MUSICAL INTERLUDE 1

Along with Blind, Clown was the my first encounter with the dulcet tones of Korn.  Even though their eponymous début was released in 1994, it was 1997 before I really gave Korn a chance.  Up until then, I had heard random morsels (culinary references will abound; I'll count, so you don't have to - this is number 1), but their sound just did not appeal to my palate (2).  What further put me off was that most of the people who harped on about Korn as though they were the greatest thing since sliced bread (3), were not really metal fans.  They were trend junkies who jumped on any passing fad; cultural nackers if you will.  They were the same people who never listened to Nirvana when Kurt Cobain was alive, though they wore the t-shirt with pride after his death.  What really took the biscuit though (4), was that these also appeared to be the same people who wore Pearl Jam (5) t-shirts.  As I never saw the big deal with that particular band, I didn't see why I should feel any different about Korn.  Much of my life choices are actually based on t-shirts worn by dooshbags.

  1997 was a different world.  MTV still played music videos, Bill Clinton's cigar was still damp, and no one had yet realised that Korn only came in one flavour (6).  Admittedly, at that time, Korn's was a new and interesting flavour (6.5), but I was a traditional rocker, and didn't much care for the hip-hop influence they bought to the table (7).  Even when I did start to develop a taste (8) for their particular style of sonic a-salt (9), my interest in Korn never went beyond their easy singles (10 - I'm really pushing it with that one).  I found their albums tiresome.  There just isn't enough variation in their sound to keep me interested beyond a couple of tracks.  I like my Korn in rashers (11), not in joints (12).  This is my big problem with nu-metal in general.  My favourite bands in this genre are the ones that swiftly left it behind, specifically System of A Down and Deftones.

  But credit where credit is due, Korn did cook up (13) something fresh and original and, for better or worse, they did leave a lasting taste (14) in the mouth of the music industry.  Though they are far from the best metal band in the world, they did create a new sound, and that is worth some kudos.

  If a Korn song was a pizza (15), the heavy bass grooves would be, well, the base (16), their trademark pull-off/hammer-on riffs, the tomato sauce (17), Jonathan Davis's vocals, the cheese (18), and their guitar screech punctuations, the pepperoni (19).  As pizzas go (20), the song Clown is a brilliantly "spicy-a meatball" (21)!  The warbling tomato sauce (22) lends the verses a surreal menace, which perfectly complements the whispered cheese (23).  The song is about people trying to be something they are not in order to fit in, and was more specifically inspired by a belligerent fan who threatened Jonathan Davis during a gig.  As has been well-documented, Davis had a traumatic childhood, and while Clown doesn't directly confront those issues (these have been covered more than enough elsewhere, like on their album: Issues) this trauma is starkly personified in the image of a clown, and it breathes through every beat of the song.  The video further enhances this idea of childhood distress, by having Davis the victim of high school bullying.

  Said video was directed by McG, who went on to give the world the awful Charlie's Angels movies, and the disappointing Terminator: Salvation.  This video was my first proper taste of Korn (20).  I saw it on a borrowed VHS of SuperRock, which I watched on repeat for about six months.  It was actually quite an amazing episode.  It had videos for The Beautiful People by Marilyn Manson, Shove It (My Own Summer) by Deftones, Say Just Words by Paradise Lose, Stinkfist by Tool (21), and Replica by Fear Factory.  1997-David (who only had the basic channels at home) was as happy as a pig (22) in shit (23) with that menu (24)!

 

For dessert (25), here is a serving (26) of Korn from when they guest stared in South Park.  I hope this is enough to satisfy your appetites (27).

No wonder it's so hard to decipher Korn lyrics; they're in Spanish.

Next up, I'm going to migrate into the world of television, and the story of a load of insecure spotty creature who are trying to find their place in the cosmos.