Justified and Ancient
Encyclopedia
"Justified & Ancient" is a song by British
band The KLF
(Bill Drummond
and Jimmy Cauty
) which featured on their 1991 album The White Room
but with origins dating back to the duo's debut album, 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?)
.
The song is best known for its remake that was released in November 1991 as a pop-house single subtitled "Stand by The JAMs", with verses featuring the vocals of American
country music
singer Tammy Wynette
. This version was an international hit, reaching #2 on both the UK Singles Chart
, and the U.S. dance charts, #11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100
, and hitting #1 in 18 countries.
Despite its success, "Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)" was the final release by The KLF through retail channels as well the second-to-last altogether release from the KLF (the last release being the mail-order only "3 a.m. Eternal
") before Drummond and Cauty quit the music business and retired the KLF name.
and earlier incarnation, "The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu" (The JAMs). The JAMs took their name from a fictional subversive cult from the 1970s conspiratorial novels The Illuminatus! Trilogy
. Just as the fictional JAMs made it their remit to propagate chaos and confusion, so too did the real JAMs and The KLF. Their attempts to subvert the music industry and other establishments were frequent, unconcealed and controversial. The song "Justified & Ancient" is a statement of identity and rebellious intent. Moreover, it deliberately understates this intent. In contrast to the provocative and abrasive lyrics of The JAMs' album 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?)
, on which "Justified & Ancient" first appeared, the song has a soft and innocuous tune, and quaint lyrics:
"We don't want to upset the apple-cart, and we don't want to cause any harm, but if you don't like what we're going to do, you'd better not stop us 'cause we're coming through."
The melody and one repeated lyrical verse of the song first appeared as part of "Hey Hey We Are Not The Monkees" from The JAMs' debut album, 1987: What The Fuck Is Going On?. All of the album's most prominent characteristics are notably absent in this part of "Hey Hey...", which has female vocals (as opposed to the rapping of The JAMs' Scottish co-founder Bill Drummond
), inoffensive lyrics, and it is free from plagiarised samples
of other artists' recordings. Also in contrast, "Hey Hey" itself begins with a minute's worth of typical human sexual intercourse
noises, arranged as a rhythm. It progresses into a cryptic and bleak spoken verse from Drummond
and descends into a cacophone of samples from "The Monkees Theme
". An abrupt cut takes the track into the gentle "Justified & Ancient" vocal line, which is syncopated
similarly to African music
and is at first a cappella
.
In 1990, the recording re-appeared on The KLF's ambient
album, Chill Out
, in a part of the composition titled "Justified & Ancient Seems a Long Time Ago". This time the song provides a complement rather than a contrast to the mood of the album, which is passive and contains various authentic ethnic sounds.
In March 1991, a full song called "Justified & Ancient" appeared on The KLF's album The White Room
. Sung by Black Steel, the song begins and ends the album. This version retains the lyrics and melody, adds an additional verse, and full song structure and instrumentation is present, in an arrangement akin to a lullaby
. Where the song starts the album, it is interrupted at the point "...they're coming through" by urgent "Mu Mu!" samples and blazing machine guns that open the house
track "What Time Is Love?
". At the end of the mellower second half of the album, the song is presented in its entirety.
In November 1991, the single "Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)" was released, featuring the lead vocals of country music singer Tammy Wynette
, introduced in the sleevenotes as "the first lady of country". This was an upbeat and funky version of the song, the subtitle referencing Tammy Wynette's solo hit "Stand by Your Man
", and the inclusion of subtle pedal steel guitar also referencing Wynette's country origins. This was the final single to be aired commercially by The KLF, following the US release of "America: What Time Is Love?".
The "Justified & Ancient" single marked a departure from The KLF's previous "Stadium House" trilogy of hits, which were driven by hooks
and riffs and emulated a live performance by using sampled crowd noise. In contrast, the riffs, samples and rap
of "Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)" were secondary to its conventional song structure of verses and choruses. Still, a riff borrowed from Jimi Hendrix' Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
runs through the choruses.
