Melvins - Night Goat

'Night Goat' is one of the greatest and darkest songs from one of the Melvins' most popular periods of their long and illustrious careers. It's also one of the more accessible, having what in the Melvins' repertoire comes closest to a conventional rock sound and structure. So, it's only fitting it should have received a single release.


I think this was the first involvement Melvins had with the infamous Amphetamine Reptile Records label; a relationship that has sporadically continued to this day. This single was released at time when Melvins were in between leaving previous label Boner and making their major-label debut with Atlantic. That came in 1993 with Houdini, probably their best-known album, probably in part due to a partial producer's credit for one Kurt Cobain. Apparently, Cobain actually had very little input and most of the role was carried out by the Melvins and engineer Billy Anderson. Anderson was also one of the engineers on the 'Night Goat' single, which goes a way to explaining why there is very little difference between the version found here and the version on Houdini.


The track starts with one of the most memorable bass-lines ever; low, mean-spirited and ominous, but with a definite groove. In this version the bass sound seems grimier than on the later album version. The intro is also longer, giving the band time to build up tension and anticipation with some carefully-placed percussive flourishes from the extraordinary Dale Crover. The song features a sludgy verse that has Buzz bellowing his way through some indecipherable lyrics climaxing with a classic blood-curdling scream that leads into a killer guitar solo that I suppose would be the chorus. Hard to say with these Melvins! Not that it matters.




The sleeve goes a long way to replicating the sinister and unpalatable sounds within: a boy with a deformed jaw (possibly trussed up?) in a pantry alongside what appear to be a hogleg and some kind of poultry. Nice work Harvey Bennett Stafford! It also lists what is hands-down the worst-ever pseudonym for a moonlighting musician; Salty Green, made even worse by the fact that he wasn't even moonlighting: this is, I believe, Joe Preston's final appearance as a member of the Melvins. Recorded in 1991, but not released until 1992 it seems likely that Joe was gone by the time the record came out, hence the misnomer.


The B-side is the Pussy Galore cover 'Adolescent Wet Dream'. I was very excited was I discovered the Melvins had covered this song since while I'm not the biggest fan of Pussy Galore, I do love the E.P. this track is taken from, Sugarshit Sharp, which perfectly condenses the whole P.G. attitude and sound into a concise package with like, you know, actual SONGS, unlike a lot of their other recorded output. The thing is, I couldn't imagine the slow and heavy sound of Melvins meshing well the scathingly chaotic rock 'n roll songs of P.G. - a band famed for not even having a bassist. I've since discovered that in the SPIN Alternative Record Guide (1995, Vintage) King Buzzo listed Sugarshit Sharp as one of his top 10 records of all time. So there you have it!


The Melvins' version of the song is a great reworking; channeling the energy and swagger of the original in a sludgier groove; more heavy and hypnotic. Where Jon Spencer would have yelped, Buzz unleashes his Kiss-like high screams and the drums thud rather than clatter along. So, not better than the orginal, but the Melvins really make it their own to the point where Buzz seems to swap some of the lyrics for gibberish words that are phonetically suited to the music (a technique utilised extensively on Houdini as well as many other Melvins records).






The record itself is a nice item; this one here is a marbled blue, but I've also seen it in orange. Apparently there are purple marbled and white copies out there, too. This was released in a limited edition of 1,000 copies, although it comes up fairly often on eBay so I'm not sure how accurate that is. In fact, I'd go out on a limb and say the CD version that was released in Germany is rarer, if less desirable.


This version of 'Night Goat' was compiled in 2004 on the retrospective CD that came with the beautiful Neither Here Nor There book. 'Adolescent Wet Dream' is yet to released elsewhere.