Credits Again!!

[Babysquid]

Hi Dennis, I was wondering if you recalled who wrote what on the first 2 albums. I know on the Lps all songs are credited collectively but I’m making the assumption that different members were the genesis and driving force behind different songs. From articles, books and records I take that Ten Minutes Before the Worm was yours, Apple Bush Neal’s and I think I read somewhere that Alice came up with Shoe Salesman. I know you do go into some of this in your book but I don’t have it to hand right now.

[Dreary]

You're correct on those 3 songs. Pretties For You was so spontaneous that it's difficult to assign who did what. Most of our albums had that element but to a more definable extent.

Who brought the initial idea to the rehearsal room based on memory from 1968.
My original hand written lyric books show that many songs evolved with lyric overhauls by MB, Alice and myself.
Each of us would write our version, and most often the final lyrics were the best combination of all.
The majority of writing took place in the rehearsal room with all of us brainstorming ideas.

The lyrics on Pretties were inspired by a person in Phoenix, Arizona named Joy who would have the band over for dinner and share her philosophies about such things as, we are all one. Those concepts infiltrated our songs with a sense of humor - If we are all one, then am I that hot chick over there? "Surely I am Shirley all the time."

Pretties For You
Titanic Overture - MB
10 Minutes Before The Worm - DD
Sing Low Sweet Cheerio - MB
Today Mueller - Not sure but I think it was a heavy collaboration. Chords likely MB.
Living - MB
Fields of Regret - Alice and MB lyrics, Instrumentation MB & GB
No Longer Umpire - Heavy collaboration on arrangement.
Levity Ball - Alice and MB
B.B. on Mars - DD
Reflected - Likely MB & Alice.
Apple Bush - NS
Earwigs to Eternity - Likely MB and Alice
Changing Arranging - Likely MB and Alice


Easy Action
Mr. & Misdemeanor - Likely MB with lyrical and arrangement input from all
Shoe Salesman - Alice
Still No Air - Back then the sky over Los Angeles was brownish orange and made your eyes sting. GB said the sky was shitty and that inspired the song. MB & GB likely did the initial chords with the rest of us chiming in on the lyrics and arrangement with a reference to West Side Story.
Below Your Means - MB with NS & I instigating the extended jam outro.
Return of The Spiders - You may have read about the very first time Cindy and I met. I was making fun of Neal because he was still in a surf band and she defended him. The very first song we played when Neal joined our band was "Wipeout." Then I wrote a song to go along with that beat. My lyrics "Stop, look and listen" were intended to get crowds to re-consider lining up at the exits when we played.
Laughing at Me - Alice
Refrigerator Heaven - I had read an interview with Salvador Dali where he was talking about having his body frozen cryogenically. And so this song began. A half century later, Cold Cold Coffin revisited that concept with a twist.
Lay Down and Die, Goodbye - full collaboration with my crusade to create a sound collage that defied traditional forms of music. I was inspired by the pioneering German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Beautiful Flyaway - Pure MB

[Dannorama]

Freakin' Dennis. It's so very nice to have you here. PS: I just realized that we're celebrating the 53 year anniversary of "Easy Action:" March 27, 1970. As a frame of reference, this song didn't appear until 1972. However, I've always thought that The Osmonds - "Crazy Horses" was a direct ripoff of my favorite passage in "Lay Down and Die, Goodbye." Go to 1:22 in this clip. That's just me talking.

[Ted Sallis]

Thanks Babysquid for the thread and Dennis and Dannorama for your replies; this is the first time I've ever seen a breakdown of the song writing credits for PFY and EA, since (as noted in the OP) the 5 Members of the ACG have always been credited on all of the songs previously.

I find it interesting that for PFY the credits don't seem too dissimilar to those found on the albums from LITD on - with Alice and MB having written several songs together - apart from there being more songs on the 1st album (13) to credit.

EA appears a fair bit more collaborative to me, and I can't help but wonder how the songs and albums going forward might have differed if - as you, Dennis favoured - the writing credits had continued to be shared amongst all of you. There was a heavier concentration of songs credited to Alice and MB on SO, BDB and MOL, so I speculate that it might have resulted in more songs from those albums having been altered somewhat.

Of course I know that the Group often faced time constraints when making albums due to making 2 albums/year and heavy touring, so perhaps reducing the no. of people writing/credited for some songs helped in that regard.

Ted

[Babysquid]

Thank you Dennis, I’m really grateful for you taking the time to answer questions like this. These things have been rolling around my mind for ever since I was a teenager listening to your albums on my trusty cassette Walkman. And thank you Ted for negating my fears that this was a stupid question that had been answered many times over and that I’d just not been looking in the right direction.

[Dreary]

I might add that Pretties For You was a direct result of my initial intention to start a band based on artistic ideas. The music nor the stage shows were aimed at traditional commercial success. We wanted to gain notoriety for being unique. Alice was on my side but try talking a sarcastic rebel and a football player into putting their heart and soul into writing songs like that, dressing in such an androgynous fashion, and sharing a girl's name as a band. Who wrote what isn't as important as the overall concept.

When Pretties barely made the charts, and the band was barely treading waves, the majority voted to write songs that were more relatable to the public. Easy Action was transitional toward that goal. By the time we met Bob Ezrin, we had made significant progress in writing more relatable songs that still supported the dark character we were creating.

I maintain that pursuing the extremes of those concepts heavily influenced our willingness to be different for the remainder of our albums, and even is still the foundation for Alice to this day.