Tag Archives: Mike Patton

365 Days of Mike Patton: ‘Epic,’ part 1 (of 3)

Posted on January 28, 2019 | 5 comments

If you know Faith No More and Mike Patton, it’s probably because you remember the 1990 hit “Epic.” It’s still played all the time on Sirius, and it was recently featured on the “What Makes This Song Great” series on YouTuber Rick Beato’s 686,000-subscriber strong channel. The truth is, I always feel like whenever I’m talking about Faith No More with somebody who doesn’t know much about the band, I have to qualify it with, “Well, most of their stuff doesn’t sound like ‘Epic.’”

Still, it’s Patton’s biggest hit, and it’s for good reason. It’s one of the earlier entries into the rap-rock category of music that exploded a few years later with Rage Against the Machine, the Judgment Night soundtrack, and the eventually success of nu-metal.

On the song—which came off The Real Thing album, Patton’s first appearance with the band—his rapping sounds like a Red Hot Chili Peppers tune, and his voice has that nasal quality he lost soon after (something we’ll revisit at another time). It was an undeniable hit on the radio (peaking at No. 9 on the Billboard charts in September 1990) and on MTV.

When Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis saw the video, he was not pleased. He told Kerrang! magazine, via L.A. Weekly, that “My drummer says he’s gonna kidnap [Patton], shave his hair off and cut off one of his feet, just so he’ll be forced to find a style of his own.” Later, in a RHCP biography, Kiedis said, “I watched [their] ‘Epic’ video, and I see him jumping up and down, rapping, and it looked like I was looking in a mirror.”

There’s plenty more that can be said about the relationship between Patton and Kiedis, and maybe we’ll write about it on 365 Days of Mike Patton.

To me, in the present day, “Epic” feels dated, maybe more so than any other FNM song, and listening to it sometimes feels like walking on glass. But I’d probably never have been an FNM fan if I hadn’t heard “Epic” when I was in middle school. Since that’s the case, I’ll always be thankful for it.

To follow along on the 365 days of Patton, click here for a list of each day’s post.

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What are the 365 Days of Mike Patton?

Posted on January 27, 2019 | 1 comment

Today is my favorite singer’s birthday. His name is Mike Patton, and he has a bit of a cult following. He’s best known as the lead singer of Faith No More—which is best known for the 1989 hit “Epic“ where Patton continuously asks the question “What is it?”—but he’s sung for countless other bands and musicians, including his most famous side projects Mr. Bungle and Tomahawk. The people who frantically follow him from project to project are die-hard, and when they recognize one another in public, the image is lasting.

An example: The other day I went into a Mediterranean place near work for lunch. The guy behind the counter who was about to cut some lamb for me looked in my eyes and said, “Hey, weren’t you the guy who likes Mr. Bungle?“ He knew that because about a year ago (or more), I wore a Mr. Bungle T-shirt while ordering lunch from him and we spent a good 10 minutes talking about Mike Patton. I hadn’t seen him since. But we remembered.

On New Year’s Day, I was looking at Twitter, and a baseball writer I follow named Al Mechior announced a new project. I guess he’s a big fan of the Grammy-winning rock band Toto, so he opened a new Twitter account called @ThoughtsToto, where he’s in the process of drowning himself in each of the band’s albums and writing about each song in the band’s catalog. I thought that was a good idea. So, I kind of borrowed it. But I’m not opening a new Twitter account. Instead, I’m writing it here at joshkatzowitz.com.

For the next year or so, I’m going to write (most) every weekday about Patton’s songs and why we love when he sings them. Maybe there will be some anecdotes. Maybe there will be some history. Maybe there will be explanations on the ridiculousness of Patton’s vocal range.

Who knows.

Anyway, today is Patton’s 51st birthday, so today is the day I’m unveiling my 365 Days of Mike Patton. I’ll write about his songs. I’ll probably post some videos. I’ll talk about why I love them both. These won’t be long posts. I’ll get in and get out, so you and I can move on with our days. We love Patton, but goddamn, we don’t have to obsess about him for more than a few minutes at a time. I’ll plan to go for 365 days, but honestly, I don’t even know if he has 365 recorded songs. I guess we’ll figure it out as we go.

If you’re a die-hard Patton fan (and really, why else would you be here?), maybe you don’t love the idea of brevity. Maybe, like Patton sings in “Epic,” you want it all. But true to form, you can’t have it.

To follow along on the 365 days of Patton, click here for a list of each day’s post.

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The experience I wish I could have

Posted on September 14, 2009 | 1 comment

My wife, Julie, had the greatest concert experience of her life Saturday night. She drove to Chicago with some friends to see U2 kick off its North American tour, and since she got back this afternoon, she’s been talking non-stop about what a great time she had.

She gave me the play-by-play of her trip while we ate dinner. She showed me the pictures she took on her camera. She made me watch the YouTube videos (crappy sound quality and all). She swooned over Bono.

We saw U2 about a decade ago at the Georgia Dome during the disastrous Pop Mart tour, and since I’m not a big U2 guy, I was just fine skipping this show. Julie, though, made me relive it.

“It was 100 times better than the show in Atlanta,” she texted me minutes after the last notes evaporated into the night.

“It was the best concert ever,” she exclaimed the next day, as I wiped the pizza sauce off my face.

“Don’t you wish you were there?” she taunted (though she knows I don’t really care).

It brought me back to the favorite concert I’ve ever seen. I’ve experienced some great acts – Ben Harper four times in high school and college; Mike Patton close to a half-dozen times; a Bad Religion show where the band played EVERY song I wanted*; Tool, an eight-hour roundtrip ride from Philly to New Haven to see Sparta; etc.

*This is a phenomenon I hadn’t experienced before and I haven’t experienced since.

But the best show I ever saw was Pink Floyd in 1994 at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta on the Division Bell tour, the last tour the band will ever play (I don’t think any YouTube videos exist, but strangely, there are numerous clips from the band’s 1987 stop at the now-defunct Omni). The stage show … incredible. The vibe in the audience … awesome. The sound from the band … pretty good. The entire experience … best-ever.

I remember thinking at the time that this was the best show I had ever seen, and that was true. It was only the second true rock concert I’d ever witnessed (Aerosmith was show No. 1 in 1993, though before that, I was supposed to hit a Coverdale/Page concert that eventually was canceled (I still remember how devastated I was when I heard that show was kaput because of poor ticket sales)). I also remember thinking Pink Floyd (minus, of course, Roger Waters) was the best show I’d probably ever see. And that’s true. At least I think.

I really wish I could have found some YouTube clips from the show at Bobby Dodd, just so I could confirm what I’ve built up in my mind the past 15 years. That apparently is not possible. But I do know this. The stage show was incredible, but the vibe in the audience was mediocre (the crowd was decidedly uninterested when the band played its new music, though the fans turned themselves around when Pink Floyd played the hits in the second act). The sound wasn’t really the best I’d ever heard either.

But overall, that show – when I was 15 years old and a freshman in high school – was the highlight of my concert-going experience, and I don’t think anything will ever live up to it. Listening to Julie describe her experience, I was a little jealous, because I don’t think I’ll ever feel that way for another show. It’s not the Pink Floyd show that was so great. It’s the memory of the Pink Floyd show that was so great.

Maybe I peaked too soon.

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