Jim Connelly

Certain Songs #2171: Screaming Trees – “Sworn and Broken”

August 27, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Dust
Year: 1996

. . .

But after putting out six albums and six EPs between 1986-1992, it took four long years for Screaming Trees to return with another album, 1996’s Dust. And by 1996, the situation was totally different for grunge-identified bands, most of whom had either become massive stars; massive drug addicts, and in a lot of cases, both.

Had Dust came out in 1993, perhaps Screaming Trees could have capitalized on the momentum from “Nearly Lost You” and the post-cinema coattales of Singles. But it came out in 1996, and nobody gave a shit, though it did chart slightly higher — 134 to 141 — than Sweet Oblivion, it’s been consigned to the same pre-and-post Oblivion oblivion that the rest of their catalog has.

Certain Songs #2170: Screaming Trees – “Nearly Lost You”

August 26, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Sweet Oblivion
Year: 1992

. . .

Like many of the bands that got signed to a major label during the great grunge gold rush of the early 1990s, Seattle’s Screaming Trees had already put out four full-length albums — mostly on SST — prior to issuing their major label debut, 1991’s Uncle Anesthesia. I do know that at least one or two of those 1980s records made it to KFSR, and despite the fact that they were more psychedelic than grunge, I also recall not being all that impressed, though I’m pretty sure I saw and enjoyed them at the Blue during that time.

All 96 Rolling Stones Certain Songs, Ranked

August 25, 2021 by Jim Connelly

. . .

So, earlier this year, I wrote 96 Certain Songs posts about the Rolling Stones. I am now going to rank all of those songs by how much I love them, as opposed to how important or objectively great they are. Please wish me luck. And oh, don’t take this too seriously: I spent about an hour on it.

A Few Thoughts About Charlie Watts

August 24, 2021 by Jim Connelly

The biggest thing I stole from Charlie Watts was the hi-hat lift.

I think I first noticed it in the video for “Start Me Up:” that thing he did where he never hit the snare and the hi-hat at the same time. Watch any video of the Stones and you’ll see it: instead of “tick-tick-tick-twhack-tick-tick-tick-twhack,” his sound is “tick-tick-tick-WHACK-tick-tick-tick-WHACK.” It was a little thing that was also a big thing. There was a lot of that in Charlie Watts drumming — a whole series of little things that were actually big things.

And while the hi-hat lift might have made him look less fluid than peers like Keith Moon or Ringo Starr — all of that lifting of the right hand — when I started playing a few years later, I decided to use that technique because I liked how it made the snare even louder. And I loved — love! — teeth-rattling snare.

Certain Songs #2169: Scissor Sisters – “Take Your Mama”

August 23, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Scissor Sisters
Year: 2004

. . .

Here’s another band that had a song that I really loved, but until I started doing my patented Half-Assed Research for these posts, I had no idea of the extent of their career and popularity.

It turns out that Scissor Sisters was an American band that was much much bigger in the rest of the world than they were here. To the point where their biggest single, 2006’s “I Don’t Feel Like Dancing” was a top 5 smash all around the world, topping the charts in a bunch of places, but it didn’t even chart here at all, though they did have a few big dance singles here.

Certain Songs #2168: School of Fish – “Three Strange Days”

August 19, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: School of Fish
Year: 1991

. . .

I wonder why I never bought this album. I bought so many other albums because I happened to like the song on the radio, but so far as I can tell, I never got this one. It might be because that particular moment in 1991 it came out was a bit chaotic, and because 1991 was such an amazing year for music (even before Nevermind), I was already overloaded with amazing shit.

So I don’t really know all that much about School of Fish, outside of what I can find on the internet, which is this: they were one of those bands where the songwriting was by their lead singer & lead guitar player, and kind of shows.

Certain Songs #2167: Sarah Shook & The Disarmers – “Dwight Yoakam”

August 18, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Sidelong
Year: 2015

. . .

I know I say this every time it comes up, but has been one of my key beliefs that many of the greatest songs of the 21st century come from a little-known source: women who play country music. I’m not talking about your Mirandas and Taylors and Kaceys — though they certainly count — but rather people like Nikki Lane, Lydia Loveless, Margo Price, etc etc etc.

And Sarah Shook’s “Dwight Yoakam” just might be the greatest of them all, leaping right in with here big, sad voice announcing her current situation.

Certain Songs #2166: Sam Cooke – “A Change Is Gonna Come”

August 17, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Ain’t That Good News
1964

. . .

Despite all of his talent, looks, charm and entrepreneurial acumen, Sam Cooke was still a Black man in America. I was going to hedge that by saying “mid-century America,” but c’mon, already: while things might have gotten better, they sure as shit haven’t gotten better enough, else we wouldn’t need mass marches trying to remind the white power structure that Black lives matter.

And so, every single day of his life, Sam Cooke had to do calculations that I can’t even imagine, though whenever I read something about in Peter Guralnick’s biography, how they’d have car trouble on the road or their hotel was booked, I thought “oh my god, that must have been so much worse than had it happened to me.”

Certain Songs #2165: Sam Cooke – “Meet Me At Mary’s Place”

August 16, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Ain’t That Good News
Year: 1964

. . .

It’s ironic that the first album of Sam Cooke’s contract with RCA — which gave him the most control he’d ever had — was also the final album recorded and released in Sam Cooke’s lifetime. And while Ain’t That Good News wasn’t nearly as focused as 1963’s Night Beat, which was recorded in the space of three nights as opposed to nearly a year, it did have a structure. The first side featured uptempo songs — nearly all written or co-written by Cooke — like the rollicking title track, the previously-released “Another Saturday Night” and “Good Times,” which was covered by the Rolling Stones on their immortal Out of Our Heads.

Side two featured soaring string-laden soul ballads, mostly covers, and peaked with the Cooke-written all-time all-time that we’ll discuss tomorrow. Of course I like the first side better, and probably my favorite song on the whole thing was the amblin’ “Meet Me At Mary’s Place.”

Certain Songs #2164: Sam Cooke – “Another Saturday Night”

August 14, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Ain’t That Good News
Year: 1963

. . .

Because he had that voice, those looks and was also charismatic as hell, Sam Cooke never lacked for female companionship, and indulged in behavior that would have gotten him cancelled — and eventually got him dead — had it surfaced at the time. And so, it’s kinda ironic that one of his greatest songs was well, total horseshit.