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Best tunes of 1993: #1 James “Sometimes (Lester Piggott)”

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“There’s a storm outside, and the gap between crack and thunder
Crack and thunder, is closing in, is closing in”

Monday, September 22nd, 2008. My wife Victoria and I took the afternoon off work and drove down to Montreal together from Ottawa to see one of our favourite bands live in concert*. The venue was an old movie theatre turned club in the quartier des spectacles called Club Soda. I remember us being quite excited, in particular because we had thought we’d never see James live after they had broken up in 2001. Also, because after reuniting in 2007, they released a new album called “Hey ma” the following year, which turned out to be my favourite by the group since 1993’s “Laid”.

The show in question lives on in our collective memory as our favourite ever concert, even after seeing them again a decade later at our local music festival. The set that night was varied, performing many of our favourite tracks. The band was big and bold, and all seven members were palpably amazed at the reception they received in a town they were told wouldn’t come see them. In fact, near the end of their show, their performance of the very song we are talking about today, “Sometimes (Lester Piggott)”, went on for well over seven minutes because the crowd refused to let drop the singalong refrain started up by frontman Tim Booth. It was an incredible moment, perhaps as much for the band, as it was for those of us in the audience.

“Sometimes, when I look deep in your eyes
I swear I can see your soul”

“Sometimes (Lester Piggott)” was the first single released off of “Laid”, what is surely James’s biggest album. Much like the title track, which was also released as a single, “Sometimes” climbed into the top thirty of the UK singles charts, and is still obviously one of the band’s best loved songs. It certainly is one of my own personal faves.

It is a driving and racing number**, acoustic guitar strumming at a frantic pace and a drum beat that leaves you just as breathless, and with the typical big James sound reflecting in a steamed up mirror the raging storm portrayed in the lyrics. And it’s these words that elevate an already fantastic song into the pantheon of greatness of greatness. Booth creates for us an image of a tempest, a storm in a seaside town, expounding the naturalistic themes of man vs nature, perhaps an extended metaphor for the random and daunting elements of life. In it the protagonist laughs in the face of death and that passion in how Booth sings it and the images he creates has us all enthralled.

“He says listen, takes my head and puts my ear to his
And I swear I can hear the sea”

This is a song I could listen to over and over again and in it, find more beauty than the million times before. It is art and I just can’t get enough of it. This and all the memories over the years of listening to it and singing along with it is why it tops my best tunes chart for 1993.

*It would turn out to be the first and last time we would ever drive to Montreal and back on the same day to see a concert. Obviously, it was worth it but on the drive home, we were both exhausted and had to keep spelling each other behind the wheel lest one fall asleep.

**In fact, the high speed pace of the rhythm is the reason behind the name in parentheses in the title, being that of a well-known horse racing jockey.

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

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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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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.