Category: Tunes

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Best tunes of 1993: #7 Radiohead “Creep”

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“When you were here before
Couldn’t look you in the eye
You’re just like an angel
Your skin makes me cry
You float like a feather
In a beautiful world
I wish I was special
You’re so f*ckin’ special
But I’m a creep”

I’d say most, if not all English alternative/indie/rock fans, especially those of a certain age, know these words well and in fact, see in them a reflection of a certain time and place and feeling. Ah, yes, Radiohead’s first big hit, “Creep”.

Incredibly, there’s only been two posts* on these pages thus far dedicated to the well-known quintet from Oxford, England. One might think that yours truly was not really a Radiohead fan, but this is not the case. It just so happens that the series that I’ve been posting since this blog’s inception have not necessarily fallen in line with the years in which I feel that the group produced its best work. However, here we are in 1993 and this is where we find the song that introduced me and likely 99% of the world to their sound.

“Creep” is notable for being Radiohead’s very first single. It was originally released in 1992, almost seven months in advance of “Pablo honey”, the group’s debut album, upon which the single appeared. It didn’t immediately gain the traction that their label was expecting when it was hand-picked from some of their early studio sessions. It only first started to see success on Israeli radio, of all places, before finding regular slots in MTV music video rotation stateside. The label had to convince the band to reissue the single in 1993** and this is when it became the massive hit that was originally predicted.

In fact, “Creep” is still Radiohead’s most successful and most recognizable song, despite the fact that it is generally accepted that pretty much everything they released afterwards is more original and higher quality in songwriting and musicianship. This is why, for years, Thom Yorke and company had refused to include it on their live set lists, despite their fans’ unending calls for it. They have, however, softened their attitudes towards it in recent years, even pulling it out for random shows to everyone’s surprise and delight.

“Creep” had many of the hallmarks of 90s alt-rock – the crunchy guitars, the loud-soft-loud structure – but it also sounded fresh, especially to my ears. In spite of the band’s assertion that it is about an experience where Thom Yorke found himself following a woman he did not know, hence, “creep”, the sound became an angsty anthem for the disenfranchised gen X youth, kind of like a certain song by a particular band from Seattle. And I wasn’t at all immune to its charms and was often pulled to sing along with its lyrics wherever I was when I heard it played. It left a mark on many of us and ensured we took note of the band’s name so that our ears would be lubricated for their next release.

*A best albums post for 1997 and an appearance on my best tunes of 2000 list.

**Which is why I’ve included the song on this list rather than that of for 1992.

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

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Best tunes of 2020: #18 Bright Eyes “Mariana trench”

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Conor Oberst started out releasing music under the Bright Eyes name way back in 1998, a year after his previous band, Commander Venus, disbanded. It really all began as a solo project, with Oberst bringing in different musicians to help out with recording and live performances, but a trio eventually coalesced, with multi-instrumentalists, Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott rounding things out. They were quite prolific in 2000s, releasing eight studio albums through to the end of that decade, including two (plus a live album) in 2005 alone. After one more album in 2011, the group went on hiatus for nine years before releasing the “Down in the weeds, where the world once was”, the album on which this song appears, in August 2020.

I was quite aware of Bright Eyes and their music throughout most of their pre-hiatus period and even saw them once (perhaps twice, if you count Conor Oberst solo). And though I tried a few times, I could never really get into them. But as I wrote when this last album appeared at number eight on my Best albums of 2020 list, I found a connection here that I didn’t have with Bright Eyes’s previous work. I still haven’t made the time to go back through their previous work to see if I had been wrong about it all along or if it would just be this one album for me. However, I can say that the sentiments with “Down in the weeds” matched my mood and that generality that I witnessed with the few people I was able to relate with in the early days of the pandemic.

“Well, they better save some space for me
In that growing cottage industry
Where selfishness is currency
People spend more than they make”

These are the words that kickstart track four and the fourth single to be released in advance of the album. It’s equally a commentary on the state of things, our commentator’s acknowledgement of his place in it all, and how he’s contributed to it. And yet, as meagre as the words are, the music travels in the other direction, looking instead to raise spirits rather than dampen them. It’s upbeat and catchy, the drums chug along and the bassline dances all around it, and Jessca Hoop’s appearance on backup vocals serves to lighten Oberst’s tone with her harmonies. And I just love the singalong chorus and the way it makes you look at you and me with a knowing smile and a questioning glance.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2020 list, click here.

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100 best covers: #45 Jane’s Addiction “Sympathy”

<< #46    |    #44 >>

Jane’s Addiction were one of those bands that I got into just as I was getting into ‘alternative’ music and my introduction was their commercial breakthrough, 1990’s “Ritual de lo habitual”. Of course, we now know that this was their ‘final’ album* before disbanding the following year. At the time, though, I was super excited about them and listened to both of their albums on cassette tape ad nauseum.

I later learned that they also had a self-titled live album that the band released a year before their major label debut, solely because they wanted their first release to be on an independent label. It was recorded at a small club in L.A. a bit before they had started generating a buzz and was later produced and mixed in-studio, including the addition of an applause track on some songs from another band’s live recording. Their performance is a bit messy at times but it aptly captures the excitement and energy of their live performances that garnered them such a following and for this reason, it’s still a favourite of mine and I included when I counted down my top ten albums for 1987. The track listing includes early versions of classics that would later be re-recorded for their proper debut, “Nothing’s shocking”, as well as a couple of covers: Velvet Underground’s “Rock n roll” and this one, The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the devil”.**

The original recording is probably my favourite ever song by The Rolling Stones, not that I really consider myself a huge fan of that band. I purchased a copy of “Hot rocks” on cassette tape when I was a teenager and that’s really only the material of theirs that I know. I do know that “Sympathy” is a rocking tune that really changed public perception of the band – for better and for worse – and has been covered by more than a few bands since then. Jane’s Addiction’s version feels somewhat faithful to the feel of the original, even including hand drums and maracas. Of course, Perry Farrell is not Mick Jagger. Their vocal styles are not quite diametrically opposed but they are different enough that it changes the overall feel. The cover is a lot more raw and angry than the original, perhaps a less slick devil but definitely not less sexy. And of course, there’s the live element as well that makes you think that everything might just fall apart at any given moment.

I still prefer The Stones’ original version of “Sympathy for devil”, it’s probably one of my favourite ever tunes, but Jane’s Addicition definitely makes it run a little faster and harder for the prize.

Cover:

Original:

*Final until they reunited more than a decade later and released a couple more.

**Listed simply as “Sympathy” on the album’s track listing.

For the rest of the 100 best covers list, click here.