A longer mix of this arrangement, "Justified & Ancient (All Bound for Mu Mu Land)", dispensed with the pedal steel and substituted Wynette's lead vocals with those of Maxine Harvey, a regular contributor to The KLF's material.
Commentators were suspicious that the surprising pairing of Wynette with The KLF ("perhaps the oddest modern-day pop pairing") was a marketing ploy. Other commentators pointed to The KLF member Bill Drummond's
fondness for country music as motivating the collaboration, or to the fact a period of almost exactly 23
years separated the first airings of "Stand by Your Man" and "... (Stand by The JAMs)".
"I really don't know why they chose me. I was apprehensive at first, but I'm really excited with the way it's all turned out", Wynette said. "Mu Mu Land
looks a lot more interesting than Tennessee
.... But I wouldn't want to live there." In April 1992, Wynette collapsed while on tour in Australia; for this she cited overwork during the promotion of "Justified & Ancient".
, being held off the Christmas # 1
spot by the re-release of Queen
's "Bohemian Rhapsody
". "Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)" also reached # 11 in the US Billboard Hot 100
, # 3 in the Australian singles chart, # 1 in Sweden
, and # 1 on the Austrian Top 40
. The UK music press received the release generally positively: it was "single of the week" in New Musical Express (NME) and Melody Maker
. NME noted the "beautiful ethnic chorus lines! Ice Cream Vans! F--king awful lyrics!" [sic], and found that although the single "...lacks the sheer frantic rush of 'Last Train to Trancentral
' ..., The KLF model a spiritual crown which elevates them several tower blocks above their amateur peers."
In 1995, a celebrity panel working for The Times
compiled a list of 90 songs that represented the decade in music so far, with no more than one song per band allowed. "Justified & Ancient" was The KLF's entry (at number 44), with the lyrics described as "delightful nonsense". Splendid Magazine echoed this, but even more eulogistically. "I still maintain that this song deserves a place among the greatest artworks of the 20th century. Not only is it a brilliant, gleefully daft, wholly nonsensical, perfectly ludicrous pop song with a chorus to kill for, not only is it a slyly subversive comment on the cynically repulsive old-artist-collaborates-with-young-artist phenomenon at the expense of itself, but, self-referential irony and all, it is and always will be globe-straddling pop music incarnate. Were a decision reached that all pop music was deemed unfit for human consumption and had to be destroyed, save for one song to keep us fickle masses in choruses, this would be have to be the one, folks."
Following their collaboration with Tammy Wynette, and the subsequent appearance of Glenn Hughes on "America: What Time Is Love?", The KLF were, according to mixer Mark "Spike" Stent, swamped by phone calls from fading music stars, including Neil Sedaka
and Sweet
, who were eager to work with The KLF to revive their careers. This side-effect of The KLF's collaborations was at odds with their aim to subvert the music industry, as noted by GQ magazine in 1995. GQ published a retrospective of The KLF's career and interview with Bill Drummond, and suggested that such collaborations were a contributory factor in The KLF's abandonment of music: "[Bill Drummond's] distaste for the machinery of pop was at war with the creative populism of KLF", and "KLF had become bona fide
pop miracle workers... It was all spinning way out of Drummond's control".
and an ice cream van
, while the lyrics coined the phrase "Make mine a '99'
". Indeed, a working title for the "Justified & Ancient" project was allegedly "The Ice Cream Men". Several months prior to the single's release, The KLF appeared at the Liverpool Festival of Comedy, where they sold ice creams to the audience while, on stage, figures swathen in grey and yellow robes chanted "justified...ancient...".
The ice cream van, introduced upon release of The JAMs single "It's Grim Up North
", superseded the JAMsMobile (aka Ford Timelord) as The KLF's vehicle of choice. The van appeared with The KLF on stage when they 'performed' "Justified & Ancient" on Top of the Pops
, with Bill Drummond
and Jimmy Cauty
(The KLF) dressed as ice cream cones and Tammy Wynette appearing behind them on a large screen.
