Ryan Sutter – The Legendary Adventures of Prosciutto Pig (2008)
About:
In 2008, I completed my second RPM Challenge by writing and recording The Legendary Adventures of Prosciutto Pig. The title is an in-joke between myself, my son, and my wife Esther. It developed out of a conversation that took place on a family vacation in which Esther was trying to enlighten the two of us with enriching information about the wonders of prosciutto. She told us how pigs raised for prosciutto are fed parmesan cheese and massaged so they are especially fat and tender. I thought this sounded like a great life and started singing a song with the refrain “I wanna be / A prosciutto pig / wanna get massaged / and eat lots of cheese” and it immediately drove my poor wife batty. Syd and I sang the Prosciutto Pig song mercilessly for the remainder of the week and recorded it for posterity as our first duet on this album.
The album was recorded, mixed, and mastered entirely in the 29 days of February 2008. That’s the RPM Challenge for ya. You have to do the whole album in February. Them’s the breaks.
Credits:
I wrote, recorded, engineered, produced, mixed, and performed everything on this album except for Don’t Expose Yourself to Me Britney and Prosciutto Pig. I played drums, keys, guitar, bass, and did vocals and drums programming. Eric Elvendahl produced and Hambone-ified Britney, Cindy Ivy played guitar, sang, talked, and wrote words on Britney and Syd Sutter sang, played keys, and wrote lyrics on Prosciutto Pig.
Tracks:
- Untouched By Sound (Ryan Sutter) - FLAC: This song is sort of a funeral for the whole experience of The Lavone and Nuclear Gopher that formed such a major part of my life for so long. It’s not quite a funeral, since the lyrics do express a ray of hope that the rift between myself and my family will be healed someday. The day I recorded it I threw together a YouTube video of the song. The video consists of footage that my brother Rhett shot in high school on Super 8 film. It depicts me pretending to watch an invisible television. It was shot in the Greek Theater at Apple Valley High School in 1990 or 1991 as part of a multimedia art project that involved a painting, a video, and a film all being shown simultaneously.
Lyrics:
where roses grew / ashes too / the sun has gone there’s only the corona
your face belies / distant eyes / the light that dies still dreams within a coma
on salted ground / tangled down / the weeds gasp for light
the dawn holds back / fade to black / who would believe that this is rightwhat dreams may come / to sleeping shoots / will never take the place of roots
and still the sun knows nothing of the ground
where roses grew / ashes too / the seeds untouched by soundI don’t mean to depress / I don’t need to instruct / it’s just our lives are running out and I’m not giving up
and maybe someday / somehow I’ve gotta believe / the songs’ll sing for us all / and there’ll be no more grief
and in that day your skin will shine like the sunwhere roses grew / ashes too / the seeds untouched by sound
- She’s Gone (Ryan Sutter) – FLAC: Sometimes it’s fun to try for the big 60′s symphonic pop Phil Spector sound. That’s what I was going for here, not so much because that’s my style of music (I almost never listen to music like that) but because I always had a really good time trying to capture that sound when Rhett and I recorded. Once we did a cover of Dancin’ In the Streets and went for this sound. That recording probably influenced this one more than anything else. The song is a cute little ditty about leaving for work in the morning and having to say goodbye to my girl and missing her through the day. Pretty sappy, really.
