“Rocks Off” – Rolling Stones (opening song from Exile on Main St.)
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones
I listened to a bagful of records the other day during a day of driving — to Charlotte, NC and back — to see if I my choice of favorite album may have been surpassed. Dylan, Costello, Beatles, Waylon, Willie, Thin Lizzy, Kinks? Nope, it’s still Exile on Main Street. Rock on, Rocks Off.
Posted in 30 Songs, Pop Culture, Rock and Roll
“The Knife Feels Like Justice” - Brian Setzer
In my opinion this song had it all: a great, Byrdsy riff (it is, quite literally, the reason I own a 12-string guitar); a strong melodic hook; and a killer lead vocal from Mr. Setzer. However, nobody was ready for Brian Setzer as a cow-punk rock star in late 80′s. The Stray Cats were still fresh on everyone’s mind, Dwight Yoakam wasn’t cool yet, and alt-county was still a half-decade away. So this excellent song, and the kick-a$$ album it came from – which I still own, thank you very much – quickly hit the bargain bins. Still, I dream of the day when I hear this tune bursting out of the radio speakers, where it really belonged … and still belongs.
Posted in 30 Songs, Pop Culture, Rock and Roll
Tagged 80s, alt-country, alternative rock, setzer
“Waitin’ for the Bus” / ” Jesus Just Left Chicago” – ZZ Top
My car radio is set to four stations: WETS (the local public radio station), the local AM sports station (which I only listen to during football season), the local ‘modern rock’ station (for the Bob & Tom morning show, when I just can’t take listening to the news some mornings), and WQUT, our local ‘classic rock’ station. I was raised on FM/rock radio — specifically WIMZ out of Knoxville — and it’s in my blood. Mention just about any AC/DC, ZZ Top, Bad Company, or Lynyrd Skynyrd song, and I could half-a$$ play it for you right now. I’m not bragging; it’s just the truth.
tRes hOmBres
All that being said, I can’t stomach everything on classic rock radio. Some things will make me change the station immediately. I will not bear another airing of Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold,” for instance. So, I interpreted this one as “a song that you hear often on the radio … that you don’t switch away from automatically.” My all-time keeper is ZZ Top’s double-sided single “Waitin’ for the Bus” / “Jesus Just Left Chicago” from Tres Hombres (1973) — what a great record, by the way: probably their best, with Eliminator a close second. Billy Gibbons was one of my first real guitar idols, and his lead and rhythm playing on these two tunes is absolutely primo. Recorded in Memphis at Ardent Studios, just FYI, and the rhythm guitar on “Jesus” has some of that Big Star glisten to it, in my opinion, while that rhythm guitar on “Bus” is fatter than Booker T and the MG’s all standing on the scale at the same time!
Day 20 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry – “Conservative Christian”
When I’m angry, it is more than likely something to do with pig-headedness, religion, politics, or some combination of the three. This brilliant Todd Snider song gives me some perspective by making fun of both extreme stereotypes (extreme right and left): it definitely makes me laugh, and (usually) helps pull me out of the funk. My favorite line, referring to us “lefties”: ”We who have nothing, and most likely will till / we all end up locked up in jail / by conservative christian right-wing Republican straight white American males.” Some times it feels like that, for sure. If you’re not familiar with this tune, definitely have a listen — I think you’ll enjoy it, whatever your political persuasion!
Posted in 30 Songs, Pop Culture, Rock and Roll
“Synchronicity II” – The Police
hold on, sting, legitimacy is coming!
I’ll probably take one from the 80s hit squad, including my wife, for this one, but the fact that I used to find this song somehow “deep” fills me with horror and confusion. Random events, general ennui, and references to Jung and, uh, Lovecraft?, do not a lyric make. And the music? I think Andy Summers had just given up by this point. The video drives the point home: “You want me to do what, Sting? Make my guitar sound like a moaning goat? Sure, whatever. And wear these rags that look like Tina Turner’s cast off wardrobe from Beyond Thunderdome? What the heck. Why not?” Stewart Copeland’s trying to sell it though. Either that or he’s just so pi$$ed that the anger just makes him go all method and he is Mad Max.
Another suburban family morning.
Grandmother screaming at the wall.
We have to shout above the din of our Rice Crispies
We can’t hear anything at all.
Mother chants her litany of boredom and frustration,
But we know all her suicides are fake.
Daddy only stares into the distance
There’s only so much more that he can take.
Many miles away something crawls from the slime
At the bottom of a dark Scottish lake.
Another industrial ugly morning
The factory belches filth into the sky.
He walks unhindered through the picket lines today,
He doesn’t think to wonder why.
The secretaries pout and preen like cheap tarts in a red light street,
But all he ever thinks to do is watch.
And every single meeting with his so-called superior
Is a humiliating kick in the crotch.
Many miles away something crawls to the surface
Of a dark Scottish loch
Another working day has ended.
Only the rush hour hell to face.
Packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes.
Contestants in a suicidal race.
Daddy grips the wheel and stares alone into the distance,
He knows that something somewhere has to break.
He sees the family home now looming in his headlights,
the pain upstairs that makes his eyeballs ache.