The "ethnic chorus line" to which NME referred is the refrain "All bound for Mu Mu land", a reference to the Lost Continent of Mu
, which is identified with the fictional land Lemuria in The Illuminatus! Trilogy
novels. Some research suggests that underwater archeological remains located off the coast of Japan may be Mu. Indeed, at the end of the "Justified & Ancient" music video
, The KLF exit in a submarine
.
remix
es of the single arrangement, the former using Maxine Harvey's vocal and the latter mainly voxless.
Key
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
band The KLF
The KLF
The KLF were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s....
(Bill Drummond
Bill Drummond
William Ernest Drummond is a Scottish artist, musician, writer and record producer. He was the co-founder of late 1980s avant-garde pop group The KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with which he burned a million pounds in 1994...
and Jimmy Cauty
Jimmy Cauty
James Francis Cauty is a British artist and musician born in Liverpool, England, in 1956...
) which featured on their 1991 album The White Room
The White Room
Allmusic said that The White Room "represents the commercial and artistic peak of late-'80s acid-house" and Q magazine called it "strikingly imaginative" and "a more subtle form of subterfuge" than previous works...
but with origins dating back to the duo's debut album, 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?)
1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?)
1987 is the debut album of The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu . 1987 was produced using extensive unauthorised samples which plagiarised a wide range of musical works, continuing a theme begun in The JAMs' debut single "All You Need Is Love"...
.
The song is best known for its remake that was released in November 1991 as a pop-house single subtitled "Stand by The JAMs", with verses featuring the vocals of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
singer Tammy Wynette
Tammy Wynette
Virginia Wynette Pugh, known professionally as Tammy Wynette , was an American country music singer-songwriter and one of the genre's best-known artists and biggest-selling female vocalists....
. This version was an international hit, reaching #2 on both the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, and the U.S. dance charts, #11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, and hitting #1 in 18 countries.
Despite its success, "Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)" was the final release by The KLF through retail channels as well the second-to-last altogether release from the KLF (the last release being the mail-order only "3 a.m. Eternal
3 a.m. Eternal
"3 a.m. Eternal" is a song by The KLF, numerous versions of which were released as singles between 1989 and 1992. In January 1991, an acid house pop version of the song became an international top ten hit single, hitting #1 in the UK Singles Chart and #5 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and leading to...
") before Drummond and Cauty quit the music business and retired the KLF name.
Background
The title "Justified & Ancient" refers to The KLF's pseudonymPseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
and earlier incarnation, "The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu" (The JAMs). The JAMs took their name from a fictional subversive cult from the 1970s conspiratorial novels The Illuminatus! Trilogy
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1975. The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction-influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex-, and magick-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both...
. Just as the fictional JAMs made it their remit to propagate chaos and confusion, so too did the real JAMs and The KLF. Their attempts to subvert the music industry and other establishments were frequent, unconcealed and controversial. The song "Justified & Ancient" is a statement of identity and rebellious intent. Moreover, it deliberately understates this intent. In contrast to the provocative and abrasive lyrics of The JAMs' album 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?)
1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?)
1987 is the debut album of The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu . 1987 was produced using extensive unauthorised samples which plagiarised a wide range of musical works, continuing a theme begun in The JAMs' debut single "All You Need Is Love"...
, on which "Justified & Ancient" first appeared, the song has a soft and innocuous tune, and quaint lyrics:
"We don't want to upset the apple-cart, and we don't want to cause any harm, but if you don't like what we're going to do, you'd better not stop us 'cause we're coming through."
Evolution
The words and music of "Justified & Ancient" feature several times in the work of The KLF and The JAMs, including their first album and their last full-release single.The melody and one repeated lyrical verse of the song first appeared as part of "Hey Hey We Are Not The Monkees" from The JAMs' debut album, 1987: What The Fuck Is Going On?. All of the album's most prominent characteristics are notably absent in this part of "Hey Hey...", which has female vocals (as opposed to the rapping of The JAMs' Scottish co-founder Bill Drummond
Bill Drummond
William Ernest Drummond is a Scottish artist, musician, writer and record producer. He was the co-founder of late 1980s avant-garde pop group The KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with which he burned a million pounds in 1994...
