Partyball Explained

Partyball
Type:	Studio
Artist:	Stan Ridgway
Cover:	Stan_Ridgway_Partyball.jpeg
Released:	May 1991
Genre:	Rock
Length:	47:19
Label:	Geffen Records
Producer:	Stan Ridgway
Prev Title:	Mosquitos
Prev Year:	1989
Next Title:	Songs That Made This Country Great
Next Year:	1992

Partyball is the third album by Stan Ridgway, released in 1991.^[1]

Critical reception

Trouser Press wrote that the album "serves up odes to trigger-happy cops, hopeless love, Harry Truman and the atom bomb, otherworldly chain gangs and plague-ridden dystopias, interrupted by odd instrumental interludes that continue Ridgway’s fascination with soundtrack music for invisible movies."^[2] The Los Angeles Times called the songs "mainly about the fearsome distortions that come from dominance, power and an unwillingness to acknowledge weakness and vulnerability as our common human lot."^[3]

Track listing

All tracks composed by Stan Ridgway

1. "Watch Your Step/Jack Talked (Like a Man on Fire)" - 4:19
2. "I Wanna Be a Boss" - 4:52
3. "Mouthful of Sand/The Roadblock" - 5:31
4. "Snaketrain" - 3:53
5. "Right Through You" - 3:45
6. "The Gumbo Man" - 3:34
7. "Harry Truman" - 3:51
8. "Venus Is Hell/Overlords" - 5:39
9. "O.K?/Uba's House of Fashions" - 4:36
10. "Bad News at the Dynamite Ranch/Beyond Tomorrow" - 7:19

Personnel

Adapted from the Partyball liner notes.^[4]

• Stan Ridgway - vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica, backing vocals
• Mark Schulz - guitar
• Joe Ramirez - bass guitar
• Bernard Sauser-Hall, Pietra Wexstun - keyboards
• Joseph Berardi - drums
• Beth Anderson, Evon Williams, John Batdorf, Larry Grennan - background vocals
• Elmo Smith - saxophone
• Don Teshner - steel guitar on "Snaketrain"
• David Sutton - bass guitar on "Right Through You"
• Jeff Boynton - piano on "Right Through You"

Chart positions

Singles

Year	Title	Peak Chart positions
		width=25px	^Mod ^[5]
1991	"I Wanna Be a Boss"	13

Notes and References

1. Web site: Stan Ridgway | Biography & History. AllMusic.
2. Web site: Stan Ridgway . Trouser Press . 29 December 2020.
3. Web site: POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Thought-Provoking Set From Stan Ridgway. October 28, 1991. Los Angeles Times.
4. Partyball . . 1991 . booklet . . Los Angeles, California.
5. Web site: [{{BillboardURLbyName|artist=stan ridgway|chart=Alternative Songs}} Billboard.com - Artist Chart History - Stan Ridgway ]. 2009-12-03 . .