The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste

The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste is the fourth studio album by American industrial metal band Ministry, released on November 14, 1989 by Sire Records. The music took a more hardcore, aggressively guitar-driven direction, with Jourgensen inspired by Stormtroopers of Death and Rigor Mortis to add thrash metal guitars to the album and subsequent Ministry releases.^[3] As with most of Ministry's work, the album's lyrics deal mainly with political corruption, cultural violence, environmental degradation, nuclear war, drug addiction, and insanity.

The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste
Studio album by Ministry
Released	November 14, 1989 (1989-11-14)
Recorded	1988–1989
Studio	Chicago Trax Studios
Genre	Industrial metal^[1]
Length	50:18
Label	Sire
Producer	Hypo Luxa Hermes Pan
Ministry chronology
The Land of Rape and Honey (1988) The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste (1989) In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up (1990)
Singles from The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste
"Burning Inside" Released: November 7, 1989 "So What" Released: 1990^[2]

Background

Jourgensen recalled the band's state as dysfunctional and the album's production as "complete chaos and mayhem", which gave the band a level of artistic freedom impossible had they planned it.^[4]: 52 Jourgensen says that despite being a fan favorite, it is not among his favorites because of the condition he was in at the time; he was heavily into drugs during recording and had a poor relationship with his bandmates. In one instance, he chased bassist Paul Barker around the studio with a chair and hit him on the head with it because he "couldn't stand him anymore".^[5] Jourgensen credited the era, the city, and the atmosphere at Chicago Trax Studios for the album. Bill Rieflin and Chris Connelly instead attributed the album's sound to the band's interest in technology.^[4]: 52

For pre-production, Rieflin said he and Barker watched films for a month, sampling anything that caught their interest. Instead of writing music, they all improvised individually, rarely collaborating with each other. Connelly compared it to exquisite corpse, a Surrealist technique in which an artistic work is created collaboratively without any of the participants having knowledge of the others' contribution. Rieflin cited "So What" as the only track to feature two musicians in the studio at the same time.^{[4]: 52–53}

After playing with the band on The Land of Rape and Honey's tour, Dave Ogilvie collaborated on this album.^[4]: 52 The New York-based rapper K-Lite sang vocals on "Test". Jourgensen said that Ministry and K-Lite had been recording songs at the same time at the studio. Both Jourgensen and K-Lite were impressed with the aggressiveness of each other's music, and Jourgensen invited him to contribute vocals for a track.^[6] Rieflin had previously recorded drums and bass after he became frustrated waiting for the others to contribute music to the track; Barker said he thinks that Rieflin played all the instruments on the song.^[4]: 56

The female spoken word part of "Dream Song" is a recorded conversation with Angelina Lukacin, Jourgensen's future, and now ex-, wife. Jourgensen had met her while on tour in Canada and, impressed with her entertaining personality, called her on the phone several times while working on the album. Jourgensen recalled the conversations as her "babbling about dreams and angels" while high.^[7] Lukacin herself said "Dream Song" was a poem she wrote after having a dream about an angel. She did not know she was being recorded but enjoyed the song.^[8]

Album title and art

The title of the album is a reference to the UNCF's slogan, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste". Jourgensen was further inspired by the "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign. Rieflin said the other band members groaned when they heard it, but Jourgensen had the final say in naming. According to Connelly, the album art was inspired by a television program Jourgensen saw where migraine sufferers painted images of their pain. The image itself was a picture of an x-ray from a studio receptionist's mother, who had been in a car accident and received a metal plate. Jourgensen said he wanted that as the album artwork as soon as he found out about it, but the other band members disliked it. Barker praised the concept but said the execution was poor.^[4]: 54

Release

The album peaked at #163 in the US and was certified Gold by the RIAA for sales in excess of 500,000 units in December 1995.^[9][10] "Burning Inside" reached #23 on Billboard's Hot Modern Rock Tracks.^[11]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[12]
Chicago Tribune	^[13]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	^[14]
Kerrang!	^[15]
Metal Storm	10/10^[16]
MusicHound Rock	^[17]
Robert Christgau	B+^[18]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	^[19]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	8/10^[20]

