The Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar
video
I have a feeling that this song is about heroin. I have no idea why. That said, I think it's also about slavery, both literally and figuratively with respect to heroin addiction, something the Stones obviously know nothing about. It's also about sadomasochism and oral sex. Pretty much standard Stones fare then, especially when Mick Jagger describes it as a song about drugs and girls (ever the deconstructionist, our Mick). Reknowned rock journalist Robert Christgau describes it as "a rocker so compelling that it discourages exegesis". Perhaps I thus abandon my attempts to plumb the murky waters of analysis.
Not a chance. I have more grit than Christgau.
The song was performed for the first time at the infamous Altamont concert, which may or may not be an indicator of its effect on people. To be honest, it's pretty up-tempo but bog standard rock and roll in the Mick and Keith tradition of staccato guitar, funky bass and Mick alternately crooning, shouting and making the growly noise that Austin Powers makes, which I find slightly disconcerting. There's also, obviously, an acoustic guitar and electric piano in the mix, along with propulsive, cymbal-heavy drumming courtesy of the drummer voted most-likely-to-be-an-accountant- based-on-dress-sense, Charlie Watts. While I'm not really a huge Stones fan, working my way through the Rolling Stone list has made me appreciate exactly how good they were compared to their contemporaries (Boston, Jackson Browne, The Eagles, take note and stop being rubbish please). This song is far better than any of the other rock songs I've listened to on this mission so far, but is it good enough to take the coveted Best Song Yet title from Smokey Robinson?
Nope, it's good, and it's Rolling Stones down to the ground, but it's not that good. And it doesn't strike me as anything massively original from them, just another four to the floor rocker. Miss You was more original than this and more of a departure from their blues-rock direction.
Verdict: All Hail Keef
Tomorrow: Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
You shouldn't have to listen to this
Dusty Springfied - You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
video, if you can be bothered to watch it
Good lord, is this the kind of dross they passed off as good music in the bad old days? Maybe I'm having a bad day, but this is terrible. I'm waiting for the obligatory verse sung in French to complete the picture. I can't listen to this anymore.
I'm staggered that this made the list. It starts with a french horn for the sake of all that is good and holy. That shouldn't be allowed unless Phil Spector is in charge. I can't even drag myself to research it. It's too awful.
Verdict: Kill. Me. Now... Please.
Tomorrow: Rolling Stone - Brown Sugar
Normal service resumes ASAP.
video, if you can be bothered to watch it
Good lord, is this the kind of dross they passed off as good music in the bad old days? Maybe I'm having a bad day, but this is terrible. I'm waiting for the obligatory verse sung in French to complete the picture. I can't listen to this anymore.
I'm staggered that this made the list. It starts with a french horn for the sake of all that is good and holy. That shouldn't be allowed unless Phil Spector is in charge. I can't even drag myself to research it. It's too awful.
Verdict: Kill. Me. Now... Please.
Tomorrow: Rolling Stone - Brown Sugar
Normal service resumes ASAP.
Middle of the Roadie
Jackson Browne - Running on Empty
This song sounds like it was written as the backing music for a beer commercial. You can almost picture three shiny white 30-something guys in cowboy hats sitting in the front of a pickup truck drinking beer and driving into the sun with this song playing in the background. They'd probably have guns too. It's not even a real song - it starts off pretending to be a live song and then sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom, which it probably was. Browne and his band recorded this road music(and their roadies) onstage, backstage, in various hotel rooms and on their tourbus. Thanks for the focus on production values, Jackson. That said, at least there's a song about a roadie masturbating to spice things up a bit
Country-tinged, soft focus guitar and piano, MOR vocals and even a slide guitar solo - this song (and album) has been described as the one album Jackson Browne's true fans don't own, and the one that everyone else does. Well, not me, obviously, because it sounds like Garth Brooks impregnated Boston. And, of course, this is an album that's been mythologised as the Odyssey of the tour band, a paen to the road musician, with Browne being compared to Gawain, of the Knights of the Round Table fame. So I suppose if Browne ever reads this he'll come and impale me with his lance (Ooo-er.. that said, I've heard it gets lonely on the road).
Well, I'll do my best to make it quick - this song is so middle of the road it wouldn't offend a nun with a hangover (I'll bet that even the song about the roadie jerking off is so MOR as to be innoffensive). I don't like it. It's a power-ballad to driving a big truck while wearing a cowboy hat.
I think you need to be an American to get it.
This song sounds like it was written as the backing music for a beer commercial. You can almost picture three shiny white 30-something guys in cowboy hats sitting in the front of a pickup truck drinking beer and driving into the sun with this song playing in the background. They'd probably have guns too. It's not even a real song - it starts off pretending to be a live song and then sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom, which it probably was. Browne and his band recorded this road music(and their roadies) onstage, backstage, in various hotel rooms and on their tourbus. Thanks for the focus on production values, Jackson. That said, at least there's a song about a roadie masturbating to spice things up a bit
Country-tinged, soft focus guitar and piano, MOR vocals and even a slide guitar solo - this song (and album) has been described as the one album Jackson Browne's true fans don't own, and the one that everyone else does. Well, not me, obviously, because it sounds like Garth Brooks impregnated Boston. And, of course, this is an album that's been mythologised as the Odyssey of the tour band, a paen to the road musician, with Browne being compared to Gawain, of the Knights of the Round Table fame. So I suppose if Browne ever reads this he'll come and impale me with his lance (Ooo-er.. that said, I've heard it gets lonely on the road).
