Sonic Youth's Inspiration For Washing Machine ?
 

I was just curious if anyone knows the inspiration behind any of the tracks to washing machine. I remember when Nurse came out they said Neuromancer influenced "pattern recognition" and jack kerouac influenced "umade bed".

The only influence i remember hearing about washing machine is that thurston wrote "the diamond sea " for kim and then recently born coco. What about the other tracks though? where did the whole washing machine concept even come from ? Maybe some old interviews from the WM era could shed some light ?

I remember hearing that the song "Washing Machine" was based on a nursury rhyme that Kim Gordon knew growing up, and I have a bootleg where Lee says that "Skip Tracer" was based on the talking blues style.

Past that, I'm stumped.

The album in general, in a very very abstract way, seems heavily influenced by blues to me. Possibly why they went to Memphis to record? What an incredible record! There's nothing out there that sound like it, whatsoever (that I've heard).

I think it is the best album ever by any artist!

i always got kind of a sassy blues vibe from washing machine
"my heart spins around like a washin machine, never saw the devil look so damn clean"

well, sy wanted to change their name to 'washing machine' around that time, allegedly to 'cleanse' themselves or the music scene or blah blah. i don't actually remember how much of that was serious and how much was silly rock joke ha ha.

i wonder if pavement's late '94 'wowee zowee' sessions @ easley made SY consider it for washing machine. could be?

definitely a twisted blues feel to some tunes, lee's licks on 'no queen' and the title track are pretty fierce.

in general i doubt there was a universal theme to the record...becuz is "about a girl i saw once" (kim saw a girl holding her boyfriend's hand and wanted to write a song that would empower her). junkie's promise is fairly straightforward. saucer-like seems like some type of new york thing but i don't know...washing machine is anyone's guess, i've heard kim introduce it many different ways at various shows..unwind...trouble girl...panty lies...i think they're all very different themes......

i'd always heard lee was the inspiration for 'diamond sea' lyrics, but could be waaaay off on that (ie: he wrote em, or contributed to em)

GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT RECORD.

"till you fall in love with the diamond ring" makes me think it's about kim

ive always tought it was very blues influenced but noone ever seemed to share my opinion.
washing machine is the best blues song ever.

EJS has some bluesy stuff as well. They listen to a lot of stuff. It may have just been a phase or something.

I'm guessing that Pattern Recognition was influenced by the book Pattern Recognition. It's another Gibson novel in the same vein as Neuromancer. SY have bunch of songs about those "cyber punk" books.

They used to buy drugs at the laundromat.

Is that seriously true? Thats pretty funny if it is.

That like...completely satisfies my nostalgia of Washing Machine being this sort of Suburban drug record.

All I know is that this album is seriously amazing. I'm just glad that they went form EJST&NS to this record. It's quite a departure. (I do like EJS but it just seems that every other SY record kills it.)

To do a record like no other!!!

I maybe crazy but i always took Washing Machine to be an iconic symbol/metaphor for the suburbian, family life that Thurston and Kim had obviously just entered into with the birth of Coco. All the other SY albums before it seemed to me to be albums relating to youth, WM was the first album where we see the grown-up (relatively speaking) Sonic Youth. I don't think the album has a concept as such, but i think the songs all relate musically and lyrically to a more mature side of the band. I think the images on the cover-art are the best example of that!

I know what you mean. The whole album has some sort of surreal 1960's suburban middle-class american feel to it. Probably a new child brought back nostalgic thoughts of their own childhoods.

Yeah definitely. In particular 'Little Trouble Girl'. Nothing symbolises that kinda nostalgic 60's suburbia like Phil Spector songs, and that song was obviously meant to be a subversive take on that. Someone aptly described it as "Mock Phil Spector". I think all the greatest SY albums stir up a lot of mental imagery when you listen to them, and this album does that in the most brilliant way. I think its very Sonic Youth to take something like a washing machine and turn it into such a ponient symbol.

On topic with Washing Machine, does anyone have this:

"Following Lollapalooza, SY did two shows overseas, one in Barcelona and one in Paris (the latter of which provided 4 songs for an eventual bonus disc included with "Washing Machine")"

or the audio from their performances on Letterman (diamond sea), the state (dimaond sea) and conan (no queen blues).

I have those 4 songs. Letterman performance is on www.youtube.com

could you share those, man??? what are they???