TIME 04:28

LYRICS

Prune Face, you’re old.
Ain’t got a heart made of gold.
Your heart is made of stain.
You will cause all human men pain.

Prune Face, Prune Face, I see you walking up the parade.
I see the crisis you’ve made.
You’re the queen of wrinkle.
You are the Prune Face.
Prune Face got wrinkles in place. You’ve got an ugly prune face.

You’ve got…HIDEOUS!!
UGH!!! HIT ME!!!
HIT ME!!! HAH!! HAH!!

I want to squish your prune face,
Squash you in a fruit bowl. Shove you in a hole.
Squash your Prune Face, Prune Face, Prune Face, Prune Face, Ahhh!!

You talk to me prune face. You lie to me Prune Face.
You got a crisis. You’ve got a spoon.
You wrinkle roads in the groove. Prune Face.

Prune face, you wreck the place. Prune Face, destroy the place.
You’re full of wrinkle, you’re full of crinkle,

ain’t nothing but a Prune Face.

RECORDED

Performed by the FLAT ASTRONAUTS
Written by the FLAT ASTRONAUTS
Recorded 199?, Third Studio from the Sun, Wayne NJ
Appears on the full length Album : CELSIUS
OC-0002

PERSONEL

C W Cobalt: Vocals, Lyrics
Alec Haavik: Horns
Bus DDTMilklithin: Bass
Bill Hamilton: Guitar
Ted Nordlander: Keyboards
Aib Gomez-Delgado: Drums

NOTES

Prune Face is a character who appears in Episode 2 of Celsius, a 7 part epic project which as of this date, I’m still working towards completion. In the story, the Flat Astronauts, a paramilitary group of intergalactic adventurers, have landed on the planet Epsilon, populated with blue female clones who live in a hive-like society. Prune Face is the “queen bee” who is adamant about exiling the Flat Astronauts as soon as possible. Cobalt sings this song upon meeting Prune Face, which promptly lands him and his co-patriots in jail.

When imagining the character, I happened to see a picture from a fashion magazine which served as a prototype for the character.

There three kinds of songs that I normally co-write and record (all of them are collaborative since I can’t play any instruments!) The first kind of song is written prior to entering the studio, and is normally “rehearsed” with a prewritten structure, melody, lyric and arrangement in place which is then simply taught to the rest of the musicians and recorded. The second type of song would be written or improvised on the spot, with very little prep work. The last is one which is improvised, but then drastically changed and/or modified by extensive overdubs.

For the most part, Prune Face is in the second category. I had no lyrics written in advance and asked the band to come up with a basic funky groove, somewhat in a James Brown/P-funk vein. The fellas tried out a couple of beats and grooves until Aib nailed it with the beat we used for Prune Face. I had them stop playing for a moment, asked the engineer to roll tape, and we recorded the song in one take. The Astronauts constantly surprise me with their ability to pull off a completed song in one take, and Prune Face is a sterling example of this ability.

All the instruments are played live, first take, and my lyrics are totally improvised. In fact you can hear me kinda stumble on a couple of the lines (I actually slur Qweeen instead of Queen at one point for instance. I don’t know what the heck I’m really saying in the part of he song that phonetically sounds like “You got a crisis. You’ve got a spoon.” I’m really just muffing up the words. Love it though, and redoing the vocal would have lost the immediacy of this sketch. improvised first takes have a rough edged beauty to them that I’ve come to cherish.

After the basic track was laid down, Alec, Jeff and Bill went in for an overdub/mix session for which I wasn’t present. During that session, Alec doubled up some of the horn parts to make it sound like we had a fuller horn section (though the solo was recorded live on the original recording date). Some additional percussion was added, as well as some samples of scratching. Most of what you’re hearing was from the first take though.

STUDY QUESTIONS

1) How many funk cliches can you identify in this song?
2) How does Alec get that squeaky sound from his sax at the end of the song?
3) Where are your favorite wrinkles on your body? Or the body of yr LOVER??