Butthole Surfers - Hairway to Steven
List Price:
Our Price: $12.89
You Save: $3.05 (19%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $11.00 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Music CD Cover
Artist: Butthole SurfersEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1999-08-03
Music Label: Latino Bugger Veil
Soundtracks:
- Untitled
- Untitled
- Untitled
- Untitled
- Untitled
- Untitled
- Untitled
- Untitled
Free Music Notes for Hairway to Steven
Free Music Review: Crazy F-ing World! Ha ha HA!
Hit: 5 Stars
Hairway to Steven is definitely the surfers' strangest/beautiful/trippy/artistic record out there. Released in their prime with the two drummers and a lot of acid, they managed to create a unusual masterpiece. While it may only contain eight songs, the material here is complex yet simple while at the same time brilliant. Throwing in the gibbytronix (a lot!), acousitic guitar, several sound effects, and no official song titles given (only those from the Double live records), they are only titled with crude yellow drawings. (I read somewhere that it was a tour buddy or groupie who drew them). Paul Leary's guitar work is only topped by his work on Independent Worm Saloon, as it is truly deranged on Jimi while hypnotic on Backass. I will also add the fact that this is also their most perverted record, what with songs like I Saw an X-ray of a Girl passing gas, Julio Iglesias, and the "child" in Jimi yelling "Daddy don't touch me!", and lets not forget the crippled midget lesbian boy who stood ten feet tall with a knife, named John E. Smoke. Anyone who would be offended by those things clearly doesn't need to be reading this (yeah that's right Buzz off!) It's an enjoyable ride is what I can say. This is definitely a record to listen to in the dark as it will freak you out. Here is a breakdown of the Hairway.
1. Jimi 10/10 (12:38)
(pt. 1) a deranged nightmare that sounds like it could belong on Locust Abortion Technician, A creepy dedication to Jimi Hendrix is obvious from the acid guitar work from Paul.
(pt.2) Once the enjoyable Nightmare is over it calms the listener down with the final half bein acoustic, very strange, Gibby is clearly mumbling in the background but its extremely difficult to make out what he's saying, but that doesn't matter because this part really leaves you in a state of mind.
2. Ricky 8/10 (2:36) a very catchy slightly acoustic song, that's much faster and one of the "friendly" tracks here.
3. I Saw an X-ray of a Girl passing Gas 9/10 (4:56) A very funny song that makes absolutely no sense what so ever, I enjoy the drums particularly. Gibby makes connections between random people such as Jesus, Budda, Hitler, and Santa. Pretty funny.
4. John E. Smoke 10/10 (6:40) Don't let the audience fool you, this isn't live, its just for effect, and if the last song didn't prove to you that Gibby is out of his mind, then this certainly well.
5. Rocky 8/20 (3:45) A partial sequel to Ricky (or at least that's how I see it) the Acoustic Guitar returns as well as old friends going insane.
6. Julio Iglesias 7/10 (3:04) A funny song, its not really meant to be taken seriously, what with talking about 69 with the pope.
7. Backass 10/10 (6:07) The guitar sounds like it was drenched in acid and then combined with a Cello. Yeah I know, that doesn't seem to make much sense and that's exactly the point!
8. Fast (AKA Fast Song) (1:35) 9/10 The Hairway starts with the longest song and ends with the shortest, Gibby returns with the Gibbytronix, and its well, FAST! Although it may seem right but amazon.com has misspelled this song as fart song.
One thing that I love about Hairway to Steven is that you can listen to it again and again. It's a very bizarre experience, once the album ends, just press play again. It's weird because for me you just can't do that very easily with their earlier or later records as easily as Hairway can. Only problem is that this record is VERY difficult to find, and outside of the one that ordered from amazon.com, I haven't seen it anyplace else. Go ahead click the buy button, I hoped this helped.