Lyrics:
she’s gone / she’s gone away / and I should say that’s not OK
cause when she’s gone / my heart wears grey and it achesshe says / she’s not gone to stay / she’s just gone to work like every day
and she’ll be back just as soon as she may / and I’ll say yay - In My Skin (Ryan Sutter) – FLAC: I admit, I sorta mailed it in on this one. I did not write this song for this album, I wrote it way back in 2000 as one of my Liverpool songs (the others being James and Donna Dancing, Tapas @ Revolution, and Appreciate the Angel). I threw it on here because I needed a track, I had never managed to record a real version of this one, and I really wanted to finally get the Liverpool songs done. For the record, I will never record Appreciate the Angel, as it sucks royal ass. However, Tapas and James and Donna had already appeared on albums by this point. Might as well get In My Skin out of the way too. The song is literally about a dream I had about my mom standing in front of me in a shopping line while I was staying at a hostel in Liverpool. I don’t actually recall why the dream struck me at the time and the lyrics to this song do little to help me remember…
Lyrics:
I dreamed I saw my mother late last night / in the only place I’ve ever been
then watched the sun rise over Liverpool / I could feel this was in my skinwhy does it seem every body needs to make new things out of old
from cobblestones to modern clones it seems that nothings really realI dreamed I saw my mother late last night / she turned in the shopping line
and watched the sun rise over Liverpool / I could feel this was my timewhy does it seem every body needs to make new things out of old
from cobblestones to modern clones it seems that nothings really realI dreamed I saw my mother late last night / in the only place I’ve ever been
then watched the sun rise over Liverpool / I could feel this was in my skin - Down With the Moon (Ryan Sutter) FLAC: The lyrics to this song have a very definite meaning about a very definite situation but are intentionally obscure. Let’s call it obfuscated songwriting. I don’t wish to unobscure them so you can go ahead and make them mean whatever you like.
Lyrics:
the night tells it well / the story, the shell and the sound of waves
with watery eyes / the cavern inside echoes out to say
listen or your heart will break / or your heart will break / just like the dawnhe heard that it’s true / but just what to do isn’t clear to see
the sound and the hush / are battered and thrust down the nearest sink
cause blood is a poison drink / blood is a poison drink / when it’s your ownthe night and the shell / with no-one to tell of the things they see
he fades into fear / he can’t bear to hear disregard for she
nothing’s harder than memory / oh memory / down with the moon
down with the moon / down with the moon / down with the moon - Shameful (Ryan Sutter) FLAC: I’m not sure what I feel about this song. The lyrics are a basic rip on my JW family and friends and the way they treat non-JWs. Not particularly dense or clever or poetic, just kind of angry. It’s got a decent groove and sticks in my head a bit, but falls in the “filler track” category as far as I’m concerned.
Lyrics:
it’s shameful / all of those things that you say / it’s embarrassing / to see you treat them this way
clouds form inside / but they’ve got nowhere to go / it’s a thunderstorm / your heart lies heavy belowhow do you live with yourself / how do you live with yourself
how do you live with choosing your own skin over love?
how do you live with yourself / how do you live with yourself
how do you live with yourself / how do you live with yourself
you’re choosing your own skin / you’re choosing your own skin
you’re choosing your own skin over someone that you loveI get it / I understand where you are trying to come from
I get it / I understand where you are coming from right now
you don’t need to be so cruel now / and that’s just what you are doin’it’s time to stop / it’s time to learn
it’s time to stop / it’s time to learn - Little Eden (Ryan Sutter) FLAC: For some odd reason, this song has been getting downloaded and listened to a lot on my site for ages despite not being linked to from anywhere on my site. I take it to mean that people like this song. I know I do. This is one of my favorite songs on the album. Also one of Esther’s faves. The Little Eden being referred to in the title is none of your damn business, thank you. :-)
Lyrics:
we were stupid / lucky stupid / little eden on that afternoon
so like candy / in my hand we / made the best mistake that afternoonlittle eden / you’re still sweet and / I can visit it any time with you
we were silly / but got lucky / now I’m glad to spend my life with youhad I the chance / I’d do it again
had I the chance I’d do it smiling all againhad I the chance / I’d do it again
had I the chance I’d do it smiling all again - Less Is More (Ryan Sutter) FLAC: Sort of a soundscape/experiment thing, making use of a short sample with an emcee announcing a performance by Rhett and I at a talent show back in high school. The video from which that sample was taken was shot by James Zimmerman. The song we performed at the talent show was called Balalaika, and appeared on the Purple Triangles’ album Visor Minds and also on my “best of” collection Dork. Here’s the Balalaika video:
And a little video I made the day I recorded it: - Fall Awake (Ryan Sutter) FLAC: On most days, this one is my favorite on the album. It’s probably one of my favorite songs I’ve ever recorded. Lyrically it’s about dreaming that someday my brilliant persuasive arguments will win the day but realizing that in reality it just doesn’t work that way. It was really fun to play this one live at the final Trumpet Marine gig too. We knocked it out of the park. You had to be there. Maybe you were… Were you?
