I wish there were more set lists available from the first half of 1982. I'm very curious to know when they started mixing future Confusion is Sex songs with the Sonic Youth material. I explore various theories suggesting that Richard Edson may have assisted in writing some of the Confusion tunes in my Early Sonic feature, but none have me 100% sold. In particular, the undated two-and-a-half song recording from 1982 that might be May and may be Mudd, but there's no certainty. It sounds like an audience member is vividly describing Edson as if he is playing, but that would mean he worked on both "Confusion is Next" and "Shaking Hell" (the third song is "The Good and the Bad", and it does sound like Edson at the kit). Of course, the observer might be mistaken, and it could be one of their interim thronewarmers from summer '82, like Dave Keay or Richard Skinner. This seems like the earliest known appearance of "Shaking Hell", but without a confirmed date, it's hard to say how early.

In December 1982, no fewer than three drummers took their shot at beating "Shaking Hell": Tom Recchion on the 7th at Mudd Club, his lone gig with the band; Bob Bert on the 12th having rejoined the band for a tour Recchion was unwilling to do, doing an afternoon cable TV filming; and Jim Sclavunos on the 27th, at his debut performance with the band, which you can hear on Rarities 1. It's fascinating to hear each player's approach to the song, particularly its seesaw stomp intro and sparse heartbeat verse. Sclavunos goes off the rails at his first gig, oddly chosen for a compilation and later recollected on Rarities. Within the following months he'd record a perfect version for the Confusion is Sex album, but this early attempt demonstrates that he had not yet wrapped his head around the song's odd pulse, doing way more than necessary. With maybe-Edson and later Steve Shelley, that makes five different drummers who attempted to decode its lurching, less-is-more rhythm.

You can dig Bob Bert's simply ferocious approach on several 1983 versions, including the October Plugg Club performance found on the German import EP Kill Yr Idols (on the EP, the live version follows the Confusion version, included as a teaser since that album was not yet released in Germany). The Live in Venlo fan club release from November is readily available, and a version from a few nights earlier appeared on the Sonic Life 7"/CD that came with the book of the same name in the mid-90s. It also makes several abbreviated appearances in the confusing collage that is the essential Sonic Death. The studio version is fine, but the stage is where the song really took shape, and Kim's howling vocal was a constant highlight. Live versions also featured the additional lyrics present on the lyric sheet: "devil may care / devil may come / devil may not"

The Confusion is Sex sessions are notorious for being plagued by issues such as garbled tape, lost takes, spills, poor monitoring, etc. In particular, after trying to re-record her vocal for "Shaking Hell", Kim decided she liked the original take better, but it had accidentally been erased. They had to use a dub from a cassette mixdown they'd done of the original vocal. Well, this is the story as told by Lee in I Dreamed of Noise and in Confusion is Next. A decade later in Goodbye 20th Century, it's suggested that the vocal is "stripped in" from a club performance, which I find dubious and likely a crossed wire in reference to the Kill Yr Idols version. Another decade later, Kim recalls in her Girl in a Band memoir that they "mangled the tape" containing a crucial take of "Shaking Hell", and had to splice in the end of another tape to create the song. To me, this rings less true than the original story, which is that they simply had to take a rough mix with the "good" vocal from a cassette tape. The song sounds incredibly lo-fi, even compared to the other songs on the record, so it's not hard to believe. (As a side note, a transcript from a 1985 band meeting described in Goodbye 20th Century has Lee claiming possession of a tape containing rough mixes and alternate takes of their music, including "'Shaking Hell' with the original vocal". But isn't that what's on the record?)

The song enters their catalog at an interesting transition point - on the self-titled debut, all songs were in standard tuning (EADGBE) or a random detuned "anything" drumstick tuning. On Confusion is Sex they began exploring subtle tuning variations, with Lee altering one to three strings from standard tuning for various songs (EBDGBE for "Bad Mood", EADECD for "World Looks Red" and "Confusion is Next"). Thurston plays just as much bass as he does guitar on Confusion, and indeed "Shaking Hell" is one of his finest four-string moments. Kim plays one of Thurston's "anything" guitars for the first half of the song, then follows the classic early sonic rule that nobody plays while they sing. Lee remains in standard tuning for "Shaking Hell", with an asterisk. I think it might actually be one of the last Sonic Youth songs in standard. Aside from covers, and "Mildred Pierce" which should predate "Shaking Hell", they completely stopped writing in standard tuning.

