Below Empty - Stone Temple Pilots

Q: What is the 'Shangri-LA DEE DA' fleuron?

A: Matt, webmaster for STP's official website, spoke with the Art Director for the album, Greg Sylvester and had him give the information on the album cover since many fans were asking. Here is the "mystery" behind it all: "that was a conceptual idea of mine, and it just seemed to match the concept of the bright and tropical flavor. it's called a fleuron, and it's based on an old wood cut from the 16th century." Thanks to EverRockin we also have a link to an original image: Rare Books Studio.

Q: Is this demo song 'Denied' really STP?

Thanks go out to Adam Breckenridge and Erik Bates for this info: Denied is a song by a band called Vinyl Sun. On Rolling Stone Magazine's site you can find comments like "Very STPesque" and "Sounds like that STP side project."

Q: What's the correct title for (Super) Scary Area?

A: Sara asks: 'A lot of people say the Mighty Joe Young song Scary Area is called Super Scary Area, which is wrong. I don't know if that is of any use to you but I figured it was worth the mention, because I know a lot of people get pissed when others call it Super Scary Area.

This is something that has not been documented, but here's my explanation: Back in August '99 I came across a copy of the original Mighty Joe Young demo tape. This copy unfortunately did not include the original artwork, so I had no song titles to go with it. Later that year, on October 27, I learned from Robert and Dean DeLeo in the Sonicnet Online Chat that the song title Shattered was incorrect. The song was called Only Dying. There have been no reports on the correct title of (Super) Scary Area. Until we find out any evidence either way, I don't think this is something we should get upset about.

Q: Where can I find a recording of 'Sin' from MTV Unplugged?

A: Sin from MTV Unplugged must be one of the most sought-after Stone Temple Pilots recordings ever. Over the years many people claimed to have it, but upon further inspection I always found that they actually have the recording of No Memory and Sin from a performance at the Reading Festival (August 29, 1993) in the U.K. That performance is not even close to 'unplugged'. It's the fourth track on the European 'Sex Type Thing - Part 1' single.

Now what's up with the 'real' Sin from MTV Unplugged? Well, I can only tell you this: back in the winter of '98/'99, former co-webmaster Eric Walker and I were planning on making a special 'theme' page for Below Empty about the MTV Unplugged performance.We got in contact with a reliable source who worked for MTV and had access to the network's archives. But guess what? Sin wasn't on the tapes there. Big Empty was there, so was Andy Warhol, the other song edited from the original broadcast. After some more research we were told that there were tape errors with the audio recording of Sin. This was only discovered after the show, and that's why the band did not do a re-take of the song. Or at least, that's what we were told back then.

Q: Did STP cover Def Leppard's 'Pour Some Sugar On Me'?

A: This question will get a short answer, since this question doesn't deserve the amount of attention it got a few years ago. The answer is "no".

Q: Plush Unplushed? Unplugged? Acoustic? Help!?

A: There are 3 acoustic versions of "Plush" available on STP's commercial releases and 1990's cd bootlegs. They are listed here:

"Plush (Unplushed)" on the Japanese cd "Core +2" (EastWest AMCY-604) and the "Plush (Unplushed)" Promo (EastWest PM 1183). This version features the whole band and was recorded at Gaga Studios, Hamburg, Germany in 1993.

"Plush (Acoustic)", a.k.a "Plush - MTV Headbanger's Ball Take 2" on the Thank You album, the Sex Type Thing 3-trk single (Atlantic 7567-85769-2) and the Crackerman Promo (Atlantic PRCD-4973). There's also another take on the Crackerman Promo. Both songs were recorded at MTV Studios in November 1992, and feature only Scott and Dean. It starts off with Scott saying "This is a song called Plush".

"Plush (MTV Unplugged)" on the bootlegs "Unplugged & More", "Violet", "Unwired" and "Live". This version was recorded at Sony Music Studios in New York City on November 17, 1993. For this performance, the band got a little help from their good friends the brothers Shawn and Lonnie Tubbs on guitar and percussion respectively.

Q: Jon asks: "I heard that there are quite a few songs that STP never played live to date. Can you tell me which ones they are from each album?"

A: One could argue that not every STP song can be performed live with only one guitar player. In some cases Robert used an additional acoustic guitar on a guitar stand (Lounge Fly, for example), or Scott might pick up a guitar to strum a chord or two (Bipolar Bear, played once). Some songs were never played live, though. Here they are:

From Core: Every song off this album was performed live. Also, there are (bootleg) recordings available of all of them. Songs not performed after the 1992/1993 Core-tour are: No Memory (usually as intro to 'Sin' on the Core tour), Naked Sunday, Wet My Bed and Where The River Goes.

