Category: Tunes

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Tunes

Best tunes of 1993: #2 Adorable “Homeboy”

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So just two songs ago on this list, I posted about how I always connected the song in question, The Boo Radleys’ “Lazarus”, with drunkenly dancing at Toronto’s The Dance Cave back in the 90s and here’s another one I remember dancing to a heck of a lot back in the day. And though I definitely remember it from The Dance Cave as well, it is one of York University’s campus pubs that sticks with me when it comes to “Homeboy” by Adorable… and it’s mostly the fault of a young lady.

The pub in question was Jac’s in the basement of Norman Bethune College*, which I discovered early into my third year of “higher education” had alternative music and dancing on Friday nights, and the young lady was one of many who had caught my attention, but whom I later learned was very much interested in me. She requested the DJ play “Homeboy” and when he did, I recognized** the tune from the radio and joined her on the dance floor. I asked after the artist and it was only then that I connected the song with the group that also performed “Sunshine smile” and she added that it was her older brother that introduced her to the song. And just before I lost myself in the song, she laughingly whispered the word ‘Rage’ in my ear: an ongoing joke between the two of us about whether a song needed to be angry to be worth listening to.

Not long after that, I was out at my favourite music store at the time, Penguin Music, and found a copy of Adorable’s debut album, “Against perfection” on the used CD racks and snatched it up. It became one of my favourite new finds, spending a lot of time in my player. It would be years before I ever heard any of the group’s other work and this, thanks to the magic of the internet. Their largely forgotten sophomore (and only other released) long player was also quite good but fell victim to a music press that was keen to move on from the baggy and shoegaze scenes to which Adorable was attributed and embrace the budding brit pop wave.

“I’m tripping into the back of my mind
And your words like angels crash inside
And a word and a movement and a touch
And a word and a movement and it’s all too much”

“Homeboy” is exactly the type of song that I would’ve loved to dance to in the early to mid 90s. A rumbling bass line and peppy drumming underpins the entire track but really comes into focus during the verses as it acts as the counterpoint to Pete Fijalkowski’s wistful vocals. Then, at the chorus, the guitars crash in, finally making good on the chiming threats to take over, and our protagonist becomes more passionate in his delivery. Hence, the ‘rage’ the ‘young lady’ referred to. But the rage is not necessarily directed at anyone or any external thing – it’s an internalized shot as he bemoans, “You’re so beautiful”, over and over, at the one that got away.

This is a crazy good track and it makes me smile at all the memories, every damn time.

*Back in those days, all of the campus college had their own pubs, but from what I understand, all but the main campus pub have long-since closed.

**As did a bunch of my friends.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 1993 list, click here.

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Tunes

Best tunes of 2003: #12 Coldplay “Clocks”

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There are times while making and posting all these lists of my favourite tunes and albums of each year, times that I err and omit an important (to me) work of music. Indeed, I don’t have a perfect system and my memory is not at all what it used to be.

And so it was, that while counting down my favourite tunes of 2002, I somehow forgot to include “The scientist”, one of my favourite Coldplay songs. However, I can’t very well go back when redo the list at this point so I decided to right this wrong by fudging this new series a bit. “Clocks” appeared on “A rush of blood to the head”, the same 2002 album as “The scientist”, and was released as a single in the US in November 2002. Nevertheless, given that was released in the UK a few months later in 2003, I decided to bend my admittedly malleable rules of inclusion and insert “Clocks” here, a year late, as a sort of reparation for the earlier error. Besides, “Clocks” is a great tune in its own right.

I’ve already shared a few times on these pages about my intro to Coldplay via “Yellow“and ultimately, their debut album “Parachutes“. By 2002, we were all champing at the bit for new music but as it turns out, the group weren’t at all happy with their efforts on the recording sessions for their sophomore record. It was delayed a number of times. In fact, after putting it off, they went out on a world tour and started recording their third album. And it was during these sessions that “Clocks” came out of the woodwork and would go on to save “A rush of blood to the head”.

“Clocks” begins and ends with that piano riff that is instantly recognizable, has been used and sampled by other artists, and is nearly impossible to evacuate from your head once it’s lodged there. The song was built around this riff and despite “Clocks” being planned for a later album, it became imperative to include on the gestating sophomore release.

“The lights go out and I can’t be saved
Tides that I tried to swim against
Have brought me down upon my knees
Oh, I beg, I beg and plead”

The lyrics are unclear in literal meaning but they give a certain impression that is unmistakable. An emotion. An energy. And paired with that intense piano riff and the relentless drum beat, it all spells an immediacy. A sense that you are in the eye of the storm, feeling in slow motion while everything and everyone else is whipping around you triple time fast forward speed. This is life. This is the dream. And Coldplay is soundtracking it.

It’s a beautiful thing and no amount of radio overkill can dull the bright colours and rosy fragrance.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2003 list, click here.

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Eighties’ best 100 redux: #88 The Pogues “Sally Maclennane” (1985)

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(So it’s been a very long time (almost six months!) since we’ve seen a post in this series and the band featured today is the very reason why. The death of The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan last November hit me hard, perhaps harder than any other musician’s death in recent memory. When I saw that this song was the next on the list, I wondered whether I should use this space to commemorate how much MacGowan’s songwriting meant to me and how special he was to so many and I wondered whether I was up to the task. In the end, I decided to keep this post about the song at hand and of course, about the (entire) band that wrote and performed it.)

The Pogues were originally named Pogue Mahone when they formed in 1982, which is an anglicized play on a phrase in Gaelic meaning ‘kiss my arse’. The band sanitized and shortened it to their more popular name just as they were releasing their first album, “Red roses for me”, in 1984. The band and their unique celtic folk-infused punk sound drew international attention and success with their next two albums, 1985’s “Rum, sodomy, and the lash” and 1988’s “If I should fall from grace with god“. After which, the band began to fall to pieces due to the unreliability of the aforementioned founding member and frontman, Shane MacGowan, and his penchant for drinking. He made only cursory contributions to 1990’s “Hell’s ditch” and was finally sacked in 1991. The band carried on without him for a while, without the same success, but called it a day 1996.

The Pogues are still considered one of the more influential bands of the eighties. They practically invented the Celtic punk genre by fusing politically-charged lyrics and punk ethos with the use of traditional Celtic instruments and song structures. Without their existence, we likely wouldn’t have bands today like The Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, and The Mahones. And this song here is a perfect example of the template those other bands use.

“Sally MacLennane” was the second single released off “Rum, sodomy, and the lash” and incidentally, the second of the band’s singles to crack the UK singles charts. It is a drinking song that was reportedly inspired by a bar owned by MacGowan’s uncle. It’s upbeat with a machine gun drum line that punctuates each line, a hammering bass drum pace, swirling accordion and tin flute, and MacGowan’s inimitable debauched delivery that is oft answered with shouting backing vocals. It tells the story of a promising young man that leaves a home that he feels is impeding his potential. After years of absence, he realizes he misses his home but then, it isn’t the same upon returning. It’s about memory and loss and nostalgia, all things that often surface after a few pints.

Original Eighties best 100 position: n/a

Favourite lyric: “I’m sad to say I must be on my way / So buy me beer or whiskey cause I’m going far away.” It’s not so much the words, as cool and heavy as they are, but the way they are sung or shouted and make for meaningful drunken memories with friends.

Where are they now?: In 2001, The Pogues re-formed, including Shane MacGowan, and toured sporadically until 2014, but there was never any new music released. MacGowan’s death seems to have put an end to any talk of another reunion for now.

For the rest of the Eighties’ best 100 redux list, click here.