Secrets
My original idea was to model a rock song after Gamelan music (drone music of Java and Bali). Some of that grid-idea was jetisoned, but the core idea remains. We recorded this as the third song to the Acad/Max sessions, but it did not come out well. We thought about including it on the single - as one of those "back of a cereal box" things where the 7" record jacket would have the song imprinted on it. (The version on Vs. was recorded during the Vs. sessions, of course).

In typical Pete fashion, when I told him he had a "drum solo" in the middle section, he proceeded to walk around his drum kit and hit at it randomly. Hey, it's his goddam solo, not mine.

Very early song - Clint and I used to often bring in new songs at the same time: I think his pairing with Secrets was OK/NoWay.

Train
One of Clint's later tunes. His use of odd time-signatures without being excessively arty was quite a thing to hear.

Trem Two
I brought this into the band in early 1981 and all of us thought it sucked, so I dropped it. Convinced later that year that, yes, it did have virtue, we tried it out again and it worked fine.

We released it as the single off of Vs. at least partly because it was such a contrary gesture. Some friends of mine thought that the song was "deliberately wierd", but it's as honest as any of them. It was called Trem Two because Clint had written a song called Tremelo (very early on in the band), and this was our second tremelo song.

My first recorded use of "prepared piano" - the water torture sound in the floating section.

New Nails
The line "The Roman Empire never died, it just changed into the Catholic Church." was derived from a P.K.Dick novel (though it is also a very obvious fact). Some of the lyrics are awkward, but "Save me I am not a Goat." remains one of my favorite lines. Martin's vocal manipulations give a nice authentic feel to the hellish atmosphere.

Dead Pool
One of our few "slow" songs, with a touch of dirge thrown in. The opening chord is one used over and over in the band: a straight bar across the frets (i.e., the "open guitar"). This same chord was used in Anti-Aircraft Warning, Eyes of Men, New Disco, Active in the Yard, Dirt, and possibly Laugh the World Away. It's even showing up in some of my "next century" songs.

Our Philadelphia shows were very poorly recieved. So at our last show we did there (in 1982), we opened up with all our slowest songs, just to set the pace. Dead Pool and Ein., possibly Trem II? Dead Pool summed it up the best.

Learn How
Pete's first "complete" song, and a ripper. I love its open-ness in the middle - again, it's the improvisation sections in our songs that make me want to listen to live sets. Bob Weston now does some great vocal loops on this one.

"Every raw material at hand" - that could sum up our use of that simple open guitar chord. Take what's there and transform it.

Mica
My favorite of Clint's tunes. Another trait of Clint's - very unusual rhythmic grooves that somehow make sense (see chorus to Peking Spring). Lyrics by Holly Anderson, interestingly the only outside input into any of our material. Possibly my favorite Burma song. Great loops by Martin.

Weatherbox
I was living in the North End of Boston at the time, an extremely Italian section of town where I frequently felt like a trespassing insect. I had a small box (probably designed for carrying 45's) on which I had sprayed a blob of grey paint. (This was my post-punk briefcase). As I walked down the main street I heard a bunch of young toughs yell "Here comes Deputy Dan with his Weatherbox!" Of course I was intrigued, and looked around. Then I realized they met me as one of them tried to grab it out of my hands.

Later, I left it in a pub. When I went back to get it, the bouncer said "Are there any bombs in that?" Thus the title of the song, and the reason "bombs roll inside the weatherbox".

The Ballad of Johnny Burma
Originally written for the Moving Parts, but somehow too odd for the band. I finally wrote lyrics for it in Burma. "We're on the edge of Burma and we're going to fall off" - yep. One of only two Burma songs to use the word "Baby."

Einstein's Day
This was written between Moving Parts and Burma. Moving Parts were doing a final documenting session, and I had already come up with the main riff. I knew it would grab Clint, so casually, when we were both in the same room, I played the riff. He immediately spun around. I knew I was onto something.

I believe it was Einstein's 100th anniversary. The lyrics in verse II are all from a dream during the transition between M.Parts and M.Burma. Clint and I were watching a tray of ocean water oscillate back and forth, and at each oscillation the colors became more and more intense.

Fun World
I came up with this riff during a soundcheck at the Paradise. I was messing with a hep guitar riff from the first B-52's album, and this was kind of a warp on that. Early on the song was criticized by some fans for being too heavy metal. (later this critique was dropped). We did two versions for Vs. The version we used was the best one, but I sang verse I twice instead of verse II. So we dropped in verse II from the other version - which is why it is slightly out of sync.

The engineer was VERY traditional, and even with Rick Harte in the studio, it was hard to get him to adapt to our way of thinking. So we had already started playing the song, and Rick was harassing the guy to get him to start the machine. Thus the slightly odd start to the song.

That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate
Pure Punk Power Pop. For Vs., the tape ran out before the end was over. We decided we liked that. In the mix, we opted for overdriving the living hell out of the vocals and guitar track in the board. Some thought this was a bit extreme at the time.