Archives for December 2017

Certain Songs #1086: Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – “Blinded by the Light”

December 30, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Roaring Silence
Year: 1976

Heh. I can almost hear the head-shaking and silent denunciations from my fellow Bruce Springsteen fans for choosing to write about this epic piece of prog-pop trash, and not about the jazzy R&B opening track of Springsteen’s career.

But fuck that: I’ve always loved this ridiculous arrangement, which — in my defense came out when I was 13 — pretty much owned the summer of 1976 on both the AM and FM radios. So I could hear the single on KYNO-AM, which was all chorus verse chorus verse chorus, and then flip over to KFIG or Rock 96FM and hear the album version, which was where the fun was.

Certain Songs #1085: The Mamas & The Papas – “California Dreamin'”

December 29, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears
Year: 1965

While it’s kinda bad form to misuse apostrophes for your band name — check the horribly named album cover to the left — that’s pretty much the only misstep one could accuse this other perfect piece of pop songcraft of taking.

An early reason why Lou Adler gets to sit next to Jack Nicholson at Lakers games, “California Dreaming” is an airtight piece of baroque folk rock that lives and dies on the vocal harmonies of The Mamas & The Papas. But mostly lives.

Certain Songs #1084: Mahlathini And The Mahotella Queens – “Thokozile”

December 28, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Thokozile
Year: 1986

In the early part of the awful summer of 1988, having just been blown away by the still-amazing The Indestructible Beat of Soweto — and unable to find a full album by my favorite artist on that comp, Udokotela Shange Namajaha (it took me almost 30 years to find one) (but i did!) — I took a flyer on a full album by one of the artists on that compilation, Mahlathini, who was known as the “Lion of Soweto” for reasons that were obvious the moment you heard him sing.

That album was called Thokozile, and while I didn’t understand a single word on it, as always, the music and performances were amazing.

Certain Songs #1083: The Magnolias – “One More Reason”

December 27, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Concrete Pillbox
Year: 1986

Coming from the same Minneapolis scene that birthed Hüsker Dü, The Replacements and Soul Asylum, The Magnolias sounded like a band that came from the same Minneapolis scene that birthed Hüsker Dü. The Replacements and Soul Asylum. Hell, their debut album — Concrete Pillbox — was even produced by Grant Hart.

And while, as an album, I prefer 1992’s more polished Off The Hook, — and haven’t heard any of the others — the last song on Concrete Pillbox, “One More Reason,” is as pure of a distillation of noisy, melodic & bratty punk rock as came out in the mid-1980s.

Certain Songs #1082: The Who – “Christmas”

December 25, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Tommy
Year: 1969

The thing about “Christmas,” of course, is that it’s really not a Christmas song.

But since it’s called “Christmas,” that means I can post something about it on Christmas Day, which is really just an excuse to write about The Who long before they come up alphabetically.

Certain Songs #1081: Low – “Just Like Christmas”

December 24, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Christmas
Year: 1999

I love this song so much, I almost wrote it back in September when I was doing all of the other Low songs, but figured I’d save it for Christmas Eve instead. So here we are.

And while the lyrics suggest it might not be a Christmas song (the actual time of year is left vague), there is absolutely no doubt that it’s just a like a Christmas song, especially because it’s the lead track on a record called “Christmas.”

Certain Songs #1080: The Magnetic Fields – “The Death of Ferdinand De Saussure”

December 23, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: 69 Love Songs
Year: 1999

Since Ferdinand De Saussure died in 1913, the murder confessed to in the amazing second verse of this song probably didn’t happen.

He was a linguist who was a great contributor to what is called semiotics which — I think, cos I’m trying to boil this down from several wiki articles — is all about the relationship between a word (the signifier) and what it means (the signified). In Saussure’s mind, that relationship was completely arbitrary.

Certain Songs #1079: The Magnetic Fields – “Papa Was A Rodeo”

December 21, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: 69 Love Songs
Year: 1999

So, I was late to the 69 Love Songs party. I didn’t actually get it until the next year: months after it came out. I think at the time, everything I’d read about The Magnetic Fields indicated to me that I probably wouldn’t like them, even as 69 Love Songs became critically acclaimed. But you can’t hear everything.

So getting it was an accident: it was either a birthday or going-away present from a guy at work. And immediately became obsessed with figuring out what each of the 69 (nice!) songs was on about. Even then, it took me quite some time to hear the epicness of “Papa Was a Rodeo.”

Certain Songs #1078: The Magnetic Fields – “Sweet-Lovin’ Man”

December 20, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: 69 Love Songs
Year: 1999

It was hard to figure out which songs on the 69 Love Songs to write about. For example, I almost wrote about the short, pointed “Reno Dakota” for this hilarious couplet: “it’s making me blue / Pantone 292.” I was also hard to skip the wistful “Come Back From San Francisco,” the witty “The Book of Love” and the wise “Parades Go By.”

But there was absolutely never any doubt that I was going to write about the effusive “Sweet-Lovin Man,” one of the purest of all of the 69 (nice!) love songs that Stephin Merrit wrote for the album.

Certain Songs #1077: The Magnetic Fields – “All My Little Words”

December 19, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: 69 Love Songs
Year: 1999

Arriving just as the old millennium came crashing into the new, the complete and utter audacity of 69 Love Songs made it into one of the last big pop events of that millennium.

The concept was right there in the title of the record: 69 (nice!) love — or love-adjacent — songs spread equally over three discs. A completely pure manifestation of the Ross The Boss motto that quantity was quality, it didn’t even matter if 69 Love Songs was chock full of filler, experiments, bad lyrics, and complete misfires.