Glam Boogie. Mars. Wipers-esque. New Fairy. New Pretty. Wipers 2. Extenuating Circumstances. Burnin Shame. TV Eye. Train Track. Tappan Zee Jelly Joy. No Garage. Norwegian Spring. Jamonit. All of these ended up on The Eternal, including our Song of the Week. Can you guess which it is? This time around it's a bit of a trick question - both "New Fairy" and "New Pretty" were provisional titular references while hashing out the eventual "Massage the History", a nearly 10-minute powerhouse that serves a hefty role in the Sonic Youth canon - it is the final track on their final album (ignoring b-sides and soundtracks). It is also, naturally, the end of our third improbably long fake Sonic Youth set list. Because what could possibly follow it, right? Right...?
With "The Diamond Sea", "Heather Angel", and "NYC Ghosts & Flowers", Sonic Youth established a pretty reliable routine of closing the main set with the last song on the album (okay, "Lightnin" was the encore). I first noticed a change on the Murray Street tour, and by quickly scanning the set lists it seems like they started this shit on July 5th, 2002 in Catania, Italy. Like "Massage the History", Murray Street had an epic closer in "Sympathy for the Strawberry". For the first few weeks of the European Murray Street tour, it took its rightful place at the end of the main set, the final song before they wave goodbye and disappear for a few minutes, returning triumphantly for the encore. Then, on that hot Catanian eve, it happened...a move that would forever change what one could reasonably expect from a Sonic Youth set list...after the crashing finale of "Strawberry"...they stuck around and played "Kool Thing". What the fuck...? Stick it in the encore! Play it earlier! But why usurp the jawdropping climax of a song that will never get played again once the next album cycle starts, to cheaply flaunt your biggest hit? They did it again the next night, then pulled the same dirty trick with "Drunken Butterfly" on a German spree. I won't even get into the nonsense they tried on the North American leg - closing with "Bull in the Heather"? One of the greatest songs ever, sure, but after the glorious majesty of "Sympathy for the Strawberry"? Please.
As time went on, they seemed to recognize what they had and walked off after "Strawberry", honoring - wait, what song are we supposed to be talking about? Well, Sonic Nurse didn't really have a designated closing track for its tour, so they picked from a variety of classics to finish things off. Great! The Rather Ripped tour mostly settled into "Or" to end the main sets, though "Pink Steam" often filled in. Fine! They obviously didn't pull any shit during the Daydream Nation gigs, sticking "100%" after the Trilogy or whatever. Which leads us to The Eternal, whose North American tour officially started on June 27th, 2009, with two nights in Chicago, Illinois. Some of the new material had been premiered at festivals, but the remaining five songs were introduced within the first week of shows. On that opening night, "Massage the History" was played for the first time, nearly ten minutes of slow burning tension and release, inarguably declaring itself a classic to anyone who bore witness. As Kim's final harmonics tapered off, the crowd erupted into an ovation, their senses dazed and almost begging for a quick break to recover from such an intense, final song. But what's this? Their techs are casually slipping them new instruments? Kim is holding a trumpet? What's happening?? Like a Japanese bonus track, they're gonna tack on one more. I mean, it's fucking "PCH" so I can't really cry, but I guess I just feel like the album tour has an identity, and if you're going to tease the album's epic closer at the end of the set but then slip in an oldie, it betrays the opportunity? Does that make sense? Not that my opinion is relevant, but when I think of "Massage the History" and its mammoth stature, I sometimes ponder that set list tactic.
It wasn't always "PCH" though - "The World Looks Red" "Death Valley '69" "White Kross" "Stereo Sanctity" "Silver Rocket" all filled this role multiple times. And yes, those are all fantastic songs that killed live, and maybe it's more fun to leave them stunned rather than awed? I just can't imagine wrapping up 15 minutes of "The Diamond Sea" then busting out "Candle" or something. Suffice to say, if you saw them play "Massage the History", you probably enjoyed it, even if they did play another song afterwards. However, if you saw them on the brief European run that followed the North American tour (so brief I don't even consider it a tour by Concert Chronology standards), or any of the New York/Boston gigs in November, or the January 2010 Pacific Southwest leg, or basically any of the 2010 gigs that Mark was actually available for all the way up until their New Years Eve blow-out in London...you might be wondering what the fuck I've been babbling about. Because after that first North American tour, they closed every proper show with it, with very few exceptions. As mentioned, Mark was busy with Pavement for much of 2010, so when Sonic Youth had a gig he couldn't attend, they performed as a quartet, playing set lists comprised entirely of pre-1994 material. No complaints about that! After a year of back and forth, "Massage the History" became history on December 31st, 2010 in London, along with all of Thurston's Eternal songs, "Kool Thing", and "Brother James".