Well, I'll do my best to make it quick - this song is so middle of the road it wouldn't offend a nun with a hangover (I'll bet that even the song about the roadie jerking off is so MOR as to be innoffensive). I don't like it. It's a power-ballad to driving a big truck while wearing a cowboy hat.
I think you need to be an American to get it.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Phil Spector meets Goodfellas
The Crystals - Then He Kissed Me
Video
Enter Phil Spector, gnomic production genius and songwriter, notoriously egocentric and difficult recluse (he once, famously, scared the Ramones by locking them in the studio and threatening to shoot them) and accused wife/girlfriend murderer. Despite all of this, his contribution to music is staggering - the Wall of Sound, girl groups, The Beatles' Let It Be, The Ramones' End of the Century (a somewhat dubious honour) and the song that received the most airplay in the 20th century (and ever) The Righteous Brothers' You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling.
Spector pioneered the girl group with group likes the Ronettes and the Crystals, working with Lieber and Stoller and songwriters from the Brill Building, creating his signature sound by putting together large groups of musicians playing orchestrated parts, often with more that one of the same instrument playing in unison, resulting in a Wall of Sound that was fatter and louder than his contempories' efforts.
This is evident in Then He Kissed Me, with it's galloping percussion, soaring strings, slightly distorted guitars, hurrumphing sax and the ubiquitous harmonised vocals. The result is the iconic 1963 song - a huge global hit and used to brilliant effect in movies like Scorsese's Goodfellas.
Like good Motown music, this is a timeless song - the fact that it sounds like it was recorded on a dirty tape player in someone's garage doesn't detract from what is, at it's essence, a beautiful love song sung with emotion and, in further keeping with the Motown essence, energy. The song seems to bounce along, propelled by the percussion and vocals. It never sounds particularly sweet or at all twee, something that a song like this would be pilloried for if it was released now. Basically, it's awesome, but not awesome enough to take the Best Song Yet award from Smokey Robinson.
Verdict: Classic
Tomorrow: Jackson Browne - Running on Empty
Video
Enter Phil Spector, gnomic production genius and songwriter, notoriously egocentric and difficult recluse (he once, famously, scared the Ramones by locking them in the studio and threatening to shoot them) and accused wife/girlfriend murderer. Despite all of this, his contribution to music is staggering - the Wall of Sound, girl groups, The Beatles' Let It Be, The Ramones' End of the Century (a somewhat dubious honour) and the song that received the most airplay in the 20th century (and ever) The Righteous Brothers' You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling.
Spector pioneered the girl group with group likes the Ronettes and the Crystals, working with Lieber and Stoller and songwriters from the Brill Building, creating his signature sound by putting together large groups of musicians playing orchestrated parts, often with more that one of the same instrument playing in unison, resulting in a Wall of Sound that was fatter and louder than his contempories' efforts.
This is evident in Then He Kissed Me, with it's galloping percussion, soaring strings, slightly distorted guitars, hurrumphing sax and the ubiquitous harmonised vocals. The result is the iconic 1963 song - a huge global hit and used to brilliant effect in movies like Scorsese's Goodfellas.
Like good Motown music, this is a timeless song - the fact that it sounds like it was recorded on a dirty tape player in someone's garage doesn't detract from what is, at it's essence, a beautiful love song sung with emotion and, in further keeping with the Motown essence, energy. The song seems to bounce along, propelled by the percussion and vocals. It never sounds particularly sweet or at all twee, something that a song like this would be pilloried for if it was released now. Basically, it's awesome, but not awesome enough to take the Best Song Yet award from Smokey Robinson.
Verdict: Classic
Tomorrow: Jackson Browne - Running on Empty
Desperate for it to end
The Eagles - Desperado
It may be considered a mark of success to be covered by 'Weird' Al Yankovic, as this song was (as Avocado). To be brief, this song was written by the Eagles' brains trust of Glenn Frey and Don Henley, was never released as a single, but still managed to become a live favourite and has been covered by half of christianity (but never by Yusuf Islam, meaning that the middle east market has been sadly unexploited). And it's absolutely rubbish. It sounds like Blue Valentines-era Tom Waits covered by a toothless hick, drunk on cheap bourbon, warbling on about the lonely spiritualism of an outlaw (in a bad way). Henley even rejected the cod cowboy-mysticalism of the song and it's eponymous album, saying that "'In retrospect, I admit the whole cowboy-outlaw-rocker myth was a bit bogus,' Henley said in 1987. 'I don't think we really believed it; we were just trying to make an analogy.'" (Rolling Stone).
I must be missing something, because I couldn't listen to it the whole way through, despite trying a few times. And yet, it's had the stamp of greatness bestowed upon it by Johnny Cash, who covered it on American IV: The Man Comes Around, Me First And The Gimme Gimmes, on Love Their Country, and Tori Amos (Who must have been high). It's also been covered by George Michael, Westlife, Linda Ronstadt and on American Idol. Maybe I'm not missing anything after all.