), inoffensive lyrics, and it is free from plagiarised samples
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
of other artists' recordings. Also in contrast, "Hey Hey" itself begins with a minute's worth of typical human sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
noises, arranged as a rhythm. It progresses into a cryptic and bleak spoken verse from Drummond
Drummond
Drummond may refer to:Places in Canada:* Drummond , a Québec federal riding* Drummond , a provincial electoral district in Quebec...
and descends into a cacophone of samples from "The Monkees Theme
(Theme from) The Monkees
" The Monkees" is a 1966 popular song, written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart as the theme song for the TV series The Monkees. It later appeared on their album The Monkees. Originally intended as an album track, it was later released as a single in Australia, where it became a hit. It is still...
". An abrupt cut takes the track into the gentle "Justified & Ancient" vocal line, which is syncopated
Syncopation
In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
similarly to African music
Music of Africa
Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of North Africa for the most part has a different history from sub-Saharan African music traditions....
and is at first a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
.
In 1990, the recording re-appeared on The KLF's ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
album, Chill Out
Chill out
Chill out may mean:*Chill out music, a laid-back style of music*Chill Out, an album by KLF*Chill Out *Chill Out, an album by John Lee Hooker...
, in a part of the composition titled "Justified & Ancient Seems a Long Time Ago". This time the song provides a complement rather than a contrast to the mood of the album, which is passive and contains various authentic ethnic sounds.
In March 1991, a full song called "Justified & Ancient" appeared on The KLF's album The White Room
The White Room
Allmusic said that The White Room "represents the commercial and artistic peak of late-'80s acid-house" and Q magazine called it "strikingly imaginative" and "a more subtle form of subterfuge" than previous works...
. Sung by Black Steel, the song begins and ends the album. This version retains the lyrics and melody, adds an additional verse, and full song structure and instrumentation is present, in an arrangement akin to a lullaby
Lullaby
A lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to young children before they go to sleep, with the intention of speeding that process. As a result they are often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in every culture and since the ancient period....
. Where the song starts the album, it is interrupted at the point "...they're coming through" by urgent "Mu Mu!" samples and blazing machine guns that open the house
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
track "What Time Is Love?
What Time Is Love?
"What Time Is Love?" is a song released, in different mixes, as a series of singles by the band The KLF. It featured prominently and repeatedly in their output from 1988 to 1992 and, under the moniker of 2K, in 1997...
". At the end of the mellower second half of the album, the song is presented in its entirety.
The single - "Stand by The JAMs" featuring Tammy Wynette
Tammy Wynette
Virginia Wynette Pugh, known professionally as Tammy Wynette , was an American country music singer-songwriter and one of the genre's best-known artists and biggest-selling female vocalists....
, introduced in the sleevenotes as "the first lady of country". This was an upbeat and funky version of the song, the subtitle referencing Tammy Wynette's solo hit "Stand by Your Man
Stand By Your Man
"Stand by Your Man" is a song co-written by Tammy Wynette and Billy Sherrill and originally recorded by Tammy Wynette, released as a single in September 1968 in the USA...
", and the inclusion of subtle pedal steel guitar also referencing Wynette's country origins. This was the final single to be aired commercially by The KLF, following the US release of "America: What Time Is Love?".
The "Justified & Ancient" single marked a departure from The KLF's previous "Stadium House" trilogy of hits, which were driven by hooks
Hook (music)
A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener". The term generally applies to popular music, especially rock music, hip hop, dance music, and pop. In these genres, the hook is often...
and riffs and emulated a live performance by using sampled crowd noise. In contrast, the riffs, samples and rap
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
of "Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)" were secondary to its conventional song structure of verses and choruses. Still, a riff borrowed from Jimi Hendrix' Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
"Voodoo Child " is the closing track on Electric Ladyland, the third and final album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The song is known for its wah-wah-heavy guitar work. It is #101 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 greatest songs of all time....
runs through the choruses.
