Elvis Presley - Love Me Tender
Based on a civil war-era ballad called Aura Lee, Love Me Tender was the soundtrack song for the first of Elvis's 31 movies. It was one of Elvis's first steps on the road to becoming the global mega-ultra-Michael-freaking-Jackson-star that he became before he died trying to take a dump, obese, amphetamine-fueled and all about the underaged girls. Hell of a life.
The song's pretty much just the big guy (Elvis, not God) - southern crooning, soft focus acoustic guitar and harmonised backing vocals. That's all. Big production clearly wasn't hip in those days. It's all very sweet and romantic, in a late 50s boy-meets-girl-and-pledges-eternal-love kind of way, but it really doesn't do much for me. I'm not really the type to pledge eternal love so I think this one is lost on me. Maybe his later work will strike a chord but, seeing as he's about as far from being a rock nutter as can be in this song, we'll hold off on reviewing his career with the Rock Nutter Scale (tm) for a while.
All in all, a disappointing start from Mr Sequined Jumpsuits - where's the sneering, hip-thrusting god of rock and roll? This song is the musical equivalent of herbal tea with honey - I want caffeine, dammit, caffeine and bourbon.
Verdict: Try a little less tenderness
Tomorrow: Love - Alone Again Or
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The End of Happiness
The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog
From the self-titled 1969 album, this is the song that Danny Fields, who knows a thing or two about punk, described as the greatest punk song of all time. This, of course, means that in 40 years, punk hasn't moved forward at all, because I Wanna Be Your Dog also happens to be one of the first real punk songs ever recorded. That's no bad thing, of course, as the song is magnificent - it's the scalding, apocalyptic clarion call for the end of the love generation.
The hippies and their fatuous ideals died with Iggy screaming "Come ownnnnnnnnnnnnnn" and the contingent ugliness of the 1970s was ushered in - heroin, depression and the death of hope and innocence. And how better to express it than the via the howls, grunts, thumps and rattles of the ultimate misanthrope and his cadre of barely-literate, violence-obsessed thugs? This song has everything. Well, everything except sophistication. Built on a simple 3 chord guitar riff, bass playing courtesy of what sounds like a tempo-incapable drunk and simple, violent percussion, Velvet Underground guitarist John Cale's production touches, such as sleigh bells and single-note piano lines, augment the simplicity of the song to a degree that shouldn't be possible. The result is a wall of noise over which Mr Pop can vent all of the rage and frustration and fury and deviance that he had built up over the previous 22 years. And vent he does, in one of the purest, most visceral songs ever made.
This is a song that couldn't be made by anyone other than true, thuggish believers - the effect would seem watered down if it wasn't entirely honest and nihilistic. This is the music that the Manson family would have made if they had had any talent and were better able to skilfully manipulate their audience. As out of control as Iggy may have been, he knew what he was doing, and through a sense of performance heavily modelled on Jim Morrison and early blues singers, he simply took it to the next level through utter fearlessness and a willingness to inflict pain, both on his audience and himself.
It's a magnificent statement of nihilistic frustration and angst. Is it as good as Search and Destroy? It feels more adolescent and less artful, so I'd pick Search and Destroy as the Stooges song I would listen to for the rest of my life, but it's still better than almost anything I've ever heard.
Verdict: God-like
Tomorrow: Elvis Presley - Love Me Tender
From the self-titled 1969 album, this is the song that Danny Fields, who knows a thing or two about punk, described as the greatest punk song of all time. This, of course, means that in 40 years, punk hasn't moved forward at all, because I Wanna Be Your Dog also happens to be one of the first real punk songs ever recorded. That's no bad thing, of course, as the song is magnificent - it's the scalding, apocalyptic clarion call for the end of the love generation.
The hippies and their fatuous ideals died with Iggy screaming "Come ownnnnnnnnnnnnnn" and the contingent ugliness of the 1970s was ushered in - heroin, depression and the death of hope and innocence. And how better to express it than the via the howls, grunts, thumps and rattles of the ultimate misanthrope and his cadre of barely-literate, violence-obsessed thugs? This song has everything. Well, everything except sophistication. Built on a simple 3 chord guitar riff, bass playing courtesy of what sounds like a tempo-incapable drunk and simple, violent percussion, Velvet Underground guitarist John Cale's production touches, such as sleigh bells and single-note piano lines, augment the simplicity of the song to a degree that shouldn't be possible. The result is a wall of noise over which Mr Pop can vent all of the rage and frustration and fury and deviance that he had built up over the previous 22 years. And vent he does, in one of the purest, most visceral songs ever made.
