4 Groundbreaking Songs by Meat Puppets and How They Transformed Alternative Rock

When Meat Puppets released their second album in 1984, few would have predicted just how transformative it would be. A tumultuous partnership with the band’s record label, SST, and an even more fractious relationship with the hardcore punk scene they were a part of, didn’t stop Meat Puppets II from helping pioneer cowpunk (country and punk) and lifting alternative rock from the college radio underground to pop culture domination.

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The Phoenix trio, made up of brothers Curt (guitar and vocals) and Cris Kirkwood (bass and vocals), along with drummer Derrick Bostrom, wouldn’t enjoy the commercial fruits of the scene they inspired until 10 years after Meat Puppets II arrived. If you are new to Meat Puppets, here are four must-know tunes from the pivotal alternative rock band.

“Lake Of Fire” from ‘Meat Puppets II’ (1984)

Mainstream audiences likely heard “Lake Of Fire” for the first time when Kurt Cobain invited the Kirkwoods onstage during Nirvana’s iconic MTV Unplugged performance in 1993. An acid trip and a Halloween party led to the song, with Curt writing from the perspective of a desert philosopher, using biblical imagery that’s part poetry and part goof. A cowpunk classic that shaped Cobain and, with him, the future of alternative music.

“Plateau” from ‘Meat Puppets II’ (1984)

Another destination song, in “Plateau”, Curt describes the banal reality awaiting humans in the afterlife. Whatever one has in mind for paradise, instead, “There’s nothing on top but a bucket and a mop and an illustrated book about birds.” And like down here, when you’ve finished mopping, you can “look at what you’ve done.” It’s the kind of slacker wit that made Nirvana, R.E.M., and Dinosaur Jr. fans.

“Walking Boss” from ‘Meat Puppets’ (1982)

Meat Puppets’ debut races by in a 21-minute blink. Yet four tracks into the hardcore album, the band shows where they’d end up on II. They covered Doc Watson’s version of “Walking Boss”, which angered many in the parochial punk scene. However, Meat Puppets, with their long hair and folk and psychedelic influences, never fit neatly into the strictures of hardcore. There’s a line in “Walking Boss” illustrating the band’s independence: “I don’t belong to you.”

“Backwater” from ‘Too High To Die’ (1994)

Following the exposure from Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged set, Meat Puppets’ eighth studio album, Too High To Die, became the band’s commercial high point. “Backwater” represents a full circle moment for the alternative rock that they inspired a decade earlier. Yet when they stood on this commercial plateau, there was only a steep drop in front of them. Plagued by addiction, Cris was fired from the band, and Curt carried on with various musicians until the original lineup (with Derrick Bostrom) reunited in 2018.  

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