Many miles away there’s a shadow on the door
Of a cottage on the shore
Of a dark Scottish lake
Many miles away …
M. Ward – “Vincent O’Brien”
“He only sings when he’s sad / But he’s sad all the time, so he sings / the whole night through / Yeah, he sings in the day-time, too.”
My wife picked this one, but only, she says, on the basis that I used to put it on all the mix CDs I made. I guess that’s code for “this song describes me”? Probably.
Like Luli once described herself, this song is “sad, and angry, and sad” in equal amounts. Like me. But it’s also quite nice and easy to get along with in places, and I’m also that. Anyway, I think you’ll like it, or I wouldn’t have put it on that mix CD I gave you …
The lyrics:
He only sings when he’s sad
But he’s sad all the time, so he sings the whole night through
Yeah, he sings in the day-time, too
He only dreams when he’s sad
And he’s sad all the time, so he dreams the whole night through
Yeah, he dreams in the day-time, too
There may be mermaids under the water
There may even be a man in the moon
But Vincent, time is running out
You better get yourself together soon
Out of Buffalo, the man
Below the belt, he swung, and then after the bell has rung
Another cheap shot, here it comes
Another cheap shot, here it comes
He only laughs when he’s sad
And he’s sad all the time, so he laughs the whole night through
Yeah, he laughs in the daytime, too
There may be mermaids under the water
There may even be a man in the moon
But Vincent, time is running out
I hope you get yourself together soon
I hope you get yourself together soon
Posted in 30 Songs, Pop Culture, Rock and Roll
Tagged alternative rock, M. Ward, sad songs, Vincent
“Mmmbop” – Hanson
She said she was 18
Call me crazy, but I still marvel at this as a masterpiece of bubblegum rock production. The Hansonlet’s sub-Winwoodian adenoidal bleat has all the sexual heat of a guinea pig, but the B-3 pumps as if this is the Winwood-era Spencer Davis Group reincarnated. It hits much harder and with more authority than other sounds of similar vintage (try listening to EMF’s “Unbelievable” now and not gag). I’m sure we should credit the production of the Dust Brothers and the playing of the studio musicians who probably account for 99% of the riffage on here … but aren’t these chicks cute?
Posted in 30 Songs, Pop Culture, Rock and Roll
Tagged bubblegum, hanson, production
“Straight Outta Compton” – N.W.A.
The nerd-approved 80s rap choice would have been Public Enemy, and when the two were actually up against one another in record stores and music mags, PE was what was playing on my VW’s cassette player (“Welcome to the Terrordome”). But for a guilty pleasure — no way: I’ve got to go with “Straight Outta Compton.” It’s practically steaming with guilt: it’s misogynistic, excessively violent, pornographic, exploitative … and such a catchy tune! “When I’m called off / I got a sawed-off / I squeeze the trigger and bodies are hauled off.”
Once a Crazy MF, now makes kids' movies
So, what makes “Straight Outta Compton” so completely awesome and guilty pleasure worthy? It’s raw, it’s angry, it feels real (whether it’s authentic or not is something for the experts to argue), and the backing track is tense and hypnotic: Public Enemy’s elaborate sirens, drones and samples are stripped down to the pure Id by Dr. Dre. The fact that the raps are filled with so much profanity that they are damn near pornographic adds to the frightening reality of the version of the LA neighborhood the song describes. Like Brian DePalma’s Scarface, it’s not great or incredibly original pop art, but it’s pop art that’s hard to tear yourself away from. To use yet another metaphor: It’s not like watching a car wreck — it’s like watching an Andy Warhol-and Charles Manson co-production of an 18 car pile up … “coming straight outta Compton!”
Posted in 30 Songs, Pop Culture, Rock and Roll
“Talk Dirty to Me” – Poison
them's some nice lookin' ladies!
No one hates 80′s hair metal with more ferocity than I. The guitars were too pointy, the licks too fast, the spandex too, well, spandexy. I still find it quite difficult to muster up even a modicum of nostalgia for the likes of Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Dokken, or place name of random hirstute rockers here. All that being said, none provoke my ire like Poison: they were pretty, their songs were $hitty, and their awful video was all over MTV. And here it is again. Yuck! But at least “Talk Dirty” has a little bit of New York Dolls skank dust on it — if only a little bit — unlike the cringe-inducing horror of “Every Rose …” (I will not complete the title, and you can’t make me). Never shall that song damage the calm of this blog.
“Left of the Dial” – The Replacements
the congregation from Minnesota
Favorite band: The Beatles? The Rolling Stones? REM? The Pixies? U2? The Police? At first I thought it might be difficult to come up with – and stick with –this one, but it only took a couple of minutes of soul-searching to name my all-time crush: the Replacements. None of the music of the bands that I’ve loved over my lifetime still resonates for me like the music of the ‘mats, still tugs at my heart-strings like the melodies and lyrics of Paul Westerberg during his beer-sodden 90′s heyday.
Let it Be, Tim and Pleased to Meet Me — the middle record being the stand-out — are as good of a three-album run as any band has ever had, and in this regard I’ll put the ‘mats right up against any of the great bands I mentioned in the first paragraph. ”Left of the Dial” is a great song on an album absolutely packed with great songs — “Skyway,” “Bastards of Young,” “Here Comes a Regular,” “Hold My Life.”
An interview with the ‘mats …
Other people who love the Replacements include …
Myth & Popular Culture