Music critic Tom Moon included the album in his book 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, calling it "one of the great works of industrial music" and an influential album that is "way ahead of its time".^[21] In rating it 4.5/5 stars, AllMusic reviewer Marc van der Pol described it as a "wonderful album" that avoids the clichés common to industrial rock.^[12] Bill Wyman of the Chicago Tribune rated it 3/4 stars and called it Ministry's "best-sounding, most assured and consistent album".^[13] The A.V. Club, though praising the album's other tracks, described "Test" as "a novelty genre exercise from which Mind barely recovers".^[22] The A.V. Club also wrote about "So What", including it on a list of the best songs written from the point of view of a crazy person. They called it "the most obvious and best-executed" of Ministry's songs about violent psychosis.^[23]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Thieves"	Alain Jourgensen, Paul Barker, Chris Connelly, Kevin Ogilvie	5:02
2.	"Burning Inside"	Jourgensen, Barker, William Rieflin, Connelly	5:20
3.	"Never Believe"	Jourgensen, Barker, Connelly	4:59
4.	"Cannibal Song"	Jourgensen, Barker, Connelly	6:10
5.	"Breathe"	Jourgensen, Barker, Rieflin, Connelly, Ogilvie	5:40
6.	"So What"	Jourgensen, Barker, Rieflin, Connelly	8:14
7.	"Test"	Jourgensen, Barker, Rieflin, K. Lite	6:04
8.	"Faith Collapsing"	Jourgensen, Barker, Rieflin	4:01
9.	"Dream Song"	Jourgensen, Barker	4:48

Samples

"Thieves"

• "Get up! Get on your feet!" "You will not kill!" "I can't hear you!" "Pray!" – dialogue from R. Lee Ermey's drill instructor character in Full Metal Jacket. Jourgensen later attributed these samples to Kubrick's interest in having the band appear in A.I. Artificial Intelligence.^[24]
• "I want peace." – Former U.S. President Richard Nixon.^[25]
• "We are fighting for the liberation of man. Not for the rights of these pigs. The rights of society!" "We're going to rip this motherfucker off, we're going to tear this motherfucker down." "I hope they realize this is their last god damned chance!" "Power to the people!" from The War at Home documentary.

"Burning Inside"

• (Intro of warning horn and synthesizer tones) - John Carpenter's The Thing (klaxons) and John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (original score).

"Cannibal Song"

• "The mind is a labyrinth." is from the film Hellbound: Hellraiser II.

"Breathe"

• "Opening musical sequence (first 30 seconds)" - taken from the film Cry Freedom.

"So What"

• The dialogue spoken during the song ("You have had all that money can give you", "Kill for a thrill", etc.) is from the judge's summing up at the end of the Ed Wood-scripted film The Violent Years.^[23]
• "Go ahead!", "Assassin..." and the laughter sample are from the film Scarface.

"Faith Collapsing"

• The song was inspired by a sample from Fahrenheit 451, and the band brainstormed from there.^[4]: 59 Other samples include Ingsoc propaganda from 1984 and the clown laugh from Hellbound: Hellraiser 2.^[26]

"Dream Song"

• Features the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir singing the song "Kalimankou Denkou" off of the 1975 compilation album Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares.

