The Machine Fish Suite really is a masterpiece of metal/power-pop combo. I'd hate to know someone missed it because of first impressions of 1:23 of it.
Honestly after that track I switched over to the PSMS Live in Tokyo dual CD set. I'll pick back up on the GC later, but not re-starting that track.
Why is the Machine Fish Suite not on the appropriately titled album Machine Fish (which doesn't seem well received at all.. maybe with good reason if it resembles this).
"Machine Fish" was a running gag. (as I alluded to in my video) About the time that the Galactic Cowboys were signed, many of the bands that "made it" had either the word "machine" or "fish" in their names. So they made the joke that they *should* have named themselves "Machine Fish"...then they would have hit it big. Thus, the title of the album. But then after that, they decided to write a suite of songs about their experience in being picked up, chewed up, and spit out by the music machine/industry/business. So "The Machine Fish Suite" seemed appropriate.
BTW...Geffen really was behind them...until Nirvana became the darling of the label. If you remember the movie "Airheads" with Brendon Frasier, Steve Bushemi, and Adam Sandler....The Galactic Cowboys had a cameo as "the band that got signed" by the radio station playing their single. In the movie, they were called "Sons of Thunder" and they played a song called "Don't Hate Me (Because I'm Beautiful)". Interestingly enough, The Galactic Cowboys wrote that song for the movie...were featured in the movie playing that song...and then the song subsequently DID NOT appear on the Airheads soundtrack (which *did* feature songs that were never played in the movie....go figure).
The song was never heard in its entirety because the rights to the recording were retained by the movie studio. So the song has become something of a legend...because no one has ever heard the song outside of the few seconds that were featured in the movie.
But I just exchanged a couple of Emails with Monty where I brought up the idea of re-recording the song, and he said that it had never occurred to him and it sounded like a great idea and that he would bring up the idea to the other guys. I do not know if anything will ever come of that...but I did think it was cool that Monty was at least interested in the idea.
That would be an interesting 25th anniversary present to the fans anyway.