Everybody asks about the title of our latest album, Rarr!, so I thought I'd explain the story behind the title.
A couple of years back I was working on songs for the next disc and holding down a day job at the worst place I have ever worked! I won't say the name of the corporation, but let's just say if you have a phone line in the Southeastern United States, it is probably through this company. One Saturday afternoon after a particularly tough week on the job, my girlfriend Susan and I were lying in bed enjoying a dinosaur triple feature on the Sci-Fi channel. One of my favorites, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms was playing.
Beast was released in 1954 and made independently for 400,000 dollars. It was a huge success for Warner Brothers that summer and inspired the folks at Toho in Tokyo to come up with Godzilla.
As usual, I had the closed captioning on. Every time the Rhedosaur (a ficticious beast created by Ray Harryhausen for the film) roared or made any sound, the closed caption would read, "RARR!" This just cracked us up! The perfect dinosaur movie word!
"That's IT!," I exclaimed. "THAT is going to be the title for our next album!
I had been working on our song, Mokele-Mbembe, and knew that that song would be the centerpiece of the album.
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I got ahold of a video tape of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms on Ebay to play at a post-show party.
I live a couple of doors down from what used to be The Chukker. Until it was shut down on Halloween 2003, The Chukker was also one of the few places in this city that would have original music. It is sadly missed! The history of the bar is a long one and we'd been playing there for many years. It was THE late night place here in Tuscaloosa until the bar closing times were changed by the city. But on Saturday nights, due to the state blue laws, they had to shut down at 2 a.m.. We played a LOT of Saturday nights and I've hosted LOTS of after-hours parties at my place. A good time was always had by all! We'd usually cram from 20 to 50 people into my one-bedroom place!
I got the inspiration to put on the movie with the sound down and music playing and got out my large collection of shot glasses. Everytime the Rhedosaur goes, "RARR!," everyone has to yell, "RARR!" and do a shot! This proved to be very popular! DON'T try this with too much hard liquor or you will become extinct! We're talkin' over twenty times in an eighty-minute movie, folks! Keep it to beer, or very popular, champagne!
Try this at your house if you like but you must get the video tape! Warner Brothers finally released The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms on DVD last year BUT THEY CHANGED THE CLOSED CAPTIONING! What a bummer!