In short, this song is as bad as More Than A Feeling, our previous Worst Song Yet award holder, but it's not even as catchy. It's just.. completely arbitrary. Putting it above Shop Around is an insult to music everywhere. I can't even carry on writing about it.
Verdict: Absolute rubbish
Tomorrow: Then He Kissed Me - The Crystals
It may be considered a mark of success to be covered by 'Weird' Al Yankovic, as this song was (as Avocado). To be brief, this song was written by the Eagles' brains trust of Glenn Frey and Don Henley, was never released as a single, but still managed to become a live favourite and has been covered by half of christianity (but never by Yusuf Islam, meaning that the middle east market has been sadly unexploited). And it's absolutely rubbish. It sounds like Blue Valentines-era Tom Waits covered by a toothless hick, drunk on cheap bourbon, warbling on about the lonely spiritualism of an outlaw (in a bad way). Henley even rejected the cod cowboy-mysticalism of the song and it's eponymous album, saying that "'In retrospect, I admit the whole cowboy-outlaw-rocker myth was a bit bogus,' Henley said in 1987. 'I don't think we really believed it; we were just trying to make an analogy.'" (Rolling Stone).
I must be missing something, because I couldn't listen to it the whole way through, despite trying a few times. And yet, it's had the stamp of greatness bestowed upon it by Johnny Cash, who covered it on American IV: The Man Comes Around, Me First And The Gimme Gimmes, on Love Their Country, and Tori Amos (Who must have been high). It's also been covered by George Michael, Westlife, Linda Ronstadt and on American Idol. Maybe I'm not missing anything after all.
In short, this song is as bad as More Than A Feeling, our previous Worst Song Yet award holder, but it's not even as catchy. It's just.. completely arbitrary. Putting it above Shop Around is an insult to music everywhere. I can't even carry on writing about it.
Verdict: Absolute rubbish
Tomorrow: Then He Kissed Me - The Crystals
Monday, February 16, 2009
Supermarket for the future of music
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - Shop Around
Video
Written by Smokey Robinson and Mr Motown himself, Berry Gordy, and produced by Gordy, Shop Around was released in 1960 and became the first Motown song to reach #1 on the US Rhythm and Blues charts, and the first to sell over a million copies. Obviously this is one iconic Motown song and, ironically, it was almost completely different as "Robinson initially thought Barrett Strong [who?] should do 'Shop Around', but Gordy convinced Robinson that he was the right man for the song. After they recorded and released it, Gordy heard it on the radio and found it way too slow. So he woke Robinson at 3 a.m. and called him back to the studio to re-cut it, faster and with Robinson more prominent. That one worked." (Rolling Stone)
As for the song, it sounds like it was recorded on acetate, given the quality (it may have been, for all I know), but there's that classic Motown groove - bouncy bass, harmonised doo-wop backing vocals, swinging horns and brassy piano, all overlaid with Smokey's awe-inspiring high tenor. At points in the song you can hear how it's influenced music in the past 49 years (it's hard to believe that this song is almost 50 years old) - from being covered by countless artists through the years (not sure how much street cred you get from being covered by Captain and Tenille and Georgie Fame, but anyway) to the backing vocals (everywhere from the Motown sound to the pop-punk movement of NoFX and Blink 182) to the outro vocal leap on "I know you can my son" at 2:40, a technique stolen wholesale by Frank Black in the Pixies.
Basically, this song influenced almost everything, directly or indirectly, and it's a telling testament to why Motown is still so damn listenable these days - the songs were honest, energetic and emotive and when you listen to them you pick up subtle cues, hindsight being 20/20 of course, as to where music was headed. This was rock and roll and soul and disco and boy bands and Amy Winehouse and hip-hop, and we have Motown to thank and curse for all of it.
Verdict: Stone Cold Classic, Seminal
Tomorrow: The Eagles - Desperado
Video
Written by Smokey Robinson and Mr Motown himself, Berry Gordy, and produced by Gordy, Shop Around was released in 1960 and became the first Motown song to reach #1 on the US Rhythm and Blues charts, and the first to sell over a million copies. Obviously this is one iconic Motown song and, ironically, it was almost completely different as "Robinson initially thought Barrett Strong [who?] should do 'Shop Around', but Gordy convinced Robinson that he was the right man for the song. After they recorded and released it, Gordy heard it on the radio and found it way too slow. So he woke Robinson at 3 a.m. and called him back to the studio to re-cut it, faster and with Robinson more prominent. That one worked." (Rolling Stone)
As for the song, it sounds like it was recorded on acetate, given the quality (it may have been, for all I know), but there's that classic Motown groove - bouncy bass, harmonised doo-wop backing vocals, swinging horns and brassy piano, all overlaid with Smokey's awe-inspiring high tenor. At points in the song you can hear how it's influenced music in the past 49 years (it's hard to believe that this song is almost 50 years old) - from being covered by countless artists through the years (not sure how much street cred you get from being covered by Captain and Tenille and Georgie Fame, but anyway) to the backing vocals (everywhere from the Motown sound to the pop-punk movement of NoFX and Blink 182) to the outro vocal leap on "I know you can my son" at 2:40, a technique stolen wholesale by Frank Black in the Pixies.
