A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Mudhoney - Blinding Sun (4 October 1992)

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According to Sheila Ravenscroft, when it came to socialising with musicians Peel was always happier on home ground than he was on neutral or alien turf.  Stories are legion, especially once bands/artists started playing live sets from Peel Acres of Peel hosting revelry with his guests almost until - and in all likelihood beyond - the break of dawn.  However, away from home, Peel was liable to make a bit of a fool of himself.  Mostly, this was down to nervous excitement. He memorably took Polly Jean Harvey out for lunch shortly after he had started playing her records on his show and was so nervous about it, he talked incessantly throughout the lunch and, by his own admission, barely let Harvey get a word in edgeways.  In relating these stories at his own expense, Peel often feared that the subjects of them would come away from their meetings with him, doubting his sanity or unwilling to ever spend any time with him again in future.

Harvey gladly spent more time around Peel, but at time of writing it remains to be seen whether Peel regained the good graces of Mudhoney’s vocalist, Mark Arm after a disastrous meeting at the 1992 Reading Festival, just over a month before this edition of John Peel’s Music on BFBS went out.  Peel accepted full responsibility for his meeting with Arm lapsing into something approaching mutual embarrassment.  In trying to play it cool that he was talking to a musician he admired, “...You’re saying astonishingly stupid things and thinking, ‘I can’t believe it’s me that’s saying this.’ And he’s looking at you like, ‘You’re a real pillock!’, but you can’t stop yourself from doing it.  It was really quite embarrassing and I kind of hope I never see him again, certainly not at close quarters.” 

At the very least, Peel came away from the chat with Arm armed (sorry) with a cassette copy of Mudhoney’s new album, Piece of Cake.  He had given the cassette to his eldest son, William, who had not passed comment on the record and this had set alarm bells ringing for Peel.  Although he played Blinding Sun from the record, he confessed to finding the album a disappointment feeling there was a lot of filler in it, especially “...several kind of short tracks, which probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but which I doubt will stand the test of time.”  Of those short pieces, I liked the house music pastiche which acts as an entracte to the opening track of the record, but given that one of these tracks is someone making fart noises over a drumbeat, Peel definitely had a point.

Blinding Sun is one of the stronger tracks on the album, which I have to say I preferred far more than the previous year’s Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge.  However, it would be hard to argue with William’s silence if it was due to him comparing the album unfavourably to the standout moments on Mudhoney’s eponymous debut album from 1989.  Nevertheless, Blinding Sun is a good example of Mudhoney’s propensity to keep the listener grimly going through the filler in order to make their highpoints worth the wait.

Video courtesy of Warner Records Vault