Hairway to Steven Poster
The final album for the Surfers' legendary run on Touch and Go got a reception probably not even the band figured on -- lead reviews in major music magazines, increasingly higher profiles, and more. As it is, though, Hairway is actually a touch lazy in comparison to the previous releases, sometimes sounding almost all too normal. When it connects, though, Steven works wonders, whether continuing in the punk/psychedelic fusion vein of the past or exploring a gentler, tuneful side. The lengthy opener "Jimi" is the album's high note, and as one might guess from the title it's something of a tribute to Hendrix -- at least, if "Third Stone From the Sun" sounded like it was recorded in a sewer tunnel and was even more gone than it already was. Haynes' alternately deep and hyper-high-pitched vocals work perfectly against Leary's searing, crazed guitar noises, while the Pinkus/Coffey rhythm section lays down a massive beat. Everything concludes with deceptive peacefulness: acoustic guitar, tweeting birds, sounds of bowling, and the like. Other highlights include "I Saw an X-Ray of a Girl Passing Gas," a relatively straightforward, mostly acoustic-plus-rhythm section number sung clearly (!) by Haynes, and the mock live recording "John E. Smokes," with Haynes often sounding like a rural preacher gone mad. The humming guitar buzz of "Backass" and the quick blast of "Fart Song" concludes Steven with vim. As a final note, the song titles themselves can't be found anywhere on the release -- instead, and quite notoriously, a series of cartoon drawings stand in for them. Some are fairly calm, but most show things like nude women displaying their butts and rabbits taking dumps on deer. Juvenile? Of course, but the Butthole Surfers never pretended to be nice and sweet. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music GuideAs you descend into Hairway to Steven, Butthole Surfers' last studio recording before their ascent to major-label... status, there are few handles to orient you. You get dropped, headlong, into Paul Leary's moaning, shrieking guitar, Gibby Haynes's megaphone-grown growl, and the thundering two-drummer rhythms that throb and contort this classic 1988 mind-bender. There are no song titles, and as for the songs themselves, they're layered so thick that teasing even a thick strand from any of them is a task. In the late 1980s, when they recorded Hairway (and Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac, Rembrandt Pussyhorse, and Locust Abortion Technician), the Buttholes were in the midst of an endless road show full of freakish displays--Gibby with clothespins on his nipples, Gibby shredding feather pillows on stage amidst pounding strobes, the ever-present mix of sex-change films and naked women dancers gyrating as the band screamed through their set. Hairway catches the sensory overload of it, the fire walk over structure and total chaos, the incipient humor of what was a fantastic, outrageous, vitally important stage in the career of one of punk's most whacked bands. And dig the fifth cut, the single the Buttholes could never have gotten any credit for in the S&L drenched 1980s, with Gibby doing some bouncy "Nah nah nah's" and "Hey, hey, hey's" and believably opining, "Well all of our friends, baby / They're going insane, now." --Andrew Bartlett
Alternative Rock Music CDs
Music Genres
Top music charts in Alternative Rock Music CDs
Bouncing Souls - Maniacal LaughterRelease date: 1996-01-26; Music CD
Best price: $30.00
Blondie - Parallel LinesRelease date: 1994-07-29; Music CD
Best price: $397.77
Doors - L.A. WomanRelease date: 1993-04-09; Music CD
Best price: $199.99
Amon Duul - Phallus DeiRelease date: 1997-04-08; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Tangerine Dream - MelroseRelease date: 1990-10-02; Music CD
Best price: $74.98
Tangerine Dream - Private Music of Tangerine DreamRelease date: 1992-11-10; Music CD
Best price: $9.50
Price in other shops:
![Ska Explosion [VHS] Image](/images/Ska-Explosion-VHS-6303381014-X.jpg){kind=small}
Ska Explosion [VHS]Cleopatra; Release date: 1995-02-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
![Little Earthquakes [VHS] Image](/images/Little-Earthquakes-VHS-6302488664-X.jpg){kind=small}
Little Earthquakes [VHS]Atlantic / Wea; Release date: 1992-11-10; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
Exileby Geoffrey Oryema
Music CD
Best price: $4.95
![Louder Than Live [VHS] Image](/images/Louder-Than-Live-VHS-6301627865-X.jpg){kind=small}
Soundgarden - Louder Than Live [VHS]A&M Video; Release date: 1991-07-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Top Rated Albums
Gibby Haynes & His Problem - Gibby Haynes & His ProblemRelease date: 2004-08-24; Music CD
Best price: $10.43
Price in other shops:
Butthole Surfers - Humpty Dumpty LSDRelease date: 2002-08-15; Music CD
Best price: $19.34
Price in other shops:
Butthole Surfers - Pioughd/ WidowermakerRelease date: 2007-10-16; Music CD
Best price: $10.62
Price in other shops:
Butthole Surfers - Butthole Surfers Live Pcp EpRelease date: 2003-01-28; Music CD
Best price: $13.75
Price in other shops:
Butthole Surfers - Psychic Powerless Another MaRelease date: 1999-08-03; Music CD
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
Butthole Surfers - Rembrandt PussyhorseRelease date: 1999-08-03; Music CD
Best price: $11.98
Price in other shops:
Butthole Surfers - Weird RevolutionRelease date: 2001-08-28; Music CD
Best price: $6.26
Price in other shops:
Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion TechnicianRelease date: 1999-08-03; Music CD
Best price: $9.59
Price in other shops:
Butthole Surfers - Independent Worm SaloonRelease date: 1993-03-23; Music CD
Best price: $6.80
Price in other shops:
Butthole Surfers - ElectriclarrylandRelease date: 1996-05-14; Music CD
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops: