Old Mac (song)

Last updated
"Old Mac"
Tlot tlot old mac.jpg
Single by Tlot Tlot
from the album The Live Set - Volume 1
Released8 December 1992
Recorded1992, AVC Records, Melbourne
Genre Alternative rock, hard rock
Length4:04
Label Anubis
Songwriter(s) Bolwell/Paulzen
Producer(s) Tlot Tlot
Tlot Tlot singles chronology
"Rain"
(1989)
"Old Mac"
(1992)
"The Girlfriend Song"
(1995)

"Old Mac" is a song released as the first non-album single by the Australian alternative rock band Tlot Tlot. It was released on 8 December 1992.

Tlot Tlot were an Australian pop rock band formed in 1986 as Man in the Wood. The original line-up was Owen Bolwell on bass guitar and lead vocals, Andrew Briant on lead guitar, and Stanley Paulzen on drums and lead vocals. Briant left in 1991 and the band name was changed to Tlot Tlot. Their 1995 single, "The Girlfriend Song", reached the ARIA Singles Chart Top 100 and was nominated for Best Pop Release at ARIA Music Awards of 1995. The group issued four albums, A Day at the Bay (1991), Pistolbuttsa'twinkle (1992), The Live Set - Volume 1 (1993) and Fashion Takes a Holiday (1995), before disbanding in 1997.

Contents

Composition

A sample of the song's intro, demonstrating its heavy riffs.

Musically, the song can be considered either hard rock or alternative rock. It uses a xylophone intro followed by heavy guitar riffs which play in the choruses. The riffs' chord progression is a constant D#-F, using two guitars for a thicker sound. The verses have the same drum and bass backing as the chorus, but instead of guitars, a keyboard is used. A different guitar phrase, the notes C-F-F#-A#-F-C-F#-A#-C-A#-C-A#, is used between the verses. The breakdown has stomping on the bass pedal followed by the xylophone intro followed by the between-verses bit, but without the guitars. The chorus then begins again. There is a minor pause before the outro (which is just the chorus repeated four to five times) begins. The end of the song consists of a final strum of the guitar followed by Paulzen bending one of the strings as the song fades out.

Hard rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music that began in the mid-1960s, with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. It is typified by a heavy use of aggressive vocals, distorted electric guitars, bass guitar, drums, and often accompanied with keyboards.

Alternative rock is a style of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. In this instance, the word "alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream rock music. The term's original meaning was broader, referring to a generation of musicians unified by their collective debt to either the musical style or simply the independent, DIY ethos of punk rock, which in the late 1970s laid the groundwork for alternative music. At times, "alternative" has been used as a catch-all description for music from underground rock artists that receives mainstream recognition, or for any music, whether rock or not, that is seen to be descended from punk rock. Although the genre evolved in the late 1970s and 1980s, music anticipating the sound of the genre can be found as early as the 1960s, with bands such as The Velvet Underground.

Lyrically, the song is about McDonald's and is sung from the point of view of Ronald McDonald (who is only referred to as a "big yellow clown" in the first verse and is not explicitly named until the end).

McDonalds American fast food restaurant chain

McDonald's is an American fast food company, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger stand, and later turned the company into a franchise, with the Golden Arches logo being introduced in 1953 at a location in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1955, Ray Kroc, a businessman, joined the company as a franchise agent and proceeded to purchase the chain from the McDonald brothers. McDonald's had its original headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, but moved its global headquarters to Chicago in early 2018.

Ronald McDonald clown mascot of McDonalds

Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. In television commercials, the clown inhabited a fantasy world called McDonaldland to which he had adventures with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird and The Fry Kids. As of 2003, McDonaldland has been largely phased out, and Ronald is instead shown interacting with normal children in their everyday lives.

When Tlot Tlot played the song live, the between-verses bit was played in the intro in place of the heavy guitars, which were placed behind the verses instead of bare keyboards. The chorus was also sung by Paulzen instead of Dixon. In the studio version, Dixon sang "Will anybody be there?", but Paulzen replaced it with "Will Elvis Presley be there?" in the first chorus and "Will Buddy Holly be there?" in the second. With the "No, I don't think so" backing vocal in the chorus, Paulzen sang it in the studio version, but Bolwell would sing it when playing live.

Elvis Presley American singer and actor

Elvis Aaron Presley, commonly known as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".

Buddy Holly 20th-century American singer-songwriter

Charles Hardin Holley, known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American musician, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born in Lubbock, Texas, to a musical family during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his siblings. His style was influenced by gospel music, country music, and rhythm and blues acts, and he performed in Lubbock with his friends from high school.

Track listing

All tracks written by Bolwell/Paulzen except for track 5 by Leiber/Stoller.

No.TitleLength
1."Old Mac"4:04
2."Happy Trippy Phil"0:44
3."Dead Blue Fish Caroline"2:24
4."Mother's Fluid"1:57
5."Love Potion No. 9"3:02

Track 4 previously appeared on Pistolbuttsa'twinkle . A song called "Hearse" was also written and recorded during these sessions, but it went unused and was later released on Ruck Rover's self-titled EP in 1999. Track 5 previously appeared on A Day at the Bay .

<i>Pistolbuttsatwinkle</i> album by Tlot Tlot

Pistolbuttsa'twinkle is the second album by Australian rock band Tlot Tlot. The album was released in 1992 and compiles eight remastered versions of cuts from the band's debut, A Day at the Bay, with previously unreleased songs from the sessions.

<i>A Day at the Bay</i> extended play

A Day at the Bay is the debut album by the Australian rock band Tlot Tlot and their first release under that name. It was released in 1991. It was only released on cassette.

The title track would later be released on the album The Live Set - Volume 1 in 1993, however the recording on the album is not the recording featured on this single. It is instead based on the tape used to back Tlot Tlot in live performance, which was recorded in 1990.

Personnel

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References