Justified & Ancient

"Justified & Ancient"
Single by The KLF
from the album The White Room
Released September 1991 (original track)
November 1991 (remade)
Format CD single, CD maxi, 7" single, cassette
Recorded Trancentral
Genre House, freestyle, new jack swing
Length 3:37 (Stand by The JAMs)
Label KLF Communications (UK)
Songwriter(s) Jimi Cauty, Bill Drummond, Ricardo Lyte
Producer(s) Drummond/Cauty
Drummond & Cauty singles chronology
"It's Grim Up North"
(1991) It's Grim Up North1991		 "Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)"
(1991) Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)1991		 "3 a.m. Eternal (The KLF vs ENT version)"
(1992) 3 a.m. Eternal (The KLF vs ENT version)1992

"Justified & Ancient" is a song by British band the KLF (Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty) which featured on their 1991 album The White Room but with origins dating back to the duo's debut album, 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?).

The song is best known for its remake that was released in November 1991 as a pop-house single subtitled "Stand by The JAMs", with verses featuring the vocals of American country music singer Tammy Wynette. This version was an international hit, reaching number 2 on both the UK Singles Chart, and the US dance chart, number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and hitting number 1 in 18 countries.[1]

Despite its success, "Justified & Ancient (Stand by the JAMs)" was the final release by the KLF through retail channels as well the second-to-last altogether release from the KLF (the last release being the mail-order only re-recording of "3 a.m. Eternal" with Extreme Noise Terror) before Drummond and Cauty quit the music business and retired the KLF name.

Background

The title "Justified & Ancient" refers to the KLF's pseudonym and earlier incarnation, "The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu" (The JAMs). The JAMs took their name from a fictional subversive cult from the 1970s conspiratorial novels The Illuminatus! Trilogy. Just as the fictional JAMs made it their remit to propagate chaos and confusion, so too did the real JAMs and the KLF. Their attempts to subvert the music industry and other establishments were frequent, unconcealed and controversial. The song "Justified & Ancient" is a statement of identity and rebellious intent. Moreover, it deliberately understates this intent. In contrast to the provocative and abrasive lyrics of the JAMs' album 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?), on which "Justified & Ancient" first appeared, the song has a soft and innocuous tune, and quaint lyrics:

"We don't want to upset the apple-cart (Kallisti), and we don't want to cause any harm, but if you don't like what we're going to do, you'd better not stop us 'cause we're coming through."

Origins

The words and music of "Justified & Ancient" feature several times in the work of The KLF and The JAMs, including their first album and their last full-release single.

The melody and one repeated lyrical verse of the song first appeared as part of "Hey Hey We Are Not The Monkees" from The JAMs' debut album, 1987: What The Fuck Is Going On?.[2] All of the album's most prominent characteristics are notably absent in this part of "Hey Hey...", which has female vocals (as opposed to the rapping of The JAMs' Scottish co-founder Bill Drummond), inoffensive lyrics, and it is free from plagiarised samples of other artists' recordings. Also in contrast, "Hey Hey" itself begins with a minute's worth of typical human sexual intercourse noises, arranged as a rhythm. It progresses into a cryptic and bleak spoken verse from Drummond and descends into a cacophony of samples from "The Monkees Theme". An abrupt cut takes the track into the gentle "Justified & Ancient" vocal line, which is syncopated similarly to African music and is at first a cappella.

In 1990, the recording re-appeared on The KLF's ambient album, Chill Out, in a part of the composition titled "Justified & Ancient Seems a Long Time Ago". This time the song provides a complement rather than a contrast to the mood of the album, which is passive and contains various authentic ethnic sounds.

In March 1991, a full song called "Justified & Ancient" appeared on The KLF's album The White Room. Sung by Black Steel, the song begins and ends the album. This version retains the lyrics and melody, adds an additional verse, and full song structure and instrumentation is present, in an arrangement akin to a lullaby. Where the song starts the album, it is interrupted at the point "...they're coming through" by urgent "Mu Mu!" samples and blazing machine guns that open the house track "What Time Is Love?". At the end of the mellower second half of the album, the song is presented in its entirety.

