Like "White Kross" on the previous album, a sneak peek at "Silver Rocket" was released just ahead of Daydream Nation. It appeared on a Forced Exposure 7", containing material recorded at the June 1988 gigs where they premiered the Daydream Nation songs. I've discussed these shows at length, including the other content of this 7" (the dissolved remains of the only contemporary live performance of "Total Trash" and an instrumental jog through "Eliminator Jr"). It's widely accepted that side A ("Silver Rocket" and "You Pose You Lose") is from June 9th in Hoboken, and side B ("Non-Metal Dude Wearing Metal Tee") is from June 23rd in NYC. Recordings of these shows confirm two out of three, but we hit a bump with "Silver Rocket".
On June 9th, the band debuted the song at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey. It was the first of two nights, and the material was still in the rough stages. The portion of the show used for "You Pose You Lose" is taken from the end of the encore, an instrumental version of "Total Trash" which breaks down into noise and tape samples. "Silver Rocket" was played second, following opener "Candle", and Thurston introduced it as "Supersonic Rocket". Indeed, this is also what he sings during the chorus. If we refer to the Forced Exposure 7", which is even easier now that it's available on Rarities 2, the song's chorus lyrics aren't super clear (and certainly aren't "silver") but that doesn't matter: the June 9th recording opens with a stick count, the 7" begins with a "1 2 3 4!" from Thurston. Beyond that, they are obviously different takes with a different noise break, different noise following the final chord, etc.
So it's probably from one of the other shows, right? Well...I checked all of them, and there's no match. The song stayed "Supersonic Rocket" through the whole June stretch, and the only show not currently circulating is the apparent one-off in Cambridge, Massachusetts at t.t. the bear's. I don't expect this version to be drastically different from the surrounding gigs, but who knows (do you? A recording of the Cambridge show would be groundbreaking!). It is worth noting that Forced Exposure was rooted in Massachusetts.
Where is this no-intro, "1 2 3 4!" lead-in version of "Silver Rocket" from? Certainly by the band's next known gigs, a brief European run in September, the song had been recorded in the studio and its live presentation reflected this final arrangement. Are there unknown dates between June and September? Entirely possible. Unfortunately, I present you only with the questions - I've yet to find an answer. The 7" was supposedly released in September 1988, a month ahead of Daydream Nation, but even if that date is slightly off, does it sound like a take from September or October? It's definitely live, a woman's shrieking laughter can be heard before the song and there's applause during the feedback drone that follows it. But where and when? Certainly not June 9th in Hoboken, that's all I can say. (I'd also like to know which live version appeared on the split 7" that came with Spanish magazine La Herencia De Los Munster no. 8&9, if anyone has that?)
(Future Chris here: somehow this revelatory line from the Daydream Nation deluxe liner notes eluded me all these years: "Three protean versions of these songs, recorded at Maxwell's and T.T. The Bear's Place in June, ended up on Forced Exposure's "Silver Rocket" 45." Now, one is also from CBGB, but this more or less confirms that "Silver Rocket" has to be from the ambiguously cased t.t. the bear's gig.)
Another version of "Silver Rocket" made its way to a 7", this time a compilation released with the March 18th, 1989 issue of Sounds magazine. It's identified as "take 6", and is taken from the same August 1988 "live" performance previously discussed in the "Rain King" and "Kissability" articles. Though filmed for the Put Blood in the Music documentary, where "Silver Rocket" appears with Lee and Kim's songs briefly interjected (then falls apart), this footage was also cut for a proper "Silver Rocket" music video, which includes the same "take 6" as its soundtrack. I remember seeing it for the first time on another great MuchMusic program Citylimits, which aired late at night and included offbeat "indie" videos. That one hour long episode also contained Ciccone Youth's "Addicted to Love" and Lee's "Destruction Site", taken from his From Here to Infinity LP! This was a massive treat before Screaming Fields of Sonic Love was released on VHS, which did include two of those three, along with another version of "Silver Rocket".
