Expressway to yr Skull
 

I don't know if there is thread dedicated to this song but I just want to express how much I love it.
It's so different, and that droning part of the guitar sliding down and up gives the song a real something of something unexplainable, like a distance sound.
I can totally understand how it has become a sy anthem.
I've recently obtained the edit version, and although the album version is the version i love, the edit is good for compilations, i love that crackling sound at the end, and if anybody knows how to do that then please tell me!

I love Expressway To Yr Skull as well. Especially the bit where Thurston sings "Expressway..." and the the guitar goes "NYOWWW". It's amazing.

The crackling sound at the end is the sound of a looped groove record, which is how the vinyl of Evol was put out. When you played "Expressway" at the end it hit a ridge and bounced back and just kept doing that for as long as you left the needle running into it. The time was listed as the infinity symbol too.

Lee did this same trick on every track of his solo album From Here to Infinity, which came out not too much further in the future. In both cases, when the music was mastered to cd, they put a little bit of the vinyl looped grooves onto the appropriate tracks.

^ Amazing. I didn't understand the infinity symbol on vynil.

Expressway To Yr Skull is amazing. Not my favourite, however. Gotta love the moment it all stops for 3/4 seconds and then the beast is unleashed.

one of my favorite song !! first one written by Steve, isn'it ?

I assisted to 2 blowing final show long versions, Paris 2005 and Brussels 2006 with Flaherty, Corsano & Co....fantastic !!!

That was probably the best SY live experience i had. Corsano was ace and i really liked the guys from Lambsbread

that's interesting but I was referring to the weird crackling sound at the end of the edit version which appears on the starpower single.

:D YES

the end of the edit version seems to me like they used elements from the noise outro on the LP, but slowed down considerably so its more doomy/droney... yeah? no?

Hey - can anybody tell me why Expressway isnt listed on the back of my Evol LP cover? Its on the label with the infinity symbol, but its not on the sleeve. Weird?

Madonna, Sean and Me is there!!!

i'm listening to a live version of expressway right now. 1986, continental club, austin texas.

just amazing.

i was recently particularly moved by a long (for that era) version from 11/22/86 (i think thurston was using J Mascis's guitar for this one).

'expressway' had a few titles way back when.. 'madonna sean & me' and 'the crucifixion of sean penn' (as its listed on the lyric sheet) included...

Exactly, which is why my answer still stands.

interesting, in this bootleg i have they're using another bands equipment as well--great bit while they alt tune everything for "tom violence"

thurston credits "furniture" for the gear cop.

They were actually playing it before Steve joined the group, but he's on the album version. I saw Bob Bert play on it in 1985 in Seattle at the end of a set that was otherwise all Bad Moon Rising material (plus an untitled Lee spoken word/noise piece that I've never seen resurface). So I think it was the first new song written for eventual inclusion on Evol. It was quite a bit noisier at that show than the Evol album version or the way they were playing when I saw them on that tour in 1986, so I think Steve might have really added to the "song structure" of it.

Well, it's definitely not just the locked groove effect recreated on CD. Have you heard the edit? It's bizarre.. I didn't actually realize how bizarre until today. It takes the 'mystery train, three way plane' part and actually repeats it after the freak-out that follows that part of the song on the normal version, and then when Thurston sings 'to your SKULL' a second time, all the music drops out and it's just swirling noise under his voice, which sounds like noise from the album, pitched down and, well, 'remixed'.

he sure did. and i dropped the needle for everyone of those songs

also, one of my favorite things about the old vinyl was was the etched quotes in the middle of the records. i think this was an sst thing as sy wasn't the only band to do it. my copy of confusion is sex has "Birth of John Spencer or What?" etched into into side 1 and "Neutral zensor LGW - rip us off if you need to" on the flip side

my first pressing of dinosaur's "You're Living All Over Me has "it was screamign but I couldn't tell where the mouth was" etched onto side 1

sounds good!

he sure did. and i dropped the needle for everyone of those songs

also, one of my favorite things about the old vinyl was was the etched quotes in the middle of the records. i think this was an sst thing as sy wasn't the only band to do it. my copy of confusion is sex has "Birth of John Spencer or What?" etched into into side 1 and "Neutral zensor LGW - rip us off if you need to" on the flip side

my first pressing of dinosaur's "You're Living All Over Me" reads, "it was screaming but I couldn't tell where the mouth was" etched onto side 1

I've heard it, but it's been many years. I was pretty annoyed when it came out, as I felt like it was an effort to get a more standard alternative rock song out of a Sonic Youth classic. I still feel that way a bit, but not nearly as vehemently as I did in 1986 when the single came out with that on it. As I was 19 at the time, looking back today, I'm certainly aware I might have been overreacting and missing some good things about it in the process.

i miss the noisier shows from the 80's.

we caught them just a few months here in austin (rather ripped), and although i don't recall what exactly they closed with (i want to say "world looks red" but that may have been a little earlier in the set) it all ended in a wonderful 5 or so minutes of controlled feedback and loops that just blew us away.

It's not a spectacular edit, more of a curious novelty. "Starpower" is pretty butchered too, though not as 'creatively' as "Expressway" (which they basically recut to have a 2nd 'chorus'). Definitely doesn't hold a candle to the real version!

It's not as awful as the 'Sunday' single edit, though!

Yeah, so we're on the same page with these edits. I'm sure they got them played by a couple annoying college radio djs who wouldn't have been able to play them otherwise, which in turn got them on more CMJ charts. But what people heard on those lame shows wasn't really Sonic Youth.

I think they made it all worthwhile though, when they called the longer (as in 26 minutes!) version of "The Diamond Sea" the "(Alternative Version)" which undoubtedly got some dumbass college radio and "commercial alternative" djs to throw it on by mistake figuring it would be a shorter version with NIN beats tossed in or something. That was sheer genius. Plus that version really is the best one.

the edit of starpower is awful, the best part of the original version is when it leaves the noise and goes back in the original riff, it doesn't sound as good without the long noise break.

Great song, great sound... EVOL is one of my favorite SY albums (along with EJST&NS and Rather Rîpped)

here's the lyrics:

We're gonna kill the California girls
We're gonna fire the exploding load
In the milkmaid maidenhead
We're gonna find the meaning of feeling good
And we're gonna stay there
As long as we think we should
Mystery train
Three way plane
Expressway to your skull
Mystery train
Three way plane
Expressway to your skull
Mystery train
Three way plane
Expressway...
...to your skull.

great fucking song