The Grand Pecking Order

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The Grand Pecking Order
The Grand Pecking Order cover
Studio album by Oysterhead
Released October 2, 2001 (U.S.)
Recorded The Barn, April 2001
Genre Rock
Length 51:46
Label Elektra Records
Asylum Records
Producer Oysterhead
Professional reviews

The Grand Pecking Order is Oysterhead's only album, released on October 2, 2001. The album was recorded in guitarist Trey Anastasio's Barn recording studio. Oysterhead was intended to be a single performance, but the project spawned this album and several one-off shows.

Many of the songs from that first performance are on the album, including "Little Faces" (a reworked version of "I Am Oysterhead"), "Mr. Oysterhead," "Rubberneck Lions," "Pseudo Suicide," and "Owner of the World." The song "Oz is Ever Floating" refers to the album's recording engineer, Oz Fritz, and his beliefs in psychoanalyst Dr. John C. Lilly. The song "Birthday Boys" is about the temporally-proximate birthdays of Claypool (September 29) and Anastasio (September 30) while in Las Vegas in 2000.[1] The song "Radon Balloon" would appear as a reworked instrumental version on Anastasio's self-titled album as "Ray Dawn Balloon." The song "Wield the Spade" was based on a speech by Romania's final communist leader, Nicolae Ceauşescu.[2]

Eventually, the release of this album was supported by a brief tour of North America.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

All songs, unless otherwise noted, are music: Oysterhead, lyrics: Anastasio and Claypool.

  1. "Little Faces" - 4:57
  2. "Oz is Ever Floating" - 2:49
  3. "Mr. Oysterhead" - 4:51 (music: Oysterhead, lyrics: Claypool)
  4. "Shadow of a Man" - 3:44 (music and lyrics: Claypool)
  5. "Radon Balloon" - 3:21 (music and lyrics: Anastasio)
  6. "Army's on Ecstasy" - 4:31 (Music: Oysterhead, Lyrics: Claypool)
  7. "Rubberneck Lions" - 5:17
  8. "Polka Dot Rose" - 3:10 (music: Oysterhead, lyrics: Claypool)
  9. "Birthday Boys" - 3:06
  10. "Wield the Spade" - 5:48 (music: Oysterhead, lyrics: Copeland and MacDonald)
  11. "Pseudo Suicide" - 4:54
  12. "The Grand Pecking Order" - 2:35 (music: Anastasio and Claypool, lyrics: Claypool)
  13. "Owner of the World" - 2:45

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Credits

  • Mixed by Toby Wright
  • Recorded by Oz Fritz
  • Cover Painting and Illustrations: Tim Slowinski
  • Photography: Danny Clinch

[edit] External links

[edit] Charting

No. 41 on the Billboard 200 Chart

[edit] References

  1. ^ Billboard, October 3, 2001.
  2. ^ Steward Copeland: All Hail Oyster, er, Foot?, Mike Doherty, Chart Attack, December 14, 2001.