The Comedy of Errors: Red Red Meat - Idaho Durt (20 June 1992)

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I’m speculating but I think that the main reason that Peel included this track from Chicago-based Red Red Meat on his show is the same reason why I’ve included it on my metaphorical mixtape. Namely, the opportunity to luxuriate in the oaky tones of Evel Knievel’s voice.  Excerpts from a 1974 interview album wend their way through a track which starts out like a trailerpark blues cousin of the old soul instrumental Last Night before a brief, final flurry as a Krautrock lullaby about Knievel’s litany of injuries and ongoing process of recovery.  Were it not for the Knievel inserts on motorcycle safety and his idea of the Heaven he would hope to find if he died in an accident, then it would be pretty forgettable.
Given his great love of motorsports, Peel would have been a sucker for any piece of music that gave centre stage to someone like Evel Knievel and given the fact that it doesn’t look as though he played any other tracks from the eponymous Red Red Meat album released through Perishable Records, he may well have leapt upon the track as something to break the tedium of the first 10 tracks on the record.  However, the final 5 tracks, I felt, were very good and it may have been off the back of those that Red Red Meat were signed to Sub Pop, who released a further three albums for the band up to 1997.

Peel has a ringside seat for a couple of 4 wheel daredevil crashes on The Late Late Breakfast Show
in 1983.  The production team looked at this situation and decided that the best way to address such accidents was to sack Peel, because hey, that’s a much easier approach to take than to incorporate safer working practices.



Videos courtesy of Red Red Meat - Topic and IvorT Engine