Portrait Of An American Family Pre-Reznor Mixes
1. Snake Eyes & Sissies
2. Snake Eyes & Sissies (single mix edit)
3. Lunchbox
4. Get Your Gunn
5. Cyclops
6. Dogma (Citronella)
7. Cake & Sodomy
8. Filth
9. Sweet Tooth
10. Organ Grinder
11. My Monkey
12. Misery Machine
13. Dope Hat
When the band convened in Los Angeles at Criteria Studios to record their debut album for Nothing/Interscope, they hired Swans drummer and famed industrial producer Roli Mossiman, known for his work with Machines of Loving Grace, Foetus, and Faith No More among others. The band were apparently unhappy with the way the sessions were going, though, and brought in Trent Reznor to re-produce and re-record large portions of the album. This tape of mixes from 7/30/93 were from the original Mossiman sessions.
Some of the songs here are virutally identical to the Portrait versions, while others have been completely re-recorded. Below is a track by track comparison to the Portrait versions. The most surprising find is that Filth was originally going to be on the album, before they decided to switch it with Wrapped In Plastic.
It should also be noted that the album was originally titled the Manson Family Album, and featured artwork that included a young nude Brian Warner, sitting on his parents couch with his hand covering his privates. Manson had said that it was an innocent picture, and if anyone read disturbing undertones in the photograph, it was a product of their own sick minds. Of course, Interscope rejected both the album name and the artwork.
Wrench is just a household god
But I carry mine with pride
I don't work but I can work with it to split your smile
Run you down down without a twitch
Your cars just not as big as mine
Tear the son out of your bitch and
Sprinkle your remains with lime, yeah
My afternoons remote control
Daydream milk and genocide
Tranquility with broken knees silly putty enemies
Butter knife in your side
What I got I got for free, middle finger technology
Let's have some lunch and plan your funeral
Like to look so free, yeah
I ain't no working man I do the best I can
I got the devil's hand, rolling sixes
I am the habit man I use up all I can
I got the slacker's hand
I am the pedophile's dream
Messianic Peter Pan
A messianic peter pan
Just a boy just a boy just a little fucking boy
I can never be a man
Thought you were a friend of mine
You were not my boy
Friend of mine, friend of mine
Thought you were a friend of mine
You were not my boy
I am just a sycophant, this is just another lie
I'll love you if you fuck me
And I'll fuck you if you cry
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
I ain't no working man I do the best I can
I got the devil's hand, rolling sixes
I am the habit man I use up all I can
I got the devil's hand
I was prophecized by Shangri-La's
I am the leader of the pack
What's yours is mine, yours is mine
Don't get fucked or yours is mine
Don't get fucked or yours is mine
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
I ain't no working' man I do the best I can
I got the devil's hand, rolling sixes
I am the habit man I use up all I can
I got the devil's hand
I ain't no working' man I do the best I can
I got the devil's hand
I am the habit man I use up all I can
I got the slacker's hand
You bite the tinfoil they give you
Your piano wire mind is detuned (?)
You are amused by your confusion
Staple your face to mine if you're afraid to be alone
I'll mail you razor blades for christmas
If you're so disgusted then leave the wicked way
You are confused by your amusement
The hypocrite will be the first to see the filth
You want to get rid of me
You want a new lie
You want to get rid of me
You want a new lie
You want to get rid of me
You want a new lie
You want to get rid of me
You want a new lie
It's not the same
You don't mean a thing
You're just another stain
It's not the same
You don't mean a thing
You're just another stain
This won't hurt
You should eat the shit you speak
You know you are what you think
Don't you try to judge me
You're no different from what you see
You should eat the shit you speak
You know you are what you think
Don't you try to judge me
You're just as filthy as filth can be
Like a piñata you crack open
Your candy guts cascade in rainbows
You decay in your own containment
The sweetest insides are all coated with their filth
It's not the same
You don't mean a thing
You're just another stain
It's not the same
You don't mean a thing
You're just another stain
You should eat the shit you speak
You know you are what you think
You should eat the shit you speak
You know you are what you think
Don't you try to judge me
You're no different from what you see
Don't you try to judge me
You're just as filthy as filth can be
1. Snake Eyes & Sissies - This track is significantly different from the Portrait version. It runs a full 62 seconds longer (much like the demo version) than on Portrait, and also features alternate lyrics. It also sounds like most of it was re-recorded from scratch, and most of this version was discarded..
2. Snake Eyes & Sissies (single mix edit) - It's strange to think that this track at one point was considered to be the first single off of Portrait. The single mix version runs 3:57, and is closer in structure to the Portrait version, dropping some of the extra verses.
