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Wage II of 3 · Ninth Circle Records
The Ninth Circle
The centerpiece. Six long tracks that move the seven-sins argument from the personal to the systemic. Side two is a single eighteen-and-a-half-minute suite. Otis Whitworth is credited as co-writer for the first time. Ninth Circle Records printed four thousand copies. They sold in eighteen months. Nobody claimed the extra two thousand were shocked.
- 01The Steel Mill Was a Chapel7:30
Words as entered
(single guitar note held with fuzz swell, bass enters low, drums enter with slow ride-cymbal, one hit per measure) My father preached to men who worked the second shift Thirty-one years of iron on their hands He said the mill was the closest thing they had to church A place where the doing was the prayer A place where the sweat was the offering A place where the pay was the amen In 1988 they closed the doors They said the numbers didn't work The numbers came from an office three states away The numbers came from men who never touched iron The numbers came from a vice That had grown up The steel mill was a chapel The steel mill was a chapel And we let it fall And we let it fall Greed was the sin in the notebook Greed was the vice on the wall Greed is what you call it when it wears a face And a name you can point to Greed is what it stops being When enough people agree it's just the way things are The steel mill was a chapel The steel mill was a chapel And we let it fall And we let it fall The mill was the chapel The mill was the chapel Now the chapel is empty Now the chapel is empty
- 02Ordinance6:15
- 03Bureau of Averages8:20
- 04The Managed Man9:40
Words as entered
(low fuzz drone, bass enters at 0:25, drums at 0:45, one hit per measure, mechanical and even) He is not unhappy That is the first thing to understand He has a card that opens a door He has a chair that was measured for him He has a number that goes up a little every year And he has never once been asked His father chose things Chose them badly, chose them drunk, chose them proud But the choosing was his And the man in the chair has a form for that now Section four Preference indicated The managed man The managed man He was not broken He was arranged They did not take the fight out of him That would be a crime and somebody would have come They moved the fight somewhere he could not get to They put it behind a window with a number And a woman who is also managed Says the wait is currently four months Sloth was a sin when a man chose it Sloth is a service now Wrath was a sin when a man carried it Wrath is a department Greed was a sin when it wore a face Greed is a quarterly report The managed man The managed man He was not broken He was arranged I have sung at the funerals of men who worked the second shift I have sung at the funerals of men who drank I have never sung for a man Who did not know which of those he was I will sing at this one too And the form will say Deceased Cause of death Nothing in particular Nothing in particular The managed man The managed man He was not broken He was arranged He is not unhappy He is not unhappy Ask him Ask him
- 05Bread and Circus (Both Public)6:50
- 06The Ninth Circle18:42