A longer mix of this arrangement, "Justified & Ancient (All Bound for Mu Mu Land)", dispensed with the pedal steel and substituted Wynette's lead vocals with those of Maxine Harvey, a regular contributor to The KLF's material.
Commentators were suspicious that the surprising pairing of Wynette with The KLF ("perhaps the oddest modern-day pop pairing") was a marketing ploy. Other commentators pointed to The KLF member Bill Drummond's
Bill Drummond
William Ernest Drummond is a Scottish artist, musician, writer and record producer. He was the co-founder of late 1980s avant-garde pop group The KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with which he burned a million pounds in 1994...
fondness for country music as motivating the collaboration, or to the fact a period of almost exactly 23
23 (numerology)
The 23 enigma refers to the belief that most incidents and events are directly connected to the number 23, some modification of the number 23, or a number related to the number 23.-Origins:...
years separated the first airings of "Stand by Your Man" and "... (Stand by The JAMs)".
"I really don't know why they chose me. I was apprehensive at first, but I'm really excited with the way it's all turned out", Wynette said. "Mu Mu Land
Mu (lost continent)
Mu is the name of a hypothetical continent that allegedly existed in one of Earth's oceans, but disappeared at the dawn of human history.The concept and the name were proposed by 19th century traveler and writer Augustus Le Plongeon, who claimed that several ancient civilizations, such as those of...
looks a lot more interesting than Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
.... But I wouldn't want to live there." In April 1992, Wynette collapsed while on tour in Australia; for this she cited overwork during the promotion of "Justified & Ancient".
Reviews and reaction
The single reached # 2 in the UK Singles ChartUK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, being held off the Christmas # 1
Christmas number one single
The Christmas number one single is a single that reaches number one on the national pop music charts in the week immediately prior to Christmas. It is primarily a pop culture phenomenon in the United Kingdom and in the neighboring Republic of Ireland....
spot by the re-release of Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
's "Bohemian Rhapsody
Bohemian Rhapsody
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen. It was written by Freddie Mercury for the band's 1975 album A Night at the Opera...
". "Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)" also reached # 11 in the US Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, # 3 in the Australian singles chart, # 1 in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, and # 1 on the Austrian Top 40
Ö3 Austria Top 40
Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann...
. The UK music press received the release generally positively: it was "single of the week" in New Musical Express (NME) and Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
. NME noted the "beautiful ethnic chorus lines! Ice Cream Vans! F--king awful lyrics!" [sic], and found that although the single "...lacks the sheer frantic rush of 'Last Train to Trancentral
Last Train to Trancentral
"Last Train to Trancentral" is a song released, in different mixes, as a series of singles by The KLF, including "Last Train to Trancentral ", a commercially successful single of April 1991 that reached # 2 in the UK Singles Chart and achieved international top ten placings...
' ..., The KLF model a spiritual crown which elevates them several tower blocks above their amateur peers."
In 1995, a celebrity panel working for The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
compiled a list of 90 songs that represented the decade in music so far, with no more than one song per band allowed. "Justified & Ancient" was The KLF's entry (at number 44), with the lyrics described as "delightful nonsense". Splendid Magazine echoed this, but even more eulogistically. "I still maintain that this song deserves a place among the greatest artworks of the 20th century. Not only is it a brilliant, gleefully daft, wholly nonsensical, perfectly ludicrous pop song with a chorus to kill for, not only is it a slyly subversive comment on the cynically repulsive old-artist-collaborates-with-young-artist phenomenon at the expense of itself, but, self-referential irony and all, it is and always will be globe-straddling pop music incarnate. Were a decision reached that all pop music was deemed unfit for human consumption and had to be destroyed, save for one song to keep us fickle masses in choruses, this would be have to be the one, folks."