"Or" was noteworthy for being the first time since "Ghost Bitch" that Sonic Youth had used an acoustic guitar on stage, disregarding specifically "unplugged" performances like the Bridge School Benefit or radio shit. Lee played the acoustic on "Or", though Thurston had previously debuted the song the same way. In 2007 he released and toured for Trees Outside the Academy, which found him playing acoustic guitar for the majority of it, using a new tuning alongside trusty CGDGCD that would bleed into the next Sonic Youth album, The Eternal: DDAF#AD. Indeed this is what he used for "Massage the History", taking his turn on acoustic guitar. The song is driven by his chord progression and the melody he picks out from within it, but the rest of the band help set a very haunted mood. While Mark and Steve are locked into the groove in a way that the bass and drums rarely interact in a Sonic Youth song, it establishes a perfect foundation for Thurston's melodies, Kim's two-note harmonic riff, and Lee's wall of sound, which we'll discuss a bit more below. The first three minutes of the song are basically the verse and chorus, but since it's an Eternal song it inevitably explodes into a big crashing open D. There's a couple other parts - "you're so close to me" and that cool interlude (again, led by Thurston holding the same chord shapes) - but much of the song's midsection is just heavy jammin' in D. I fucking love that DDAF#AD tuning and Lee's return to DDA to complement it. I'm sure opinions vary on The Eternal, but for me it has some of their strongest, enthusiastically heavy jams and glorious bursts of noise. Those matching D tunings (Kim joined in too!) are largely responsible for that.
So, let's rap about Lee. First, check out the above charts, made by Lee using his own style of notation, which we've previously looked at in the "Machine" and "Calming the Way" entries. The first one is from October 2008, during songwriting sessions in Kim and Thurston's Northampton basement. As far as I can tell, he had not yet incorporated the metal slide that helps build his entire sound on the finished version, and it appears that he was just playing 7th chords back and forth with '"On The Beach"-style fuzz', presumably a reference to the title track of Neil Young's 1974 LP, from which Lee would later cover both "Walk On" and "Revolution Blues" with his post-Sonic outfit The Dust. It would be fascinating to hear an early arrangement with this initial idea of Lee's. I'm not sure what the "back + forth Open - 5" section would be, maybe they cut a G chord out before "You're so close to me", which is what I assume the "descent 8-3-0" part signifies. "static note on 12 in improv sect w kim[?] descending chords 8-5-3-5 rpt" is true to the finished version, though he rubs his slide at the 12th fret while Kim and Mark play the notes noted.
I'll save the "bell sect" for a second, because I want to consider the next lines: "NOIS(E) SECT" and "FIELD SECT" (and then "rtn to top" - return to the beginning of the song). Assuming this was more or less the final arrangement, the distinction seems to be that the "NOISE" is when they make wild improvised noise around the open D, and the "FIELD" is when they all hold one chord and just plow away at it. Jumping to the next page, which is an updated map for the tune, with one clear addition: "SLIDE!" You can basically track his entire part, whether (rub) when he rubs the slide against the strings with his picking hand, or (pick) where he picks normally while using the slide on his fretting hand. The "back + forth Open - 5" section is no longer there, and the "bell sect" has a new identifier: "phillip glass". Perhaps this riff was somehow reminiscent of one of Philip Glass's bell pieces? By the way, on January 22nd, 2010 Sonic Youth appeared as a quartet minus Lee in Brooklyn, for a benefit where they performed two songs, including "Massage the History". I'm sure it sounded fine, but without the wailing backdrop provided by the perfect blend of Lee's distortion, delay, and slide prowess, it must have felt incomplete.
Lyrically, Kim offered the following in an interview with Hobo magazine when the album was released:
HOBO: Out of the dozen new tracks, could you select one that’s closest to you?
