(TPH) The Waterboys today announce Rips From The Cutting Room Floor, a companion disc to their acclaimed Life, Death And Dennis Hopper containing extra tracks and vignettes, and arriving December 5th via Sun Records. The first single, "The Next Time I Saw Elvis," has been released on all streaming platforms.
"These are tracks that didn't make the album," says bandleader Mike Scott. "Not because of quality control reasons, but because they broke the narrative. But we want to share them with people and they make a cool little record on their own."
Rips From The Cutting Room Floor offers listeners a kaleidoscopic view of the creative universe Mike Scott and his band conjured during the making of their audacious opus released in the spring of 2024. Featuring 16 tracks and pressed on hot pink vinyl exclusively through Sun Records, the album traces tangents of Hopper's mythos and the strange, wild world he inhabited - a vivid addendum to the story of America's rebel icon.
The new single, "The Next Time I Saw Elvis," recounts a legendary 1956 encounter between Hopper and Presley in Hollywood. Brought to life with Henry Dobson Jr.'s charismatic lead vocal, the track features Ralph Salmins on drums, Aongus Ralston on bass and rhythm guitar, Famous James on piano, and a searing lead guitar solo from Scott himself - all channeling the swagger and electricity of that unforgettable moment.
Among the other highlights: "On The Set Of The Last Movie," a full-length instrumental steeped in transcendental blues; "Alejandro Jodorowsky's Arrival In Taos," which imagines the surrealist auteur's creative clashes with Hopper in New Mexico; and "Flipside Of The American Dream" and "Still Raging On," two alternate drafts of the main album highlight "Ten Years Gone" - plus audio of two spoof TV adverts.
"Dennis made a lot of TV ads in his later life," says Scott, "and brought a real artistry and creative sparkle to them. As such they're ripe for spoofing and having some fun with, and so we did!"
Recorded with longtime Waterboys collaborators and an eclectic cast of contributors, the tracks pull back the curtain on the wild ride of Life, Death And Dennis Hopper while standing as essential, standalone works of musical storytelling.
Many of these songs were recorded in a burst of inspiration after Scott acquired a vintage mellotron, sparking new textures and creative momentum. "The mellotron is like an early sampler - a magic machine," Scott explains in his notes. "Once it arrived, these songs came to life."
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