Certain Songs

Certain Songs #1678: Public Enemy – “Brothers Gonna Work It Out”

November 11, 2019 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Fear of a Black Planet
Year: 1990

. . .

You can use a lot of words to describe the music that Public Enemy made on in the late 80s & early 90’s — “hard,” “revolutionary,” “banging” all come to mind — but “catchy” probably isn’t one of those words. For the most part, they didn’t worry about people singing along with their songs; they’d much rather have them chanting those songs while marching in the street.

But “Brothers Gonna Work It Out,” which was essentially a duet between Chuck D and Flavor Flav, is well and truly catchy, deploying all kinds of vocal samples the same way, say, Prince would deploy guitar and keyboard riffs, my favorite one being:

Certain Songs #1677: Public Enemy – “Welcome To The Terrordome”

November 10, 2019 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Fear of a Black Planet
Year: 1990

. . .

Now they’re just showing off.

With every single measure, every single beat utterly exploding from your speakers, “Welcome To The Terrordome” just might be the pinnacle of the art of the Bomb Squad, the insanely creative production team that featured Chuck D, Eric “Vietnam” Sadler, and Keith & Hank Shocklee. It’s not so much a wall of sound, but a wave of sound that forces you to either ride or drown. And either one is cool.

Certain Songs #1676: Public Enemy – “Fight The Power”

November 7, 2019 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Fear of a Black Planet
Year: 1990

I still remember going to see Do The Right Thing during an empty matinee at the UA at Barstow and Blackstone. At the time, there was a clearly racist hysteria that the film’s incendiary ending could somehow instigate rioting, but there certainly wasn’t any reaction but minds being blown.

Or at least mine was: I’d enjoyed She’s Gotta Have It and watched School Daze, but Do The Right Thing was a complete and utter leveling up, a smart, funny and morally ambiguous look at race, class, capitalism and everybody going crazy from the fucking heat.

Certain Songs #1675: Public Enemy – “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”

November 6, 2019 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
Year: 1988

. . .

“Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic.” That’s the name of the Isaac Hayes song — from his 1969 album Hot Buttered Soul — from which the piano sample that fuels what is probably my favorite rap song: the titanic “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos.”

Certain Songs #1674: Public Enemy – “Bring The Noise”

November 5, 2019 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Year: 1987

. . .

Holy fuck, this song!!

Public Enemy’s second single in the run-up to It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back as well a cornerstone of the Less Than Zero soundtrack, “Bring The Noise” is so chock full of great lines and great beats it’s actually kinda overwhelming. I’m tempted to just quote the lyrics, and let it go at that.

Certain Songs #1673: Public Enemy – “Rebel Without a Pause”

November 4, 2019 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Year: 1987

. . .

The first single from the monumental It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back came out only a few months after their debut album, Yo! Bum Rush The Show!, but it was already light years ahead, an early example of the production technique of The Bomb Squad, who along with Sonic Youth on the rock tip, completely changed music in 1988.

Or at least changed me. I was never the same after those two records, neither of which I actually fully heard until they finished 1-2 in the 1988 Pazz & Jop critics poll, and so in early 1989, I knew that I had to give them a shot or ignore the critical conversation for the rest of my life.

Certain Songs #1672: The Psychedelic Furs – “All That Money Wants”

November 1, 2019 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: All of This And Nothing
Year: 1988

After the major disappointment of Mirror Moves and the misbegotten re-recording of “Pretty in Pink,” I didn’t even bother with 1987’s Midnight to Midnight, especially after I heard the single, “Heartbreak Beat,” a synth-drenched wannabe anthem that proved to be their highest-charting single here in the U.S., which means that some of you might remember it fondly. I do not.

I had completely disconnected myself from the music The Psychedelic Furs made in the mid-1980s, and in my own youthful arrogance, I figured that was that.

Certain Songs #1671: The Psychedelic Furs – “Heaven”

October 31, 2019 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Mirror Moves
Year: 1984

. . .

It’s not a hard-and-fast rule, but in general, beware the album by a band that with a cover that features only the lead singer. Especially when their previous records always featured the full band. For example, the first Rolling Stones album to to have just Mick Jagger on the cover was Goats Head Soup, nobody’s pick for the best Rolling Stones album. Obviously, there are exceptions — there are always exceptions — but outside of (ironically) Tattoo You, I can’t think of any.

So in retrospect, the fact that Mirror Moves features only a frowning, posing Richard Butler on the cover and the other two Furs, Tim Butler and John Ashton — Vince Ely having left in the wake of Forever Now — was probably the first clue as to the album’s un-goodness. The second clue was, of course, on the inner sleeve, as well as the record label: “Produced by Keith Forsey,” who at that point was primarily known for smoothing out Billy Idol’s punk sneer with a pop sheen, and, oh yeah, Flashdance.

Certain Songs #1670: The Psychedelic Furs – “Yes I Do”

October 30, 2019 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Forever Now (Original U.S. Vinyl)
Year: 1982

. . .

So here’s some more weird record company stuff. Just as it was with The Psychedelic Furs and Talk Talk Talk, the tracklistings on the U.K. and U.S. versions of Forever Now were completely different. The U.K. version started with “President Gas” and ended with “Sleep Comes Down” while the U.S. started with “Forever Now” and closed with “Yes I Do.”

Which is fine, except that “Yes I Do” was called “Merry-Go-Round” in the U.K. and had completely different verses — but the exact same choruses — than its U.S. counterpart. It was probably called “Merry-Go-Round” for the carnivalesque keyboards added by Todd Rundgren, as well as the circular beat that the great Vince Ely provided, but of course, I only knew the U.S. version. That was the one that I fell in love with and to.

Certain Songs #1669: The Psychedelic Furs – “Run and Run”

October 29, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Forever Now
Year: 1982

Sorry kids, no “Love My Way.” While I never hated it, I really didn’t like it, either, and while I was glad that the P-Furs were making some kind of inroads on U.S. radio, remove the vocals and “Love My Way” could have been just about anyone.

Much much better was “Run and Run,” the final single from Forever Now, and the song that sounded most like it sprang from the same well as the first two albums, while also showing a way forward.