Bacchanalia
by Down

Album: Down IV - Part Two (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • Down close their Down IV - Part Two EP with this epic track, which features what sounds like a ukulele passage by guitarist Pepper Keenan. Vocalist Phil Anselmo told Artist Direct about the recording of the song. "On the last day of tracking guitars, I said to Pepper, 'We need this part,'" he recalled. "It was a reminder because it was something we talked about plenty."

    "Sure enough, he brought out this smaller guitar," he continued. "It wasn't really a ukulele [Laughs]. It was a miniature guitar, and I'm not even sure how many strings it had on it. Yes, right then and there on the spot, we gave him as much silence as we could because we were all in the room and pretty excited. We were laughing and talking in the background as he was telling us to 'Shut up, please!' He came up with that little part. It was recorded within an hour or so."

    "While he was tracking that, I was generally getting the repeating hook over and over in my head," Anselmo added. "I tracked my part. Really, that whole piece came out automatically, organically, and fast. S--t, I think it took us two hours to do."
  • The Bacchanalia were Roman festivals in honor of the wine god Bacchus. They were characterized by drunkenness and licentiousness, hence 'Bacchanalian orgy' for any uninhibited drunken revelry.

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