unpredictable and chaotic past, cautiously began funneling money to the band piecemeal to complete the album. After laying down the basic tracks for ''Deserter's'', the band then spent two months at Tarbox Road studio, recording string arrangements and mixing the album with one-time band member Dave Fridmann. It was at this moment that the band's sound was completely re-imagined. Whereas on previous albums, the band would flesh out basic tracks with layers of distortion and guitars, this time classical music instruments—strings, horns, and woodwinds—were used instead of guitars. The album was mastered to 35mm magnetic film for fidelity purposes. Producer Fridmann explained that this unique process gave the music an intentionally "weird sound", while enhancing the "cinematic bent" of the music.

Release

Upon ''Deserter's'' completion, the album received some unexpected word-of-mouth promotion from Donahue's old collaborators,

. An advance copy of the album had been sent to The Chemical Brothers, who in turn began raving to the press that Mercury Rev had created something special. Even so, the band was pleasantly surprised by the album's immediate popularity and success, especially in Europe. Grasshopper recalled being "freaked out" when he first heard "Goddess on a Hiway" being played in a British

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...

. He remarked that "it was just insane ... going from total anxiety and despair in August

ust before the album's release UST or Ust may refer to: Organizations * UST (company), American digital technology company * Equatorial Guinea Workers' Union * Union of Trade Unions of Chad (Union des Syndicats du Tchad) * United States Television Manufacturing Corp. * UST Grow ...

to a total emotional flip flop of euphoria a couple of months later hen the album took off" Donahue added: "It had the feeling of rebirth, of going down to the grave for quite a while and lying down there in the darkness and the quiet, and then someone pulls you up and shakes the dirt off you and says 'no, you thought you were dead, but you're not.'"

Legacy

The album was included in the book ''

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' is a musical reference book first published in 2005 by Universe Publishing. Part of the ''1001 Before You Die'' series, it compiles writings and information on albums chosen by a panel of music critics ...

''.

Relationship with The Flaming Lips and ''The Soft Bulletin''

As Mercury Rev was completing work on ''Deserter's Songs'' at Tarbox Road with Dave Fridmann, the producer was simultaneously helping

craft their breakthrough album ''

The Soft Bulletin ''The Soft Bulletin'' is the ninth studio album by American rock band the Flaming Lips, released by Warner Bros. Records on May 17, 1999, in the United Kingdom, and on June 22, 1999, in the United States. The album was released to widespread accla ...

'' in the same studio. In a 2011 interview, The Flaming Lips'

Wayne Coyne Wayne Michael Coyne (born January 13, 1961) is an American musician. He is the lead singer, guitarist, keyboardist, theremin player and songwriter for the band the Flaming Lips. Early life Coyne was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United Stat ...

discussed ''Deserter's Songs'', ''The Soft Bulletin'', and the symbiotic creation of the two albums:

''"... there were times when
he Flaming Lips He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
would go in
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right after ercury Rev or they would come in right after us, and we were all exploring the same new gadgets together. They were starting to work in
Protools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...
at the same time we were. And whatever instruments, whatever new gadgets, between us, Mercury Rev and Dave ridmannnbsp;... which ever band would get them, the next group into the studio would use them too. If Dave had just had some breakthrough moment he'd recorded with us, when Mercury Rev would come in he would say 'Hey ... we've got to do this, this is cool'. And the same thing would happen with us. So I think the connection is Dave Fridmann, and also this lack of really believing there would be an audience for this record. I think Mercury Rev felt the same way. Their audience had gone away, and all they could do was make the music that was in their dreams."''

Coyne attributes some of ''The Soft Bulletin''s success to a 1999 Flaming Lips tour with Mercury Rev:

''"I think without ''Deserter's Songs'' being so significant, ''The Soft Bulletin'' would probably have not been followed too much. But since it was put in the same vein, people became very interested in us."''

Miscellaneous notes

The hidden track at the end of " Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp" is played on the ''Tettix Wave Accumulator'', an instrument built by Donahue and Grasshopper. As of 2009, the massive instrument was being housed in the basement of a bar. A 10th anniversary edition of the album was rumored to be released on March 5, 2007, but never came to fruition. Mercury Rev released their seventh studio album ''

Snowflake Midnight ''Snowflake Midnight'' is the seventh studio album from Mercury Rev. It was released on September 29, 2008 in the UK, and September 30 in the US.

'' on ''Deserter's Songs actual 10-year anniversary, September 29, 2008. In May 2011 a fully instrumental edition of the album was released. In the same month, the band also staged a series of concerts at venues throughout Europe in which the whole album was performed live. The song "

Holes A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of en ...

" was used in the 2000 film ''

Panic Panic is a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight-or-flight reactio ...

'', starring

William H. Macy William Hall Macy Jr. (born March 13, 1950) is an American actor. His film career has been built on appearances in small, independent films, though he has also appeared in mainstream films. Some of his best known starring roles include those i ...

and Neve Campbell, and in the 2021 film '' Sing 2''. "Opus 40" appeared on the soundtrack of the 2020 film ''

Love and Monsters Love & Monsters may refer to: * "Love & Monsters" (''Doctor Who''), an episode of ''Doctor Who'' * ''Love and Monsters'' (film), a 2020 American post-apocalyptic monster adventure film {{Disambiguation ...

