Album Psychocandy
Year: 1985
in the summer of 1985, the layout of our condo at the end of the Ikeway had Kirk’s room at the end of the hallway that connected the bedrooms to the living room and kitchen area. This was important because while all three of us — Kirk, Tim and I — had our own stereo systems, none of us had enough money to buy a communal stereo system for the front part of the condo.
This meant that Kirk’s stereo was the defacto sound system for our entire place, but of course, in order to hear anything in the front room, it had to be turned up LOUD, so that the sound would travel down the funnel of the hallway and explode into the living room.
As you can imagine, none of us minded this, given that 30+ years later, we’re still being asked by our respective spouses if we could turn the music down to a normal volume. Which of course it’s already at, said normal volume being LOUD.
Anyways, one morning or afternoon in waning days of the summer of 1985, I was blasting the second Jesus and Mary Chain single that I had purchased, the noisily laconic “You Trip Me Up,” down the hallway and naturally, I had Kirk’s stereo cranked one louder in order to get the full effect, and Tim emerged from the bathroom — perched dead in the middle of the hallway noise funnel — and declared “That sounded like an airplane just landed in our living room.”
Both noisier and prettier than “Never Understand,” “You Trip Me Up” almost obscures everything underneath the sheets of noise: Bobby Gillespie’s drums are virtually non-existent, and while Douglas Hart’s bass starts the song, almost instantly it’s fighting for its very life.
Hell, even when William Reid takes a guitar solo-ish, he also adds another layer or two of feedback just to be perverse.
It shouldn’t work at all, but then at the end, Jim Reid hits the highest part of his register and sings over and over, and the combination of melody and the sentiment melt the sheets of feedback right away.
I’d like to trip you up
I’d like to trip you up
I’d like to trip you up huh hup
I’d like to trip you upI’d like to trip
I’d like to trip
I’d like to trip you up
I’d like to trip you up
By the time “You Trip Me Up” had finished working its magic, I was so excited for a whole album of this stuff, I couldn’t even wait. Even though I had to.
“You Trip Me Up” official video
Every Certain Song Ever
A filterable, searchable & sortable database with links to every “Certain Song” post I’ve ever written.
Certain Songs Spotify playlist
(It’s recommended that you listen to this on Spotify as their embed only has 200 songs.)
Support “Certain Songs” with a donation on Patreon
Go to my Patreon page