The single - "Stand by The JAMs" featuring Tammy Wynette

Tammy Wynette and the handmaidens of Mu in The KLF's video for "Justified & Ancient"

In November 1991, the single "Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)" was released, featuring the lead vocals of country music singer Tammy Wynette, introduced in the sleevenotes as "the first lady of country". This was an upbeat and funky version of the song, the subtitle referencing Tammy Wynette's signature song "Stand by Your Man", and the inclusion of subtle pedal steel guitar also referencing Wynette's country origins. This was the final single to be released commercially by The KLF, following the US release of "America: What Time Is Love?".

The "Justified & Ancient" single marked a departure from The KLF's previous "Stadium House" trilogy of hits, which were driven by hooks and riffs and emulated a live performance by using sampled crowd noise. In contrast, the riffs, samples and rap of "Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)" were secondary to its conventional song structure of verses and choruses. Still, a riff borrowed from Jimi Hendrix' "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" runs through the choruses.

A longer mix of this arrangement, "Justified & Ancient (All Bound for Mu Mu Land)", dispensed with the pedal steel and substituted Wynette's lead vocals with those of Maxine Harvey, a regular contributor to The KLF's material. It also contained an additional verse making references to various aspects of The KLF's mythology.

Commentators were suspicious that the surprising pairing of Wynette with The KLF ("perhaps the oddest modern-day pop pairing"[3]) was a marketing ploy. Other commentators pointed to The KLF member Bill Drummond's fondness for country music as motivating the collaboration, or to the fact a period of almost exactly 23 years[4] separated the first airings of "Stand by Your Man" and "... (Stand by The JAMs)".[5]

"I really don't know why they chose me. I was apprehensive at first, but I'm really excited with the way it's all turned out", Wynette said. "Mu Mu Land looks a lot more interesting than Tennessee.... But I wouldn't want to live there."[3] In April 1992, Wynette collapsed while on tour in Australia; for this she cited overwork during the promotion of "Justified & Ancient".[6]

Reviews and reaction

The single reached # 2 in the UK Singles Chart, being held off the Number One spot for New Year's Day 1992 (not Christmas 1991 as is often erroneously claimed) by the re-release of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".[7] "Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)" also reached # 11 in the US Billboard Hot 100,[8] (returning Wynette to the top-40 on that chart for the first time since 1969), # 3 in the Australian singles chart,[9] # 1 in Sweden,[10] and # 1 on the Austrian Top 40.[11] The UK music press received the release generally positively: it was "single of the week" in New Musical Express (NME) and Melody Maker.[12] NME noted the "beautiful ethnic chorus lines! Ice Cream Vans! F--king awful lyrics!" [sic], and found that although the single "...lacks the sheer frantic rush of 'Last Train to Trancentral' ..., The KLF model a spiritual crown which elevates them several tower blocks above their amateur peers."[13]

In 1995, a celebrity panel working for The Times compiled a list of 90 songs that represented the decade in music so far, with no more than one song per band allowed. "Justified & Ancient" was The KLF's entry (at number 44), with the lyrics described as "delightful nonsense".[14] Splendid Magazine echoed this, but even more eulogistically. "I still maintain that this song deserves a place among the greatest artworks of the 20th century. Not only is it a brilliant, gleefully daft, wholly nonsensical, perfectly ludicrous pop song with a chorus to kill for, not only is it a slyly subversive comment on the cynically repulsive old-artist-collaborates-with-young-artist phenomenon at the expense of itself, but, self-referential irony and all, it is and always will be globe-straddling pop music incarnate. Were a decision reached that all pop music was deemed unfit for human consumption and had to be destroyed, save for one song to keep us fickle masses in choruses, this would be have to be the one, folks."[15] In 2006, Slant Magazine ranked the song at number 79 on their list of the "100 Greatest Dance Songs".[16]

Following their collaboration with Tammy Wynette, and the subsequent appearance of Glenn Hughes on "America: What Time Is Love?", The KLF were, according to mixer Mark "Spike" Stent, swamped by phone calls from fading music stars, including Neil Sedaka and Sweet, who were eager to work with The KLF to revive their careers.[17] This side-effect of The KLF's collaborations was at odds with their aim to subvert the music industry, as noted by GQ magazine in 1995. GQ published a retrospective of The KLF's career and interview with Bill Drummond, and suggested that such collaborations were a contributory factor in The KLF's abandonment of music: "[Bill Drummond's] distaste for the machinery of pop was at war with the creative populism of KLF", and "KLF had become bona fide pop miracle workers... It was all spinning way out of Drummond's control".[18]