Personnel

Ministry

• Al Jourgensen – vocals (1-3, 5, 6), guitars, programming, production
• Paul Barker – bass, programming, production

Additional personnel

• Bill Rieflin – drums, programming, background vocals (8), guitars & drum programming (7, uncredited)^[4]: 56
• Mars Williams – saxophone (4)
• Chris Connelly – lead vocals (3, 4), background vocals (5, 6)
• The Grand Wizard (K. Lite) – vocals (7)
• Joe Kelly – background vocals (1)
• Kyle McKeough – background vocals (6)
• Jeff Ward – background vocals (5)
• Dave Ogilvie – background vocals (3, 5, 8), engineer
• The Slogan God (Tommie Boyskee) – vocals (7)
• Bobbie DiBartollo – background vocals (8)
• Angela Lukacen – vocals (9)
• Keith Auerbach – engineer
• Jeff Newell – engineer
• Julian Herzfeld - engineer
• "Dog" – cover design
• "Ill" – cover design
• Maura – cover design
• Tom Young – cover photos
• Tom Baker – mastering

Charts

Chart (1989)	Peak position
US Billboard 200^[9]	163

References

1. Shuker, Roy (2004). Popular Music: The Key Concepts (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 135. ISBN 0-415-34770-X. LCCN 2004-27956. OCLC 69243048 – via the Internet Archive.
2. "Ministry So What (Single)". Spirit of Metal. Retrieved December 30, 2014.
3. Jourgensen, Al; Wiederhorn, Jon (2013). Ministry: The Lost Gospels (2 ed.). Da Capo Press. p. 93. ISBN 9780306822186.
4. Dick, Chris (November 13, 2011). "Brain Damage: The Making of The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste". Decibel. No. 85. pp. 50–59. ISSN 1557-2137 – via issuu.
5. Jourgensen, Al; Wiederhorn, Jon (2013). Ministry: The Lost Gospels (2 ed.). Da Capo Press. p. 97. ISBN 9780306822186.
6. Fuentes, Danny (December 20, 2018). "Ministry's Al Jourgensen Is a National Treasure". L.A. Weekly. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
7. Jourgensen, Al; Wiederhorn, Jon (2014). Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen. Da Capo Press. pp. 95–96. ISBN 9780306822902.
8. Jourgensen, Al; Wiederhorn, Jon (2014). Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen. Da Capo Press. p. 203. ISBN 9780306822902.
9. "Ministry Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 2021-10-31.
10. "Gold & Platinum Search "Ministry"". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 2021-10-31.
11. "Ministry Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved 2021-10-31.
12. van der Pol, Marc. "The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste - Ministry". AllMusic. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
13. Wyman, Bill (January 4, 1990). "Ministry The Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Taste Sire..." Chicago Tribune. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
14. Larkin, Colin, ed. (1998). "Ministry". Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 5 (3rd ed.). Muse UK Ltd. pp. 3692–3693. ISBN 1561592374 – via Internet Archive.
15. Mörat (November 28, 1992). "Rekordz". Kerrang!. No. 420. EMAP. p. 18.
16. jupitreas. "Ministry - The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste review". Metal Storm. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
17. Christensen, Thor (1999). "Ministry". In Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds.). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide (loan required). Detroit: Visible Ink Press. p. 762. ISBN 978-1-57859-061-2 – via the Internet Archive.
18. "CG: Ministry". robertchristgau.com. Christgau, Robert. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
19. McLeod, Kembrew (November 2004). "Ministry". In Brackett, Nathan (ed.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 544. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8 – via Internet Archive.
20. Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 250–251. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
21. Moon, Tom (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company. p. 505. ISBN 9780761149415.
22. "The turd in the caviar: 24 songs that almost derail great albums". The A.V. Club. December 27, 2010. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
23. "I'm a nut: 24 songs sung from the perspective of crazy people". The A.V. Club. June 14, 2010. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
24. Kelly, Chris; Twells, John (October 20, 2013). "The mind is a terrible thing to taste: the insane life of Ministry's Al Jourgensen". Fact. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
25. "Is It 'Punk'? No. Is It 'Old Punk?' No. 'New Wave?' No, but Feel It Rocking!". The New York Times. October 20, 1991. Retrieved June 17, 2017.
26. Lynskey, Dorian (July 21, 2019). "Welcome To Dystopia: Dorian Lynskey's 1984 Playlist". The Quietus. Retrieved March 13, 2020.