an unending song project
Originally published at parlando. Please leave any comments there.
Chris Butler is one of the most variously interesting figures in post-punk rock and roll. Describing him quickly gets out of hand. A non-comprehensive list of stuff he’s done:
- Was in the awesome late-70s Akron band Tin Huey.
- Was the leader of the Waitresses; wrote “I Know What Boys Like” and “Christmas Wrapping”.
- Recorded an album entirely with early, primitive recording technology such as wire recording.
- Created the fake-European pop band Kilopop, whose ebullient female-sung “Sure Wish That He Wasn’t Here” ought to be a classic.
- Made one of the smartest and best albums of the 1990s, I Feel a Bit Normal Today. (Okay, that’s not especially interesting, but I couldn’t write a post about Butler without mentioning it.)
- Recorded the world’s longest pop song - officially recognized by the Guinness Book - the 69-minute long “The Devil Glitch”:
The song began as a mere five-minute version (included on the CD for the chronologically impaired), with a 12-chorus vamp at the end. As a gag, I started writing extra choruses, and three months later I had enough to fill an entire CD. After recording a backing track with vocals and an acoustic guitar, I passed out 3- to 4-minute chunks to musicians I have produced and/or played with, asking them to flesh-out the arrangement in anyway they saw fit. With 14 contributors in hand (including Freedy Johnston, Kramer, The Gefkens and even my Mom), ace engineer Scott Anthony digitally edited the whole thing together into one long, seamless tune…
I have the album; it’s weird and fun. Butler now has bigger plans for the song:
Today, I am pleased to announce THE MAJOR GLITCH PROJECT! Thanks to the internet, it is now possible for ANYONE to create a 3-4 minute chunk that can be edited into the original, the goal being to create an online version that plays/streams for hours and hours.
Many years ago I wrote a whole bunch of fake choruses for “The Devil Glitch”, but I don’t think I ever archived them. I hope a bunch of folks contribute to this.