Big Black - Peel Session

It's the 5th of June 1987 and John Peel plays the well-signposted Big Black session. Obviously, I wet myself (sorry about that but it did warm my thighs for a minute or so). The song that really blew my mind was Newman Generator, I'd never heard it before and thought that it was pretty much the greatest thing I'd wrapped my ears around. My taped radio show was soon replaced by this really good bootleg. It took me ages to find out that Newman was Joseph Westley Newman who claimed to have created a revolutionary energy machine. In spite of his best fraudulent efforts, nobody believed him ... BECAUSE NOWADAYS WE HAVE SCIENCE AND EVIDENCE.

He was clearly a man ahead of his time, if he had shown this to Trump it would already have been in production. Apart from it being a great session, Newman Generator really makes me wonder. It wasn't on an official release and doesn't appear to have been played live much. It's this one track that makes me wonder if this was the next direction for Big Black if they hadn't have folded when they did. I'll never know.

Bootleg 7" on the entirely appropriate King Dick Records in 1988 or thereabouts.

Laws that are stupid and make no sense.