Watch footage of Sonic Youth performing ‘The Burning Spear’ in 2008
In 1982, Sonic Youth weren’t exactly the same Sonic Youth that we all now know and love. Having only just formed the year prior, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, and Lee Ranaldo were still workshopping the sound that they were attempting to find. Noise and aggression were there from the beginning, but it took some experimentation to start the band’s true progression.
If you want the perfect example of the band tooling with their nascent sound, check out their first release, the Sonic Youth EP. Joined by drummer Richard Edson, who would soon abandon the group in favour of an acting career, Sonic Youth didn’t have the equipment or know-how to create the slabs of discordant tones that they would eventually embrace.
Instead, Sonic Youth featured guitars tuned to standard tunings, less noticeable distortion, and more traditional post-punk sounds. Sonic Youth were still finding their identity, and some trial and error were required to fine-tune what they would eventually become.
In contrast, the first song that the band ever put out was prescient. ‘The Burning Spear’ didn’t have much in the way of traditional song structure. Mostly just a noise piece with a disco beat, Gordon’s groovy bassline is the only real melodic part of the piece. Moore has a sing-shout vocal while he and Ranaldo bash away at their guitars with drumsticks and fists.
Ranaldo gets credited with playing an amplified power drill on the track, giving the song an almost grating kind of sound. Sonic Youth had a full arsenal of guitars by the 1990s, with almost every song requiring a different guitar in a unique tuning. When it came time to play ‘The Burning Spear’, the guitarists weren’t as picky. Any old guitar would do since the song was more about creating noise than playing specific notes.
Check out a live take on ‘The Burning Spear’ from 2008 down below.
