Certain Songs

Certain Songs #1688: R.E.M. – “Gardening at Night”

November 24, 2019 by Jim Connelly 2 Comments

Album: Chronic Town EP
Year: 1982

File Under Penitence

“Gardening at Night” just might be my favorite R.E.M. song . . .

It was early 1985, and I wanted to try singing in a band again. I’d done so in 1980-1981, and while it didn’t end well — I got tossed out for a guy who could, you know, actually sing — I was eager to try again.

After all, it was the mid-1980s, and if you loved music, you tried to be in a band. Because that’s what R.E.M. and The Replacements did. In this case, that band was called The Exploding Neon Kittens, because of course it was. I don’t really recall how the Exploding Neon Kittens got together, but Joe played guitar, Damian played drums and Rocky, who was a few years younger, played bass. We practiced in Damian’s basement, because that’s where the drums were.

Certain Songs #1687: R.E.M. – “Wolves, Lower”

November 23, 2019 by Jim Connelly 2 Comments

Album: Chronic Town EP
Year: 1982

File Under Suspicion

So let’s begin the begin.

I may have read about R.E.M. prior to opening up the issue of Trouser Press that contained a flexi-disc that had “Wolves, Lower” on one side and the Lords of The New Church “Russian Roulette” — after all, the original Hib-Tone “Radio Free Europe” single came out in 1981 to some critical acclaim — but I sure hadn’t heard them.

Certain Songs #1686: Quicksilver Messenger Service – “Fresh Air”

November 22, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Just For Love
Year: 1970

Quicksilver Messenger Service came out of the late-60s San Francisco psychedelic scene that also produced The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape.

At least partially because founding member Dino Valenti — who early on, made a name for himself by writing the major hippie anthem, “Get Together” — spent nearly two years in prison on various drug busts, Quicksilver never gained the traction that peers like the Dead and the Airplane did, though they did have at least one near-hit single, and FM staple in 1970’s “Fresh Air,” which tripled as a weed metaphor, environmental anthem and a reaction to getting out of prison.

Certain Songs #1685: ? and the Mysterians – “96 Tears”

November 21, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: 96 Tears
Year: 1966

. . .

Has there ever been more garage-rock thing than a band named “? and the Mysterians” doing a #1 single called “96 Tears?”

I’m pretty sure that it could only have happened in 1966, when rock ‘n’ roll was king and groups of kids from all over the country could suddenly have their weird little song on the radio, no matter how unpolished it was, just as long as it was fun and intense.

Certain Songs #1684: Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”

November 20, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: A Night at The Opera
Year: 1975

. . .

I will stipulate the “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of the most popular songs of all time, getting over not just in spite of its total and utter ridiculousness, but because of it. It’s totally and completely over-the-top, and all the better for that. You can hate “Bohemian Rhapsody,” but I’m not even sure what the point of that is.

It’s had three separate runs of popularity: at first, back in 1975, where it became Queen’s first top ten single, and most recently, just a couple of years ago after the film that bears its name came out. But it’s the second time that really matters to me, as it led me to a great pop culture revelation.

Certain Songs #1683: Queen – “Modern Times Rock ‘N’ Roll”

November 19, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Queen
Year: 1973

. . .

Hi, my name is Jim, and I have a terrible confession to make: I’m not really much of a Queen fan.

I’m not sure why, but for some reason all of things that everybody loves about them — the bombast, Brian May’s utterly unique guitar tone, Freddy Mercury’s equally unique howl, the stacked vocals — never did it for me.

Certain Songs #1682: The Pursuit of Happiness – “Hard To Laugh”

November 18, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Love Junk
Year: 1988

. . .

Gonna be a bit of a contrarian here. Obviously the big single — and good lord is “big” used relatively here — by The Pursuit of Happiness is the cynical late-20s drum-fueled anthem “I’m An Adult Now,” in which the narrator realizes that his youth is coming to an end and is suddenly in a blind panic about how to deal with it.

It’s a pretty funny song, no doubt, but even then, I wasn’t really down with all of the conclusions it came up with, and I’m not sure it ever fully resolved the contradiction of being a loud song that took the stance that it was now bad to listen to loud songs. No doubt that was part of the joke, and I’m thinking way too hard about it.

Certain Songs #1681: Public Image Ltd – “Rise”

November 14, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Album
Year: 1986

. . .

But of course, Johnny Lydon was too damn restless to stay in any place for very long, and so after Jah Wobble left, 1981’s The Flowers of Romance, was less bass-heavy, and 1984’s This is What You Want…This is What You Get, where Lydon wiped Keith Levene from the finished tracks and added shitty horns, and while it sported a relative hit, that relative hit was the dreadful “This Is Not A Love Song.”

So imagine my surprise a couple of later when Lydon released my favorite song of his entire solo career, the unlikely “Rise”, which somehow melds one of the greatest jazz drummers in history with one of the most overplaying guitarists with an old Irish folk saying and utterly anonymous mid-1980s production.

Certain Songs #1680: Public Image Ltd – “Poptones”

November 13, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Metal Box
Year: 1979

“We’re not a band, we’re a company”

In late 1979, Public Image Ltd released their second album, initially called Metal Box after the packaging, and later called Second Edition when it was released in a slightly more, er, accessible format. They also made two amazing appearances on American TV; one somewhat expected, and the other so far beyond the pale that it still defies explanation.

Certain Songs #1679: Public Image Ltd – “Public Image”

November 12, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Public Image: First Issue
Year: 1978

. . .

After the Sex Pistols broke up following their U.S. tour — wait, that’s not right. Start again.

After Johnny Rotten left the Sex Pistols following their U.S. tour, he almost instantly formed a band while his former bandmates caroused with bank robbers, made films and did smack, desperately trying to get their focus, which, of course they never did. Because they’d lost it.