Party of One - White Noise (1988) [Sonic Enemy]

Party of One - White Noise (1988) [Sonic Enemy, cassette]

Described in the Sonic Enemy 1993 catalog:

1988 release by this one-man Casio-powered band. forty-five minutes of funny and occasionally affecting struggles with sincerity.

I have some donated audio of this one, but it has some odd issues. Much like the circulating rip of A Good Time, I think there's a speed discrepancy. Based on a circulating rip of compilation Growing Up With You, which has Party of One material sourced '86-88, the available rip is playing faster than it should be, as Peter's voice sounds more squeaky on this, but on Growing Up With You, sounds relatively close to his 90's work.

I do not have a copy of this tape on hand, so I have no way of getting a cleaner rip of it to better understand the lyrics. I would appreciate any help

Tracklist:

01. Highway 71
02. Ladder To The Sky
03. Video One Elegy
04. Big City Nights
05. Beautiful Burnout
06. Crystal Ball
07. American Gothic
08. Here We Go
09. Hold Me Now
10. Happy Days Under The Influence Of
11. Fingerprint
12. Dance With Me
13. Three Times A Lady
14. Pomp & Circumstance
15. You Can Smoke All You Want
16. White Noise

Lyrics transcribed to the best of my ability, much like with A Good Time. The rip I have of this one is slightly clearer than the recording of A Good Time on hand, so these should have many fewer "inaudible" annotations, but the clarity decreases some as it goes, so it's not perfect.

01. Highway 71
(annotation: it took me several listens and a trip to google maps, but if you go and look up Chino Hills Parkway, you can see that two large cross streets along that leading to the 71 ramp are Peyton and Pipeline. I am almost positive this is the line.)

well if you should decide to end your life do it my way, hit the highway and take a drive have some fun out on highway 71 yeah one from the 210 to the 91 sometimes four lane, sometimes two lane, sometimes none have some fun out on highway 71
yeah it goes from pomona right down to corona through chino hills the city it's so fuckin' shitty from the foothills at the north end to the badlands in the south
past the 60 freeway, the only way to be way, peyton, pipeline, chino hills parkway,
you get hip to this kinda tip
and go take that death alley trip
have some fun out on highway 71

yeah it goes from pomona right down to corona through chino hills the city it's so fuckin' shitty from the foothills at the north end to the badlands at the south

past the 60 freeway, the only way to be way, peyton, pipeline, chino hills parkway,
you get hip to this kinda tip
and go take that death alley trip
have some fun out on highway 71

02. Ladder To The Sky

[radio clip]

i'm gonna build a ladder to the sky fifty feet wide and infinity high i'll paint it orange so everyone can see it

i'm gonna build a ladder to the sky fifty feet wide and infinity high fifty dollars for adults, half that for kids (spoken) at the halfway point there will be a rest platform where inexpensive concessions will be available hotdogs, french fries, iced tea, dr pepper, et cetera there will be several of those [inaudible] and condoms will be made available to those over the age of 13

(singing again) i'm gonna build a ladder to the sky fifty feet wide and infinity high i'll paint it pretty pastels and check for [inaudible] i'm gonna build a ladder to the sky fifty feet wide and infinity high fifty dollars for adults, half that for kids

03. Video One Elegy
(annotation: Video One was a local TV show hosted by KROQ DJ Richard Blade until 1988. Most of the missing lyrics here are Peter very quickly saying the names of bands and possibly singles that were relevant at the time. He says New Order like "new-or-DER" so even that took me a minute, and I know how much Peter loves New Order...)

so long video one it's been a whole lotta fun [inaudible] and all the videos you'd play
bon jovi madonna and wham sting [inaudible] and george michael duran duran [inaudible] and new order the pet shop boys and [inaudible] and more

[inaudible] ll cool j white snake [inaudible]
[inaudible] bananarama [inaudible] belinda carlisle [inaudible]

so long video one it's been a whole lotta fun

05. Beautiful Burnout

looked her down from head to toe where she come from nobody knows surrounded by a misty veil then you hear those [inaudible] wail beautiful burnout beautiful, beautiful burnout beautiful burnout will you be mine beautiful burnout she's looking so fine but when i reached to touch her cheek all that's left are two long black streaks beautiful burnout beautiful, beautiful burnout
dropped the clutch [inaudible] you took every inch of the [inaudible] beautiful burnout take my hand lead me to the desert sand beautiful burnout beautiful, beautiful burnout
burn on, burn on, burn out