Following their collaboration with Tammy Wynette, and the subsequent appearance of Glenn Hughes on "America: What Time Is Love?", The KLF were, according to mixer Mark "Spike" Stent, swamped by phone calls from fading music stars, including Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka is an American pop/rock singer, pianist, and composer. His career has spanned nearly 55 years, during which time he has sold millions of records as an artist and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard...
and Sweet
Sweet (band)
Sweet was a British rock band that rose to worldwide fame in the 1970s as one of the most prominent glam rock acts, with the classic line-up of lead vocalist Brian Connolly, bass player Steve Priest, guitarist Andy Scott, and drummer Mick Tucker.Sweet was formed in 1968 and achieved their first...
, who were eager to work with The KLF to revive their careers. This side-effect of The KLF's collaborations was at odds with their aim to subvert the music industry, as noted by GQ magazine in 1995. GQ published a retrospective of The KLF's career and interview with Bill Drummond, and suggested that such collaborations were a contributory factor in The KLF's abandonment of music: "[Bill Drummond's] distaste for the machinery of pop was at war with the creative populism of KLF", and "KLF had become bona fide
Bona Fide
Bona Fide is a studio album from rock band Wishbone Ash. It is the first studio album in six years and is the only studio album to feature guitarist Ben Granfelt...
pop miracle workers... It was all spinning way out of Drummond's control".
Themes
Promotional material and antics for "Stand by The JAMs" used iconography of ice creamIce cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
and an ice cream van
Ice cream van
An ice cream van or ice cream truck is a commercial vehicle which serves as a travelling retail outlet for ice cream, usually during the summer. Ice cream vans are often seen parked at public events, or near parks, beaches, or other areas where people congregate...
, while the lyrics coined the phrase "Make mine a '99'
99 Flake
thumb|right|250px|A 99 FlakeA 99 Flake can refer to an ice cream cone with a Cadbury Flake inserted in it; a specially produced Flake bar for this purpose; or a wrapped ice cream cone product marketed by Cadbury. It was originally designed to be a cuboid, and fit into a wafer...
". Indeed, a working title for the "Justified & Ancient" project was allegedly "The Ice Cream Men". Several months prior to the single's release, The KLF appeared at the Liverpool Festival of Comedy, where they sold ice creams to the audience while, on stage, figures swathen in grey and yellow robes chanted "justified...ancient...".
The ice cream van, introduced upon release of The JAMs single "It's Grim Up North
It's Grim Up North
"It's Grim Up North" was a 1991 single by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu , the main lyrics of which consist of a list of towns and cities in the North of England, set to a pounding industrial techno accompaniment reminiscent of steam whistles, all of which segues into an orchestral instrumental of...
", superseded the JAMsMobile (aka Ford Timelord) as The KLF's vehicle of choice. The van appeared with The KLF on stage when they 'performed' "Justified & Ancient" on Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
, with Bill Drummond
Bill Drummond
William Ernest Drummond is a Scottish artist, musician, writer and record producer. He was the co-founder of late 1980s avant-garde pop group The KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with which he burned a million pounds in 1994...
and Jimmy Cauty
Jimmy Cauty
James Francis Cauty is a British artist and musician born in Liverpool, England, in 1956...
(The KLF) dressed as ice cream cones and Tammy Wynette appearing behind them on a large screen.
The "ethnic chorus line" to which NME referred is the refrain "All bound for Mu Mu land", a reference to the Lost Continent of Mu
Mu (lost continent)
Mu is the name of a hypothetical continent that allegedly existed in one of Earth's oceans, but disappeared at the dawn of human history.The concept and the name were proposed by 19th century traveler and writer Augustus Le Plongeon, who claimed that several ancient civilizations, such as those of...
, which is identified with the fictional land Lemuria in The Illuminatus! Trilogy
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1975. The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction-influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex-, and magick-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both...
novels. Some research suggests that underwater archeological remains located off the coast of Japan may be Mu. Indeed, at the end of the "Justified & Ancient" music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
, The KLF exit in a submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
.
The White Room version
- Bill Drummond - productionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, performance, programmingProgramming (music)Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices, often sequencers or computer programs, to generate music. Programming is used in nearly all forms of electronic music and in most hip hop music since the 1990s. It is also frequently used in modern pop and rock... - Jimmy Cauty - production, performance, programming
- Black Steel - vocals, bass guitar
- Nick Coler - keyboards
- Tony Thorpe - breakBreak (music)In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to stop-time – being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece....