From Purple: Every song off this album was performed live. Again, there are recordings available of all of them.

From Tiny Music... Songs From the Vatican Gift Shop: Press Play, Art School Girl, Adhesive and Ride The Cliché were never performed live. And So I Know was only performed a couple of times during the 1996 tour. Songs not performed after the 1996/1997 tour are: Pop's Love Suicide and Daisy.

From No.4: Pruno, Church On Tuesday, Glide and MC5 were never performed live. I Got You was performed live for the first and only time on April 16, 2002. Heaven & Hot Rods has only been played two times in concert now - on June 6, 2000 and on October 11, 2001. Songs not performed after the 2000 No.4-tour are: No Way Out, Sex & Violence and Atlanta. There are no good live recordings available of No Way Out, and there are no reported recordings of Heaven and Hot Rods and I Got You available.

From Shangri-LA DEE DA: Dumb Love, Hello It's Late, Transmissions From A Lonely Room and A Song For Sleeping were never performed live. Bi-Polar Bear was played only once, on October 11, 2001. Regeneration, Black Again and Long Way Home were only performed live twice. A live recording of Long Way Home is available from August 4, 2001 (Rolling Rock 2.0), of Regeneration from July 10, 2001(MuchMusic Canada) and there's an acoustic version available of Black Again from October 22, 2001 (taken from the Y100 Sonic Session in Philadelphia).

Q: Fred asks: "I came across this version of Creep that has different vocals, where is that from?"

A: When STP released Creep as a single for the second time in 1993 (first before Plush, when it didn't do much, Atlantic released it again after Plush), Scott re-recorded the vocals for this song. Today we have 4 studio cuts of Creep. The 'Original Album Version' and its shorter edit 'Original Radio Version', and the 'New Album Version' and edited 'New Radio Version'. Check the discography for more information.

Q: I downloaded a version of Dancing Days that has studio noise and conversations at the beginning. What's this?

A: It's the so-called 'Album Version' of the song. the 'Edit' doesn't have the intro. Strangely, some versions of Encomiun have the shorter edit version on it, others have the intro too. The official promo cd of Dancing Days has both versions.

Q: Did STP ever release studio versions of cover songs?

A: Over the years, STP recorded studio versions of the following covers:

Dancing Days (1995, on the Encomium: A tribute to Led Zeppelin album)

Break On Through (To The Other Side) (2000, on the Stoned Immaculate The Doors tribute albums).

Revolution (Beatles cover, recorded on October 6, 2001, released on it's own commercial single).

Please note that they never followed up on their promises to record Queen's Sheer Heart Attack or Cat Stevens' Where Do The Children Play for soundtrack albums in 2000. Also, they recorded the Kiss cover Watchin' You in late 1993 for the KISS My Ass Kiss Tribute Album, which was eventually released in June 1994, with a completely different track/artist list than the original concept. It is unclear if STP was at some point scheduled to contribute Watchin' You to this compilation cd, but it seems very likely since Billboard reported that the band had been working on a recording:

From Billboard; May 15, 1993: "Meanwhile, the Pilots have been working on a track called Big Empty for the soundtrack to the forthcoming film The Crow, and a cover of Watchin' You for a planned Kiss tribute album."

Q: Why does my 'Purple' cd have flowers instead of dragon scales?

A: There are two pressings of the Purple disc. One has flowers, one has dragon scales and as far as I know they are equally common in the U.S.A. The rest of the world only has the dragon scales version.

Q: What does the symbol on the cover on Purple mean? And is that Chinese or Japanese?

A: It means Purple. Erica from Orlando asked this question to the band when they were on Rockline on October 18, 1999 for the world-premiere of No.4. Robert, Eric and Dean said it meant Purple, and Eric also told that he went to Chinatown in L.A. to find someone who could give them the Chinese symbol for the color purple. He eventually found someone, and that's where they got the symbol. The person who gave the symbol to Eric asked him the name of the band. Eric said 'Stone Temple Pilots', upon which the Chinese man replied: "Oh no, stone temple no fly!".

Q: What are the titles of all known unreleased STP songs?

A: Only Dying. (1993). Originally a Mighty Joe Young demo song, the band re-recorded it for the The Crow soundtrack. When lead actor Brendan Lee died, the band decided to replace their soundtrack contribution with a song they recorded already for their second album, called Big Empty.