This is a song that couldn't be made by anyone other than true, thuggish believers - the effect would seem watered down if it wasn't entirely honest and nihilistic. This is the music that the Manson family would have made if they had had any talent and were better able to skilfully manipulate their audience. As out of control as Iggy may have been, he knew what he was doing, and through a sense of performance heavily modelled on Jim Morrison and early blues singers, he simply took it to the next level through utter fearlessness and a willingness to inflict pain, both on his audience and himself.
It's a magnificent statement of nihilistic frustration and angst. Is it as good as Search and Destroy? It feels more adolescent and less artful, so I'd pick Search and Destroy as the Stooges song I would listen to for the rest of my life, but it's still better than almost anything I've ever heard.
Verdict: God-like
Tomorrow: Elvis Presley - Love Me Tender
Monday, August 17, 2009
John Mellencamp - Pink Houses
video
I'm not sure exactly why, but John a.k.a "Cougar" a.k.a "Mr Righteously Indignant Leftist" Mellencamp seems like a bit of a douchebag. Which is not to say that I have anything against righteously indignant leftists - hell, I dated/lived with one for almost two years. The difference between her and Cougar is that she didn't have any money and was thus entitled to be a righteously indignant leftist (RIL). I don't think you're allowed to be a RIL when you're married to a supermodel, have sold 40-odd million records and the big decisions in your life are "Porsche/Ferrari/both?". RILs are supposed to marry lumpen communists with bad teeth and body odour and live in community of poverty with an ill-shod, ringworm-ridden brood. Think Billy Bragg, not Bruce Springsteen.
Douche.
Nonetheless, the drug-free, teetotalling Cougar (*cough* loser *cough*) did take a bit of a stand against John McCain about the use of his songs on the campaign trail, so we should give some credit to him. Except that what was McCain doing using his songs anyway? You can't really see David Cameron using Billy Bragg songs, now can you?
OK, the music. Well, imagine that small part of the American midwest that thinks that Springsteen is a little aspirational and complex. This is just the music for them. It's cod-philosophy set to the music from a beer advert. It's all perfect middle American charm - clean acoustic guitar, a little electric guitar twang, tobacco-enhanced lead vocals and honey-voiced backing. It's about as offensive as an American tourist. I can live without ever hearing it again - it's not that it's offensively bad, it's just completely and utterly middle of the road. Billy Bragg would be ashamed.
Verdict: Rather stay at home
Tomorrow: The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog
video
I'm not sure exactly why, but John a.k.a "Cougar" a.k.a "Mr Righteously Indignant Leftist" Mellencamp seems like a bit of a douchebag. Which is not to say that I have anything against righteously indignant leftists - hell, I dated/lived with one for almost two years. The difference between her and Cougar is that she didn't have any money and was thus entitled to be a righteously indignant leftist (RIL). I don't think you're allowed to be a RIL when you're married to a supermodel, have sold 40-odd million records and the big decisions in your life are "Porsche/Ferrari/both?". RILs are supposed to marry lumpen communists with bad teeth and body odour and live in community of poverty with an ill-shod, ringworm-ridden brood. Think Billy Bragg, not Bruce Springsteen.
Douche.
Nonetheless, the drug-free, teetotalling Cougar (*cough* loser *cough*) did take a bit of a stand against John McCain about the use of his songs on the campaign trail, so we should give some credit to him. Except that what was McCain doing using his songs anyway? You can't really see David Cameron using Billy Bragg songs, now can you?
OK, the music. Well, imagine that small part of the American midwest that thinks that Springsteen is a little aspirational and complex. This is just the music for them. It's cod-philosophy set to the music from a beer advert. It's all perfect middle American charm - clean acoustic guitar, a little electric guitar twang, tobacco-enhanced lead vocals and honey-voiced backing. It's about as offensive as an American tourist. I can live without ever hearing it again - it's not that it's offensively bad, it's just completely and utterly middle of the road. Billy Bragg would be ashamed.
Verdict: Rather stay at home
Tomorrow: The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)