Archives for December 2015

Certain Songs #388: Eleventh Dream Day – “Rose of Jericho”

December 8, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Lived to Tell
Year: 1991

I can’t tell you when I first heard “Rose of Jericho,” but I can tell you when I first didn’t hear it: 1991. That year was so incredibly full of great music that I’m positive I’m still missing tons of it.

So it was probably 10 years later when I came across “Rose of Jericho,” and all I know for sure is that if I’d heard it in 1991, it would have been a contender for my favorite song of that year.

Certain Songs #387: Eleventh Dream Day – “Between Here and There”

December 7, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Beet
Year: 1989

For some reason, the hype around Beet, the major-label debut by Chicago’s Eleventh Dream Day, felt incredibly acute. And for some reason, I didn’t really love Beet when it first came out. Maybe those things are related, maybe they aren’t. I don’t remember.

I’m not sure why, but I’m guessing it’s because the rest of the album failed to live up to its amazing opening song, the incandescent “Between Here and There,”

Certain Songs #386: Elastica – “Stutter”

December 6, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Elastica
Year: 1995

Oh yeah, “Stutter.” What a refreshing blast of punk rock awesomeness.

Almost two decades after the first punk rock songs, somehow Elastica were able to write and record a song that sounded a ferocious as anything from the late 1970s, while still sounding fresh and new.

Plus it gave a reason for folks who were on the side of Oasis in the great Oasis vs. Blur battles (we really had no real problems in the mid-1990s) a reason to make fun of Damon Albarn of Blur.

Certain Songs #385: Edwin Starr – “War”

December 5, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: War & Peace
Year: 1970

Little-known fact: the original title of Edwin Starr’s “War” is that — like the album it came from — its first title was “War & Peace.”

OK, not really, I was inverting a Seinfeld joke, but probably the album title was what gave Larry David (I’m assuming) the idea for the joke. And weirdly enough, for such a serious son, “War” was probably been the inspiration for tons and tons of jokes over the past 45 years, probably because it comes on so strong it almost veers into self-parody.

Certain Songs #384: The Edgar Winter Group – “Frankenstein”

December 3, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: They Only Come Out at Night
Year: 1973

How weird was the early 1970s? That an instrumental that was nearly incomprehensible and full of weird twists and turns topped the Billboard charts.

And not as a novelty song either. Cos in the 1970s, that kind of shit happened all of the time!!!

I did my part: “Frankenstein” was one of the very first 45s I ever owned (and had a killer b-side, “Undercover Man”).

Certain Songs #383: Eddie Money – “Two Tickets To Paradise”

December 1, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Eddie Money
Year: 1977

In the 1970s, there were songs that became huge hits simply because the AM half of the audience liked the chorus and the FM half of the audience liked the incredibly long guitar solo.

A really good example is “Hotel California” by The Eagles, which has both a chorus everybody knows and an absolutely killer guitar solo at the end from Joe Walsh. (Not killer enough for it to be a Certain Song, because The Eagles). Another good example is pretty much any hit single from Santana.

Or of course, this eternally popular slice of soft-rock cheese.