Single versions
The recordings were, according to the "Justified & Ancient" sleevenotes, "exhumed, explored and exploited by The KLF", with Jimmy Cauty playing electric guitar, bass, drums and keyboard. Additional contributors included:- Tammy WynetteTammy WynetteVirginia Wynette Pugh, known professionally as Tammy Wynette , was an American country music singer-songwriter and one of the genre's best-known artists and biggest-selling female vocalists....
- lead vocals "Stand by The JAMs" - Maxine Harvey - lead vocals "All Bound for Mu Mu Land", lead chorus "Stand by The JAMs"
- Ricardo da ForceRicardo da ForceJervis Ricardo Alfonso Lyte known professionally as Ricardo da Force is an English male vocalist, most notable for contributing vocals to dance music tracks by artists The KLF on "3 a.m...
- rap - Scott PieringScott PieringScott Piering was a successful and influential American-born music publicist for many British music acts, including Pulp, The KLF, The Smiths, Stereophonics, The Orb, Placebo, Underworld and The Prodigy...
- narration - Nick Coler - keyboards and programming
- Rusty Pence - pedal steel "Stand by The JAMs"
- Tony Thorpe - 'groove consultant'
- Mark 'Spike' StentMark StentMark 'Spike' Stent is a British record producer, and audio engineer who has worked with The KLF, Björk, Keane, Depeche Mode, Muse, Erasure, Hard-Fi, Massive Attack, Janet Jackson, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, Marilyn Manson, Pet Shop Boys, Dave Matthews, No Doubt/Gwen Stefani, CSS, Beth Orton,...
- mixing "Stand by The JAMs", "All Bound for Mu Mu Land"
Formats and track listings
"Justified & Ancient" was given an international release as a single on 25 November 1991. In each case, all tracks are versions or mixes of this song, as tabulated below. The versions subtitled "(Make Mine a '99')" and "(Let Them Eat Ice Cream)" are deep houseDeep house
Deep house is a subgenre of house music that fuses elements of Chicago house into the 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. In the early compositions , influences of jazz music were most frequently brought out by using more complex chords than simple triads which are held for many bars and...
remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
es of the single arrangement, the former using Maxine Harvey's vocal and the latter mainly voxless.
| Format (and countries) | Track number | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 7" single, cassette single, CD single (Japan) | s | W | |||
| 12" single (UK, Italy) | A | m | s | L | |
| 12" single (elsewhere) | A | m | s | L | |
| CD single (US) | s | S | W | A | L |
| CD single (France) | A | m | s | L | W |
| CD single (Belgium) | s | W | A | m | L |
| CD single (elsewhere) | s | W | A | M | L |
Key
- s - "Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)" (3:37)
- S - "Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)" (12" Version) (5:31)
- A - "Justified & Ancient (All Bound for Mu Mu Land)" (7:45)
- L - "Justified & Ancient (Let Them Eat Ice Cream)" (6:31)
- m - "Justified & Ancient (Make Mine a '99')" (Edit) (3:17)
- M - "Justified & Ancient (Make Mine a '99')" (5:52)
- W - "Justified & Ancient (The White Room Version)" (5:04)
Peak positions
| Chart (1992) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 3 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 1 |
| Canadian RPM Top Singles | 8 |
| Dutch Top 40 Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting... |
2 |
| French SNEP Singles Chart | 27 |
| German Singles Chart | 3 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 4 |
| New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart | 1 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 3 |
| Swedish Singles Chart | 1 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 2 |
| UK Singles Chart | 2 |
| UK Airplay Chart | 3 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 11 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play | 2 |
| U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks | 21 |
End of year charts
| End of year chart (1992) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart | 39 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 6 |
| Dutch Top 40 | 25 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 11 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 86 |
Certifications
| Country | Certification | Date | Sales certified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | Gold | 1992 | 150,000 |
| UK | Silver | 1 December 1991 | 200,000 |