When I was a teenager, my family would often drive down to Bellingham, Washington. We'd go for a few days in the summer or on spring break, to shop and visit with family. I was ecstatic, always excited to explore the various record stores and junk shops, high on pulp mill fumes. One shop had tons of bootleg Nirvana CDs - I'd break my budget on a few and ask the dealer to change the price tags so my mom wouldn't judge me - and the other was my dream store, Cellophane Square. We had some nice record stores back home but this one seemed magical - it was enormous, overwhelming at first yet still inviting - I'd spend hours there every time we visited. I bought some of my favorite discs ever: Sebadoh's The Freed Weed, Butthole Surfers' Hairway to Steven, Helium's Dirt of Luck, Neil Young's Year of the Horse and countless others...Albums were used, cheap, and they had tons of great indie stuff I wouldn't necessarily find back home for such reasonable prices, even with the currency conversion. We'd end up back at the motel and I'd spin disc after disc until we had to go to dinner or whatever. Great memories all around. The last time I visited Bellingham, for a Meat Puppets show in 2011, I popped into the old Cellophane Square store (now an Everyday Music) and was delighted to find it hadn't changed much under the new ownership (among other things, I grabbed Thurston's Demolished Thoughts which was fresh at the time).

Why am I droning on about yet another formative moment in my musical youth? Well, on one of my many visits to Cellophane Square, probably in '94 when I was just getting into Sonic Youth, I saw a giant poster on the wall advertising Dirty (which I already had). What I did not have, however, was the extra track "Stalker", which this poster boasted was exclusive to the double vinyl set. "Stalker"? It sounded fucking awesome! Menacing, heavy, cool...I had to hear it. I was already familiar with the concept of b-sides - I collected Nirvana cassingles and CD imports from a local shop, as well as the 100% and Sugar Kane singles with killer out-takes like "Genetic" and "The Destroyed Room" (and of course, every kid had DGC Rarities Vol. 1). This was yet another indication that there were more of these tracks to be found, and with no knowledge of the internet's existence, I was limited to whatever I was fortunate enough to stumble across in record stores.

That seemingly giant poster - five feet tall apparently! - planted a seed that I needed to seek out this song. I wouldn't hear it for a few years, when I started trading tapes of hard-to-find tracks with other fans. I remember receiving a mix that began with "My Arena" and being instantly hooked by this quirky little tune, which I'd occasionally seen for sale on the Diamond Sea single but had never made a priority. Likewise, "Razor Blade" and the Thurston version of "Doctor's Orders" were titles I'd stared at countless times, pondering whether it was worth my paper route money for a minute-long song and another version of one I already had (I'd been burned by "alternate" versions before) but finally hearing both was revelatory and it seemed silly to have ever questioned it. Elsewhere on this tape was the mythical "Stalker", and was it worth the wait...?

Nope. It sucked! I wasn't used to this - a bad Sonic Youth song? I mean, it's not the worst thing ever - cool bassline, good vocal, but something about it just seemed off. Dirty had its occasional moments of excess studio shine, but "Stalker" is dominated by an over-eager polish, with all kinds of mixing flourishes that seemed at odds with the rest of the material. It was like "My Friend Goo" without the fun. I thought the chorus was a bit uninspired, and the instrumental section seemed like a jumbled mess with no direction that built to an overproduced climax, into another weak chorus. Cool verse though!

The song never made it into any set lists, though it did end up getting a non-vinyl release on the CD single of Drunken Butterfly, released in Germany. It also appeared on a DGC promo sampler disc called Burning Leaves. Otherwise, it was just the Dirty double vinyl bonus track, a curiosity at best, the band's only vinyl bonus track (later albums like Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star and A Thousand Leaves would have a different vinyl bonus - a lyric sheet!). In 2003, the long-awaited deluxe edition of Dirty finally dropped, and among its many riches was the first available alternate version of "Stalker" - a demo from the band's Hoboken rehearsal space. It was genuinely fascinating to hear, much rougher than the album version and slightly less composed. Thurston is singing but the vocals are extremely buried, so the track is effectively presented as an instrumental. There is a much looser vibe, Lee is exploring lead lines during the verses and rather than a Motley Crue midsection it dissolves into a sparse jam that eventually leads back to the main riff.

