Live's Shit Towne - one of the decent tracks off Throwing Copper – was an exercise in suppression. We couldn't easily identify the track on the air and you'd think no one in their right mind would ever bother to play the song, what with the supposed threat of the FCC showing up unexpectedly at the front door. Tracks like this usually were not in rotation at all, just to avoid the whole issue.
But someone played this song.
Inappropriate words, such as the one in the title, could be "clipped" if one knew how or had the stamina. Allow me to explain clipping. Each device you hear on the radio has a channel, or route the sound goes through to get on the air. Channel 1 is usually the microphone; other channels might be for a CD player, a turntable, a computer or a multitude of other equipment. To activate the channel there is a button or dial – a potentiometer – on the soundboard that you press or rotate and the sound, be it voice, music, or effects, goes out on the air.
Clipping then was the art of turning off and instantly turning back on the channel, thereby deadening the sound of whatever was playing for half a second or so. Grand masters of this ability would often deliberately play tracks such as these so they could 1) show their proficiency in their DJing craft and 2) allow music seldom heard some air time.
But not everyone clipped tracks very well. Some people held the dead air for too long. Some clipped too early and you heard the tail end of what you weren't supposed too. Or, in the case of this song, the DJ didn't know the track at all and missed a few of the words.
Oh, well.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Shit Towne
(Kowalczyk/Live)
Live
From the album Throwing Copper
1994
the weavers live up the street from me
the crackheads, they live down the street from me
the tall grass makes it hard to see
beyond my property
hey man, this is criminal,
this hard line symmetry
of people and pets
we don't bother anyone
we keep to ourselves
the mailman visits each of us in turn
we don't bother anyone
we keep to ourselves
the mailman visits each of us in time
gotta live, gotta live, gotta live
in shit towne
gotta live, gotta live, gotta live
in our town.
