While Pere Ubu have never been widely popular—usually categorized as "underground rock"—they have a devoted following, have been hugely influential on several generations of avant-garde musicians and are a critically acclaimed American musical group. To define their music, Pere Ubu coined the term Avant Garage to reflect interest in both avant-garde music (especially Musique concrète) and raw, direct garage rock.
When Cleveland-based band Rocket From The Tombs fragmented some members formed Dead Boys, while David Thomas and guitarist Peter Laughner joined with guitarist Tom Herman, bass guitarist Tim Wright, drummer Scott Krauss and synthesist Allen Ravenstine to form Pere Ubu in 1975. At the time the band formed, Herman, Krauss, and Ravenstine lived in a house owned by Ravenstine.
Pere Ubu's first single (their first five releases were singles on their own "Hearthan" label) was "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" (inspired by the "Doolittle Raid" and named after a film depicting the raid), backed with "Heart of Darkness"; followed by "Final Solution" in 1976. One review noted that "30 Seconds..." "was clearly the work of a garage band, yet its arty dissonance and weird experimentalism were startlingly unique."
Of their second single, "Final Solution" (backed with "Cloud 149"), one reviewer wrote that Ubu's "call for a 'final solution' was the cry of teen angst run down in the decaying rust belt of America, and unlike the British punks who were looking around England the same year, seeing no future, and hating what they saw, Ubu reveled in it." They would rarely perform this song after some listeners misinterpreted it as being associated with the 'Nazi final solution'.
After "Street Waves", their third single, Pere Ubu signed to Blank Records, a short-lived imprint of Mercury Records.
Laughner left the group after their first two singles, and died soon afterward after a struggle with drug addiction. Tony Maimone signed on as bassist after Tim Wright left to join DNA.
In 1978 they released their debut album, The Modern Dance, which sold poorly but has proven influential. With the song "Sentimental Journey," the debut also introduced the practice of re-appropriating titles from well-known popular songs: Pere Ubu's "Sentimental Journey" has no obvious relation to the Doris Day hit song of the same name; "Drinking Wine Spodyody" has no apparent connection to the Sticks McGhee song (later revived by Jerry Lee Lewis). This practice has continued through 2006's Why I Hate Women, which has a song called "Blue Velvet" (again, no relation to the 1963 hit song by Bobby Vinton).
Special note should be made of Ravenstine's contributions to Pere Ubu. While most synthesizer players tended to play the instrument as they would a piano or organ, Ravenstine generally opted instead to make sounds that were reminiscent of spooky sound effects from 1950s science fiction films, or perhaps electronic music and musique concrète.
Dub Housing was released in 1978 and New Picnic Time in 1979. The group briefly disbanded in 1979, but reformed soon afterward with Tom Herman replaced by Mayo Thompson (of Red Krayola).
The Art of Walking was released in 1980, and by the release of Song of the Bailing Man in 1982, Krauss was replaced by Anton Fier. The group disbanded again soon afterwards; Krauss and Maimone formed Home and Garden, while Thomas worked on a solo career, notably with Richard Thompson and with members of Henry Cow.
By the late 1980s, one of Thomas' solo projects eventually featured much of Pere Ubu. The band was reformed again in 1987, with Jim Jones and Chris Cutler joining for the release of The Tenement Year in 1988, a far more pop-oriented album than ever before. The following year, the track "Waiting for Mary" (off the album 1989 Cloudland) appeared on MTV briefly. After the recording of Cloudland, Ravenstine left the group (although he made a guest appearance on Worlds in Collision in 1991) and later became an airline pilot. Eric Drew Feldman joined the band in time for the Cloudland tour and the recording of Worlds in Collision but left afterwards, joining Frank Black.
Story of My Life was released in 1993 on Imago Records; Maimone left (once again) to join They Might Be Giants, and Michele Temple and Garo Yellin joined the band for the Story of My Life tour and feature on Ubu's 1995 album, Ray Gun Suitcase. Robert Wheeler has played synthesizer and theremin with Pere Ubu since 1994. Krauss left the band during the Ray Gun Suitcase sessions. For the Ray Gun Suitcase tour, guitarist Jim Jones departed as a touring member (although he continued to contribute to recordings), founding guitarist Tom Herman replaced him for the tour.
Concurrent with the 1996 release of the Datapanik in Year Zero box set, Jim Jones retired due to health problems. Tom Herman returned to the band after a twenty year absence to tour with the band in 1995, and went on to record Pennsylvania in 1998 and St. Arkansas in 2002. Jim Jones contributed guitar tracks to each album as well, and guitarist Wayne Kramer of MC5 fame joined the band for their 1998 summer tour. Herman left again in 2005, being replaced by Keith Moliné, of David Thomas's "solo" group Two Pale Boys. The new lineup completed an album entitled Why I Hate Women, which was released on September 19th 2006.
On 18 February 2008, Jim Jones passed away at his Cleveland residence.
We Have The Technology
Pere Ubu Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
and freeze it
To come back again and again and again
To hold it to the light
Turn it in our hands
To study all the angles
To find out how
and Why
We have the technology
not available before
We have the technology
But thinkers and poets of the past
Oh, no
They had to leap into the dark so blindly
Whereas we'll stand free and upright like men
The day's golden light!