Themes

Promotional material and antics for "Stand by The JAMs" used iconography of ice cream and an ice cream van, while the lyrics coined the phrase "Make mine a '99' ". Indeed, a working title for the "Justified & Ancient" project was allegedly "The Ice Cream Men".[19] Several months prior to the single's release, The KLF appeared at the Liverpool Festival of Comedy, where they sold ice creams to the audience while, on stage, figures swathen in grey and yellow robes chanted "justified...ancient...".[20]

The ice cream van, introduced upon release of The JAMs single "It's Grim Up North",[21] superseded the JAMsMobile (aka Ford Timelord) as The KLF's vehicle of choice. The van appeared with The KLF on stage when they 'performed' "Justified & Ancient" on Top of the Pops, with Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty (The KLF) dressed as ice cream cones and Tammy Wynette appearing behind them on a large screen.

The "ethnic chorus line" to which NME referred is the refrain "All bound for Mu Mu land", a reference to the Lost Continent of Mu, which is identified with the fictional land Lemuria in The Illuminatus! Trilogy novels. Indeed, at the end of the "Justified & Ancient" music video, The KLF exit in a submarine, while being waved off by the rest of the cast, before the video finishes with a snippet from the "Doctorin' the Tardis" music video featuring the superimposed credit-like text saying "The KLF would like to thank 'THE FIVE' for making all of this impossible".

Personnel

The White Room version

Single versions

The recordings were, according to the "Justified & Ancient" sleevenotes, "exhumed, explored and exploited by The KLF", with Jimmy Cauty playing electric guitar, bass, drums and keyboard. Additional contributors included:

Formats and track listings

"Justified & Ancient" was given an international release as a single on 25 November 1991.[22] In each case, all tracks are versions or mixes of this song, as tabulated below. The versions subtitled "(Make Mine a '99')" and "(Let Them Eat Ice Cream)" are deep house remixes of the single arrangement, the former using Maxine Harvey's vocal and the latter mainly voxless.

Format (and countries) Track number
1 2 3 4 5
7" single, cassette single, CD single (Japan) s W
12" single (UK, world) A m s L
12" single (Scandinavia) A M s L
CD single (US) s S W A L
CD single (France) A m s L W
CD single (Belgium) s W A m L
CD single (elsewhere) s W A M L

Key

Chart performance

Chart successions

Preceded by
"Black or White" by Michael Jackson		 Swedish number-one single
5 February 1992 – 19 February 1992 (3 weeks) 		Succeeded by
"You" by Ten Sharp
Preceded by
"Let's Talk About Sex" by Salt-n-Pepa		 Austrian number-one single
16 February 1992 – 15 March 1992 (5 weeks) 		Succeeded by
"Das Boot" by U 96
Preceded by
"Remember the Time" by Michael Jackson		 New Zealand (RIANZ) number-one single
13 March 1992 (1 week) 		Succeeded by
"To Be with You" by Mr. Big