In summer 2004, the band released their first web-only "mix tape", featuring some pretty exceptional live and studio rarities, including another rehearsal take of "Stalker", this time with Thurston's vocals mixed in. This version features similar riffing from Lee, and has an even less constructed midsection. Instead of ending after the post-jam verse, it continues for another minute and a half with a rockin' take on the primary riff. Thurston actually plays the lick along with Kim, which he does not do on the final version. Kim's bassline is slightly different on these demos, too.

I really appreciated being able to hear both of these alternate versions and get an insight into a song that I'd written off as relatively minor. It's not that the early rehearsal takes are necessarily better than the final product, but they offer a rare glimpse at the band's songwriting process. I like how they stripped the verses down to chords, replacing the leads with some wildly panned bursts of noise, one of the few studio gimmicks that actually work well on the finished track. It's interesting to hear a "live band" sound during the instrumental part, even if there was no clear direction in either demo. That may have been why they went for such a processed, effects-based mix for the middle of the song, they just never settled on a properly fine tuned C-section (of which there are no shortages on Dirty - see "Sugar Kane" "Orange Rolls" "Chapel Hill" and "Purr" for some particularly well-crafted instrumentals).

The album version of "Stalker" was recorded during the Magic Shop studio sessions in February-March 1992. It was available solely on the orange double-vinyl version of Dirty, released July 21st, 1992. As I mentioned last week, there were some pretty serious arguments within the band regarding what songs would be on the final album, and I find it curious that of the 4 out-takes, "Stalker" is the one that ended up on the double-vinyl. It opened side 4, followed by "JC". On the 2003 4xLP deluxe reissue, the song also appears as the first track on side 4 ("Genetic" "Hendrix Necro" and "The Destroyed Room" have also been inserted into the album's running order).

Sonic Death issue #2 included a cool stylized lyric sheet advertising the bonus track:

My tab is going to be relatively simple...Just for fun, I ran the song thru that same AI separation site to see what would happen. Again, I'm surprised by the results - the bass lifted right out (curiously it sounds like the DI bass, not the fuzz track), the drums are very cleanly isolated, the "guitars" track is pretty good, and the vocal separation is also well done (though not completely free of fun ghostly artifacts). However, there's really no insight to be gained from the midsection, indeed it sounds like even more of a jumbled mess! You can listen to the tracks if you'd like...I'm usually needlessly afraid of technological advances but this AI separation has some interesting potential...

After careful review of the two rehearsal takes, I'm 99% positive both guitarists are in F#F#F#F#EB. I had previously tabbed the song in EGDGED/EEBBEF# - given that there's not much to either riff, it probably wasn't critical to revisit, but I thought it might be fun to discuss. Don't worry, we'll be moving away from Dirty next time!

A SECTION (VERSE)			00:00-00:31

Thurston's verse riff:

B-------------------0--------------
E-------------------0--------------
F#-----------X---------------------   XXX = strum strings behind bridge
F#-----------X------3--3-3-3-3\5---
F#---3\5-----X------3--3-3-3-3\5---
F#---3\5------------3--3-3-3-3\5---

Lee's verse riff:

B------------7---------5-5-5-5\7---
E------------7---------5-5-5-5\7---   he doesn't always play the high notes on the EB strings
F#--3\5------5------3--3-3-3-3\5---
F#--3\5------5------3--3-3-3-3\5---
F#--3\5-------------3--3-3-3-3\5---
F#--3\5-------------3--3-3-3-3\5---

Kim's verse riff:

G------------------------------
D------------------------------
A---------5------7-7-----------
E---5\7-----7--------5--5-5-5--

Kim mentioned in Guitar World November 1992 that she used the Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Octave Fuzz 
for "ultra-distortion" on "Stalker" (among other Dirty tunes).