KIM: “Massage the History”, in a way. It’s kind of a sad vampire love song. It’s a lot of things. It’s also a kind of metaphor for the record industry and kind of makes reference to our history and, I don’t know, I can’t really explain how it’s closest to me.
She goes a bit further in her Girl in a Band memoir, offering a much more candid explanation:
"For our next record, Thurston chose the title The Eternal. Maybe he knew it would be our last record as a band. "Massage the History" was the only song I wrote about our relationship. It has the line "I dreamed" in it, maybe because I was dreaming of the first record we ever made. [She may be referring to the line "all the money's gone" from "I Dreamed I Dream"] It was before I found out what the dark cloud following Thurston around consisted of, but I had already felt it."
So it's a heavy one, for sure. A fitting end to their full length studio output, and hopefully a good place to end this series of "Song of the Week" entries. As always, there will be an encore piece of some sort in the coming months, so keep an eye out for that. It's weird to finally be here, having mapped this set out back in early 2023. I mostly stuck to my plans, though I definitely took some detours along the way. A moment of silence for a few tunes I love that just keep getting cut, namely "JC" "Skink" and "Hendrix Necro", all which were contenders for the long stretch of "songs with names in the title". I originally tabbed "Massage the History" back in 2010 and did a surprisingly decent job, as not many touch-ups were necessary. I made some where applicable, but please let me know if you have any comments/corrections, and feel free to reach out and let me know what you thought of Set #3 in general. Any favorites? Songs you don't like but enjoyed the article for? Something fun you learned along the way? I don't know. I try to insert my own voice (this time starring as "The Guy Who Objects To Another Song After The Epic Closer") just to have some unique angle to approach each piece with, so you can at least tell there's somebody human behind the thoughts. A real person providing decently researched original content for free without AI or advertising! Some day it will be history...
"MASSAGE THE HISTORY"
LAYOUT
A - B - A - B - C - D - E - F - G - A - B
KIM
DADABD
CENTER
THURSTON
DDAF#AD
RIGHT
LEE
DDDDAA
LEFT
MARK
EADG
CENTER
A SECTION 00:00-01:13 Thurston comes in after everybody else has done one run through the progression: Hold these shapes: D---0----0--- A---3----5--- F#--4----6--- and use your index and pinky fingers to play the melody lines below A---5----7--- D---5----7--- D------------ D----------3^0--5-3-0---------3-------5-3-0-3-5-------5---------5-------7--7-7-0--- A---0--3^0------0-0-5-----3^5-0--5-3--0-0-5-0-0---5---0-7---5^7-0---7^5-0--0-0-0--- F#--4-----------4-4-4-----4------4-4--------------6-----6---6-------6---6---------- A---5---------------------------------------------7-------------------------------- D---5---------------------------------------------7-------------------------------- D---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is one where you really just need to play it over and over til you get the feel for the pattern. I didn't include all the strumming. He plays a variation each time. Most of Lee's part in this song involves him rubbing a metal slide over the frets with his picking hand. It should be relatively easy to figure out, but he rubs the slide "up and down" to sustain the droning notes at specific frets, but also moves it back and forth between frets for a very warbly kind of effect (also heavily encouraged by his analog delay). Once you get the hang of it, his part becomes very fun! You might want to mute the strings behind he slide with your fretting hand. The first sound you hear in the song is him rubbing the slide at the 5th fret, so aim to replicate that: A--*~5~*-- --*~7~*-- A--*~5~*-- --*~7~*-- D--*~5~*-- then slowly move up when the bass notes change: --*~7~*-- then back to 5 and repeat D--*~5~*-- --*~7~*-- D--------- --------- D--------- --------- You can include the low D strings but they aren't prominent. Kim plays a repeated harmonic motif: D------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- x 2 A------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D---*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*--- D------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- x 2 A---*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*--- D------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Play whole thing four times. Mark holds a root with the fifth but doesn't always play the fifth: G-------------------------------------------------------------- D--(12)--------------------------(14)-------------------------- A---10----10-10----10----10-10----12----12-12----12----12-12--- E-------------------------------------------------------------- B SECTION 01:13-01:44 Thurston: For the next part, hold these shapes: