Ultimate Reason

Album: The Great Escape Artist (2011)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is one of three tracks on The Great Escape Artist that Velvet Revolver and former Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan co-wrote during the nine months that he was a full-time member of Jane's Addiction. TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek replaced him after his amicable departure in September 2010. Jane's Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins explained to Noisecreep the contrasts between the material they wrote with McKagan and the later songs they collaborated with Sitek. "When we worked with Duff, we didn't have that kind of time. So Duff's stuff on the album is the more straight-ahead rock style you would come to expect from that kind of collaboration. I've played with Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE) a lot through the years. With him, whenever you lock into a groove together, he'll change it up on you to try and come up with something cooler.

    Sitek has that kind of attitude too. 'Cool, you're digging that groove? OK that's good, now f--- it up!' That's really fun for me as a drummer. I wish we had more time to work the material up with Duff, but I think there's an urgency in the songs we did with him that really gives the album an edge."
  • Speaking to Ultimate-Guitar.com, McKagan discussed his contributions to The Great Escape Artist: "My biggest concern was that if I was gonna be involved, it had be darkier and heavier and more vicious than they've ever been before. I can't be seen as the bass player who came in and made them light (laughs), or made these really crappy songs. They're getting a lot from me, because I gotta make sure of quality control, that my stamp is on it. Dude, do you understand that?"

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie Combination

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie CombinationSong Writing

In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.

Modern A Cappella with Peder Karlsson of The Real Group

Modern A Cappella with Peder Karlsson of The Real GroupSong Writing

The leader of the Modern A Cappella movement talks about the genre.

Jeff Trott

Jeff TrottSongwriter Interviews

Sheryl Crow's longtime songwriting partner/guitarist Jeff Trott reveals the stories behind many of the singer's hits, and what its like to be a producer for Leighton Meester and Max Gomez.

Michael Schenker

Michael SchenkerSongwriter Interviews

The Scorpions and UFO guitarist is also a very prolific songwriter - he explains how he writes with his various groups, and why he was so keen to get out of Germany and into England.

Loudon Wainwright III

Loudon Wainwright IIISongwriter Interviews

"Dead Skunk" became a stinker for Loudon when he felt pressure to make another hit - his latest songs deal with mortality, his son Rufus, and picking up poop.

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."