The Real Thing (Faith No More album)

The Real Thing is the third studio album by the American rock band Faith No More. It was first released through Slash Records on June 20, 1989. It was the first release by the band not to feature vocalist Chuck Mosley, instead the album featured Mike Patton from the experimental band Mr. Bungle. On this album, Faith No More advanced their sound range combining heavy metal, progressive rock, hip hop, funk, jazz, and soul.

Background

Faith No More underwent several line-up changes before releasing their first album, We Care a Lot, released in 1985 and distributed through San Francisco-based label Mordam Records. On the original vinyl release, the band is credited as "Faith. No More" on the album's liner notes, back cover, and on the record itself. Within a year the band signed up with Slash Records. The debut album's title track "We Care a Lot" was later rerecorded, for their follow-up album Introduce Yourself in 1987, and released as their first single. Membership remained stable until vocalist Chuck Mosley was replaced by Mike Patton in 1988.^[3]

Production

The writing for the majority of the music for The Real Thing took place after the tour for Introduce Yourself. A demo version of "The Morning After", under the moniker "New Improved Song", with alternate lyrics written and sung by Chuck Mosley was released on the Sounds·Waves 2 extended play with the Sounds magazine. "Surprise! You're Dead!" was composed by Jim Martin^[4] in the 1970s, while he was guitarist for Agents of Misfortune who also featured Cliff Burton in the line up.^[5] The recording of the song took place in December 1988 following Chuck Mosley's removal from the band and was completed prior to the hiring of Mike Patton, who then wrote all the lyrics for the songs and recorded them the following month over the music.^[6]

The recording sessions also yielded several songs that did not appear on the album. Two of them, "The Grade" and "The Cowboy Song", later appeared on the singles and on the UK edition of Live at the Brixton Academy. A third song, "Sweet Emotion", was later rerecorded with different lyrics as "The Perfect Crime" for the soundtrack to the film that also starred a cameo appearance from guitarist Jim Martin, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. The original version was released on Flexible Fiend 3 with Kerrang! magazine issue 258 and, more recently The Very Best Definitive Ultimate Greatest Hits Collection, the greatest hits compilation released to coincide with the band's reunion tour.

Touring and support

Tours

The tour in support of The Real Thing was the first Faith No More did with Mike Patton. The second show of the tour was filmed for the music video to "From out of Nowhere" in the I-Beam nightclub. During the show, Patton had a beer bottle smashed over his right hand causing lacerations to some tendons.^[7] He was able to use his hand again after it healed, but he has no feeling in it.^[8]

Singles

The first single to be released from the album was "From Out of Nowhere" on August 30, 1989 which made number twenty-three on the UK Singles Chart.^[9] This was followed by "Epic" on January 30, 1990 the music video for which received extensive airplay on MTV throughout the year, despite provoking anger from animal rights activists for a slow motion shot of a fish flopping out of water.^[10][11] "Falling to Pieces" then saw release on July 2, 1990 and made it to number ninety-two on the Billboard Hot 100 before the reissue of "Epic" which then provided the bands first number one hit single, on the ARIA Charts,^[12] and their only top ten single on the Billboard Hot 100, making it to number nine.^[13]

"Surprise! You're Dead!" had a music video produced for it, that was directed by bassist Billy Gould featuring footage shot in Chile during a South American tour in 1991, but never saw release as an official single and the video wasn't released until its appearance on Video Croissant. "Edge of the World" saw limited release as a two track promo single in Brazil on CD and 12" vinyl, with the album version as track one and the live at Brixton Academy version as the second track, in a yellow slipcase with basic black text.

Critical reception

The Real Thing is one of Faith No More's most successful albums to date. It is now considered a classic metal album by fans and critics alike. Although released in mid 1989, The Real Thing didn't enter the Billboard 200 until February 1990,^[16] after the release of the second single from the album, "Epic". The album eventually peaked at number eleven on the chart in October 1990,^[17] following the reissue of "Epic" almost a year and half after the initial release of the album. It was eventually certified platinum in U.S.^[18] and Canada^[19] as well as being certified Silver in the United Kingdom.^[20]

Legacy

Soundtrack appearances

• "From out of Nowhere" has been used in the video games Madden NFL 2005 and NHL 2005. It was released as downloadable content for Rock Band 3.
• "Epic" was featured on video games Rock Band, Burnout Paradise, SingStar and also appeared in a commercial for the console versions of Street Fighter IV, with the announcer stating about the game's "epic return". The song also appeared as a downloadable track in Guitar Hero 5.
• "Falling to Pieces" was featured on the film Black Hawk Down.
• "Surprise! You're Dead!" was included on the soundtrack for the film Gremlins 2: The New Batch and was used in the trailer for Violent Shit 3.

Covers

• "From out of Nowhere" has been covered by Finnish band Apocalyptica on their second album, Inquisition Symphony, German power metal band Helloween covered the song on their cover album Metal Jukebox and the Danish metal band, Raunchy covered the song on their album Velvet Noise Extended.
• "From out of Nowhere" has also been covered by the band Five Finger Death Punch, and is featured on the UK version of their album "The Way of the Fist".
• "Epic" has been covered both in concerts and on the Kerrang! Higher Voltage CD, a compilation of artists covering other songs. Such artists include the Welsh rock band The Automatic; the CD was released 20 June 2007.^[21] The metalcore band Atreyu also covered the song on their album Lead Sails Paper Anchor, and the Swedish indie band Love Is All plans to cover it in their 2008 tour.^[22]
• "Surprise! You're Dead!" has been covered by Jim Martin following his departure from the band, on his solo release Milk and Blood, and by Humans Being for the Tribute of the Year album.^[23] It was also covered by the death metal band Aborted on "Slaughter and Apparatus".
• The band Ill Niño has covered "Zombie Eaters" with Chino Moreno for their extended play The Under Cover Sessions.^[24]
• "Edge of the World" is covered twice on the Tribute of the Year album by both Hate Dept. and Combine Heathen.^[23]

Awards

The Real Thing was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance category in 1989 and "Epic" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1991.

Accolades

Track listing

All lyrics written by Mike Patton, except "The Real Thing" by Patton/Gould, "Surprise! You're Dead!" by Patton/Martin and "War Pigs" by Butler. 

Personnel

• Mike Bordin – drums
• Roddy Bottum – keyboards
• Bill Gould – bass
• Jim Martin – guitars
• Mike Patton – vocals

Production

• Matt Wallace – producer, engineer
• Jim "Watts" Vereecke – assistant engineer
• Craig Doubet – assistant engineer
• John Golden – mastering
• Lendon Flanagon – photography
• Jeff Price – artwork
• Terry Robertson – CD design

Chart performance

Album

Year end

Singles

Year end

References

Notes

• Chirazi, Steffan; Faith No More (1994). The Real Story. Castle Communications PLC. ISBN 1 898 141 150