That version marked the band's first live-in-studio television appearance, on a syndicated program smoothly titled Michelob Presents Night Music. Here, they appeared with other artists such as the Indigo Girls and Daniel Lanois, who all performed separate songs (and sometimes collaborated, as with Sonic Youth's giant group version of "I Wanna Be Yr Dog" that closed the show). First they played a long, expertly deconstructed version of "Silver Rocket" that really hammed up the noisy midsection (along with the appearance of "manager" Don Fleming, who added the odd burst of keyboard flourish). It blew my fucking mind when I first saw it as a kid, the band totally dragging things out while fully abusing their instruments, the stage littered with guitars like discarded junk. When Steve finally locks into that final snare roll and they're all on track to launch back into the chorus, even then Thurston and Lee take the opportunity to dogpile and derail things even further. It's glorious.
I'm still not 100% sure when that performance was filmed, but it aired on November 26th, 1989. So, it finds the song at the end of a long touring cycle for Daydream Nation, having been polished into shape following the relatively hesitant yet still explosive versions captured on the Forced Exposure and Sounds Blasts! 7"s. The song itself was almost too simple - an energetic, catchy 2-chord verse and an energetic, catchy 2-chord chorus with a midsection that completely falls apart into a loose sea of noise that somehow still feels tight and focused. The dynamic of the eventual 2-chord building climax breaking into the song's final verses is phenomenal, and it was just as effective live. Here, Lee's newly acquired Fender DGL-1 digital delay became his secret weapon, with its endless hold function offering him the ability to manipulate soundscapes in more inventive ways than before. His pitch tweaked repeats in the breakdown made each version unique. Meanwhile, Thurston would be bending the neck of his guitar while pushing it against his amplifier, Kim would be exercising some fuzz/wah action, biding time with Steve until the eventual wink/jump moment. Seeing both the Night Music and the music video version, which each featured graphic displays of guitar abuse, I knew I wanted to see Sonic Youth play live, but in particular I thought it would be awesome to hear them do "Silver Rocket". And, many years later, I did. Each time, I let my mind take a moment to remember how it felt watching that VHS tape, the wonder of it all.
Though initially leading the set with "Candle", "Silver Rocket" almost immediately assumed encore status. A few weeks into the North American leg of the Daydream Nation tour, they started shuffling it around, inserting it in the main set, even opening with it at times. Likewise for the 1989 Pacific Rim and European tours from January through April, where it would be the encore just as often as it would be mid-set. There's a cool video from the March 26th gig in Amsterdam, where they merge soundcheck footage with the live take from that evening. All Daydream touring completed (for another 18 years at least), they did a hometown show on July 14th. They finally dug back into their bag of hits, reducing the Daydream content to a mere four songs, including opener "Silver Rocket". The Night Music taping would be their next appearance.
I should mention the alternate second verse Thurston had cooked up by this point. He definitely seemed to stumble with the song's official lyrics, but solidified a rap that he used regularly, including the Night Music performance. In the first verse he changes the last two lines to "Never thought I'd be the one to say it but you / gotta try it before you try to break it". The entire second verse is changed to: "J Mascis making out with Edie / Me and Izzy, you know that she's a sweetie / I got a date with a girl named Cher / We're gonna see Cats, seeya there". In other versions, he changes it to "hope to seeya there" or "see the fair". The third verse is as it appears on the album, memory permitting.