Lyrics:
only in dreams / I get to be the chosen one / but I always fall, I fall awake / but I always fall, I fall awake
only in mind / truth gets the better of this kind / but I always fall, I fall awake / but I always fall, I fall awakeroses are maddening / death is unflattering / my teeth keep chattering / winds keep on battering
I’m aware I fall awakelove never was a part of your kind / all that was real you could leave behind
pain as a force was abstract / until the point of contactnow on to violence / buried in foxholes
mud is what we have left / dirtying every corner of our souls
I’ll cry as many tears as it takes / take as many bullets as I must
I’ll tear off this uniform / and turn this gun to rust
to see you I fall asleep / but I always fall awake - Don’t Expose Yourself to Me Britney (Ryan Sutter, Cindy Ivy, Eric Elvendahl) FLAC: Here we have what, in some ways, is the highlight of the album. The version of the album submitted to the RPM Challenge did not have this track on it because I was a bit concerned about the samples used on this track. About the crazy preacher guy, I can only tell you that he’s dead serious. He’s a leader in the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and the audio clips are from an actual talk he actually delivered to an actual congregation that we have all just taken to referring to as “the insane talk”. Cindy and I laid down the tracks one night, completely sober, and then handed them off to Eric for mixing and general awesomeness. The result is… well, you can listen for yourself. It’s rather insane. Almost does the talk justice. If you would like to hear the insane talk in it’s entirety, you can click here.
- The Roosevelt Waltz (Ryan Sutter) FLAC: After the insanity of Britney I thought a little head cleaner, a little aperitif, if you will, was called for. So, I made a nice little track to function as a segue between this and the last track, my duet with Syd. Yes, that is Teddy Roosevelt. I included a Teddy Roosevelt sample as a nod to my buddy Chad who loves Teddy Roosevelt and to my great grandfather who was one of Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.
- Prosciutto Pig (Ryan Sutter, Syd Sutter) FLAC: This is not Syd’s first appearance on one of my albums. He first appeared as a babbling baby on Miracle from The Lavone’s 2000 album Isotope. He next popped up in 2002 talking about me turning into a big, giant, chicken on the title track of my unreleased album The Message Will Be Kept. In 2005, he was sampled on the song Salsa In the Bowl, which appeared in a video and was credited as being recorded by our band Music Games of Primates. Then he sang backing vocals on my unreleased track Basement Heroes in 2007. But, this was the first time that Syd and I went into the studio together to write and record a track, the first time he did lead vocals, the first time he wrote the lyrics, and the first time he played keys on a track. He was working off my initial basic lyrics from the cabin vacation that had so effectively driven Es crazy, so it counts as co-writing, I guess, but he put it together himself. If I do more recording in the future, I think it will be with Syd as Music Games of Primates.
Lyrics:
well I’m very glad / this album was formed / I’m very thankful / that I was born
but I always have a dream / and it’s never small / you might say it’s sad / but the best dream of allI want to be / a prosciutto pig / I wanna be massaged / and eat lots of cheese
and he wants to be / and she wants to be / but most of all / I want to be a big pigprosciutto is my name / parmesan is my game / and without massages / it won’t be the same
sure when I’m massaged / I will be dead / but it’s worth it when there is / parmesan cheese, what the?I want to be / a prosciutto pig / I wanna be massaged / and eat lots of cheese
and he wants to be / and she wants to be / but most of all / I want to be a big pigI wanna be a prosciutto pig
I wanna be a prosciutto pig
Technical Stuff:
This was recorded using Garageband on a Mac and Cubase on a PC, an Alesis Multimix 16 board, a bunch of tube pre-amps, my trusty Rode NT1000 and some other mics, a Line 6 Variax 500, a fake J-Bass, Reason, and a bunch of other stuff.