Linked with our machines our eyes are beaming
It won't matter at all
How weird
things are seeming
We need the means to dig deeper
To search below the surface appearance of things
Worlds never dreamed of!
What a wonderful life if, darling
that moment
Might be found wherein we come unstuck
completely:
Flap A from Slot B,
slapping in the wind!
The opening lines of Pere Ubu's song "We Have The Technology" express a desire for timelessness in a rapidly-changing world. The singer longs to hold onto a moment, to scrutinize it from all angles, to uncover the secrets of how and why things happen. This longing is expressed in a series of vivid, tactile images: holding something up to the light, turning it in one's hands, studying its angles. But despite the singer's desire to stop time, the next lines imply a sense of progress: "We have the technology / not available before." There's a feeling of excitement here - as though the possibilities of modern technology might allow us not just to hold a moment in our hands, but to understand it in an entirely new way.
This optimism carries through the rest of the song. The singer is confident that the thinkers and poets of the past, who had to "leap into the dark so blindly," would be impressed with the technology available today. The day's "golden light" is linked with "our machines," and the singer imagines a future in which machines and humans work together seamlessly: "Linked with our machines our eyes are beaming / It won't matter at all / How weird / things are seeming." The song ends with a kind of manifesto calling for further exploration - "We need the means to dig deeper / To search below the surface appearance of things / Worlds never dreamed of!" - and a final image of freedom, expressed through the playful idea of coming "unstuck / completely: / Flap A from Slot B, / slapping in the wind!"
Overall, "We Have The Technology" is a celebration of innovation and progress, but one that acknowledges the desire for stability and continuity in the face of rapid change. The singer suggests that modern technology is a key to unlocking the mysteries of the world, allowing us to see more clearly and to push the boundaries of what is possible. But this excitement is tempered by a sense of caution - we need to be careful not to get too caught up in the novelty of new technology, and to remember that the ultimate aim is to bring us closer to an ideal of freedom and self-knowledge.
Line by Line Meaning
How I wish we could take this moment
Expressing a desire to preserve the current moment in time
and freeze it
To stop the progression of time and hold onto the current moment
To come back again and again and again
The repeated desire to revisit the frozen moment indefinitely
To hold it to the light
To examine the moment under close scrutiny
Turn it in our hands
To observe the moment from different perspectives
To study all the angles
To thoroughly analyze the moment using all available tools and knowledge
To find out how
The pursuit of understanding the factors and reasons behind why the moment exists in its current state
and Why
The desire to understand the underlying motivations or processes behind the moment
it's gotta go the way that it goes
The realization that the moment and its path are subject to forces beyond individual control
We have the technology
The acknowledgment of having access to advanced tools and methods for analysis
not available before
An implication that past generations lacked the technological capabilities available now
But thinkers and poets of the past
A comparison to earlier generations who lacked the same means and resources
Oh, no
Suggesting the negative impact of being forced to operate without advanced technologies
They had to leap into the dark so blindly
The struggle of navigating the unknown without the aid of modern resources
Whereas we'll stand free and upright like men
The idea that access to advanced technologies confers power and the ability to stand boldly and confidently
The day's golden light!
A metaphorical expression of hope, enlightenment, and progress
Linked with our machines our eyes are beaming
The merging of human and technological resources for a more comprehensive analysis
It won't matter at all
Implying that, with the right tools, external factors or complexities become less important
How weird
Acknowledging the potential strangeness or unpredictability of the moment at hand
things are seeming
An acknowledgement of how things appear, rather than how they truly are
We need the means to dig deeper
The recognition of the necessity of accessing deeper levels of analysis and understanding
To search below the surface appearance of things
A desire to explore beyond superficial attributes and into the underlying realities of the moment
Worlds never dreamed of!
The exciting possibility of uncovering new understanding and insights
What a wonderful life if, darling
A dream of an ideal life made possible by access to technological tools
that moment
Referring back to the frozen moment meant for analysis and study
Might be found wherein we come unstuck
The desire to find revelations so profound that time and space lose meaning
completely:
Emphasizing the thoroughness of the potential revelations
Flap A from Slot B,
The use of nonsensical syntax to describe a concept beyond conventional language
slapping in the wind!
An idiosyncratic expression of the potential for boundless discovery and revelation
Contributed by Thomas M. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
captainslogstarshipenterprise
No one stumbles on this song, you have to seek and find.
Eric Blair
I bet some fans of The Six Million Dollar Man did. I wonder what goes through their heads when they come here expecting to see Lee Majors battle Bigfoot and wind up with this instead.
Ted Burke
How I wish we could take this moment
And freeze it
To come back again and again and again
To hold it to the light
Turn it in our hands
To study all the angles
To find out how
And Why
It's gotta go the way that it goes
We have the technology
Not available before
We have the technology
But thinkers and poets of the past
Oh, no
They had to leap into the dark so blindly
Whereas we'll stand free and upright like men
The day's golden light!
Linked with our machines our eyes are beaming
It won't matter at all
How weird
Things are seeming
We need the means to dig deeper
To search below the surface appearance of things
Worlds never dreamed of!
What a wonderful life if, darling
That moment
Might be found wherein we come unstuck
Flap A from Slot B,
Slapping in the wind!
宮崎剛
You are STRONG.super stars.
Ben Spizuco
the dude in the thumbnail is all over 80s Ubu. back of "worlds of collision", front of "story of my life"