06. Crystal Ball
(vocals on this one are very quiet vs. the keyboard tone being played)

when i look into my crystal ball i see her walking down [inaudible]
i see [inaudible] [inaudible] when i look into my crystal ball i see everything and nothing at all i watch myself, i trip and fall, [inaudible] when i look into my crystal ball i see the future [inaudible] [inaudible] i see myself and nothing at all

07. American Gothic

people all across the u.s.a. livin life the american way risin early every day got some coffee hey hey hey bryant gumbel's on today jane pauley's got something to say then smoke a cigarette and hop in your chevrolet head for the freeway going to the city sit down at your job do you work yessiree bob smoke another cigarette then go have lunch someplace you're livin the american dream you're livin the american dream you're livin the american dream
[inaudible] in the carpet cans in the bag

08. Here We Go

here we go to the show why we go i don't know but we go oh yeah we go yeah we go to the show


09. Hold Me Now

Thompson Twins cover.


10. Happy Days Under The Influence Of

one two three and! happy days are here at last get em while you can they're goin fast they ain't gonna be round here much longer so jump all around or sing a song or have a good time doesn't matter what kind just enjoy this pure clean sunshine in the room the women come and go drinking at club vertigo it's really dark and really loud the only thing you feel and sound is really hip and really chic and what and where you want to be is...


11. Fingerprint
(The available rip of this tape is completely on the right channel from this track onward. this one has a very loud high keyboard tone that's hard to hear around, but it's high enough it doesn't get at the vocals. in the third verse it starts to really overpower things. the rhymes help a little...)

i drive my mom's car it's an automatic when a real band plays i sometimes feel ecstatic people say music is nothing but static my friend brian's girlfriend is real charismatic there's a thing in new york it's called the stock exchange i know some people who think they're real strange when things aren't as tough i try to rearrange it's a good feeling when you can make exact change i like the word [inaudible] i like [inaudible] on my toast i put butter and cinammon [inaudible]
sometimes i wonder what nuts are pistachios or why rich people live in those flashy homes i get [inaudible] pistachios aw never mind [inaudible] i drive a honda automatic [inaudible] i like my music and i like static i met brian's girlfriend and she is charismatic [inaudible]


12. Dance With Me

dance with me c'mon and dance with me oh please won't you say you'll dance with me why can't you see that we were meant to be c'mon and dance with me c'mon and dance with me i'll knock you right off of your feet one dance with me y'know it can't be beat
dance with me c'mon and dance with me oh please won't you say you'll dance with me why can't you see that we were meant to be c'mon and dance with me c'mon and dance with me i sweep you right off of the floor one dance with me you'll wanna dance some more



13. Three Times A Lady

three times, phone ringing once, twice, ring singing at the other end [inaudible] an eighth of an inch down the wrinkled mess of his fingers then moves again across summer tones but there was nobody home so he set down the phone and sat back [inaudible] he laughed so hard he cried or maybe he just cried outside the window and down the way admid the usual eaves of gray she walks with imaginary middle finger raised at anyone who dares to look at her


14. Pomp & Circumstance
(DiskothiQ would record a song by this name, too, but that one's about Peter's time student teaching. This was written ca. graduation for Peter himself.)

here we are four long years together now i'll never see any one of you again here we are four long years are over now i'll never have to see any one of you again no i'll never have to see you again and i'll never have to say hi to you again and i'll never have to be nice and pretend that you're my friend
so don lowell(?) and the rest of D.A.L as far as i'm concerned you can all go straight to fuckin hell yeah so long school so long [inaudible] and so long, nazi dicks who don't like blacks or jews, just stay the fuck away from me no i'll never have to see you again no, never ever ever again, no, never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever again



15. You Can Smoke All You Want
(The lyrics are different most of the way through where they're audible. At the very end, this one uses the same lyrics as the DiskothiQ song "You Can Smoke All You Want" on Delicious, Homemade.)

this is it this is my last one i'm not [inaudible] singing these songs [inaudible]
this is it it's over man i'm through me and my casio have had enough of all this [inaudible] [inaudible] all the same [inaudible] but that's all over now we never liked it much anyhow [this part largely inaudible] you can smoke all you want but don't hurt my lungs yeah you can talk all you want about all your fun and how fun it was, and how fun it is

16. White Noise

[sequence of short casio clips playing different little instrumental bits, some background audio, etc. no lyrics at any point]

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