Archives for November 2023

Certain Songs #2741: Todd Snider – “My Generation (Part 2)”

November 27, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Songs For The Daily Planet
Year: 1994

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Todd Snider first came to my attention when the hidden track from his 1994 debut, Songs For The Daily Planet, became a minor radio hit on alt-rock radio. That song was “Talkin’ Seattle Grunge Rock Blues,” a satirical diss on the reluctant rock stars of the era, which told a story of a band that was so reluctant that they wouldn’t even play their songs, which of course made them massive stars, a situation that led to an inevitable mid-1990s scene:

Certain Songs #2740: Tobin Sprout – “All Used Up”

November 21, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Moonflower Plastic (Welcome to My Wigwam)
Year: 1997

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Having left Guided by Voices because apparently being on the road with Robert Pollard isn’t conducive to raising a child — though he would be back for a bit in the early 2010s — Tobin Sprout wasted no time in releasing his second solo album, 1997’s Moonflower Plastic (Welcome to My Wigwam).

Certain Songs #2739: Tobin Sprout – “The Last Man Well Known to Kingpin”

November 20, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Carnival Boy
Year: 1996

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The final track on Tobin Sprout’s 1996 album Carnival Boy is a case study in how to pile on instrumentals and vocals as a song moves forward, continually upping the ante until it becomes an utterly perfect hook machine. Opening with just a single guitar and bass from Sprout, followed by Guided by Voices drummer Kevin Fennell’s steady beat, “The Last Man Well Known to Kingpin” starts with the first of its series of name-drops:

Certain Songs #2738: Tobin Sprout – “It’s Like Soul Man”

November 19, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Carnival Boy
Year: 1996

. . .

I mean, imagine being the other songwriter in Guided by Voices.

While Tobin Sprout, who showed up full-time for 1992’s Propeller — perhaps not coincidentally their first great album — got some co-writing credits and even solo writing credits on albums like Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes he was always going to be overwhelmed by the insanely prolific Robert Pollard, who has written approximately 2,674,887 songs in the past 35 years or so.

Certain Songs #2737: Titus Andronicus – “(I Blame) Society”

November 18, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: An Obelisk
Year: 2019

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Titus Andronicus followed up The Most Lamentable Tragedy with 2016’s quieter A Productive Cough, which featured longer, looser songs, not to mention the temerity to record and release a relatively faithful cover of “Like a Rolling Stone,” featuring a 2018 approximation of Dylan’s Thin Wild Mercury sound, which could have been a breaking point, but I actually quite liked, and found as funny as mastermind Patrick Stickles probably did..

Certain Songs #2736: Titus Andronicus – “Stranded (On My Own)”

November 17, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: The Most Lamentable Tragedy
Year: 2015

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Titus Andronicus was one of those artists I discovered in the initial flush of the A.V. Club diaspora onto Twitter in the early 2010s, from which I discovered all kinds of music and TV shows for quite some time, as smarter younger people would discuss their favorites on the Tweetdeck tab I called “A.V. Club Club.”

Certain Songs #2735: Tina Turner – “Whole Lotta Love”

November 16, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Acid Queen
Year: 1975

. . .

Tina Turner was so chuffed about playing The Acid Queen in Tommy that her next album — her final recordings with Ike — was called Acid Queen, and featured an entire side of rock covers: another version of “Acid Queen,” but also “I Can See For Miles,” “Under My Thumb,” “Let’s Spend The Night Together” and most improbably, a futuristic soul groove version of “Whole Lotta Love,” which showed that Ike Turner had been listening intently to what Norman Whitfield and Isaac Hayes had been doing.

And so while Henry Davis basically lifted the bassline whole from John Paul Jones, the guitars of Spencer Proffer and, yes, that Ray Parker, Jr, stuck to atmosphere mostly, leaving all of the heavy musical lifting to the unhurried groove of drummer Ed Green and the swirling string arrangements.

Certain Songs #2734: Tina Turner – “The Acid Queen”

November 15, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Tommy
Year: 1975

. . .

Of course, outside of maybe seeing her on the Sonny & Cher or maybe a stray TV performance of “Proud Mary,” my first real exposure to Tina Turner was in Ken Russell’s film of Tommy, which I only saw because 12-year-old Jim wanted to see Elton John. It was a scene when Tommy’s mother, played by Ann-Margaret and stepfather, played by Oliver Reed decided that maybe psychedelics would be a good way to de-deaf, de-dumb and de-blind Tommy. As people did. So they took him to The Acid Queen, as played by Turner.

The resulting scene is over nine minutes of Turner dancing around like a maniac singing “Acid Queen” while abusing Tommy and eventually sticking him in a metal contraption that had dozens of needles shooting acid into his body, sending him on a lights swirling camera spinning skeleton snakes psychedelic freak-out, which did not seem like fun. Drugs are scary!!

Certain Songs #2733: Tina Turner – “Nutbush City Limits”

November 14, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: All The Best
Year: 1973

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Confession time: I’ve never been a huge fan of “Proud Mary.” In any incarnation. I’m not denying that it’s a great song, an American classic, and that Tina & Ike Turner did a dynamite job turning it into what was by far their biggest hit in 1971. I just don’t love it. So that’s why I’m not writing about it, in case you were curious.

Much more my liking was their final hit, 1973’s “Nutbush City Limits,” a weird bouncy semi-autobiographical song written by Tina herself.

Certain Songs #2732: Tina Turner – “River Deep-Mountain High”

November 13, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Simply The Best
Year: 1966

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“River Deep-Mountain High” found Tina Turner for the first time escaping the musical clutches of the evil genius Ike Turner and heading for the safety of — checks notes — the evil genius Phil Spector. Oh.

Apparently, Spector had caught the Ike & Tina Turner Revue — who BTW, were already enough of a success to have had a million selling #14 Grammy nominated song called “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine,” in 1961 — and had them close his 1966 The Big T.N.T. Show concert film. Some of the other folks in that film: The Byrds, Bo Diddley, Joan Baez, Roger Miller and Ray Charles, not exactly a collection of scrubs.