D----0----0--- A---10---12--- F#--11---13--- A---12---14--- D------------- D------------- D-------12--0---------10---10---0----12---12-12--14--14-14-14--14--0---0--0--0--14---14-14--0--- A---10-----12---10^12--0----0--12-10--0----0--0--12--12-12-12--12-12--12-12-12--12---12-12-12--- F#--11-------------------------------------------13---------------13--13-13-13-------------13--- A---12-------------------------------------------14--------------------------------------------- D----0------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ D----0------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Play twice. Lee moves up and covers two notes over each chord: A--*~19~*--*~17~*-----*~19~*--*~17~*----- --*~14~*--*~12~*-----*~14~*--*~12~*---- A--*~19~*--*~17~*-----*~19~*--*~17~*----- bass note --*~14~*--*~12~*-----*~14~*--*~12~*---- D---------------------------------------- changes --------------------------------------- D---------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- D---------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- D---------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- I don't hear the notes on the D strings in this part. Kim continues the same harmonic riff from the previous section. She plays it twice. Mark: G------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D-----------------------5-7-------------------------7-9------------------------- A---5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-----5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-7-7-7-7-----7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7--- E------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Listen for the timing, I may not have tabbed it exactly.) A SECTION 01:44-02:35 Play progression three times. B SECTION 02:35-03:07 C SECTION 03:08-03:46 Thurston hits all of the open strings for a bit, then starts these shapes when Kim begins singing: D----------0------0----- A----------0------0----- F#--8------3------0----- listen for the picking A---8------3------0----- D---8------3------0----- x 2 D---8------3------0----- The last time she sings "you're so close to me", he turns distortion on when he gets to the open D chord at the end of the progression, and begins running skronky harmonics up and down the fretboard. Lee strikes a big open D to start: A------- A------- D---0--- D---0--- D---0--- D---0--- Then he puts the slide on his finger and plays "properly" when Kim sings: A-----8~~---------3~--------12~~--12~~~~--------8~~--------------12~~---12~~~~-- A-----8~~-8-------3~~-------12~~--12~~~~--------8~~-/3~~--3\\12~~12~~---12~~~~-- D--\8-------8/-/3-------\12~~-----12~~~~-----\8-----/3~~--3\\12~~-------12~~~~-- D--\8----------/3-----3\\12~~-----12~~~~-----\8-----/3~~--3\\12~~-------12~~~~-- D------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D---------------------------------^^------------------------------------^^------ For the two ^^ chords, rub the slide at the 12th fret kinda like the verses. Low D is optional during this section. Kim starts with some big D chords: D----------------------- B----------------------- A----------------------- D--------------0-------- A---0----------0-------- D---0----------0-------- When she begins singing, she plays these chords. The rhythm isn't shown but should be clear: D--------------------------- B--------------------------- A--------------------------- D---8--------3--------0----- make a bunch of skronky noise after the open D A---8--------3--------0----- D---8--------3--------0----- x 2 Mark: G------- D------- A---5--- hold D til Kim sings E------- "you're so close to me": G---10----5-------- D----8----3----7--- play twice / listen for timing A--------------5--- E------------------ D SECTION 03:47-04:32 Thurston keeps strumming flurries of jagged moving harmonics from, say, the 1st to 5th fret. At 4:02 he starts bashing a chord on each beat, but it's kinda like he's half-hitting the open strings (particularly the low Ds) combined with high harmonics at the 17th fret. Lee rubs his slide at the 12th fret for the start of this section, then starts letting the middle open D slip in around 4 minutes in. He continues to freak out with the slide until the next section. You can always use the low Ds for extra heaviness although it sounds like that's mostly Kim and Thurston on this song. Kim keeps playing heavy chords: D------------------------------ B------------------------------ A------------------------------ D---8------5------3------5----- A---8------5------3------5----- each chord is played roughly 16 times D---8------5------3------5----- Mark follows Kim: G---10----7----5----7--- D----8----5----3----5--- play three times A----------------------- E----------------------- E SECTION 04:32-05:02 Thurston: D---5-0-5-0-5-0-5-0-5-0-5-0-5-0-5-0-5--7-0-7-0-7-0-7-0-7-0-7-0-7-0-7-0-7-0-7--- A---0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--- F#--6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6--8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8--- x 4 A---7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7--9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9--- D---7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7--------9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9--------- D------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lee