I don't know why he's so mean.

April 24, 2012 5:27 PM

What's the origin of the racist diatribe that serves as the intro to Big Black's song Seth?
posted by scratch to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Best answer: Someone on this page reproduces what they say is an email conversation with Steve Albini, in which Albini says he taped it from a white supremacist phone line. (I presume the organization he's referring to is the New America First Committee, which was active in the 1980s in the Chicago area.)
posted by Sidhedevil at 5:31 PM on April 24, 2012

Best answer: from the liner notes:

this guy trained his dog seth to attack black people. he was an asshole beyond that, but that's the sort of thing he'd do. he has a cornflakes box with his photo on the front. he's big in the democratic machine. he tried to beat up a girl tenant in an apartment building he had equipped with illegally-tapped gas and electricity. he bets on sports. the introductory message is from the america first committee telephone hotline.

according to songmeanings.net Albini says he recorded it directly off the phone.
posted by nadawi at 5:33 PM on April 24, 2012

The New America First Committee was pretty much this guy at his kitchen table, so you might compare the voice on the sample with Jones's voice if you can stand to listen to his garbage.
posted by Sidhedevil at 5:33 PM on April 24, 2012

Albini is definitely misremembering the name of the organization. There isn't a white supremacist organization called "The America First Committee"; Jones named his pretty much one-man operation "The New America First Committee" as an homage to Charles Lindbergh's anti-World War II intervention group.
posted by Sidhedevil at 5:37 PM on April 24, 2012

Response by poster: Thanks, folks. The green is always the firstest with the mostest.


also: "he bets on sports" lol
posted by scratch at 5:47 PM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]