The Comedy of Errors: Sonic Youth - Genetic (28 June 1992)

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Written and sung by Lee Ranaldo, Genetic serves as a pretty effective snapshot of the emotional state of Sonic Youth’s guitarist during 1991/92, a period in which his first marriage broke up and he started a new relationship that would eventually lead to his second and current marriage, with artist
Leah Singer.

Split into two distinct sections, the driving urgency of the first two minutes takes on the quality of a final discussion/moment of truth between Ranaldo and his first wife, Amanda.  Although specifics are a bit light on the ground (this is not a break-up song written with the acerbicity of Stephen Merritt), Ranaldo has clearly been thinking about his life and his marriage, leading him to the conclusion that change is needed.  There’s confusion (“I’m still looking for these things that I can’t find/Thoughts just come and go swirling through my mind”) but no bitterness and I suspect that that is down to a recognition on Ranaldo’s part that although he may be moving away from the marriage and marital home, he will never move away from the family given “the genetic kiss” that he and Amanda share in the form of their son, Corey:

I see me and you/Then it’s him I’m thinking of
We sit alone/No one else at home
I taste it, I feel/And now I know it’s true
Your genetic kiss reveals/I’ll always be with you

At around 2:04, the track changes tempo.  The urgency replaced by a lighter, dreamier sound - my notes reveal that it was the “shimmering atmospherics” of the last two minutes which won me over to it, though I now feel the whole track is exceptional.  The lullaby-like tone is deliberate as Ranaldo addresses his young son, attempting to put his mind at rest and offer loving reassurance ahead of the domestic upheaval to come.  But because this is a Sonic Youth song, there is an expectancy that young Corey will need to grow up quickly in order to fully appreciate it:

There’s no perfect idea/There’s no perfect fate
Just little stabs of happiness/Sometimes a little too late
So keep your eyes wide open/And know what you’re made of
Remember first thought, best thought/Try to stay in love

All during this the music builds up again like the feel of lurching, tearful emotions before dropping down again into quietly restrained atonal twists - the sound of someone trying to jam as much of their material life as will fit into the back of their car, before fading out on Steve Shelley’s simple drumbeat, the sound of a pounding heart looking in the rearview mirror as it drives away from a home in which it will never spend another evening.

It’s devastating stuff, brilliantly brought to life by Sonic Youth, but Genetic caused enough headaches for the group that it almost led to a break-up in Ranaldo’s professional life as well as his personal one.  Recording for the Dirty LP was close to completion when Ranaldo brought the song into the sessions.  Furthermore, it was offered to the group as effectively a completed piece of work rather than as something which could be worked on and pulled together by the band collaboratively as was their usual method of working.  For Ranaldo, the song was something that he needed to get out there in light of how he felt at the time, and although his band mates came through for him in terms of the performance, there were tricky discussions waiting to be had and which led to tension when the tracklisting for Dirty was being agreed and Genetic was vetoed.  Instead, it was one of the b-sides on the lead single for the album, 100%.  The remaining content in this post is taken from Goodbye 20th Century - Sonic Youth and the Rise of the Alternative Nation by David Browne published by Piatkus in 2008:

‘“Genetic was a song that was obviously based on some personal issues Lee was dealing with at the time,” recalls Thurston Moore.  “And I felt a little weird about having the band being set up for him to voice those issues in.  And he said, ‘Well it should be set up for me to voice those issues - why would I be in it otherwise?’ And my argument was that the band really started as a forum for something I wanted to express.  And that obviously changed over time.”  ....The implication that directly emotional songs weren’t the stuff of Sonic Youth - didn't especially placate Ranaldo....For a brief moment, the possibility of Sonic Youth being a trio hung in the air as Ranaldo pondered his options.  Some feel he considered leaving the band, although Ranaldo says it “never got quite that extreme.”
“We tried to make as much allowance for Lee, and it became a little tempestuous,” Moore admits. “.....It was a bit of a showdown.”
After a difficult few weeks, the matter died down [via the b-side compromise].  In retrospect, Ranaldo had to concede that the Sonic Youth working method...overruled everything. “People don’t feel as close to a song when it’s not something they put a lot of time and energy into.  There’s something to the fact that we had this body of songs we worked on for months and months and then this other one pops up at the last minute and you can’t help but feel a little less close to it.”  The wound would heal, although it would take several more years for a complete mend.’ (Browne, p.242)

Video courtesy of Arc Arcadio Archiadio
All lyrics copyright of Lee Ranaldo