Greg! The Stop Sign!!
"Greg! The Stop Sign!!" is a song by Australian alternative rock band TISM. It was released in August 1995 as the third single from the album Machiavelli and the Four Seasons (1995).
| "Greg! The Stop Sign!!" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by TISM | ||||
| from the album Machiavelli and the Four Seasons | ||||
| B-side |
| |||
| Released | August 1995 | |||
| Recorded | September 1994 | |||
| Studio | Platinum Studios | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock | |||
| Length | 3:28 | |||
| Label | genre b.goode | |||
| Songwriter(s) | TISM (Peter Minack, Damian Cowell, John Holt, Eugene Cester, James Paull) | |||
| Producer(s) | Lawrence Maddy | |||
| TISM singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
The song peaked at number 59 on the ARIA chart and polled at number 10 in the Triple J Hottest 100, 1995.
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1996, the song was nominated for the ARIA Award for Best Independent Release.[1]
The song is based on a series of speeding advertisements released by the TAC (Victorian road and safety authorities), who are mentioned in the song. The bridge is recycled from an earlier song called "Consumption Tax", which was recorded during The Beasts of Suburban sessions in 1992 and released on Collected Recordings 1986-1993 in 1995. The solo is a variation on the intro riff from The Shadows' composition "FBI".
In December 2022, a limited-edition 12-inch single was released, containing early versions of the song dating back to January 1994 as well as its precursor track "Consumption Tax". The original versions from early 1994 used the riff from "The Ballad of Paul Keating", a song that had been written and recorded in 1992, before being rewritten and performed on The Beasts of Suburban tour.
Video
The video for the song was directed by Mark Hartley. It begins with four players of the St Kilda Football Club exercising in slow motion (Shane Wakelin, Chris Hemley, Justin Peckett and Josh Kitchen)[2] before then moving into the club's locker room where TISM is seen dancing and singing. Seen on the lockers are the names of famous players, and the walls feature various sporting success cliches (including the prominent "Your (sic) a professional. 'Keep it simple ") The scene shifts to a football field where the band are singing and dancing on the turf.
Eventually the video turns to a group of teenagers partying in a house. The camera moves into the house to see them all drinking and enjoying themselves. As the camera moves into the back room, a teenage girl is seen vomiting on the floor, overlooked by a member of TISM. The video then turns into two scenes from black and white fictional films ("There is more men in children than wisdom knows" and "Le Rape De Mururoa") which are given contrasting "stars" by Margaret and David, with both scenes starring a member of TISM. These two film scenes are broken by more footage of TISM in the locker room. Back in the house one of the most notorious and well known scenes of the video shows a dog eating the vomit from earlier. The video ends as a couple outside the house argue while once again a member of TISM watches on.
Throughout the video, the members of TISM are dressed in black uniforms with high shoulder pads and with faces covered by a Balaclava mask, giving them a strange and threatening visage. In the scenes where members of TISM are in the film clips or at the party, they are seemingly invisible to the people around them, able to move and interact with the music video audience, but seemingly ghostlike to the woman in the clips or the teenagers at the party.
Reception
Jonathan Lewis from AllMusic called the song a "highlight of the disc".[3]
Adam Woolcock from The Guardian has called it "a metaphor for our collective mortality" and "thrillingly bizarre".[4]
Track list
CD single (G004)
- "Greg! The Stop Sign!!" - 3:29
- "Strictly Loungeroom" - 4:07
- "There's More Men in Children Than Wisdom Knows" - 3:36
Personnel
- Peter Minack - lead vocals
- James Paull - guitar, backing vocals
- John Holt - bass, backing vocals
- Damian Cowell - drums, backing vocals, lead vocals (bridge)
- Eugene Cester - keyboards, backing vocals
References
- "ARIA Awards Best Independent Release". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Retrieved 9 June 2021.
- Woolcock, 2014, ibid
- Jonathan Lewis. "Allmusic review". Allmusic. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
- Woolcock, Adam Woolcock (24 November 2014). "Greg! The Stop Sign!! by TISM – a metaphor for our collective mortality". the Guardian. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
- "The ARIA Australian Top 100 Singles Chart – Week Ending 15 Oct 1995". Imgur.com (original document published by ARIA). p. 282. Retrieved 6 July 2017. N.B. The HP column displays the highest peak reached.
