Another Wasteland Gentrification

I woke up this morning and my dad's in Dubai. Every day with him is like an episode of Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego.

Anyway, back to reminiscing about twenty years ago, I'll take it back about twenty-two years ago, when my college buds and I discovered the 1983 Arista album With Sympathy from what sounded to our ears as another one of those British synth-pop groups with a couple of guys (Stephen George on drums and Al Jourgensen on keyboards and vocals) in snappy New Romantic outfits and across-the-pond accents. But I played their dance single "Work For Love" quite often on our WRFM station (broadcasting from the dorm room of one of our friends who was also a rabid synth-pop freak), and for a few years I often wondered what became of those charming lads.



About two years later I was at my parents' house watching MTV's 120 Minutes and they announced that a video for Ministry's new song was coming up next. Excitement! After running "Work For Love" into the ground I was eager to hear their latest endeavor.

And this was it...

Soooooo.... not exactly "Work For Love" anymore, was it? I can't remember if Joe was there or not but I think I called him right away and told him about Ministry's "new direction". But then again Joe might have already heard the song on the local alternative station one night and told me about it, but I can't remember. Either way, I was in hysterics. Never would have thought that foo-foo group would ever cross over to the daaaaark side that way.

But it turns out, Arista had a different idea of what Ministry should look and sound like -- namely every other Pet Shop Boys clone on the market at the time. And not knocking the Pet Shop Boys, whom I love, because I actually really liked "Work For Love" for all the same reasons.

But it appears that with the move to Sire Records and Jourgensen taking up the guitar again, the band had been inching its way back to the industrial rock of its initial path. And the boys are from Chicago, not England. Apparently the record company wanted fake accents, as well.

The new Ministry sound prevailed throughout the early 90's for me, and nights at Adams and Friar Tucks with friends moshing to "Burning Inside" and "Thieves", two of my favorite songs from the band. And although Jourgensen has since called With Sympathy "abortion of an album" I'll always have a soft spot for that first record. And especially the bumper sticker of the band during one of their With Sympathy photo shoots on my record case. Not as much of a conversation piece as it once was, but it still delights me to no end.