III Sides To Every Story is the third album by the Boston funk-metal band Extreme, released in 1992. It was the follow-up to the very successful Pornograffitti album. It was the last album that fully featured the band's original line-up: Gary Cherone, Nuno Bettencourt, Pat Badger and Paul Geary; Geary later left, and was replaced by Mike Mangini.
Overview
The album is structured as a concept album in three sections labeled as "sides" — a play on the notion of "different sides to a story" and that of "sides" of an album. The sides, mentioned in the song "Cupid's Dead" as "three sides to every story" are named "Yours", "Mine" and "The Truth", and each features a distinct musical style and lyrical imagery. Yours is made of hard rock songs, the guitar-centric style which the band had explored the most on their previous albums. Their funk-metal tendencies are present in tracks such as "Cupid's Dead", which also features a rap section performed by guest John Preziosa Jr. As a whole, this side deals with political subjects: war, peace, government, racism, media. Summing up these matters, the side closes with "Peacemaker Die", a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., which features a recording of his famous "I Have A Dream" speech. Mine, in total contrast, deals with introspective subjects. In accordance, the band departs from its guitar sound and experiments with different arrangements on this side, with Nuno Bettencourt playing keyboards in addition to the guitar. The side opening song, "Seven Sundays", is a slow waltz with prominent keyboards and no guitars. "Tragic Comic" is a mostly acoustic track telling a light-hearted love story. "Our Father" is sung from the perspective of the child of an absent father. With "Stop The World", the album starts to delve into more philosophical questions, expressing existential doubts — a theme that leads to religion, with "God Isn't Dead?" and "Don't Leave Me Alone", a dramatic plea. The latter was not included in the CD version because of lack of space; Nuno Bettencourt recalls leaving it out "was like cutting off my arm". Despite not being bound by the limitations of the CD format, the version of the album downloadable from iTunes also omits "Don't Leave Me Alone". Finally, The Truth consists of a three-part opus, titled "Everything Under The Sun", ending the three-part album. This side nods to progressive rock not only in format but also in musical style, with changes in time signature and an intricate arrangement, featuring a 70-piece orchestra. Lyrically, the spiritual theme set up in the end of "Mine" is further developed and Christian imagery is very present, The use of Roman numerals in the title is intended to denote "III Sides" as the band’s third album and to continue the theme from their previous album, the full title of which was Extreme II: Pornograffitti. On the album cover graphics, the last ‘E’ in ‘Extreme’ is also the ‘III’ in the album title.
Production
Most of III Sides was recorded at New River Studios, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and the orchestral parts were recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London. The use of Abbey Road may be perceived as yet another nod to the Beatles, besides the various lyrical references throughout the album: "Cupid's Dead" quotes a line from "A Day in the Life"; "God Isn't Dead?" quotes "Eleanor Rigby"; and "Rest in Peace" quotes John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance". Pat Badger also used Paul McCartney's typical Hofnerbass guitar in the video for "Tragic Comic".
Reception
Despite being considered one of Extreme's finest works by the band, most of their fans, and music critics, III Sides To Every Story was a commercial failure, since it did not feature a hit single such as "More Than Words", from its predecessor Pornograffitti. Also, the particular brand of hard rock for which Extreme was known was falling out of favor with the rise of the grunge movement around that time.
Track listing
Footnotes: "Peacemaker Die" is not included on the Republic of Korea edition. "Don't Leave Me Alone" is available exclusively on the vinyl and cassette editions of the album, as well as on the Extragraffitticompilation album, "Tragic Comic" single, "Stop The World" single, and as a separate promotional single. On some CD editions of III Sides To Every Story, the tracks comprising the "Everything Under The Sun" arc were indexed and played as one track, whereas on others they are indexed separately. Running times are therefore listed for the combined track and for the separated tracks. Credits: Mastering - Bob Ludwig Engineer - Bob St. John Producer - Bob St. John Assistant Engineer - Carl Nappa Art Direction - Gary Cherone Composer - Gary Cherone Concept - Gary Cherone Design - Gary Cherone Engineer - John Kurlander Art Direction - Liz Vap Design - Liz Vap Speech/Speaker/Speaking Part - Martin Luther King, Jr. Photography - Michael Lavine Arranger - Mike Moran Composer - Nuno Bettencourt Engineer - Nuno Bettencourt Guitar - Nuno Bettencourt Keyboards - Nuno Bettencourt Orchestration - Nuno Bettencourt Organ - Nuno Bettencourt Percussion - Nuno Bettencourt Piano - Nuno Bettencourt Producer - Nuno Bettencourt Vocals - Nuno Bettencourt Guitar - Pat Badger Vocals - Pat Badger Drums - Paul Geary Percussion - Paul Geary Vocals - Paul Geary Vocals - Gary Cherone Cello - Steven Sigurdson Violin - Geremy Miller