Basically, this song influenced almost everything, directly or indirectly, and it's a telling testament to why Motown is still so damn listenable these days - the songs were honest, energetic and emotive and when you listen to them you pick up subtle cues, hindsight being 20/20 of course, as to where music was headed. This was rock and roll and soul and disco and boy bands and Amy Winehouse and hip-hop, and we have Motown to thank and curse for all of it.
Verdict: Stone Cold Classic, Seminal
Tomorrow: The Eagles - Desperado
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Unmissable
Rolling Stones - Miss You
"New Rule: Airplane black boxes must now be made out of Keith Richards. The man, who has taken more drugs than Whitney Houston, Rush Limbaugh and Robert Downey, Jr., combined, recently fell out of a tree, and then crashed a jet ski. And yet, somehow, that cigarette never fell out of his mouth. What is this guy still running on? I've got to know. Because I'm beginning to think the future of medicine isn't injecting stem cells, it's injecting heroin."
- Real Time with Bill Maher, 12 May 2006 (Season 7, Episode 9)
"...how come Keith Richards still walks? Explain that Mr. Surgeon General! You never mention Keith do you? Aah, a lttle hole in the theory there! Surgeon General says "Drugs are bad -drugs are evil!...except for that guy, they work real good for him -but the rest of you..."
and
"Keith Richards is shooting heroin into his eyeballs and still touring alright! I'm getting mixed signals! I picture nuclear war and two things surviving; Keith and cockroaches! *does Keith Richards impression* "Where did everybody go-o? I saw a bright light and thought we were ho-ome..."
- Bill Hicks, 'Dangerous' audio 1990
Ah, the Stones, the (barely) living embodiment of rock and roll. It's difficult to argue that there has been a more influential duo in rock history than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, or that there has been a cooler human being than Keef. Sure, there's Lennon and McCartney, but the Stones have the advantage of longevity, something pondered by Bill Hicks, Bill Maher and almost everyone who's seen the leathery visage of Mr Richards.
Ironically, the song is almost disco-y, reflecting the Stones in 1978 when it was released. Mick does his breathless, whispery-vocal thing, the ever-dependable Charlie Watts remains as reliable as ever pumping out a four-to-the-floor beat, Keith picks out his signature legato augmentations over an acoustic rhythm guitar and Bill Wyman gets all hella funky on the bass. All this while one of the most recognisable backing vocal harmonies hoots out of the speakers. There's also an electric piano and a harmonica in there. Rolling Stone, as enlightening as ever, say "With Charlie Watts channeling a disco groove, 'Miss You' became the band's first Number One hit in five years. "It's not really about a girl," Jagger said. 'The feeling of longing is what the song is.'"
And it's absolutely great, catchy as chlamydia and with more grooves than a well-plowed field. It's not even embarrassingly disco-y, more a channeling of Sly Stone funk into the body of Howling Wolf with almost a pre-emptive nod towards G-funk hip-hop and bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This is the sound of the Stones doing something different, but still remaining absolutely, unimpeachably, The Stones. It's one of many arrows in an embarrassingly big quiver, one of an oeuvre of true greatness that could have three generations of a family shaking their booties to it. In short, it sounds like something you would actually want to hear on classic radio.
Taxonomy: Disco Inferno, All Hail Keef
Tomorrow: Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - Shop Around
"New Rule: Airplane black boxes must now be made out of Keith Richards. The man, who has taken more drugs than Whitney Houston, Rush Limbaugh and Robert Downey, Jr., combined, recently fell out of a tree, and then crashed a jet ski. And yet, somehow, that cigarette never fell out of his mouth. What is this guy still running on? I've got to know. Because I'm beginning to think the future of medicine isn't injecting stem cells, it's injecting heroin."
- Real Time with Bill Maher, 12 May 2006 (Season 7, Episode 9)
"...how come Keith Richards still walks? Explain that Mr. Surgeon General! You never mention Keith do you? Aah, a lttle hole in the theory there! Surgeon General says "Drugs are bad -drugs are evil!...except for that guy, they work real good for him -but the rest of you..."
and
"Keith Richards is shooting heroin into his eyeballs and still touring alright! I'm getting mixed signals! I picture nuclear war and two things surviving; Keith and cockroaches! *does Keith Richards impression* "Where did everybody go-o? I saw a bright light and thought we were ho-ome..."
- Bill Hicks, 'Dangerous' audio 1990
Ah, the Stones, the (barely) living embodiment of rock and roll. It's difficult to argue that there has been a more influential duo in rock history than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, or that there has been a cooler human being than Keef. Sure, there's Lennon and McCartney, but the Stones have the advantage of longevity, something pondered by Bill Hicks, Bill Maher and almost everyone who's seen the leathery visage of Mr Richards.
