Greg! The Stop Sign!!
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"Greg! The Stop Sign!!" is a song by
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
n
alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...
band
TISM TISM ( ; an acronym of This Is Serious Mum) are a seven-piece anonymous alternative rock band, formed in Melbourne, Australia on 30 December 1982 by vocalist/drummer Humphrey B. Flaubert, bassist/vocalist Jock Cheese and keyboardist/vocalist ...
. It was released in August 1995 as the third single from the album ''
Machiavelli and the Four Seasons ''Machiavelli and the Four Seasons'' is the third studio album by the Australian rock group TISM (This Is Serious Mum). It was released on 4 May 1995. Background and release TISM worked on what would become their next album at Metropolis Audi ...
'' (1995). The song peaked at number 59 on the ARIA chart and polled at number 10 in the Triple J Hottest 100, 1995. At the
ARIA Music Awards of 1996 The 10th Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as the ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) was held on 30 September 1996 at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. Presenters distributed 28 award ...
, the song was nominated for the
ARIA Award for Best Independent Release The ARIA Music Award for Best Independent Release, is an award presented at the annual ARIA Music Awards, which recognises "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genres", since 1987. It is handed out by the Australian Recordin ...
. The song is based on a series of speeding
advertisement Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...
s released by the TAC (Victorian road and safety authorities), who are mentioned in the song. The bridge is recycled from an earlier song called "Consumption Tax", which was recorded during '' The Beasts of Suburban'' sessions in 1992 and released on '' Collected Recordings 1986-1993'' in 1995. The solo is a variation on the intro riff from
The Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters between 1958 and 1959) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the pre-Beatles era from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. They served as the bac ...
' composition "FBI". In December 2022, a limited-edition 12-inch single was released, containing early versions of the song dating back to January 1994 as well as its precursor track "Consumption Tax". The original versions from early 1994 used the riff from "The Ballad of Paul Keating", a song that had been performed on '' The Beasts of Suburban'' tour in 1992.


Video

The video for the song was directed by Mark Hartley. It begins with four players of the
St Kilda Football Club The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league. The club's name originates fro ...
exercising in slow motion ( Shane Wakelin, Chris Hemley, Justin Peckett and Josh Kitchen)Woolcock, 2014, ibid before then moving into the club's
locker room A locker is a small, usually narrow storage compartment. They are commonly found in dedicated cabinets, very often in large numbers, in various public places such as Changing room, locker rooms, workplaces, schools, transport hubs and the like ...
where TISM is seen dancing and singing. Seen on the lockers are the names of famous players, and the walls feature various sporting success cliches (including the prominent "Your (sic) a professional. 'Keep it simple ") The scene shifts to a football field where the band are singing and dancing on the turf. Eventually the video turns to a group of
teenager Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated wi ...
s
party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...
ing in a house. The camera moves into the house to see them all drinking and enjoying themselves. As the camera moves into the back room, a teenage girl is seen
vomiting Vomiting (also known as emesis, puking and throwing up) is the forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Vomiting can be the result of ailments like food poisoning, gastroenteritis, pre ...
on the floor, overlooked by a member of TISM. The video then turns into two scenes from black and white fictional films ("There is more men in children than wisdom knows" and "Le Rape De Mururoa") which are given contrasting "stars" by Margaret and David, with both scenes starring a member of TISM. These two film scenes are broken by more footage of TISM in the locker room. Back in the house one of the most notorious and well known scenes of the video shows a dog eating the vomit from earlier. The video ends as a couple outside the house argue while once again a member of TISM watches on. Throughout the video, the members of TISM are dressed in black uniforms with high shoulder pads and with faces covered by a Balaclava mask, giving them a strange and threatening visage. In the scenes where members of TISM are in the film clips or at the party, they are seemingly invisible to the people around them, able to move and interact with the music video audience, but seemingly ghostlike to the woman in the clips or the teenagers at the party.


Reception

Jonathan Lewis from ''
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
'' called the song a "highlight of the disc". Adam Woolcock from ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' has called it "a metaphor for our collective mortality" and "thrillingly bizarre".


Track list

CD single (G004) # "Greg! The Stop Sign!!" - 3:29 # "Strictly Loungeroom" - 4:07 # "There's More Men in Children Than Wisdom Knows" - 3:36


Personnel

* Ron Hitler-Barassi - lead vocals * Tokin’ Blackman - guitar, backing vocals * Jock Cheese - bass, backing vocals * Humphrey B. Flaubert - drums, backing vocals, lead vocals (bridge) * Eugene De La Hot Croix Bun - keyboards, backing vocals


Charts


References

{{Authority control 1995 singles TISM songs Satirical songs Songs about cars Black comedy music