King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime is the fifth studio album by American rock band Faith No More, released on March 13, 1995, by Slash and Reprise Records. It was their first album recorded without longtime guitarist Jim Martin. The album showcased a variety of musical genres, with Rolling Stone calling the result a "genre shuffle". King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime spawned three singles: "Digging the Grave", "Ricochet" and "Evidence".
Following Martin's departure, Trey Spruance was brought on to perform on the album; he had also been in Mr. Bungle with singer Mike Patton. Production of the album was further marred by the band suffering a car accident, and the absence of keyboard player Roddy Bottum, who was affected by the deaths of both his father and Kurt Cobain; Courtney Love, Cobain's wife and a former Faith No More vocalist, remains his close friend. Spruance was replaced on the supporting tour by the band's former roadie Dean Menta; however, Spruance played live with Faith No More for the first time in November 2011, playing the entire album during a show in Chile.
Critical reception to the album has been mixed, with its varied genres being cited as a detraction by several reviewers. Retrospectively, critique has been more positive and the record has subsequently appeared on several publications' "best of" lists. The album earned the band two Bay Area Music award nominations. The album charted across Europe and Australasia, and peaked at number 31 in the United States.
Production Background After releasing Angel Dust in 1992, Faith No More's next project was a collaboration with Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., contributing the single "Another Body Murdered" to the soundtrack for the 1993 film Judgment Night. This would be the first professional recording the band released without guitarist Jim Martin, with bassist Billy Gould recording the guitar parts instead. Martin skipped practice sessions with the band during the Angel Dust recording sessions, and also reportedly stopped writing new music at this time. He had grown dissatisfied with their new musical direction on the album, which he often referred to as "gay disco". Around the time "Another Body Murdered" was released, the band had to cancel a planned run of shows in Peru, Brazil and Venezuela, as a result of the issues they were experiencing with Martin.
Martin was fired from the band later in 1993 due to musical differences, via a fax from keyboard player Roddy Bottum. He subsequently released a solo metal album in 1997 titled Milk and Blood. This was in addition to performing on Flybanger's 2001 album Headtrip to Nowhere; the album was produced by Matt Wallace, who had handled all of Faith No More's albums up to Angel Dust. Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance was brought in to replace Martin and record for Faith No More's follow up to Angel Dust. However, Spruance left the band before the subsequent tour, and was replaced by the band's keyboard roadie, Dean Menta. Reasons given for the change differ—the band claim Spruance was unwilling to commit to a long touring schedule in support of the album, whilst Spruance claims he was never meant to be a permanent member in the first place. In one magazine interview, Gould labelled Spruance as a "spoilt rich kid" who did not want to tour. However, Spruance recalled not even having enough money to buy the magazine where Gould said this about him. He remembered, "this is like one of those stunning juxtapositions in life when you're standing in fucking Tower Records and this thing goes out to the whole world that you're this spoilt, privileged rich kid, and you can't even buy the fucking magazine it's written in. That was really almost like a cosmic moment."
Roddy Bottum claims to have been mostly absent during this period, owing to the deaths of his father and Kurt Cobain, whose wife Courtney Love was a close friend of his and one of the temporary lead singers of the band before Chuck Mosley joined. In addition to this, Bottum had developed a heroin addiction. At one point, his addiction caused a band intervention, following the filming of the video for "Another Body Murdered". Bottum's absence led to the album being written largely without keyboards. Around the recording of the album in 1994, Mike Patton also married Cristina Zuccatosta, an Italian.
Writing and recording King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime was recorded in Bearsville Studios, in Bearsville, New York, making it the first and only Faith No More album not to be recorded in their native California. Gould has described the remote location of the studio as a form of "sensory deprivation". Writing and rehearsing the songs for the album took eight to nine months, although half of this time was spent finding a replacement for Martin. Recording the album took an additional three months, for which the band hired producer Andy Wallace. Wallace had previously worked with Sonic Youth, Nirvana and Slayer, and despite his surname, bore no relation to their previous producer Matt Wallace. Bottum claimed the combination of Wallace and Spruance as two new influences helped to create "a real up-in-the-air, what the fuck is gonna happen kind of feel" while recording. In a 1995 Australian radio interview, drummer Mike Bordin said that the record was more focused than Angel Dust, and that the departure of previous guitarist Jim Martin made the writing process easier. Gould said at the time, "we've never written stuff with Jim, as a band. Usually we'd give him a tape and he'd put stuff to it because he didn't like practicing with us much." Gould added in another interview, "it's heavier, it's more direct and it's the first record where we had the guitar the way we wanted it. Now it feels we're a dog who's been let off the leash."
According to singer Mike Patton, the band were involved in a car accident during the recording sessions for the album, while Patton was driving. Spruance and drummer Mike Bordin were also involved, and Patton claimed to have "had to look at a lot of things in the face" as a result. The band used art from the graphic novel Flood by Eric Drooker for the album's cover and those of its singles.