Ironically, the song is almost disco-y, reflecting the Stones in 1978 when it was released. Mick does his breathless, whispery-vocal thing, the ever-dependable Charlie Watts remains as reliable as ever pumping out a four-to-the-floor beat, Keith picks out his signature legato augmentations over an acoustic rhythm guitar and Bill Wyman gets all hella funky on the bass. All this while one of the most recognisable backing vocal harmonies hoots out of the speakers. There's also an electric piano and a harmonica in there. Rolling Stone, as enlightening as ever, say "With Charlie Watts channeling a disco groove, 'Miss You' became the band's first Number One hit in five years. "It's not really about a girl," Jagger said. 'The feeling of longing is what the song is.'"
And it's absolutely great, catchy as chlamydia and with more grooves than a well-plowed field. It's not even embarrassingly disco-y, more a channeling of Sly Stone funk into the body of Howling Wolf with almost a pre-emptive nod towards G-funk hip-hop and bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This is the sound of the Stones doing something different, but still remaining absolutely, unimpeachably, The Stones. It's one of many arrows in an embarrassingly big quiver, one of an oeuvre of true greatness that could have three generations of a family shaking their booties to it. In short, it sounds like something you would actually want to hear on classic radio.
Taxonomy: Disco Inferno, All Hail Keef
Tomorrow: Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - Shop Around
Thursday, February 12, 2009
'Avin' a Weeze
Weezer - Buddy Holly
Video
I'm a little confused about this song. I mean, I like it, but is it really one of the greatest songs of all time? All I really remember is the chorus and the video. In fact, it's a bit like Sabotage by the Beastie Boys - a song where it was difficult to divorce the popularity of the song from the popularity of the video. Additionally, the video of Buddy Holly was distributed with Microsoft Windows 95, that bastion of anti-commercialism and rebellion. However, one clear difference between Sabotage and Buddy Holly is that Sabotage is actually pretty good.
Rolling Stone say that: "In the early 1990s, Cuomo had an awkward girlfriend who was routinely picked on. His efforts to stick up for her inspired Weezer's breakthrough, a track whose bubble-grunge hooks and lines such as 'I look just like Buddy Holly/And you're Mary Tyler Moore' helped the band reach a nation of pop-minded suburban punks. It also earned them personalized, autographed photos from the real Mary Tyler Moore."
Back to the song - it's the kind of fuzz-box slacker anthem that Blink 182 would have made if they preferred heroin to Red Bull and it's catchy as hell. Plus, it's the first song on the list released after I was born, which makes me fond of it already, and it's almost modern, despite being 15 years old. Despite liking the song at the time, I've never gotten into Weezer. Albums like Pinkerton pissed me off for being too shoe-gazing and snide. I always got the feeling the Cuomo was laughing at the world, all smirking, thinking "I can make the biggest load of shit, and hipsters will buy it because once I made a song that had a video of The Fonzie dancing in it".
A song that, apparently, Rivers Cuomo hated and didn't want to record. He was convinced by producer Rick Ocazek, a man known for producing pretty good bands like Bad Religion. Clearly he saw something in the song (and Weezer) and the success of the song meant that Weezer could buy themselves hundreds of gold-plated woolen jerseys with holey elbows.
Taxonomy: Pseudo-grunge, Great Video
Tomorrow: Miss You - The Rolling Stones
Video
I'm a little confused about this song. I mean, I like it, but is it really one of the greatest songs of all time? All I really remember is the chorus and the video. In fact, it's a bit like Sabotage by the Beastie Boys - a song where it was difficult to divorce the popularity of the song from the popularity of the video. Additionally, the video of Buddy Holly was distributed with Microsoft Windows 95, that bastion of anti-commercialism and rebellion. However, one clear difference between Sabotage and Buddy Holly is that Sabotage is actually pretty good.
Rolling Stone say that: "In the early 1990s, Cuomo had an awkward girlfriend who was routinely picked on. His efforts to stick up for her inspired Weezer's breakthrough, a track whose bubble-grunge hooks and lines such as 'I look just like Buddy Holly/And you're Mary Tyler Moore' helped the band reach a nation of pop-minded suburban punks. It also earned them personalized, autographed photos from the real Mary Tyler Moore."
Back to the song - it's the kind of fuzz-box slacker anthem that Blink 182 would have made if they preferred heroin to Red Bull and it's catchy as hell. Plus, it's the first song on the list released after I was born, which makes me fond of it already, and it's almost modern, despite being 15 years old. Despite liking the song at the time, I've never gotten into Weezer. Albums like Pinkerton pissed me off for being too shoe-gazing and snide. I always got the feeling the Cuomo was laughing at the world, all smirking, thinking "I can make the biggest load of shit, and hipsters will buy it because once I made a song that had a video of The Fonzie dancing in it".
A song that, apparently, Rivers Cuomo hated and didn't want to record. He was convinced by producer Rick Ocazek, a man known for producing pretty good bands like Bad Religion. Clearly he saw something in the song (and Weezer) and the success of the song meant that Weezer could buy themselves hundreds of gold-plated woolen jerseys with holey elbows.
Taxonomy: Pseudo-grunge, Great Video
Tomorrow: Miss You - The Rolling Stones
Boring night in Georgia
Brook Benton - Rainy Night in Georgia
Apparently, it is:
(1) raining
(2) night-time
in Georgia.