"Shaking Hell" was played pretty heavily throughout 1983, disappeared along with every other old song in 1984, and returned for a single known performance in 1985, a third encore on April 17th in Berlin, a town known for getting three encores! In May 1986, they did a European tour with Steve, and "Shaking Hell" made five known appearances, the last of which was May 27th in Bremen (missing Berlin by one day). My personal favorite is another third encore surprise, from May 11th in Amsterdam. The whole gig is explosive but "Shaking Hell" demolishes everything.

So many fan favorites in the Sonic Youth catalog were pushed hard while current and then backburnered indefinitely unless designated very special. "Shaking Hell" was no different, aside from a brief vocal callback during the breakdown in "Hendrix Necro", a Dirty era b-side (seriously, what's up with that? Maybe we'd know, if I hadn't cut it from all three sets!). On April 19th, 2006, the band played a live radio set in Paris, France. It was their first show as a quartet since Jim O'Rourke had left the band, and while the focus was on forthcoming fan favorite Rather Ripped, they had some surprises prepared, including one last stand for "Sunday", and the first performance of "Shaking Hell" in twenty years. It was directly followed by Lee's new tune "Rats", which featured Thurston on bass, suggesting that they wanted another song with him on bass back in the set ("Making the Nature Scene" was saved for the encore, but it had seen regular play since 2002).

I remember coming home from a party and seeing they'd played this live radio thing, and being way too inebriated to stay awake while listening, letting the show wash over me as I drifted off. (I also recall the french radio announcer's recurring watermark interruption, haunting my descent to dreamland.) When I woke up, my hangover was accompanied by a single amplified what-the-fuck thought: "Did Sonic Youth play 'Shaking Hell'?!" Yeah, they did, and it stuck to the set list for the whole year and beyond, played a whopping 49 times in 2006, 25 in 2007, and a handful each following year. They also brought back fellow forgotten Confusion classic "The World Looks Red" in 2006, but it didn't get nearly as much play as "Shaking Hell" (I also recall hearing of a soundcheck where they explored "Confusion is Next" but ultimately scrapped it).

But here's the thing. As we began to see when Sonic Youth would occasionally revive songs they hadn't played in decades, they approached them a little differently. Sometimes riffs would be transposed, played in different parts of the fretboard or simplified, though generally the spirit of the song was intact. With "Shaking Hell", Thurston seemed to shift his intro/verse riff from A (classic version) to G (new version), but still retained the same droning notes for the outro. This may have been a simple case of dropping the key a step to accommodate Kim's voice (though they never seemed to do that with anything else, so I'm dubious). More likely, it just sounded "good enough", since the muffled bass on the LP version isn't much help. When the song was originally in the set, Kim would use one of Thurston's guitars for her part, which was mostly just based on two-note groove and then an open string breakdown, and she didn't stick too heavily to a specific pitch. In 2006, she actually settled on standard tuning for her part, which brings me back to Lee.

I am 99.9% sure that in 1983, Lee played "Shaking Hell" in standard tuning. You can hear him tuning his Tele from EADECD to EADGBE on nearly every recording, having already played "World" and "Confusion". They would alternate between "Shaking" and "Making", though the latter could use "any" tuning. It's audible on so many live shows, and you can hear the open G and B strings on the record, so I feel pretty confident saying he's in standard tuning on Confusion is Sex. However, when they resurrected it in 2006, he began using EADECD. I strongly raised my doubts, but he insisted it was never in standard tuning. I maintain my belief based on the audio evidence, but I'd be irresponsible to not at least share his recollection. I've chosen EADGBE for my tab, based off the album, not the 21st century version.

So what's it all about? Kim's mentor Dan Graham was working on a film called Rock My Religion which examined the connection between religious services and rock shows, with a particular emphasis on Shakers and their frenzied dances. He tasked Kim with composing a song to accompany the film. In addition to this inspiration, the song was about "the way advertising men are in control of the way women look". Kim discusses the song at length in her Girl in a Band memoir, elaborating on advertising and the "male gaze" as well as her own personal struggle with identity. I encourage you to seek it out, she certainly has more to say about it than almost any other Sonic Youth song. For example, this: "The emotional intensity of the vocals in that song matched the music in a shamanistic way I don't think I've ever repeated. "Shaking Hell" was messy and bone-chilling to sing, especially when the music dropped to a low rumble during the "Shake, shake, shake" ending. It was as if the ground had dropped out from beneath me, and I was left floating, until my voice shot out and carried me. I wanted to take the audience with me, knowing, as I did, that the crowd wanted to believe in me, and us, as we created something that had never existed before."

