Reality Asylum

Album: The Feeding of the 5000 (1978)
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Songfacts®:

  • The first ever release on Crass Records, backed by "Shaved Women", "Reality Asylum" has no singing, and the music is - well, weird but pleasing. There is not a lot to be said of the lyrical content - not a lot that wouldn't offend your local priest, but the following quote from a New York University fansite is as good as any:

    "an all-out attack on Christianity delivered in a venomous spoken word poem by singer Eve Libertine over white noise and sound effects. The song ends with Libertine contemptuously stating, 'Jesus died for his own sins, not mine.'"
  • "Reality Asylum" appeared on the album The Feeding Of The 5000 before being released as a single.

    There were problems with the pressing of the record, then it didn't go down at all well with the music press, then it was subjected to confiscation in raids by the Vice Squad, who were working overtime in the 1970s, but unlike Gay News, neither the band nor their label faced prosecution, at least not over this particular song.

    The original was to be pressed in Ireland, but in an interview with Richie Unterberger, drummer Penny Rimbaud said the shop floor workers refused to press it, so they left a three minute silence. It was this that led to the band pressing the record themselves, in England. The band members were never harassed themselves - probably because the authorities didn't want to give them the publicity, but everyone connected with them was either warned off or harassed.

    Lyrical non-content aside, the actual music is strangely pleasing, and might easily be mistaken for Pink Floyd. The first 500 copies of this single came in a cardboard sleeve. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2

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