I know this because Brook Benton repeats this about five thousand times in the course of Rainy Night in Georgia. I tried to count how many times he sang the word "rainy" and lost count approaching eighteen thousand. He would have made an excellent, if slightly monotonous, weatherman.
Rolling Stone say: "It's been called "one of the most lonesome songs ever to grace the Top Ten': Benton's intimate baritone set over crying violins, crashing horns, and dolorous organs and guitars. The soul ballad was written by swamp-rocker [Tony Joe] White, who had hit big with his own 'Polk Salad Annie.' 'I knew about rainy nights in Georgia,' White once said, 'because I drove a dump truck for the highway department.'"
And yet, this song leaves me cold - it's a typical soul number, sung over a backing of jazzy, slinky guitar, strings and organ, and it's beautifully sung and well-produced. But it lacks a key ingredient: soul. You get none of the emotion from ol' Brookerino that you get from a Marvin Gaye or Percy Sledge. This is soul in the Teddy Pendergrass, lounge-suit and keep-it-unemotional vein. You can never work out whether he's sad, pissed off, happy or just lobotomised (my money is on the latter). And there's no sign of a crying violin, crashing horn or dolorous organ. The instruments are emotionlessly note-perfect and elevatorial. This is elevator music - it's so inoffensive that it makes More Than A Feeling sound like something that would have the entire Christian League of Decency picketing in the streets.
Interestingly, the song was written by a garbage-truck-driving swamp-rocker, covered by Benton in 1970 and later covered by Ray Charles, Hank Williams Jr and Otis Rush. So why, in the name of all that is good and holy, was Brooke Benton version have chosen by Rolling Stone? Surely the Williams Jr or Charles covers might have conveyed the emotion in this song? This song really does have the potential to be an emotional voyage, just not when Brook "Mr Weatherman" Benton rocks it out.
Finally, if this is truly one of the greatest songs ever, why have I never heard it before?
Taxonomy: Soul-less, Only in the Most Well-Heeled Elevators
Tomorrow: Weezer - Buddy Holly
Apparently, it is:
(1) raining
(2) night-time
in Georgia.
I know this because Brook Benton repeats this about five thousand times in the course of Rainy Night in Georgia. I tried to count how many times he sang the word "rainy" and lost count approaching eighteen thousand. He would have made an excellent, if slightly monotonous, weatherman.
Rolling Stone say: "It's been called "one of the most lonesome songs ever to grace the Top Ten': Benton's intimate baritone set over crying violins, crashing horns, and dolorous organs and guitars. The soul ballad was written by swamp-rocker [Tony Joe] White, who had hit big with his own 'Polk Salad Annie.' 'I knew about rainy nights in Georgia,' White once said, 'because I drove a dump truck for the highway department.'"
And yet, this song leaves me cold - it's a typical soul number, sung over a backing of jazzy, slinky guitar, strings and organ, and it's beautifully sung and well-produced. But it lacks a key ingredient: soul. You get none of the emotion from ol' Brookerino that you get from a Marvin Gaye or Percy Sledge. This is soul in the Teddy Pendergrass, lounge-suit and keep-it-unemotional vein. You can never work out whether he's sad, pissed off, happy or just lobotomised (my money is on the latter). And there's no sign of a crying violin, crashing horn or dolorous organ. The instruments are emotionlessly note-perfect and elevatorial. This is elevator music - it's so inoffensive that it makes More Than A Feeling sound like something that would have the entire Christian League of Decency picketing in the streets.
Interestingly, the song was written by a garbage-truck-driving swamp-rocker, covered by Benton in 1970 and later covered by Ray Charles, Hank Williams Jr and Otis Rush. So why, in the name of all that is good and holy, was Brooke Benton version have chosen by Rolling Stone? Surely the Williams Jr or Charles covers might have conveyed the emotion in this song? This song really does have the potential to be an emotional voyage, just not when Brook "Mr Weatherman" Benton rocks it out.
Finally, if this is truly one of the greatest songs ever, why have I never heard it before?
Taxonomy: Soul-less, Only in the Most Well-Heeled Elevators
Tomorrow: Weezer - Buddy Holly
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The Boys are Rocking Out
Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town
Well this is better. After the antiseptic waftiness and pinched niceness of More Than a Feeling, the dirty boogie of The Boys Are Back In Town feels like a whole lot of warm vulgarity. This is music for dudes wearing moustaches and leather pants unashamedly and nonironically. This is music that is meant to be played as loudly as possible and accompanied by devil-horn hand signs. This song has swagger.
Despite this, I've never really listened to Thin Lizzy. When it comes to old school rock 'n roll, or proto-metal, or whatever people call music like this, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were the bands that I liked most. Which is not to say that I don't know this song. It's impossible not to if you have ears, or at least, appendages capable of sensing vibrations. Because even if you don't think you know it, you'd hear it and think "I know this song".
