Here is a trilogy of versions of HOBO’s epic “Deluge City” – including the original 4-track “demo,” a studio recording, and a blow-out live performance from the Caspar Inn. All of this happened in the hot minutes as the 1980s ended and the ’90s began, the original UpTones run was done and several of its core members continued to compose and perform and record together and generally gallivant about. We hope you enjoy! Rain boots recommended. Here are notes from the songwriter hisself, Paul Jackson:
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“In 1988 I went to Europe for the first time. Mostly to visit my friends Jake and Zaza Opperman in London. At the British National Gallery was an exhibit of Leonardo da Vinci which included a series of small chalk drawings titled the Deluge. I’ve used one of the drawings for the artwork on this record release. The images depict a fantasy vision of what looks like cities being destroyed by a tumultuous downpour of water. I was really taken with the images. Being a young man it must have been the destruction I was so fascinated with, having my own kind of fantasy with Leonardo’s psychedelic visions. One image even depicted what looks like a field of human products falling from the sky, a kind of anti product/garbage statement. Very punk rock!
I had also become aware of a certain harmonic key in music, the harmonic minor, which many might know on the Led Zeppelin song Kashmir, it has a more “eastern” kinda feel to it. I was never a huge fan of the band Guns and Roses but I did like that song Paradise City; Somewhere out of all that I came up with Deluge City. A nature-is-capable-of-destroy-it-all kind of anthem! It’s a kind of blues up the 5 to the 6th shuffle, but the 6ths are both in the minor, and that raised 7 gives the the more romantic, “eastern” sound.
HOBO originally recored the song in maybe 1992(?) on my Yamaha 4 track cassette recorder. Thierry Fill, our drummer at the time, just destroyed the place with his bravado! You can hear this recording on this release, complete with Ben Eastwood’s lay-it-down finishing touches on the bass and Eric Din’s virtuosic heavy metal electric guitar sounds. I play a kind of mad concert grand piano banging.
Later we recorded the song at a session down in Los Angeles at Bill Schnee’s famous studio in 1993(?). Tom Pope lays down the big heavy beat like a truck rolling down the dark scary street all gloriously falling down and flowing out! I got to play a real grand piano in a big room! Eric and Ben really put on some real LA metal boyz vibe. All very romantic and head-bangy.
Finally, we offer a live show recording of the band up in Caspar, California at the Caspar Inn, maybe 1994? You might think, “3 versions of the same song?!” They all have different qualities damn it! It’s been a lot of fun to dig these tapes up and remember all the crazy gigs we played all around the state. The audacity of those kids really boggles my mind today!
Big thanks to Berkeley Cat Records!
~ Paul Jackson