By March 1990, the band had moved on to Goo, debuting that material at four gigs in three days in three -ton cities. The only holdovers from Daydream Nation were "The Wonder", two shots of "'Cross the Breeze", and encore star "Silver Rocket", lyrical revisions intact. "Eric's Trip" would resurface later in the year, and along with "Silver Rocket" it would become a staple in the Goo tour sets. It popped up in a few encores at the start of the August North American leg, then was moved to close the main set. At the first European show, on September 2nd in Dublin, they tried a slight reconfiguration: during the chaotic breakdown, Lee switched guitars and they performed "Confusion is Next" in its entirety, then finished "Silver Rocket"! "Confusion" had been virtually wiped from set lists after 1983, appearing one known time per year from 1985-1988. It was played only seven documented times in 1990, and five of those found it conjoined with "Silver Rocket". Curiously, in Dublin and the next night in Belfast, they completed "Silver Rocket" post-"Confusion". In Nottingham on the 5th, they chose not to return to "Rocket", and in Birmingham on the 10th they instead concluded with a few minutes of droning noise. A month later, on October 11th in NYC, they once again perform "Confusion is Next" completely bookended by "Silver Rocket". This is the last time I'm aware of "Rocket" having the "Confusion" infusion.
They cooled on "Rocket" beginning in 1991, playing it just a handful of times in the following years, if that. Following a single known performance in 1996, on March 19th in Gent, Belgium - a second encore where they were joined by opener Beck on keytar! - the song disappeared from set lists until 2002, where it returned with Jim on guitar, a factor that greatly increased the intensity of the joyful noise segment.
I touched on the heavy Daydream Nation presence in 2002. I'm actually surprised to see how rarely "Rocket" was played in 2003-2006, before returning in full force for the Daydream-in-a-row shows. It saw heavy play in 2009 as well, with long drawn out noisescapes featuring Mark Ibold on second bass. For its final performance, on July 31st, 2010 in Brooklyn, they laid it to rest as a four-piece, while Mark pounded Pavement.
There are no shortage of live versions available, including the aforementioned mystery version on Rarities 2, 11/05/88 Chicago, 12/13/88 NYC, 04/13/89 Moscow, 04/14/89 Kyiv, 11/03/90 Irvine, 08/17/02 Chicago, 08/22/07 Glasgow, and 10/21/09 Berlin. There's also a live version from 03/27/89 Dusseldorf on the Daydream Nation deluxe edition, and 07/04/08 NYC, only on the CD version of Live in Battery Park.
As I said, the song is basically two sections with two chords each, with a big ol' noise break. Kim does her best to shake things up with some "off" bass notes, and Lee does a cool melody during the verses, but it's a pretty simple tune to break down. That said, the February 1989 issue of Guitar Player did a fair amount of my work for me, and even offers an interpretation of Thurston's opening riff in standard tuning as a demonstration of how awkward their riffs can be without the proper tunings. I'm not positive with their take on Thurston's part (I don't think he plays all those higher notes) nor Lee's part - he does leave the low A strings open per the close-ups in the music video, but I don't actually think he's playing them. Could be wrong! Not as wrong as Kim's part, which is shown on the wrong string and doesn't include the odd note on the repeat. Not to be a critical prick, considering that Joe Gore was a predominant force in getting Sonic Youth coverage in guitar magazines, and always created essential content.
I'd like to thank Larsen for his previous tabs for Thurston and Lee's parts, as well as Raj Paden for sending me his interpretation as I was putting this together. My bass tab from 2000 didn't suck but I redid it to match Kim's actual hand positions. The song is pretty clear but if you have any comments or corrections I would love to hear them!
"SILVER ROCKET"
LAYOUT
A - B - C - B - C - B - C - B - D - B - C - B
KIM
EADG
CENTER
THURSTON
ACCGG#C
CENTER
LEE
AAEEAA
LEFT/RIGHT
A SECTION 00:00-00:17
Thurston:
C------------9---------------5-------
G#-------9-----9---------5-----5-----
G----------9-----9-----5---5-----5--- play variation x 4 and hold last chord...
C-----9--------------5---------------
C---9----------------0---------------
A---0--------------------------------
Lee fades in on 12th fret harmonic feedback during the intro.
Kim is silent during the intro.
