Certain Songs

Certain Songs #259: Crosby, Stills & Nash: “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (Live at Woodstock)”

July 23, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Woodstock – Music From The Original Soundtrack
Year: 1969

We never really described it as such, but during the late 70s and early 80s Tim & I were on a quest to see every rock n roll performance that had ever been captured on film. It was secondary to our quests to see every concert and buy every record, but it was still definitely a thing.

In practical sense, this usually meant going to the midnite movies at the Tower Theater, where we’d saw everything from Jimi Plays Berkeley to D.O.A., but it also meant seeing a double bill of Rust Never Sleeps and Rock ‘n’ Roll High School at the Moon-glo Drive-in and renting a VHS of Blow-Up just to fast-forward to the part where Jimmy Page & Jeff Beck were playing together.

Certain Songs #258: Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Ramble Tamble”

July 22, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Cosmo’s Factory
Year: 1970

It goes without saying that Creedence Clearwater Revival were American originals, and still one of the greatest singles bands ever.

And in fact, those singles were so dominant on the radio of my youth and in the albums that I own, I’ve only ever loved one of their albums start-to-finish: 1970’s titanic Cosmo’s Factory

Of course, that just might be because Cosmo’s Factory starts with their greatest non-single — and quite possibly their greatest song — the onomatopoetically-named “Ramble Tamble,” which was once named by The A.V. Club as “The Most Rockin’ Song of All-Time.”

Certain Songs #257: Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Fortunate Son”

July 21, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Willy and The Poor Boys
Year: 1969

One of John Fogerty’s heaviest and most passionate songs, “Fortunate Son” is also a song that has not aged even a whit in the 40 years since it first burst out of Willy and The Poor Boys.

Which sucks. Because you want songs about economic disparity and how the rich take advantage of their privilege to get out of military service in a way that the poor never ever can to feel completely anachronistic. No such luck.

Certain Songs #256: Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Born on the Bayou”

July 20, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Bayou Country
Year: 1969

Ahhh, here we go. With its feedback lick rising like an alligator from the swamp, “Born on the Bayou” is 5:14 of mysterious sonic pleasure.

On one level it’s so simple: Tom Fogerty’s guitar is in one channel and John Fogerty’s guitar in the other, while Stu Cook and Doug Clifford are holding down the fort in the middle. So in that respect, it’s not that different from many other CCR songs. And yet, it’s totally different from not just other CCR songs, but every other song ever.

Certain Songs #255: Courtney Barnett – “Depreston”

July 19, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
Year: 2015.

2015 is only halfway over, but I somehow doubt I will love a song this year more than I love “Depreston,” Courtney Barnett’s brilliant ode to a moment of realization that the world is bigger and more complex than you could have ever imagined.

“Depreston” is hardly the only great song on Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, but its aching guitar hooks and strong sad melody — and the matter-of-fact way she sings it — jumped out at me from the very moment I heard it. That the lyrics tell a singular, relatable story just makes it that much more fantastic.

Certain Songs #254: Courtney Barnett – “Avant Gardener”

July 18, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas
Year: 2014

Ever hear a song and instantly recognize that the artist singing was a completely new and original voice?

That’s what happened to me the first time I ever heard Courtney Barnett’s “Avant Gardener.” I was blown away by how she was able to combine elements of previous things I loved into something totally fresh.

Certain Songs #253: Counting Crows – “Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby”

July 17, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: This Desert Life
Year: 1999.

It is a peculiar aspect of a project like “Certain Songs” that entire albums that are pretty great can be ignored if they don’t have that one cut that I will defend to the death. So it goes with Counting Crows second album, Recovering The Satellites which I think is their most consistent record, but without a single track (not even “Monkey” or “A Long December,”) that I have anything to really say about.

And that’s even when I point out that when Rox & Jimmy lived on Hollywood Blvd in 1995, one of their neighbors was Counting Crows’ drummer. I think he was their new drummer, Ben Mize, who powers maybe the best song Adam Duritz will ever write, 1999’s “Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby.”

Certain Songs #252: Counting Crows – “Einstein on the Beach (For an Eggman)”

July 16, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: DGC Rarities
Year: 1994

I understand why August and Everything After was such a huge record, but it sure seemed seemed uneven to me. So as they became a huge band that shoulda been right up my alley, I was really lukewarm on Counting Crows.

On one hand, I’m never going to quibble with a Billboard Top Ten folk-rock hit single that cops from “Brown Eyed Girl” and features the phrase “I want to be Bob Dylan.” On the other was that the major labels were becoming experts at co-opting indie and it was hard to tell initially if Counting Crows were truly on our or some kind of folk-rock version of Bush or Stone Temple Pilots or (shudder) Live.

Certain Songs #251: Continental Drifters – “Snow”

July 15, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Better Day
Year: 2001.

You’d kinda have to stretch to call Continental Drifters a “supergroup,” even in alt-rock circles. Sure, there was Vickie Peterson of the Bangles & Mark Walton of The Dream Syndicate and Susan Cowsill of the Cowsills, but none of these people were really household names, or the reason I bought their music.

For me, the draw for me was ex-dB Peter Holsapple, whose main band will be discussed just a few weeks from now.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #251: Continental Drifters – “Snow”

Certain Songs #250: The Connells – “Get a Gun”

July 14, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: One Simple Word
Year: 1990.

Gotta tell the truth: I really didn’t like One Simple Word that much at all. They wanted to toughen their sound, so they added big rock guitars all over the record, pummelling every bit of melody right out of the songs. And I really hated the lead guitar that sounded like it was just plugged into the mixing board and played by whomever was walking by.

It’s not that I’m against jangly bands plugging in and getting loud: The Posies, for one, did it quite successfully when they reinvented their sound for Frosting on The Beater. It’s just that the production on One Simple Word felt totally wrong for the songs. And from what I could tell, the songs really up to snuff, either.