The Greatest Story Ever Told (album)

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The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Greatest Story Ever Told cover
Studio album by The Lawrence Arms
Released September 23, 2003
Genre Punk rock
Length ~33:19
Label Fat Wreck Chords
Producer Matt Allison and The Lawrence Arms
Professional reviews
The Lawrence Arms chronology
Apathy and Exhaustion
(2002)		 The Greatest Story Ever Told
(2003)		 Cocktails & Dreams
(2005)

The Greatest Story Ever Told is the fourth album by the Chicago, Illinois punk rock band The Lawrence Arms, released in 2003 by Fat Wreck Chords. A concept album of sorts, it follows a linear storyline, and has several songs which call back to or reference others. The album includes exhaustive liner notes with footnotes to the lyrics detailing the many literary and pop culture references contained therein. Its title is a direct reference to the movie The Greatest Story Ever Told, a 1965 film about the life of Jesus.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by The Lawrence Arms

  1. "Introduction: The Ramblin' Boys of Pleasure Sing the Hobo Clown Chorus" - 0:26
  2. "The Raw and Searing Flesh" - 3:07
  3. "On With the Show" - 1:29
  4. "Drunk Mouth Kitchen Smile" - 2:26
  5. "Alert the Audience!" - 2:16
  6. "Fireflies" - 3:54
  7. "The March of the Elephants" - 1:28
  8. "Chapter 13: The Hero Appears" - 2:50
  9. "Hesitation Station" - 1:43
  10. "The Revisionist" - 3:19
  11. "The Ramblin' Boys of Pleasure" - 2:44
  12. "A Wishful Puppeteer" - 3:11
  13. "The Disaster March" - 3:51
  14. "Outro: Hobo Reprise" - 0:27

[edit] Performers

[edit] Album information

  • Record label: Fat Wreck Chords
  • Recorded and mixed in June of 2003 at Atlas Studios by Matt Allison
  • Produced by Matt Allison and the Lawrence Arms
  • Mastered at West West Side Mastering by Alan Douches
  • All songs by the Lawrence Arms
  • Art direction and layout by David Holtz
  • Photography by Hiro Tanaka and Ben Pier
  • Footnotes by Chris McCaughan and Brendan Kelly

[edit] Pseudonyms

In the liner notes and artwork the band members identify themselves under false names and as playing instruments not found on the album, specifically Gordon Shumway on vibraslap, Ivan Nikolayevich on harp and lyre, and Ferdinand Magellan on bassoon. The names are also references to history, literature and pop culture:

  • Ferdinand Magellan, the famous Portuguese explorer who circumnavigated the globe in 1519.
  • Gordon Shumway, the full name of the fictional alien who was the main character of the 1980s television series ALF.
  • Ivan Nikolayevich, a character in the novel The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. The novel is referenced in other areas of the album including the song "Chapter 13: The Hero Appears."

They also fictitiously list several other famous figures as "additional musicians," including musician John Oates, actors Bronson Pinchot and Ian Ziering, poet Ezra Pound and former President Chester A. Arthur. In reality the music on the album is performed by the band's actual lineup of Chris McCaughan, Brendan Kelly and Neil Hennessy, with a few additional musicians who are friends and relations of the band.

[edit] Quotations

In addition to the numerous historical, literary and cultural references made in the album's lyrics, the inside back cover of the liner notes bears a pair of quotations designed to illustrate the album's juxtaposition of "legitimate" literature and philosophy with American pop culture:

  • "Who are thou, then?"

"Part of that Power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good."
-from Goethe's Faust

  • "Everything was fine until dickless here cut off the power grid!"

"Is this true?"
"Yes, your honor, this man has no dick."
-Bill Murray in Ghostbusters

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