I Ain't No Sheep" is about a fugitive pursued by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and was originally recorded in 1970 (when the band was known as Oaxaca). Another version from 1970 was intended to be included on the band's unreleased first album for Elektra Records (when the band was known as "Stalk-Forrest Group"). Both of these 1970 versions were eventually included on St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings. In 1971, the song was recorded again and finally released on the first Columbia album, and then recorded again at a much faster tempo and with much heavier guitars as "The Red and the Black" and included on the band's second Columbia album, Tyranny and Mutation. The main riff in this song was heavily inspired by "Frying Pan", a Captain Beefheart b-side from 1966. Some versions of the song make this influence more apparent than others. Then Came the Last Days of May "Then Came the Last Days of May" is based on a reportedly-true story, when two friends of Dharma's were killed in a drug deal gone bad in the West:It was still in the Soft White Underbelly days when we were playing dances at Stony Brook University [on Long Island] for our sustenance money. Three Stony Brook students went to Tuscson, Arizona, to buy some bulk marijuana for resale. I don’t know how they got whatever contact they had, but it was two brothers – scions from one of the better-to-do families in Tucson. They never intended to sell them any pot. They just wanted to rip 'em off and shoot 'em, which they did. They took them out to the desert and shot them. It was three guys, and one managed to survive and get back to the highway ... I wrote the story from basically the newspaper accounts of the Long Island newspaper, Newsday ... There’s a personal connection, too. I knew one of the guys casually from Stony Brook University when we were hanging out there. This song is frequently played live as a showcase for Buck Dharma's guitar soloing skills. Before the Kiss, a Redcap Originally titled "Conry's Bar", "Before the Kiss, a Redcap" describes scenes from that real location. Guitarist Buck Dharma explains the title as originating in an event witnessed by lyricist/manager Sandy Pearlman in which the titular drug was passed between partners during a kiss. The term "redcap" was supposedly slang for a