Every Planet We Reach Is Dead

Every Planet We Reach Is Dead
Every Planet We Reach Is Dead (Demon Days Live)
Every Planet We Reach Is Dead (Demon Days Live, audio only, Ike Turner's last hurrah)

The following is an edited transcript from an interview Gorillaz did with Cass Browne for their autobiography, "Rise Of The Ogre":

" Noodle: "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead". An image of... catching a glimpse of your soul, the battlefield, from above. "I lost my land like I lost my way". This is... how d'you put it... An "unloaded question". A soft proposal to question ourselves and our decisions.

Russel: "There's a Charles Bukowski quote that's goes something like... "If you're losing your soul and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose." You can kinda hear this statement in the line, "I lost my land like I lost my way. So no loose ends, nothing to see me down. How are we going to work this out?"

Noodle: Sometimes the answer are not available. And sometimes describing the problem is a part of the solution."

"Every Planet We Reach Is Dead" comes after the climax of the "Demon Days" album, "El Mañana". The morning has hit the world, meaning they are no longer trapped in an endless night, yet nothing has changed. The feeling of hopelessness and the apocalypse 9/11 brought on to the real world was still present almost half a decade after the fact. So in this song, 2D and the band search for answers to how to fix the state of the world, only to find none.

The instrumental for this song is grand with many details hiding beneath the surface. Of all the Gorillaz songs to merge genre, this one seems to encompass the most eclectic elements from different areas. There's elements of old school blues & jazz in the percussion with it's stomping beat provided by James Dring's drums & various percussive elements such as hand claps and a Brazilian Cuica drum provided by some African street performers Damon found while recording in their country. The wah wah soaked electric guitars Damon plays evoke both smooth soulful funk players as well as post-punk noise driven players during the song's many freak outs. There are a multitude of layers of synthesizers Damon added which provide chordal bases and countermelodies bringing in an element of no wave & spaciness to the track. Jason Cox's bass guitar doubles Damon's vocal melody, a technique commonly used in old jazz recordings. Damon's falsetto vocals bring out the jazz and soul undertones of the track and make them more of a center point among the track's post-punk craziness. The London Community Gospel Choir soulfully sing backing vocals underneath him, as if Damon is a preacher in a post-apocalyptic chapel in an hour of need. But what exactly is Damon preaching to the choir?

Damon as 2D is searching for answers, he's looking through his memories to see if anything can help him. He thinks about old girlfriends ("I love the girl", "For all the sacred selfless days only left with heartbreak. See the sun coming through, but I love you. But what are we going to do?"), he thinks about his dreams which "take him deeper". At times it feels like 2D is breaking down, but not in a "Man Research" type way, in a way that's more lamentive and reflective. He realizes there's no escaping the harsh reality he's in. Time is running out ("time is a low, don't you know?"), and he can keep asking "what are we going to do?" and "how are we going to work this out?", but asking those questions won't change where the world is. The world is "dead", and so are the people who inhabit it. So 2D gives up, making this the last track with sole lead vocals by him on the album.

As the band realizes there is nothing they can do, so the track falls into chaos. James Dring's drumming gets more intense, Damon's guitars and synths get more dissonant and noisy. Instrument feedback consumes the track and a string section comes in to provide more insanity. However, the leader of all this chaos is Ike Turner on the piano. Ike Turner was one of the first pioneers of rock 'n' roll and was a brilliant guitar player. His legacy became tainted after years of physical abuse towards his wife and singing partner, soul singer Tina Turner. On this track he delivers his last great performance, a piano solo which spans the entirety of the track's outro. He leads the band like they are in a jazz club, when he gets quiet the band does too, and when he gets loud and dissonant, the multi-layerd chaos returns. During this, Jason Cox is the only sane player in the band, his bass playing providing a rhythmic basis amongst everyone's craziness. After almost two minutes of this he quiets down for the last time, only playing plaintive chords with the string section. Soon the drums and African musicians play us out, and the track quietly dissolves into nothingness. The track is "dead", the planet is "dead", and everyone's spirits die along with them.

"Every Planet We Reach Is Dead" has only been played live a couple times, all at the "Demon Days Live" showcases. At the first couple shows, Ike Turner would come out at the end to deliver an amazing piano solo and then leave. As the shows progressed, Ike Turner would come out earlier and play on the full track, duetting with Damon on piano to give the track a new intro and outro. These new additions would just be the two on piano jamming, adding even more of a jazz and soul basis to the song as well as extending the track to a grand six minutes in length. As the shows progressed however, Ike Turner's solos became more dissonant, off key and off tempo due to his addiction to crack which is not only what eventually killed him but became yet another thing which tainted his legacy. It's possible that Gorillaz never played this live again because Damon felt that the song wouldn't survive without Ike Turner leading the outro (It's also possible that they never played it in tribute to him in the same way they have done with other guests because of the horrible things he did to taint his brilliant legacy in the eyes of the public). "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead" is a great follow up to the climax of "Demon Days" and will hopefully remain a fan favorite long after the next planet within reach dies as well.