Tag: 1990s

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 1993: #5 Teenage Fanclub “Hang on”

<< #6    |    #4 >>

I’ve previously shared words on how I discovered Scottish alt-rock quartet Teenage Fanclub while watching music videos on CityLimits back in 1991. It wasn’t long after this that someone in my group of friends picked up a copy of the band’s third album, “Bandwagonesque”, and I was able to record a copy to cassette for constant consumption in my walkman. To say that I became a fan of the fannies was only putting it mildly*. And I wasn’t the only one, obviously, because the album actually did surprisingly well here in North America. And although their success continued afterwards in Europe, interest mostly waned after ears were mostly tuned to everything coming out of Seattle.

For my part, I was practically foaming at the mouth when word came of the impending release of “Thirteen” and I wasn’t disappointed in the least**. I purchased it on compact disc as soon as I was able and put it through its paces, not caring in the least that the raw and often shambolic messes from the previous record had been cleaned up some, the juvenile pranks replaced by well-crafted pop songs, each tip-toeing along the razor wire between rough and smooth sounds. I caught these differences right away, with track one, “Hang on”, a beautiful (almost) ballad penned by Gerard Love.

“Been bought and I’ve been sold
And I’ve forgot what I’ve been told
And now I need someone”

Those are the words that kick off Love’s crooning. But before that, we are awoken by a muscular guitar lick and punishing drums to match. It builds in power, threatening some metal antics, drumming becomes rapid fire and guitars speed up towards thrash zone. And then suddenly, it all melts away into Beatle-esque heaven, complete with angelic harmonies to Love’s own soft touch. The muscular guitars are still there but they just a backdrop and then, when the flutes kick in towards the last third of the song, it doesn’t seem out of place at all. You just close your eyes and get lost in the melody.

*Indeed, it’s still my second favourite album in a great year for music releases.

**I also jumped at the chance a ticket to see them live for the tour for this album, with Yo La Tengo opening, my second ever concert!!!

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

Categories
Tunes

100 best covers: #43 Ministry “Lay lady lay”

<< #44    |    #42 >>

Though I haven’t really followed them for a very a long time, I was actually quite the Ministry fan back in the early half of the nineties. I enjoyed so much of their early work, right up to their fifth album, 1992’s “Psalm 69”, but by the time they finally followed it up four years later, I had mostly moved on from my industrial kick. However, I still checked out “Filth pig”, borrowing a copy from my good friend Rylan. After a few listens, I recorded two songs that caught my ear for a mixed tape, one of which was this this rocking tune called “Lay lady lay”. It had this wicked ticky-tack drum line, a menacing melody and a shout-along chorus. I had no idea at the time that it was a cover.

I heard the original for the first time a year or so later when my friend Meagan, also one of my housemates at the time, got up to stop said mixed tape in the middle of this tune. “I know this song,” she said, as she popped in a CD and handed me the jewel case. It was some Bob Dylan compilation album and of course, I immediately spotted the song title in the track listing but the song she put on wasn’t quite reconcilable with the Ministry tune I’d rocked along to on countless evenings. It took some time before I was able to put the two in the same room together and I think it was the drum line that finally did it.

Bob Dylan originally wrote “Lay lady lay” way back in 1969 and it appeared on his ninth studio album, “Nashville skyline”. There is a definitely country feel with plenty of slide guitars and Dylan’s crooning vocals that sounds a bit different than on the popular classics I’d previously known by him. He’s imploring a lovely lady to stay with him the night, likely quite suggestive material back when it was released. It has been covered a great many time over the years but according to Ministry’s Al Jourgensen, Dylan found their version particularly “badass”.

I tend to agree. And I have to go with Ministry’s cover over the original on this one. Not my favourite Dylan recording at all.

Cover:

Original:

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

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 1993: #6 Mazzy Star “Fade into you”

<< #7    |    #5 >>

A tired, late night acoustic strum is accompanied by the ghost of a slide guitar and what sounds like a tired pianist playing one-handed so as not to spill his half-empty mug of beer. And up there onstage with this motley crew of musicians is Hope Sandoval, trying to hide in the shade of the microphone stand, eyes closed and crooning softly, singing about someone that sounds like her, but isn’t her, perhaps someone she loved that never noticed her, never took the time to understand where she stood.

“Fade into you,
I think it’s strange you never knew.”

This is the sound of Mazzy Star’s big hit, the unexpected catapult into the mainstream. It was an unassuming song that somehow captured the imagination of many and encapsulated a feeling at the time. It boosted sales of the group’s sophomore album, “So tonight that I might see”, on which “Fade into you” was track one, so that two years after its release, it garnered platinum status in the States and Gold in the UK.

Mazzy Star was formed in Santa Monica, California in 1988 when David Roback enlisted the vocal help of his friend Hope Sandoval when his previous group, Opal, lost their lead vocalist. The duo released three albums between 1990 and 1997 before dissolving due to their collective unhappiness with the music industry. They reformed in 2012 and released another album the following year but things stalled after that, even more so after David Roback passed away from cancer in 2020.

Much of their sound remained steadfastly in the dream pop realm, a slow and lilting environment in which Sandoval hides behind behind the echoes of her lovelorn and breathy vocals. It is music that continues to haunt long after it is played but none of their songs, for better or for worse, have quite had the impact of “Fade into you”.

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