Album: Psychocandy
Year: 1985
One of the things about Psychocandy was the pacing.
It wasn’t all song after song of buzzsaw guitars and pounding rhythms: there were also songs that laid up on the noise, mostly, and provided a bit of a respite from all of the noise, usually over on a variation of the Phil Spector “Be My Baby” beat.
The most famous example of these songs was “Just Like Honey,” — which kicked off the whole album — but on the second side, the etherial “Sowing Seeds” took also this approach (and had Jim Reid confessing that he wanted peace, like he was a fucking hippie or something), but the most gorgeous of all was the lighter-than-air “Cut Dead,” which cut me to the core, both musically and lyrically.
Right around the time of Psychocandy, I was also falling into another relationship, and so when over a heavily-echoed acoustic guitar and gentle floor toms plus tambourine Jim Reid started singing about his actual feelings and stuff, I could totally relate.
What can I do?
It’s gotten me beaten black and blue
Why don’t you know?
You got me moving much too slow
Why can’t you see?
You got me chasing honey bees
You made me fall
Broke me up and took it all
Call me your messed up boyDa-da da da da da
Da da da-da da da da da-da
Da da da-da da da da da-da
Da
Especially when halfway each verse, William Reid comes in with a quietly empathetic guitar hook that clearly feels sorry for his brother, “Cut Dead” sounds sad, lonely and desperate, a plea for understanding from a messed up boy who was in way over his messed up head.
As the kids on Twitter say, “it me,” and “Cut Dead” was the song from Psychocandy that took up permanent residence in my head (and in my big black notebook into which I poured all of my angst and worry) during that spring and into that summer.
Fan-made video for “Cut Dead”
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