"We're going to do the Wizard of Oz, Dark Side of the Moon thing. And we're gonna be handing out acid."

-- 9/6/97 Welland, ON

Consider, if you will:

From navratil@umich.edu Sun Aug 22 03:22:41 1999
Message-ID: <37BC16F0.8443D47A@umich.edu>
From: Joe Navratil 
Newsgroups: alt.music.moxy-fruvous
Subject: Re: TIC: Fruvous Violence
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 14:38:57 +0000

Kate Leahy wrote:
> 
> > holding a head high (on a stake perhaps?) and I
> > could swear there was a
> > reference to killing Paul.
> 
> Really!?  'Cause I heard if you play it backwards, it
> says that Murray's dead!
> 

How right you are, Kate (and thanks, btw ;-) ).  In fact, it's blatantly
obvious that Murray is, indeed, dead and has been replaced for this album.

Proof, you say?  Pah!  How about this --

1) Murray has only one song on the album

     Unexceptional, except that a) The rest of the Lads have a fairly even distribution of songs; and b) At least two Murray songs were notably left off, Grudge and Pisco

2) Murray's writing style has changed considerably

     Independence Day is a sane song! I mean, it's about the end of a relationship and all that, but nowhere in the song is there any reference to arson or dead cats. The last time that happened was probably 'Bittersweet', a decade (and threeish albums) ago. Additionally, we've all heard Pisco by now -- could the same man who wrote "Sad Today" write "Pisco Bandito"? I think not!

3) Independence Day itself

     The song is about ending a relationship. A veiled message, perhaps? Look at the lyrics! "bleed down to black", indeed!

4) Murray's shirt in the album art:      IT'S NOT A MURRAY SHIRT! It's a solid color, and a relatively normal color. In fact, it's *blood* red. By now, you should get the picture...

5) The inside-liner picture.      Dave, Jian, and Mike are tilting their heads to the right. Murray, on the other hand, is tilting his head to the left. And Paul wasn't wearing any shoes.

6) The very-inside-liner picture.       Look closely. See the differences? Obviously, these are the finalists for the band's sick and twisted "Replace Murray!" contest. I'm guessing that the guy in the upper-right picture won, myself. Sheesh, that guy in the upper-left doesn't even *resemble* Fruvous's former bassist.

I present simply the facts. Do with them what you will.

 -Joe

Note from the webmaster: I didn't write the above Usenet article. The opinions expressed in it certainly are not mine. I happen to think Murray was frozen, like Walt Disney was.

Photo Credit: Caroline Moore