All the Pain Money Can Buy explained

All the Pain Money Can Buy
Type:studio
Artist:Fastball
Cover:All the Pain Money Can Buy (Fastball album - cover art).jpg
Released:March 10, 1998
Recorded:1997
Genre:
Length:42:03
Label:Hollywood
Producer:
Prev Title:Make Your Mama Proud
Prev Year:1996
Next Title:The Harsh Light of Day
Next Year:2000

All the Pain Money Can Buy is the second studio album by American rock band Fastball, released on March 10, 1998, on Hollywood Records. The album includes the hit singles "The Way" (1998), "Fire Escape" (1998), and "Out of My Head" (1999). The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in June 1998 and went Platinum in September of the same year, making it Fastball's most successful release.[1]

Background

The members of Fastball still had side jobs as late as January 1998. Tony Scalzo worked the graveyard shift at The Bagel Manufactory in Austin. He, Shuffield, and Zuniga would be on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O'Brien just four months later. Fastball's second album, All the Pain Money Can Buy, was released on Hollywood Records. Within just six months, it had sold more than a million copies.

The single "The Way" stayed on top of Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart for seven weeks, and was a top-five hit on Billboard's Top 40 Mainstream chart. Scalzo was inspired to write the song in 1997 after reading a news article about Lela and Raymond Howard, an elderly couple who had disappeared in Texas. Though Lela had Alzheimer's and Raymond was recovering from brain surgery, the couple had been driving to a local festival. They were discovered two weeks later, dead, at the bottom of a ravine near Hot Springs, Arkansas, hundreds of miles off their intended route.[2] Scalzo chose to imagine that they began reminiscing and decided to become ethereal beings on a permanent romantic trip, the answer to the song's question, "Where were they going without ever knowing the way?"[3]

Fastball followed up "The Way" with a second single, "Fire Escape", and a third single, "Out of My Head", which reached the top ten on Billboard's Top 40 chart and was a top ten hit on the Adult Top 40 chart for 29 weeks. The album's promotional tour featured Marcy Playground and Everclear, after which Fastball moved to the H.O.R.D.E. Tour.

In 1999, Fastball received two Grammy Award nominations as a result of All the Pain Money Can Buy. One was for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and the other was Best Long Form Video for "The Way". They also received an MTV Award nomination for Best New Artist.

Track listing

  1. "The Way" – 4:17 (Tony Scalzo)
  2. "Fire Escape" – 3:21 (Miles Zuniga)
  3. "Better Than It Was" – 2:48 (Scalzo)
  4. "Which Way to the Top?" (Featuring Poe) – 3:50 (Zuniga, Jeff Groves)
  5. "Sooner or Later" – 2:39 (Zuniga)
  6. "Warm Fuzzy Feeling" – 1:55 (Scalzo)
  7. "Slow Drag" – 3:37 (Zuniga)
  8. "G.O.D. (Good Old Days)" – 3:31 (Scalzo)
  9. "Charlie, The Methadone Man" – 3:17 (Zuniga)
  10. "Out of My Head" – 2:32 (Scalzo)
  11. "Damaged Goods" – 3:02 (Zuniga)
  12. "Nowhere Road" – 3:25 (Scalzo)
  13. "Sweetwater, Texas" – 3:53 (Zuniga)

Bonus tracks

  1. "Freeloader Freddy"
  2. "This Guy's in Love with You" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David)
  3. "Sweetwater, Texas" (live) (Zuniga)

Bonus tracks (2018 reissue)

  1. "Quit Your Job"
  2. "Freeloader Freddie"
  3. "The Way" (cassette demo)
  4. "Fire Escape" (demo)
  5. "Slow Drag" (demo)
  6. "Sweetwater, Texas" (demo)
  7. "Androgynous"
  8. "This Guy's in Love with You"
  9. "The Way" (unpaved acoustic version)

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[4]

Fastball

Additional musicians

Production

Charts

Chart (1998)Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[5] 84
UK Albums (OCC)[6] 108

Notes and References

  1. https://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?content_selector=gold-platinum-searchable-database RIAA Gold & Platinum Database
  2. Web site: Salado couple shared passions for church, each other . https://web.archive.org/web/20140315061028/http://www.texnews.com/texas97/coup071497.html . March 15, 2014 . October 3, 2016.
  3. Web site: Staggs . Matt . April 23, 2014 . Memoir in a Melody: The Tragic Disappearance Behind Fastball's 'The Way' . October 3, 2016 . signature-reads.com . Penguin Random House.
  4. All the Pain Money Can Buy. Fastball. Hollywood. 1998. HR-62130-2. liner notes.
  5. Book: Ryan, Gavin. Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010. 2011. Moonlight Publishing. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia. pdf.
  6. Web site: Zywietz . Tobias . Chart Log UK: Adam F – FYA . zobbel.de . September 13, 2020.