Album: Psychocandy
Year: 1985
Ahh. “My Little Underground.” For 30 years, it’s been my second-favorite song on Psychocandy, just a skosh behind the song I’m posting about tomorrow, “Something’s Wrong.”
But, just as I realized that the one song I needed to see at the Replacements reunion was “Left of the Dial” and not the-song-I’ve-said-was-my-favorite-song-by-anyone-ever-for-years-and-years “Answering Machine,” as I started doing the run-up to writing about the songs on Psychocandy, I realized that “My Little Underground” might be my favorite song on it. Because it’s perfect. Just fucking perfect.
One of the criticisms of Psychocandy back in the day was that it was “too calculated.” Which, I get sorta. Part of our indie aesthetic was that a lot of the artists just walked into the studio and recorded their songs, and whatever came out, came out. Hi, we’re The Replacements, and this song was written 20 minutes after it was recorded. The ethos was that if you worked on your music too much, that made you no different than Journey or Foreigner or Boston.
So while Sonic Youth would walk into a studio with their weird tunings and songs that had little or no structure and what came out was unique and special to that moment of recording, Psychocandy clearly had a whole helluva lot of thought behind every single layer of fuzz being applied to each song.
Sure. And while normally I tilt to the “just let it happen” school of thought, when the results of the everything in its right place approach as stunning as “My Little Underground,” who cares how calculated it is?
A paean to introversion, “My Little Underground” starts with William Reid’s guitar set to phaser, and a second after Bobby Gillespie starts racing with his floor toms and snare, Jim Reid is right with him getting the hell out of wherever he is to where he wants to be.
Running away
I got something to say
You’re in my way
So goodbye yesterdayI’m gonna run and find
A place where I can hide
Somewhere that no one knows
Someplace that no one goes
So don’t you look for me
I’ll be where you can’t see
Somewhere I can’t be found
My little undergroundAhh ahh ahh
One of the great things about “My Little Underground” is how it’s always outrunning itself, it’s all forward momentum, even as the lyrics are all about being by yourself. And being happy about being by yourself.
We all have the place, don’t we? Or is it just us introverts? It doesn’t matter whether or not we have a partner or are flying solo, there is still that place where we can just go and read or listen to music or not have to deal with anybody else for a while.
That’s what “My Little Underground” is about. It would be great enough, and then they glide into the bridge:
Sun shines so high
Bright in the sky
Sun shines so
Sun shines so
Sun shines so high above
And as Jim Reid sings about the sun, William Reid’s guitar is the sun, shining bright, shining hard, shining high and most of all shining loud, covering all of the planet with big beautiful rays that are just too much for anybody to stay in for too long, and will blind you if you look into its eyes, even though damn straight that’s where the fun is.
And then the sun sets all around the world at once and even Jim Reid isn’t sure where his head is at.
And I can’t
Can’t understand it
Don’t know why
Don’t know whyJust can’t
Can’t understand it
Don’t know why
Don’t know whyAnd it’s cold outside
Doesn’t work out right
That last minute of “My Little Underground” is one of my favorite minutes of music by anybody ever: equal parts beauty, mystery, noise, power and love. Everything I want from music all wrapped up into a moment in time that I will never quite fully understand, or if I did ever understand it, I would never ever fully recover from. Could be either. Could be both, I don’t even know anymore.
All I know is that when William Reid’s guitar spins around the world just before “can’t understand it” part, it also spins around my soul.
“My Little Underground”
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