Track listing

All lyrics by

, except "Hudson Line" by Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak, and "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp" by Jimy Chambers. All music by Jonathan Donahue and Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak. # "

" – 5:55 # "Tonite It Shows" – 3:40 # "Endlessly" – 4:25 # "I Collect Coins" – 1:27 # "Opus 40" – 5:10 # "Hudson Line" – 2:54 # "The Happy End (The Drunk Room)" – 2:06 # "

" – 3:45 # "The Funny Bird" – 5:51 # "Pick Up If You're There" – 3:05 # " Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp"/(untitled instrumental) (

hidden track In the field of recorded music, a hidden track (sometimes called a ghost track, secret track or unlisted track) is a song or a piece of audio that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, LP record, or other recorded medium, in such a way as t ...

) – 6:17 ;Japanese bonus tracks #

Underture (silence) – 0:05 # "Ragtag" – 2:44

''Deserter's Songs'' bonus EP

Upon the album's release, a 6-track promo EP was issued, featuring covers recorded as B-sides from live recording sessions. The EP was bundled with copies of the album sold at Best Buy stores. # "He Was a Friend of Mine" (

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

) – 3:36 # "Motion Pictures" (

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

) – 3:28 # "Silver Street" ( Nikki Sudden, Dave Kusworth) – 4:41 # "Philadelphia" (Neil Young) – 3:07 # "I Only Have Eyes for You" (featuring Sean O'Hagan) (

Harry Warren Harry Warren (born Salvatore Antonio Guaragna; December 24, 1893 – September 22, 1981) was an American composer and the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song ...

Al Dubin Alexander Dubin (June 10, 1891 – February 11, 1945) was an American lyricist. He is best known for his collaborations with the composer Harry Warren. Life Al Dubin came from a Russian Jewish family that emigrated to the United States from Swi ...

) – 4:22 # "Caroline Says Pt. II" (

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

) – 3:33

''Deserter's Songs: The Film''

A special edition of the album was released in 2005 with a bonus DVD, featuring an album-length companion film to ''Deserter's Songs'' as well as two music videos (directed by

Anton Corbijn Anton Johannes Gerrit Corbijn van Willenswaard (; born 20 May 1955) is a Dutch photographer, film director and music video director. He is the creative director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2,Pitman, Joanna"The silent partner"' ...

) and an audio remix track: # "''Deserter's Songs'': The Film" – 44:39 # "Opus 40" (music video) – 3:36 # "Goddess on a Hiway" (music video) – 3:44 # "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp" (

remix) (audio track) – 6:22

''Deserter's Songs: Deluxe Edition''

In 2011, a further reissue of the album surfaced, this time a double-disc "Deluxe Edition" via V2/Cooperative. Unlike previous repackagings, which featured tracks also found spread across various singles and promotional releases, this edition contained a full disc's worth of exclusive material, dubbed "Deserted Songs." Track listing for disc two: # "Piano vs. Telephone" (home cassette tape demo) # "Holes" (Bill Laswell 1998 remix) # "Pick Up, If You're There" (DJ Nickel 1998 remix) # "Endlessly" (Tascam 8-track reel to reel demo) # "A Soft Kiss (for waking up)" (home cassette tape demo) # "Tonite It Shows" (Tascam 8-track reel to reel demo) # "Looking Back Now, I Can See..." (unreleased mix) # "Opus 40" (early rough version) # "Hudson Line" (early rough version) # "Judging By The Moon" (home cassette tape demo) # "Goddess On A Hiway" (1989 home cassette tape demo) # "Night On Panther Mountain" (unreleased mix) # "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp" (early rough version)

Personnel

– vocals, acoustic guitar, chamberlin strings * Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak – guitar reels, vocals on #6, woodwinds * Jimy Chambers – clavinet, harpsichord, drums * Dave Fridmann – piano, bass, mellotron, backing vocals * Suzanne Thorpe – flutes * Vincent DeSanto - tettix wave accumulator * Adam Snyder – B3, Mellotron, wurlitzer *

– drums on "Opus 40" * Garth Hudson – tenor & alto sax on "Hudson Line" * Amy Helm & Marie Spinosa – female vox and whistling * Mary Gavazzi Fridmann – female soprano * Jeff Mercel – drums * Joel Eckhouse –

musical saw A musical saw, also called a singing saw, is a hand saw used as a musical instrument. Capable of continuous glissando (portamento), the sound creates an ethereal tone, very similar to the theremin. The musical saw is classified as a plaque f ...

* Rachel Handman – violins * Matt Jordan – flugelhorns * Jim Burgess – trombones * Aaron Hurwitz – piano * Scott Petito – upright electric bass *

Garrett Uhlenbrock Garrett Uhlenbrock, (born Garrett James Uhlenbrock, 21 August 1964) aka Skinny Bones is an American punk rock musician and songwriter, best known for co-writing songs for the New York based band, the Ramones. Record producer Bill Laswell i ...

– slide guitar

Charts

References

{{Authority control Mercury Rev albums 1998 albums Albums produced by Dave Fridmann Chamber pop albums Albums recorded at Tarbox Road Studios