And it's definitely deserving of it's placing as one of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Rolling Stone argue: "Thin Lizzy's Lynott sang the hard-rock drama of "The Boys Are Back in Town" with the Gaelic soul of a self-described 'black Irish bastard' (his mother was Irish; his father was a Brazilian sailor). Just as crucial to the song's success was the twin-guitar lead by Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson. Lynott died from years of drug abuse in 1986; he remains a beloved Springsteen-like figure in Ireland." Which really says nothing about it. All it says is that Phil Lynott was a badass, which is corroborated by the fact that he's a hero of Henry Rollins's.
But.. there's a problem. This song is too badass. It's been co-opted by the mainstream in the worst possible way. This is a song that has been played at every sporting event ever. I'm willing to bet that it was played at the Women's Table Tennis World Cup. Anytime two people face off against one another in any kind of sporting contest, this song is playing. As as result, it's also in every sporting movie ever, normally at the critical juntion where the plucky underdog team have just finished getting their asses kicked and have stepped into hero mode to return the favour on the antagonists.
As a result, we're all sick of this song. I certainly am. I can't listen to it in the way that Thin Lizzy intended it to be listened to, as a major key, fuzz-box power-chord shuffle-based paen to soldiers returning from Vietnam. If you could step back from its current context as a song jocks use to slap their chests together to, it's still a rock anthem and one that's been covered about a billion times as tribute to it's awesomeness. In fact, wherever someone is playing covers in a pub he's playing The Boys Are Back In Town, if not note for note, then in spirit. And how hard can it really be to cover a song written by a bunch of drunken Irishmen?
Taxonomy: Guilty pleasure rock anthem, tune up that air guitar
Tomorrow: Brook Benton - Rainy Night in Georgia
Well this is better. After the antiseptic waftiness and pinched niceness of More Than a Feeling, the dirty boogie of The Boys Are Back In Town feels like a whole lot of warm vulgarity. This is music for dudes wearing moustaches and leather pants unashamedly and nonironically. This is music that is meant to be played as loudly as possible and accompanied by devil-horn hand signs. This song has swagger.
Despite this, I've never really listened to Thin Lizzy. When it comes to old school rock 'n roll, or proto-metal, or whatever people call music like this, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were the bands that I liked most. Which is not to say that I don't know this song. It's impossible not to if you have ears, or at least, appendages capable of sensing vibrations. Because even if you don't think you know it, you'd hear it and think "I know this song".
And it's definitely deserving of it's placing as one of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Rolling Stone argue: "Thin Lizzy's Lynott sang the hard-rock drama of "The Boys Are Back in Town" with the Gaelic soul of a self-described 'black Irish bastard' (his mother was Irish; his father was a Brazilian sailor). Just as crucial to the song's success was the twin-guitar lead by Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson. Lynott died from years of drug abuse in 1986; he remains a beloved Springsteen-like figure in Ireland." Which really says nothing about it. All it says is that Phil Lynott was a badass, which is corroborated by the fact that he's a hero of Henry Rollins's.
But.. there's a problem. This song is too badass. It's been co-opted by the mainstream in the worst possible way. This is a song that has been played at every sporting event ever. I'm willing to bet that it was played at the Women's Table Tennis World Cup. Anytime two people face off against one another in any kind of sporting contest, this song is playing. As as result, it's also in every sporting movie ever, normally at the critical juntion where the plucky underdog team have just finished getting their asses kicked and have stepped into hero mode to return the favour on the antagonists.
As a result, we're all sick of this song. I certainly am. I can't listen to it in the way that Thin Lizzy intended it to be listened to, as a major key, fuzz-box power-chord shuffle-based paen to soldiers returning from Vietnam. If you could step back from its current context as a song jocks use to slap their chests together to, it's still a rock anthem and one that's been covered about a billion times as tribute to it's awesomeness. In fact, wherever someone is playing covers in a pub he's playing The Boys Are Back In Town, if not note for note, then in spirit. And how hard can it really be to cover a song written by a bunch of drunken Irishmen?
Taxonomy: Guilty pleasure rock anthem, tune up that air guitar
Tomorrow: Brook Benton - Rainy Night in Georgia
Monday, February 9, 2009
More than a feeling of nausea
Boston - More Than a Feeling
We kick off the review of the 500 greatest songs of all time with Boston's More Than a Feeling, a song which I feel should come somewhat lower on the list, preferably somewhere in the region of 5 - 6000. Rolling Stone motivate for the track's inclusion by saying that "Inspired by the heart-tugging mood of the Left Banke's 'Walk Away Renee,' Polaroid engineer Scholz tinkered with this anthem for five years in his basement studio. Driven by an epochal riff and Brad Delp's skyscraper vocals, 'Feeling' helped Boston sell more than 17 million copies -- and inspired the riff for Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.'"
This song conjures up two feelings within me. One of which is memories of watching Adam Sandler movies, although I think he actually idolises Kansas rather than Boston. While I quite like some of his movies, I could never understand why he would like music loved only by meatheads and accountants with moustaches thinking that they were being badass for loving Rock 'n' Roll, despite their mothers warning them against it.
The other feeling is one of nausea. Mainly due to the horribly polished production and castrato vocals. 5 years of tinkering? If 15 minutes is good enough for Black Flag and hell, I'd bet that Operation Ivy viewed that as extravagant, how on earth do you spend 5 years on a song. That fact alone, notwithstanding the guitar solo defines this song as a feat of massive, masturbatory self-indulgence.