Watchin' You. (1993). Recorded in late 1993 for the 'KISS My Ass' Kiss Tribute Album, which was eventually released in june 1994, with a completely different track/artist list than the original concept. It is unclear if STP was at some point scheduled to contribute 'Watchin' You' to this compilation cd, but it seems very likely since Billboard reported that the band had been working on a recording.

You Can't Drive Me Away. (2000). Outtake of the No.4 sessions, which was to end up on a Greatest Hits album in 2000 that was never released. It was performed live once and there is a clip of that available.

The Way She Moves. (2000). Outtake of the No.4 sessions, which was to end up on a Greatest Hits album in 2000 that was never released.

Heed The Water Whisperer. (2000). Outtake of the No.4 sessions, which was to end up on a Greatest Hits album in 2000 that was never released.

About A Fool. (2001). Outtake of the Shangri-LA DEE DA sessions.

Samba Nova. (2001). Outtake of the Shangri-LA DEE DA sessions.

Learning To Drive. (2001). Outtake of the Shangri-LA DEE DA sessions. This song was eventually released by Scott Weiland on the Bug movie soundtrack in 2007 under the new title 'Beautiful Day'.

Q: What are band members' birthdays?

Dean DeLeo: August 23, 1961.
Robert DeLeo: February 2, 1966.
Eric Kretz: June 7, 1966.
Scott Weiland: October 27, 1967

Q: Chris asks: I was wondering, for your FAQ page if you could answer something that has been bugging me for a long time. At the end of Purple who sings the bonus track at the end of the record? It doesn't sound like Scott. Johnny Mathis?

A: Robert DeLeo: "Richard Peterson. He's an artistic street musician. We asked permission to use one track off his CD called "My Second Album"." Scott: Weiland explained: "The guy is a kind of autistic savant who has this bizarre obsession with Johnny Mathis. He follows him around on tour when he's in the north west, and he collects money on the street to fund his own recordings. We kept playing this song on tour before we went out, and it seemed fitting to put it on the end of the album."

Q: Where does the title 'Shangri-La Dee Da' come from?

A: Dean has said in various interviews that when the band was thinking of a name, he remembered this vacation spot that the Flintstones once went to, Shangri La De Da Valley, since the house that they were recording in was called 'Shangri-La' in Malibu, California. Thanks to B.L., we have some more background info about the episode in which this holiday resort is featured:

Cave Scout Jamboree (P-108) || Written by Warren Foster || Rec 8-5-1963, Air 1-30-1964

Shangri-La-De-Da Valley, far from being the isolated vacation spot the Flintstones and Rubbles were promised, turns out to be the site of a huge gathering of boy scouts:

Fred unknowingly dinosaur-lifts a boulder from atop a geyser in Slate Construction's rock quarry. Result: flooding of the quarry and a layoff with pay of Fred for a week to ten days while water is being drained from the quarry. Fred's idle period coincides with Barney's vacation, and the Flintstones and Rubbles opt to camp in a peace-and-quiet mountain woodland and on the advice of the Bedrock Auto Club select Shangri-La-De-Da Valley, supposedly a secluded retreat, for a relaxing, week-long stay. However, the man at the Auto Club who recommended Shangri-La-De-Da Valley to Fred and Barney was not then privy to information that the same valley is to be the location of a huge Boy Scout meeting while the Flintstones and Rubbles will be there!

During the two families' first night in Shangri-La-De-Da, Boy Scouts from throughout the Stone Age world converge on the campsite, surrounding the Flintstone and Rubble tents with hundreds of their own fabric shelters! A Boy Scout bugles reveille into Fred's ear come morning, shattering the peace and quiet for which the Flintstones and Rubbles yearned. Scoutmaster Jones explains to protesting fellow campers Flintstone and Rubble that Shangri-La-De-Da had been designated place of the Boy Scout Jamboree long before the Flintstones and Rubbles selected it as their campground.

But Fred and Barney are invited by Jones to be honorary Scoutmasters provided that Wilma and Betty permit the eager-to-please boys to cook meals (brontosaurus burgers, beans, and hot dogs) for them and escort them back and forth through the campsite. Such is the agreement, and Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm join in the fun as Fred and Barney teach Indian rain dances to the children and conduct a Boy Scout chorus in a rendition of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", with each of the Boy Scout international contingents providing song words in their native language. Fred enjoys the company of the Boy Scouts so much that he extends an invitation to the boys to visit him in Bedrock whenever they feel so-inclined, and this they promptly do, surrounding the Flintstone residence as Fred and Barney repeat the "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" sing-along.