Black Snakes
| Black Snakes | |
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| Studio album by The Red Crayola with Art & Language | |
| Released | 1983 |
| Recorded | |
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Track listing
Side A
Side B
- Portrait of V. I. Lenin in the Style of Jackson Pollock, Part I
- Future Pilots
- Portrait of You
- Words of Love
- Café Twenty-One
- Gynaecology in Ancient Greece
Background
- Rejected by Rough Trade
- Released 1983
Reviews
Spex
July 1983
Thomas Schwebel
Sounds
September 17, 1983[1]
Dave Henderson
'Black Snakes' is by far the Red Crayola's most cohesive and accessible outing. Mainman Mayo Thompson's time with Pere Ubu seems to have added yet another ingredient to this strange musical melting pot and the resulting mixture is much more tantalising.
Mayo seems to cram together all those best bits that have transpired in the name of rock, throw in a bit of soul and a layer of traditional knowledge. To him it probably comes naturally, it's all part of his make up. The enjoyment then, of this latest Crayola cut, is twice as good; not only can you take it as an album but you can study the ingenuity of the man.
This is a great place to start with Crayola, too. It's their simplest album inasmuch as there aren't too many cross references and difficult structures to wrestle with. Once you've passed this test, the others — and there are quite a few — must be easier to comprehend.
OP Magazine
198?[2]
Stephen Roberts
I've never, or rarely, had any trouble deciding how I felt about an album. This one is an exception to that rule. What exactly that says for the record, I don't know, but I do know that Black Snakes is a very different LP for the Red Crayola. There is an absence of melody. The vocals are mostly spoken in a kind of sixties "beat poet" style, but the backing, instead of being provided by an acoustic guitar or jazz combo, is played by a rock band with a very 80s sound (sort of similar to the recent Talking Heads records.) The lyrics themselves deal with social/political topics in a semi-poetic manner. There are moments of genuine fun like "The Sloths" & "Hedges," though most of the disc is seemingly quite serious. Is Mayo Thompson the Jack Kerouac of the 80s? Who knows, but those who like the stranger moments of the Talking Heads may enjoy this LP. I think a lot of people (myself included) will probably remain unconvinced as Mayo & the band rap on. . .
Cut
November 1983[3]