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Certain Songs #2268: The Smashing Pumpkins – “Rhinoceros”

January 17, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Gish
Year: 1991

. . .

For reasons I don’t remember, the debut album by The Smashing Pumpkins, Gish, totally didn’t make my radar when it was initially released in 1991. I wasn’t alone: it barely grazed the Billboard top 200 albums charts, stalling at 195.

Instead, I picked it up in late 1992 or early 1993, having become Pumpkins-curious based their track on the Singles soundtrack, “Drown,” about more which tomorrow.

Certain Songs #2267: Small Faces – “Lazy Sunday”

January 16, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake
Year: 1968

. . .

In a little over two years, Small Faces had gone from your typical English R&B snobs to psychedelic minstrels whose consensus best album was named after Liverpudlian tobacco, was released in a circular sleeve, and featured a second side that was song suite about a guy named Happiness Stan who sets out to find the missing half of the moon.

That’s just how great the drugs were in late-60s London.

Certain Songs #2266: Small Faces – “Itchycoo Park”

January 14, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: There Are But Four Small Faces
Year: 1967

. . .

As befits any self-respecting British Invasion band of the mid-1960s, the Small Faces discography is a bit of a hash. Actually, it’s a fucking brush fire. Their 1966 debut album, on Decca Records and their 1967 second album, on Immediate Records — as they were smart enough to get the fuck away from shitty-ass Decca as soon as possible — are both called Small Faces, because why not? I guess they beat Peter Gabriel to the punch in that way.

As revenge for splitting from Decca, a compilation of unissued tracks plus singles recorded while still under contract called From The Beginning was also released in 1967. There were also two posthumous compilations from Immediate, 1968’s half-live In Memoriam and 1969’s odds-and-sods The Autumn Stone.

Certain Songs #2265: Small Faces – “Sha-La-La-La-Lee”

January 13, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Small Faces
Year: 1966

. . .

Given what they would do with the rest of their careers, Small Faces almost seems like a supergroup in reverse. During their main incarnation, they consisted of Steve Marriott on guitar and vocals, Ronnie Lane on bass, Ian McLagan on keyboards and Kenney Jones on drums, all of whom — except for Marriott — have already been mentioned in this project.

And while, with one exception, which we’ll get to tomorrow, they weren’t all that popular here in the States, they were massive in the U.K., as their identification with the mods helped them score seven Top Ten hits between 1966-1968.

Certain Songs #2264: Sly & The Family Stone – “If You Want Me To Stay”

January 12, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fresh
Year: 1973

. . .

And this is where I came, kinda sorta.

I started listening hardcore to the radio in the spring of 1973, meaning that I ended up hearing “If You Want Me To Stay” a zillion times on 1300 KYNO-AM, and probably taped it off the radio, as well. And so, like a lot of the songs from that era, I know every single bit of it, and yet — because I was listening to it through shitty transistor radio speakers — can still discover nuances in it.

Certain Songs #2263: Sly & The Family Stone – “Spaced Cowboy”

January 11, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: There’s A Riot Goin’ On
Year: 1971

. . .

You know how, with big budget films, there’s always some critic that says, “sure it cost a lot, but it’s all up there on the screen.” Well, it’s kinda like that with Sly & The Family Stone’s 1971 classic, There’s A Riot Goin’ On, only instead of money, it’s drugs. And nowhere are the drugs more prevalent that the glorified second side jam, “Spaced Cowboy,” which serves much the same purpose on There’s A Riot Goin’ On as “I Just Want to See His Face” does on Exile on Main Street.

Certain Songs #2262: Sly & The Family Stone – “Family Affair”

January 10, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: There’s A Riot Goin On
Year: 1971

. . .

Despite the fact that they ended 1969 basically on top of the world, it was nearly two years before said world got any new music from Sly & The Family Stone, an absolute eternity in those days. Of course, Sly & The Family Stone wasn’t the only band to essentially take 1970 off: both the Rolling Stones and The Who stop-gapped 1970 with live albums, and Sly & The Family Stone did the same with their essential Greatest Hits album.

Certain Songs #2261: Sly & The Family Stone – “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”

January 9, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Greatest Hits
Year: 1969

. . .

For Sly & The Family Stone, 1969 was a year where they went from triumph to triumph to triumph.

It started off with “Everyday People” riding high on the charts, on its way to being their first #1 hit single. That was followed by the springtime release of Stand!, their first undisputedly great album. In the summertime, they played fantastic sets at the Harlem Cultural Festival — sadly not properly documented until Questlove’s fantastic Summer of Soul documentary came out last year — and, of course, Woodstock. In between those two performances, they put out “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” which peaked at #2.

Certain Songs #2260: Sly & The Family Stone – “Everybody is A Star”

January 7, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Greatest Hits
Year: 1970

. . .

Remember how, in my post on “Everyday People,” I joked how it would be kind of impossible to see Sly Stone as one of titular everyday people, given all of his talent and how his music was topping the charts?

Well, he figured out a way around that conundrum, because of course he did. If Sly Stone, the star was everyday people, then it could only follow that everyday people were also stars!

Certain Songs #2259: Sly & The Family Stone – “Hot Fun in The Summertime”

January 6, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Greatest Hits
Year: 1969

. . .

Maybe the reason that Sly & The Family Stone didn’t release “Somebody’s Watching You” as a single after “Stand!” didn’t crack the top 20 was that they’d already started working on their next album, and “Hot Fun in The Summertime” was the first taste of that record. But of course, that record never materialized, and “Hot Fun in the Summertime” (and the next two songs I’m writing about) all ended up on 1970’s Greatest Hits record.

A languid shuffle driven by Sly’s piano, “Hot Fun in the Summertime” was released just in time to be riding high in the charts when they played Woodstock in mid-August, though it wasn’t one of the songs they played at Woodstock, because of reasons, I guess? I mean, why