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "Country music's First Lady Tammy dies at 55". BBC News. 7 April 1998. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
  2. ↑ "Hey Hey We Are Not The Monkees" lyrics.
  3. 1 2 "Pop: It's in the Mix - Tammy Wynette And The KLF Justified & Ancient (Stand By The Jams). The Independent's Guide To Pop's Unlikeliest Collaborations", The Independent (Foreign Edition, London), 3 November 2000, p14.
  4. ↑ Drummond and Cauty's extensive referencing of The Illuminatus! Trilogy included the overt and covert placement of the number 23 throughout their output and activities. See The KLF article for more information.
  5. ↑ Staunton, T., "Stand By Your Van", New Musical Express, 23 November 1991(link).
  6. ↑ "Tammy lays blame on KLF", The Sun, 6 April 1992.
  7. ↑ McAleer, David, 'Top 40 Charts', Virgin Books, Pgs 638-639, 2009
  8. ↑ "The KLF > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles". Allmusic. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
  9. ↑ ARIA chart data cited in: Butler, Ben. "Interview: The KLF's James Cauty". Rocknerd.org. Archived from the original on 10 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-28.
  10. ↑ "Swedish chart data for The KLF". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2007-12-28.
  11. ↑ "Austrian chart data for The KLF". austriancharts.at. Archived from the original on 20 February 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-28.
  12. ↑ "Justified & Ancient" review, Melody Maker, 7 December 1991.
  13. ↑ Williams, S. "Justified & Ancient" review, New Musical Express, 7 December 1991 (link).
  14. ↑ "90 from the 90s", The Times (London), 23 December 1995, Features p1.
  15. ↑ Harrison, A., The White Room review, Splendid Magazine (link Archived 12 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine.)
  16. ↑ http://www.slantmagazine.com/features/article/100-greatest-dance-songs/P3
  17. ↑ Stent, M., in Shaw, W., "Who Killed The KLF?", Select, July 1992 (link).
  18. ↑ Shaw, W., "Special K", GQ magazine, April 1996 (link).
  19. ↑ Wilson, H., "Last Triumph to Trancentral", Road Rocket magazine, 1 September 1991 (link)
  20. ↑ "Freak Show", i-D, December 1994 (link). The magazine reported that this appearance was the day after the KLF's burning of a wicker-man and the making of their film Waiting on the Isle of Jura; the group onstage were reportedly the same journalists and members of The KLF's entourage who had been transported to Jura for that performance.
  21. ↑ "Having stepped from the wreckage of their 1968 Ford Galaxy American police car Rockman Rock and Kingboy D (The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu) found their ice cream van". KLF Communications, sleevenotes, "It's Grim Up North" JAMS 028R, October 1991.
  22. ↑ Longmire, Ernie et al. KLF discography Archived 11 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Compiled by Ernie Longmire, this has been the authoritative KLF discography on the internet for some 10 years or more and has been the subject of long-term scrutiny and peer review by KLF fans and collectors. It is now maintained by the fan site klf.de. Retrieved 19 June 2006.
  23. ↑ "Australian-charts.com – The KLF – Justified & Ancient". ARIA Top 50 Singles.
  24. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – The KLF – Justified & Ancient" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40.
  25. ↑ "Ultratop.be – The KLF – Justified & Ancient" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
  26. ↑ Canadian Singles Chart RPM (Retrieved 27 January 2010)
  27. ↑ Nyman, Jake (2005). Suomi soi 4: Suuri suomalainen listakirja (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Tammi. ISBN 951-31-2503-3.
  28. ↑ "Lescharts.com – The KLF – Justified & Ancient" (in French). Les classement single.
  29. ↑ "Musicline.de – The KLF Single-Chartverfolgung" (in German). Media Control Charts. PhonoNet GmbH.
  30. ↑ Irish Single Chart Irishcharts.ie (Retrieved 10 April 2008)
  31. ↑ "Nederlandse Top 40 – The KLF search results" (in Dutch) Dutch Top 40.
  32. ↑ "Charts.org.nz – The KLF – Justified & Ancient". Top 40 Singles.
  33. ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – The KLF – Justified & Ancient". VG-lista.
  34. ↑ Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
  35. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – The KLF – Justified & Ancient". Singles Top 100.
  36. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – The KLF – Justified & Ancient". Swiss Singles Chart.
  37. ↑ UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved 10 April 2008)
  38. 1 2 3 Billboard Allmusic.com (Retrieved 10 April 2008)
  39. ↑ 1992 Australian Singles Chart aria.com (Retrieved 17 August 2008)
  40. ↑ 1992 Austrian Singles Chart Austriancharts.at Archived 12 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine. (Retrieved 17 August 2008)
  41. ↑ "Single top 100 over 1992" (pdf) (in Dutch). Top40. Retrieved 14 April 2010.
  42. ↑ The Official New Zealand Music Chart - NZ End Of Year Charts 1992
  43. ↑ 1992 Swiss Singles Chart Hitparade.ch Archived 22 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. (Retrieved 17 August 2008)
  44. ↑ "Billboard Top 100 - 1992". Archived from the original on 17 January 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
  45. ↑ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank ('Justified+and+Ancient')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie. Retrieved 17 August 2008.
  46. ↑ UK certifications Bpi.co.uk (Retrieved 17 August 2008)
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