3. Lunchbox - This version is virtually identical to Portrait. The main difference is that it starts right at the "I bring you..." sample and is missing the "next motherfucker's gonna get my metal" and the short guitar part after that.
4. Get Your Gunn - This one is close to Portrait, but you can hear some guitar parts that are more in the foreground of the mix than on the album. This version runs 4:08 as opposed to the 3:18 on the album, but that's mainly because the chorus and bridge are repeated a few extra times.
5. Cyclops - Another one that's pretty close to Portrait. You can hear Manson saying "we are all evil inside" a little easier on this verison.
6. Dogma (Citronella)- Again, pretty close to Portrait. Despite the fact that they were going to change the name of this track to Citronella at one point, the lyrics were still the same as the album version.
7. Cake & Sodomy - The differences are a little more noticable on this track. The tribal drum beats you're used to hearing at the beginning do not hit with nearly the impact of the album version. In fact the whole song just sounds noticable weaker than on Portrait. There's some other minor differences, too, like slightly different vocal and guitar effects on some parts.
8. Filth - I was as surprised as anyone to learn that Filth was originally going to be on Portrait instead of Wrapped In Plastic. This version is a little different than the one on Refrigerator, and has samples of pigs snorting at the beginning and end.
9. Sweet Tooth - The 59 seconds of intro noise on the Portrait version is not on this original mix, athough this version is only 20 seconds shorter than the album. And again, the drum just don't hit with the same tribal ferocity you're used to hearing, they're just kind of plodding and lazy here.
10. Organ Grinder - This mix runs 5:03, nearly 40 seconds longer than Portrait. The pace of the whole song is slower, though, which explains why it runs longer. As with many of these mixes, some guitar parts that are buried in the background under several layers on Portrait are more in the foreground here.
11. My Monkey - This song was completely re-recorded from the ground up for Portrait. This version has several Charles Manson samples (many from the demo versions) and some different horn sections in the background. You get to hear more of Robert Pierce singing on this one, too. The "what I make is what I am" chorus had not been added yet, either, with the song still using Charlie Manson samples where the chorus would later go.
12. Misery Machine - Like Organ Grinder, the pace is a little slower on this version, and it just doesn't hit with the same impact as on Portrait.
13. Dope Hat - Another one that's pretty close to the album version, but just doesn't have the same "punch" as the final product. Some things are buried in the mix, like Pogo's eerie keyboard line that runs behind the main verse, while other guitar parts are more prominent.
This is starting to fall down a little bit
Why are the children doing what they're doing? Why does a child reach up and kill his mom and dad and murder his two little sisters and then cut his throat?
Sanity sanity sanity sanity sanity sanity's a little box
I had a little monkey, I sent him to the country
And I fed him on gingerbread
Along came a choo-choo
Knocked my monkey coo-coo
And now my monkey's dead
At least he looks that way
Wa ha ha
But then again, don't we all?
You think you see the kids all moving like that, then you come here and say is that your conspiracy to make those kids move like that, because with the moves that you showed those kids, they went out and killed somebody
Raise up children, kill you moms and dads
Sanity sanity sanity sanity sanity sanity's a little box
I had a little monkey, I sent him to the country
And I fed him on gingerbread
Along came a choo-choo
Knocked my monkey coo-coo
And now my monkey's dead
Poor little monkey
Make you break you, make you break you
Make you break you, make you break you lookout
Make you break you, make you break you
Make you break you, make you break you lookout
The TV's their mom and dads
What I make is what I am
I can't be forever
Let me take you to strawberry fields where nothing is real but the medication and the nothingness, then they cut their wrists and write I love you God all over the walls and hang themselves on the ventilators
We are our own wicked gods
With little g's and big dicks
Sadistic, constantly inflicting
A slow demise
Wasnt' that ?
I sing like that, yeah I sing loud, I sing real loud
Sanity sanity sanity sanity sanity sanity's a little box
I had a little monkey, I sent him to the country
And I fed him on gingerbread
Along came a choo-choo
Knocked my monkey coo-coo
And now my monkey's dead
Raise up children, kill you moms and dads
I had a little monkey, I sent him to the country
And I fed him on gingerbread
Along came a choo-choo
Knocked my monkey coo-coo
And now my monkey's dead
They holler for the kids
The primate's scream of consonance is a reflection of his own mind's dissonance
They holler for the kids to do something, and then when they do it they say the kids are all fucked up
I don't know when to stop when that happens