There are also some pick scrapes/behind the bridge strums pasted and panned at various points.

B SECTION (SHORT CHORUS)		00:31-00:39

Thurston plays these notes, listen for timing:

B------------------
E------------------
F#-----------------
F#-----------------
F#-----10-----8----
F#-----10-----8----
	
Lee plays these chords:

B------------------
E------------------
F#-----10-----8----
F#-----10-----8----
F#-----10-----8----
F#-----10-----8----

Kim plays:

G------------------
D------------------
A-------7-----5----
E------------------

A SECTION				00:39-01:11

In the second verse, there's a panned guitar kinda playing this note while
bending and sliding backwards...

B-------------
E-------------
F#-----15-----
F#-----15-----
F#------------
F#------------

B SECTION (FULL CHORUS)			01:11-01:25

Thurston plays these notes, listen for timing:

B-------------------------------
E-------------------------------
F#------------------------------
F#------------------------------
F#-----10-----8------3------1---
F#-----10-----8------3------1---
	
Lee's part:

B-------------------------------
E-------------------------------
F#-----10-----8------3------1---
F#-----10-----8------3------1---
F#-----10-----8------3------1---
F#-----10-----8------3------1---

Kim plays:

G-------------------------------
D-------------------------------
A-------7-----5-----------------
E--------------------5------3---


C SECTION				01:25-02:04

Thurston plays something like:

     1:25                  1:34
B---------------------------------------------------
E---------------------------------------------------
F#--------------------------------------------------
F#--------------------------------------------------
F#---3\5-5--------7-8-------10-------8--10--12------
F#---3\5-5--------7-8-------10-------8--10--12------

    1:42                                            1:54
B-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
F#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
F#-------------------------------------------------------------------------10---
F#---13----12----13\15----12--------10-----12-13-----8----7----5----7------10---
F#---13----12----13\15----12--------10-----12-13-----8----7----5----7------10---

All notes are trem picked, I tried to leave different amount of space to indicate 
the length of each note but it's not exact...

I can't pick out anything specific that Lee is playing in the midsection. There's so much 
going on with the drum echo, panning effects, guitar sampling/processing/whatever...it sounds like 
he might be doing some kind of phaser/wah noise (he uses a phaser for a lot of his parts on the 
demo versions) but I'm not going to overthink it. Just make a racket!

I think Kim just holds this note with thick Hendrix Octave Fuzz action, but it really kinda 
disappears in the mix:

G-------
D-------
A-------
E---7---


B SECTION				02:05-02:20

A SECTION				02:20-03:02

The early versions of the song have a slightly different bassline, which is worth noting:

G--------------------------------
D--------------------------------
A---------5\7--7-7-7-------------
E---5\7--------------5-5--5-5-5--

The deluxe edition version has Lee weaving around this line:

B--------------------------------------
E---------------------0-0^2------------
F#--3\5---5/3---1--0------------0-1-3--
F#-------------------------------------
F#-------------------------------------
F#-------------------------------------

The mix tape version has him playing around with something like this:

B------------------------------
E------------------------------
F#--3\5-----7--8--10/8-7--3\5--  sometimes he does the octave on the low F# as well
F#-----------------------------
F#-----------------------------
F#-----------------------------

This is the "rock" version of the main riff as heard in the coda to the mix tape version:

B----------------------------5~-5~------  bend/pinch last notes slightly
E---------------------------------5~~~--
F#--3\5--x-x-x--8/5---x-x-x-------------
F#-------x-x-x--------x-x-x-------------
F#--3\5--x-x-x--8/5---x-x-x-------------
F#--------------------------------------


text + tab by Chris Lawrence