Basically this song's legacy is that it inspired Smells Like Teen Spirit. It was also covered by South African metal band Agro and N*Sync, which is probably something Tom Scholz is particularly proud of, far more so than the zillions of dollars in advertising and licensing revenues that this song must have raked in, through profligate use in beer and car commercials and shitty movies. More Than a Feeling's album (Boston) sold 16 million copies - not bad scratch for an engineer who should have stuck to engineering.
Oh, the song. Back to the song. It's pretty standard: Verse-Chorus, Verse-Chorus, Bridge, Verse-Chorus (compound AABA) in D Major, with the bridge in G Major. AABA was a popular form in the 50s and 60s, before the verse-chorus form became a la mode. Tom Scholz's guitar solo is harmonised dross, with a pick harmonic that would make Dimebag Darrel from Pantera posthumously recant his use thereof. That said, the song would probably be of value played continuously to keep dogs off your lawn, thanks to Brad Delp's "skyscraper" (read man-child castrato) vocals.
If you think I'm being uncharitable, this album has been hailed for being a landmark in terms of production values, arena rock and power-ballads, neither of which are characteristics of bands that I love. It just .. leaves me cold. It makes me think of a weeping audience holding lit cigarette lighters in the air while Tom Scholz improvises on the guitar solo for 20 minutes. And for that reason I'm glad that arena rock and power ballads are dead.
Edit: Bugger, it's still stuck in my bloody head, 3 hours later.
Taxonomy: Masturbatory power-ballad
Tomorrow: The Boys Are Back In Town - Thin Lizzy
We kick off the review of the 500 greatest songs of all time with Boston's More Than a Feeling, a song which I feel should come somewhat lower on the list, preferably somewhere in the region of 5 - 6000. Rolling Stone motivate for the track's inclusion by saying that "Inspired by the heart-tugging mood of the Left Banke's 'Walk Away Renee,' Polaroid engineer Scholz tinkered with this anthem for five years in his basement studio. Driven by an epochal riff and Brad Delp's skyscraper vocals, 'Feeling' helped Boston sell more than 17 million copies -- and inspired the riff for Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.'"
This song conjures up two feelings within me. One of which is memories of watching Adam Sandler movies, although I think he actually idolises Kansas rather than Boston. While I quite like some of his movies, I could never understand why he would like music loved only by meatheads and accountants with moustaches thinking that they were being badass for loving Rock 'n' Roll, despite their mothers warning them against it.
The other feeling is one of nausea. Mainly due to the horribly polished production and castrato vocals. 5 years of tinkering? If 15 minutes is good enough for Black Flag and hell, I'd bet that Operation Ivy viewed that as extravagant, how on earth do you spend 5 years on a song. That fact alone, notwithstanding the guitar solo defines this song as a feat of massive, masturbatory self-indulgence.
Basically this song's legacy is that it inspired Smells Like Teen Spirit. It was also covered by South African metal band Agro and N*Sync, which is probably something Tom Scholz is particularly proud of, far more so than the zillions of dollars in advertising and licensing revenues that this song must have raked in, through profligate use in beer and car commercials and shitty movies. More Than a Feeling's album (Boston) sold 16 million copies - not bad scratch for an engineer who should have stuck to engineering.
Oh, the song. Back to the song. It's pretty standard: Verse-Chorus, Verse-Chorus, Bridge, Verse-Chorus (compound AABA) in D Major, with the bridge in G Major. AABA was a popular form in the 50s and 60s, before the verse-chorus form became a la mode. Tom Scholz's guitar solo is harmonised dross, with a pick harmonic that would make Dimebag Darrel from Pantera posthumously recant his use thereof. That said, the song would probably be of value played continuously to keep dogs off your lawn, thanks to Brad Delp's "skyscraper" (read man-child castrato) vocals.
If you think I'm being uncharitable, this album has been hailed for being a landmark in terms of production values, arena rock and power-ballads, neither of which are characteristics of bands that I love. It just .. leaves me cold. It makes me think of a weeping audience holding lit cigarette lighters in the air while Tom Scholz improvises on the guitar solo for 20 minutes. And for that reason I'm glad that arena rock and power ballads are dead.
Edit: Bugger, it's still stuck in my bloody head, 3 hours later.
Taxonomy: Masturbatory power-ballad
Tomorrow: The Boys Are Back In Town - Thin Lizzy
Introduction
In an attempt to improve my musical education and to pay homage to this excellent blog, this blog is an attempt to listen to one of Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time a day and blog about it. It will be no easy task, especially as I intend to start from the bottom (More Than A Feeling by Boston) and work my way through to the top (Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan). In truth, it will be a titanic task that I probably won't finish, as it will require grit, determination and woolen ears (in the case of Boston). But, as Hunter S. Thompson used to say, I am chock full of grit.
Enjoy the journey (incidentally, Journey do not appear on the list, something for which I am immensely grateful to the good people of Rolling Stone magazine).
Enjoy the journey (incidentally, Journey do not appear on the list, something for which I am immensely grateful to the good people of Rolling Stone magazine).
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