B SECTION 00:18-00:28
Thurston:
C-----------------------------------
G#----------------------------------
G---0--0--0-0-0-0--x-3-3-3--3-3-3--- sometimes he adds more mutes
C---0--0--0-0-0-0--x-3-3-3--3-3-3---
C---0--0--0-0-0-0--x-3-3-3--3-3-3--- x 4
A-----------------------------------
Lee:
A---3---3-3---6-6-6---
A---3---3-3---6-6-6--- he lets his chords ring a bit, sometimes w/ slight pull off to open
E---3---3-3---6-6-6---
E---3---3-3---6-6-6--- x 4
A---------------------
A--------------------- he doesn't fret the root notes on low A, but may add open A?
Kim:
G-------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---10-10-10-10-10--10--13-13-13--13-13--10-10-10-10-10--10--7-7-7--7-7--- x 2
A-------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------------------------
C SECTION 00:28-00:38
Thurston plays a version of the intro riff as chords. He has a slightly choppy staccato
attack and doesn't hit every string in each chord each time. You can add the open root
as much as you want.
C------9-9-9-9-----5-5-5-5-5-5---
G#-----9-9-9-9-----5-5-5-5-5-5---
G---9--9-9-9-9--5--5-5-5-5-5-5--- x 4
C---9--9-9-9-9--5--5-5-5-5-5-5---
C---9--9-9-9-9-(0)---------------
A--(0)---------------------------
Lee:
A----14-14-14-12-----8--10-10-10-10-8-10-8-----14-14-14-12-----8--10-10-10---
A----14-14-14-12-----8--10-10-10-10-8-10-8-----14-14-14-12-----8--10-10-10---
E---(12)------------(8)-----------------------(12)------------(8)------------ x 2
E---(12)------------(8)-----------------------(12)------------(8)------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kim:
G--------------------------------------------------------
D---7--7-7-7-7----------------7--7-7-7-7--3-3-3--3-3-3---
A---------------3-3-3--3-3-3----------------------------- x 2
E--------------------------------------------------------
B SECTION 00:38-00:48
C SECTION 00:49-00:59
B SECTION 00:59-01:09
C SECTION 01:09-01:19
B SECTION 01:20-01:30
D SECTION 01:30-03:08
Thurston just abuses his guitar and amp to make shrieking noise. When he's decided they've
had enough, he begins playing the intro riff (around 2:28). When Steve starts his snare roll
around 2:38, Thurston starts playing the intro/verse chords more aggressively. I think including
the arpeggiated and chord iterations, he plays the riff about 14 times. This was always
improvised live however.
Lee makes a lot of noise with his Fender DGL-1 Digital Delay. There's at least two tracks
of him playing with the speed and loops. When Steve starts his snare roll around 2:38,
one of Lee's guitar is playing this note very quickly over and over:
A---19--- ------14----17--18--19-----
A---19--- bend a bit while picking / then play around with: ------14----17--18--19-----
E----/--- --12---/-----/---/---/-----
E----/--- --12---/-----/---/---/-----
A-------- ---/-----------------------
A-------- ---/-----------------------
It's really just rising on those high notes. Towards the end of the big snare build up, he starts
switching between two chords. On live versions, he would just play the main C section riff, which
is rooted in these chords:
A---12----8----
A---12----8----
E---12----8----
E---12----8----
A---12----8----
A---12----8----
Kim holds a C and rocks it with fuzz/wah for a while:
G-------
D-------
A---3---
E-------
Around 2:24 she hits an open A:
G-------
D-------
A---0---
E-------
Then at 2:32 start hitting C again. On the record it sounds like an it may be an octave
above, but in live footage from this era she plays the 3rd fret.
At 2:38 start playing:
G--------------------------------------
D---7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7--------------------
A--------------------3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3--- x 11
E--------------------------------------
B SECTION 03:08-03:18
C SECTION 03:18-03:28
B SECTION 03:28-03:47
It almost sounds like Thurston ends on:
C-------
G#------
G-------
C---2---
C---2---
A---2---
Lee ends on:
A--------------
A--------------
E--------------
E---5~~~~///---
A---5~~~~///---
A---5~~~~///---
Kim ends on:
G-------
D---0---
A-------
E-------
text + tab by Chris Lawrence
special thanx to Larsen + Raj Paden
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