Music Style It is considered to be one of their most diverse releases. On King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime the band focused on writing songs in different genres, rather than incorporating multiple genres into single songs, like they had done with many of the tracks on Angel Dust. Uproxx stated in 2015 that it saw the band "trying out just about any genre they saw fit." In their review of the 2016 deluxe edition of the album, PopMatters reflected that, "King for a Day has Faith No More pushing further in all directions. It's heavier, it's softer, it's even more varied in genre experimentation, and it's longer." The album includes elements of genres such as heavy metal, punk, big band music, blue-eyed soul, bossa nova, cocktail music, country, death metal, gospel, grindcore, gothic metal, funk, lounge music, Japanese noise music, jazz, power pop, salsa, swing music, thrash metal and western music. In a 1995 interview with Metal Hammer, Mike Bordin discussed the change in songwriting approach from previous releases, saying that "Instead of putting everything into every song, we wanted to take things out and make them a bit simpler." Bordin also said he was pleased with how both the heavy songs and the lighter songs turned out, saying "the smoother songs I've never felt we've gotten exactly right. And this one is pretty damn close to being exactly right." Regarding their stylistic direction on the album, Mike Patton remarked to Meat magazine in 1995 that, "we didn't really have any concept or idea. We don't know what it is we do, we just know how to do it." In another interview from April 1995, he noted that the album was just "us being us".
Singles
Before the album's release, the song "Digging the Grave" was released as a single on February 28, 1995. It was chosen ahead of several more pop-friendly tracks on the album. Gould said in 1995, "radio will say our song 'Digging the Grave' is too hard for them, too metal. [But] if we do a song like 'Evidence', then none of the metal stations will want it." That March, the band appeared on the British television program Top of the Pops to promote the single, later performing it on MTV Europe, Canal+'s Nulle Part Ailleurs and The Jon Stewart Show. The single reached number 16 on the UK Singles Chart, and number 12 on the Australian ARIA Charts. It featured on an episode of Beavis and Butt-head in August 1995, and was included on the soundtrack of the 1996 Italian film Jack Frusciante è uscito dal gruppo. A video for the song was recorded, directed by Marcus Raboy, and filmed in San Francisco. and was later included on the collection Who Cares a Lot? The Greatest Videos.
"Ricochet" was released as the album's second single on May 1, 1995; and was promoted with an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In April 1995, Billboard described the song's sound as "grungy hard rock". The song peaked at number 27 on the UK charts and number 58 in Australia. N.B. The HP column displays the highest peak reached. The song was also included on the soundtrack to the 1996 PlayStation game Fox Hunt. A video for "Ricochet" was filmed in Paris and directed by Alex Hemmings. It does not appear on the video collection, Who Cares a Lot? The Greatest Videos.
The album's third and final single was "Evidence", released on May 8, 1995. The song draws from jazz and lounge music, and was the only light song from the album to be released as a single. In April 1995, CMJ New Music Monthly wrote that it had guitar work reminiscent of Isaac Hayes and 1970s soul music. Faith No More made an appearance the previous month on the Australian variety show Hey Hey It's Saturday to perform the song, which eventually peaked at number 32 in the UK and number 27 in Australia. A video was made for the song, directed by Walter A. Stern. In 1997, the song was used in an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street, titled "Deception".
Other songs A total of twenty tracks were recorded for the album, with only fourteen making the final listing. Cut tracks "I Won't Forget You" and "Hippie Jam Song" both appeared on the later compilations Who Cares a Lot? The Greatest Hits (1998) and The Very Best Definitive Ultimate Greatest Hits Collection (2009). Covers of the Bee Gees' 1968 pop song "I Started a Joke" and the 1960 folk song "Greenfields" were included as B-sides to the single "Digging the Grave", with the "I Started a Joke" cover later being released as a single in 1998, shortly after Faith No More's disbandment."Digging the Grave" (Single notes). Faith No More. Slash Records. 1995. Additionally, covers of GG Allin's 1985 hardcore punk song "I Wanna Fuck Myself" and the 1965 easy listening song "Spanish Eyes" were both included as B-sides to the singles "Ricochet" and "Evidence"."Ricochet" (Single notes). Faith No More. Slash Records. 1995.
The album closer "Just a Man" is a gospel-style song that was also influenced by Chinese classical music. Patton's vocal track for "Just a Man" was based on the style of Anthony Newley. "Cuckoo for Caca" and "Ugly in the Morning" are among the heaviest songs on the album. In 1996, Rolling Stone labelled "Ugly in the Morning" a thrash metal song, while "Cuckoo for Caca" has been described as drawing from death metal and grindcore music. CMJ New Music Monthly wrote in April 1995 that "Cuckoo for Caca" is a "grindcore shaker", and that on it Patton is "growling like a grizzly who just awoke from hibernation." "Ugly in the Morning" later appeared in a 2016 episode of FX series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, titled "Being Frank". The series stars Danny DeVito, a fan of the band and friend of Patton since the 2000s.