I originally tabbed the guitar parts back in 2002, and the bassline in 1997! I did okay, but this is hopefully better - I tried to really dial in on the individual notes that comprised each skronky chord that Lee plays. I didn't approach the 2006 version, but there's a live version from June 24th in Austin available via bandcamp if you wanna take a stab at it. This song is an example of how Sonic Youth had mastered dynamic sectional songwriting early on, and having recordings of so many different drummers putting their own spin on it (some with more success than others) offers a fascinating look at the development of a pretty weird, wild, unique song. Please let me know if you have any comments or corrections!

A SECTION				00:00-00:52

Thurston's bassline is pretty muffled on the album, but can be heard easier on live versions:

G--------14-------
D------------13---
A-----------------
E---0^5-----------    sometimes he lets the low E ring a little bit before hammering the A

He sorta plays mutes for the beats between notes:

G--------14-x----------
D-------------13-x-----
A------------------x---
E---0^5----------------
                 
Lee furiously trem picks skronky chord shapes for various lengths:

E----/-------/------19------/------------
B----/------15------18------0------/-----
G---17------14------16------0------0-----  the third chord is struck four times and rings
D---16------14------17------9------0-----
A---15------14-------------10-----10-----
E---14----------------------------11-----

Kim plays a figure like this:

E-----------------------------------------
B-----------------------------------------
G-----------------------------------------
D-----------------------------------------
A-----------------------------------------
E---X-11-X-9-X-11-X-9-X-11-X-9-X-11-X-9--- etc

On the record she is probably using Thurston's "anything" guitar that he used for "Bad Mood"
and "World Looks Red". Back in the "EARLY SONIC" piece, I suggested this deliberately atonal
tuning was something like C D# (low) D# (high) F#  G G# (with each of the last three strings
tuned very slightly off from each other, not to the exact pitch)

During post-1983 live versions she would just use one of Thurston's guitars, usually an
F# tuning. In 2006 she just used standard EADGBE, which I've used here since her part is
more about the groove than the pitch. This is to match the CONFUSION IS SEX version though,
not the 2006 remake.

B SECTION				00:52-01:21

Thurston rapidly trem picks notes, listen for timing:

G-------------------------0---
D--------13----------11--11--- 
A---12---12--/11/10--10---/---
E----/----/-------/---/-------
                 
Lee keeps furiously strumming this chord:

E----0----
B---18----
G----0----
D---15----
A---16----
E----/----

Kim basically just strikes the open strings, possibly with a drumstick, during the
chaotic transition part.

C SECTION				01:21-04:06

On the album, Thurston plays the single descending A note at the start of the verse
and then goes silent for a bit. In the live version on KILL YR IDOLS, he repeats the
sliding A with an additional atonal accent: 

G-------------14-------------14---
D----------13-------------13------
A--12\------------12\-------------
E---------------------------------

At 2:13 on the record, you can hear him softly striking G:

G-----------
D-----------
A---10-10--- x 3
E-----------

Then he just starts trem picking shapes around G:

         2:36  2:42  2:43   2:52
G---0-----0------0----12b----11-----
D-----------------------------------
A--10br---9-----10----10-----10-----
E---/-------------------------------

At 2:59 he begins droning a similar open D with a bent fingered D:

G-------------------------------------------
D----0--0--0--0--0--0---0--0--0--0--0--0---- etc
A-------------------------------------------
E---10-10-10-10-10-10b-10-10-10-10-10-10r---
     /

Around 3:10 start bending the octave on the D string:

G--------------
D---12b---(r)--
A--------------
E---10---------

It's possible that rather than the 10th fret on the A and E, he is playing these
unison notes at the 5th fret of the next string. It just feels like he's bending
them pretty heavily to be at the 5th fret, but I can't be sure.

At 3:18 resolve to an open A string drone:

G-----------------------------
D-----------------------------
A---0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--- etc
E---5-------------------------
    /
                 
Lee holds chords for a while, strumming quickly:

E---14---
B----0---
G---11---
D---12---
A--------
E--------

At 1:53 move to:

E---14---
B---11---
G----0---
D---13---
A--------
E--------

At 2:01 move back to the first chord:

E---14---
B----0---
G---11---
D---12---
A--------
E--------

   2:30     2:33     2:44
E--------------------------
B---12-------14-------11---
G---13-------14-------14---  til 3:28
D---11-------11-------12---
A------------13-------13---
E--------------------------

Drop out for a few bars, then back with quick bursts of aggressive chords:

   3:37    3:50  3:55
E---13-----14-----15----
B----------16-----------
G----0-----14------0----
D---11-----13-----11----
A-----------------------
E-----------------------

Kim doesn't play while she sings.



text + tab by Chris Lawrence