pauses and comes back in after Thurston has played his progression once: A---10-7-10-7-10-7-10-7--12-9-12-9-12-9-12-9--- A---10-7-10-7-10-7-10-7--12-9-12-9-12-9-12-9--- D----7-7--7-7--7-7--7-7---9-9--9-9--9-9--9-9--- x 3 D----7-7--7-7--7-7--7-7---9-9--9-9--9-9--9-9--- D---------------------------------------------- D---------------------------------------------- Kim briefly drops out when Thurston first starts this section, and comes back in at 4:40 going between these two chords: D----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- x 3 D----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A---14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16--- D---14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16--- Mark comes in after Thurston has played his riff once: G--------------------------------------------------------------------- D---7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9--- x 3 A--------------------------------------------------------------------- E--------------------------------------------------------------------- F SECTION 05:02-05:31 Thurston turns his distortion on and hits a big open D, then moves harmonics up and down between frets while strumming rapidly. Lee explodes on another big open D chord, alternating strumming chaotically at the 17th fret and the open strings. Kim hits a big open D like everyone else, and makes a bunch of random sliding skronky noise while building to the next part. Mark just pounds D: G---7--- D---7--- A---5--- E------- G SECTION 05:31-06:13 Thurston blasts away at this chord: D-----0--- A----12--- F#---12--- as Steve winds down, start playing softer and cleaner A-----0--- D-----0--- D-----0--- Lee drills away at this chord: A----0--- A---12--- D----0--- as Steve winds down, start playing softer and cleaner D---12--- D----0--- D----0--- I think I hear the octaves on the record, but live he seems to just hit all the open strings, so maybe I'm hearing stray notes from the three other giant D chords being played. Kim saws away at this chord: D-------- B-------- A---12--- as Steve winds down, start playing softer and cleaner D---12--- A----0--- D----0--- Mark hammers away at this chord: G---7--- D---7--- A---5--- E------- Eventually settle down to just: G------- D------- A---5--- E------- A SECTION 06:13-07:36 Thurston plays a variation of his verse riff five times. Lee stays silent during Thurston's first chord, then comes in on: A---*~19~*--- A---*~19~*--- D---*~19~*--- D---*~19~*--- D------------ D------------ Then it's the same as the intro, just an octave higher: A---*~17~*----*~19~*--- A---*~17~*----*~19~*--- D---*~17~*----*~19~*--- D---*~17~*----*~19~*--- D---------------------- D---------------------- He drops back down to 5 and 7 for the "wishin you were here with me" part. Kim plays her 2-note harmonic riff til the end. When she first comes back in, she starts on the A note since Thurston gets a bar to himself. Mark has a slightly different approach to the final verse: G---------------------------------12----------------12--- D------------12---------------14----------------14------- A---10----------10-------12----------------12------------ E-------------------------------------------------------- G---------10--------------10------------------------------12------- D-------------12--------------12---------14-14--------14------14--- A---10--------------10--------------12-----------12---------------- E------------------------------------------------------------------ He holds these shapes during the last verse, picking variations as demonstrated above: G---10---12--- D---12---14--- A---10---12--- E------------- B SECTION 07:36-09:51 Thurston plays his riff twice then drops out. Lee: A--*~19~*--*~17~*-----*~19~*--*~17~*----- --*~14~*--*~12~*-----*~14~*--*~12~*---- A--*~19~*--*~17~*-----*~19~*--*~17~*----- bass note --*~14~*--*~12~*-----*~14~*--*~12~*---- D---------------------------------------- changes --------------------------------------- D---------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- D---------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- D---------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- At 8:07 he moves the slide to the 12th fret and rubs til the end. Kim's guitar is the last one standing, trailing off on the final A harmonics. Mark: G-------------------------------------------------------------- D-------------5^7--------------------------5^7----------------- A---5-5-5-5-5-----5-5-5-5-5-5-5--5-5-5-5-5-----5-5-5-5-5-5-5--- E-------------------------------------------------------------- G--------------------------------------------------------------- D--------------------------------------------------------------- A---7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7--- E--------------------------------------------------------------- He gets progressively softer as it winds down, drifting off on the D note when Steve drops out. text + tab by Chris Lawrence
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