A Screw

Last updated

"A Screw"
Swansscrew.jpg
Single by Swans
Released2 May 1986 (1986-05-02)
Genre Industrial
Length15:02
Label K.422
Producer(s) Michael Gira
Swans singles chronology
"Holy Money"
(1986)		"A Screw"
(1986)		"Public Castration Is a Good Idea"
(1986)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]

A Screw is a single by the New York City experimental rock group Swans. The single's three songs were later appended as bonus tracks to the CD release of Holy Money .

Contents

Background and composition

The single's title track sees the band diving their farthest into the realm of industrial dance music, complete with dubby, distorted vocals and complex programmed rhythms, a distinct contrast to the naturalistic album version. [1] The piano-driven ode to obsessive love, "Blackmail", was Jarboe's first Swans track as lead vocalist. [1] A reworked version of "Blackmail" appears on the 1987 album Children of God . [2]

Regarding his contribution to the single's title track, drummer Ted Parsons said:

"But you know the first recording I did with Swans, was "A Screw" on Holy Money? I get in there – I can’t remember what the studio was – and Michael Gira the singer said, "Well, you know what? There’s no drum kit here, we just want to set a snare drum up in the hallway and have you hit it." And I was like, "What? OK." So they set the snare up in this big hallway down this corridor, and I hit the drum, and that was it. They sampled it, and he said, "OK, that’s great, go home." That was it. That was "A Screw."" [3]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."A Screw"5:40
2."Blackmail"4:42
3."A Screw (Holy Money)" (Mix)4:58
Total length:15:20

Notes

Personnel

Charts

Chart (1986)Peak
position
UK Indie Chart [5] 4

References

  1. 1 2 3 Raggett, Ned. "A Screw". AllMusic . Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Children of God Discogs entry". discogs.com. Discogs . Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  3. ↑ Fernando, S.H. "Interview: Swans, Prong, and Godflesh drummer Ted Parsons". daily.redbullmusicacademy.com. Red Bull Music Academy Daily. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  4. ↑ "Original "A Screw" Discogs entry". discogs.com. Discogs . Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  5. ↑ Lazell, Barry (1997). Indie Hits 1980-1989. Cherry Red Books. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved September 5, 2014.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.