Day After Day #57: Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love (1978)

By the mid-1970s, hard rock was getting a little stale. The big guns like Led Zeppelin and the Who were dealing with success and excess, and as a result they were spending more time off the road. Heavy guitar acts were still selling tons of albums and concert tickets, but a lot of them were dumb and bloated. Punk rock was one reaction, as bands like the Ramones and the Clash emerged. 

But in California, a different kind of reaction was taking place. In 1973, two brothers, Edward and Alex Van Halen, teamed up with a hammy R&B singer named David Lee Roth to form a band called Mammoth. Roth convinced them to change the band name to Van Halen and when Michael Anthony joined on bass, they had their lineup. Edward was a guitar virtuoso and Roth was a natural showman, so soon the band was wowing audiences at backyard parties and clubs on the Sunset Strip. Gene Simmons of KISS produced a demo tape for the band but couldn't get any takers.

Eventually, producer Ted Templeman saw them play and signed the band to a deal with Warner Bros. Records. They quickly recorded their debut album in the fall of 1977. Released in February 1978, the self-titled album quickly gained VH some notice. It was the combination of Eddie's guitar mastery and Roth's cocky charisma that made the band stand out from their contemporaries. 

The instrumental "Eruption," featuring EVH's two-handed tapping style, blew away hard rock fans who were mesmerized by the sheer speed of his playing. It also inspired a generation of flash guitarists who would form their own bands in short order. Roth, who wasn't the greatest technical singer, nevertheless impressed on songs like "Runnin' With the Devil," "Jamie's Cryin'" and a cover of the Kinks' classic "You Really Got Me." 

But the mission statement on the album was "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love," a no-nonsense, pissed off screed that concisely displayed the attitude, power and fun of Van Halen. 

"You know you're semi-good lookin'/And on the streets again/Oh yeah, you think you're really cookin' baby/You better find yourself a friend, my friend/Ain't talkin' 'bout love/My love is rotten to the core/Ain't gonna talk about love/Just like I told you before."

The opening riff is memorable and nasty, giving you an idea of the fury that was to follow. The attitude is almost punk, at least in an IDGAF kind of way. Hell, the Minutemen even covered it.

The power and speed of Van Halen was a real kick in the ass to the dinosaur acts that were still roaming the earth like Foghat and Ted Nugent. Hell, even Black Sabbath got a dose when they brought VH on the road with them in 1978. Ozzy and the rest of the Sabs were not in the best shape by that time, having done enough coke over the previous several years to kill an army of elephants. On that tour, Van Halen routinely blew the roof off whatever arena they were playing during their opening set, leaving Sabbath to pick up the pieces. 

I was only 10 when the first VH album came out and I can't say I was really aware of it. I got into the band a few years later when their third album, Women and Children First, came out. And then I was hooked. By the time I was going to concerts, the band was on their last tour with David Lee Roth (although we didn't know that at the time) and tickets were near impossible to get. I ended up seeing them with Sammy Hagar in 1986, as well as Roth and his solo band the same summer. Roth and VH teamed up for a few reunion tours and an album in the new millennium, but sadly, Eddie passed away in 2020 after a battle with cancer. His legacy as a guitar legend lives on.

Completely Conspicuous 631: Into Action

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about the music of 2007. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• In 2007, Jay had a kid starting kindergarten; that kid graduates from college soon
• Zeppelin played two reunion shows
• Separating the music from artists' bad behavior
• Daughtry had the #1 selling album of '07
• Phil's non-top 5s: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, the National, St. Vincent, Jason Isbell, Okkervil River, Buffalo Tom, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Arctic Monkeys 
• Let's hear it for Dad Rock
• On Madonna's career
• Discovering music through commercials or movies
• Music services
• Jay's non-top 5s: LCD Soundsystem, the Dears, Tim Armstrong, Black Francis, Thurston Moore, Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, Ray Davies, Beastie Boys
• To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Day After Day #56: Virginia Plain

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Virginia Plain (1972)

I was too young to be cognizant of them at the time, but man, Roxy Music must have blown people's minds when they first hit the scene. Early on, they definitely were one of the weirder looking bands going as they embraced the glam look that was just emerging; it was all space costumes, animal prints and bright colors at first. 

Musically, the band were on the avant garde side. Frontman Bryan Ferry had auditioned for the lead singer spot in King Crimson and while he didn't get the gig, Crimson's Robert Fripp and Peter Sinfield helped Roxy Music get their first recording deal. Ferry soon recruited a full band, including Brian Eno on synths, Andy Mackay on sax, oboe and keyboards, Phil Manzanera on guitar and Paul Thompson on drums. 

Their self-titled debut was released in June 1972 (on the same day as Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars) and it didn't sound like anything that came before it, combining glam with art rock in a stylish way that reflected its suave leader. Ferry soon moved from glam gear to three-piece suits, creating an interesting visual contrast with his garishly dressed bandmates. The album featured a lot of callbacks of Hollywood films, including an homage to Humphrey Bogart in "2HB." Meanwhile, "Re-Make/Re-Model" features solos from each member of the band as Ferry sings about a woman he's afraid to approach. 

No singles were released from the original pressing of the album, but the band recorded two more songs after signing with Island Records in July 1972. One of them was "Virginia Plain," which was released as the first Roxy Music single and went to #4 on the UK Singles Chart, pushing the album to #10 on the album chart. When the band released its debut in the U.S. in late '72, "Virginia Plain" was included.

The song tells the band's story while also drawing in obscure references from multiple sources: Robert E. Lee (a British music industry lawyer, not the Civil War general), model Jane Holzer and a painting Ferry made in college of a giant cigarette pack with a pinup girl on it. Turns out Virginia Plain is also a type of cigarette tobacco.

"Make me a deal and make it straight/All signed and sealed, I'll take it/To Robert E. Lee, I'll show it/I hope and pray he don't blow it 'cause/We've been around a long time/Just trying to, trying to make the big time."

The crazy thing about the song is it managed to be a top 10 hit without a chorus and with a sudden ending where Ferry finally mentions the title name.

"Far beyond the pale horizon/Some place near the desert strand/Where my Studebaker takes me/That's where I'll make my stand, but wait/Can't you see that Holzer mane?/What's her name? Virginia Plain."

Performing on the BBC's Top of the Pops, Roxy Music's out-there glam stagewear no doubt inspired a generation of bands. They made another album before Eno left (releasing solo albums before becoming an in-demand producer) and had a revolving door of bassists while becoming a big concert draw. There were seven more RM albums before the band finally split up and Ferry went on to a successful solo career. Several reunions have taken place over the years, most recently in 2022 for a 50th anniversary tour. 

Roxy Music has been hugely influential on a wide variety of genres, including punk, disco, electronic music, new wave and the New Romantic bands of the early '80s. And of course, the cinematic-sounding group has had many songs placed in movies, most famously in Lost in Translation when Bill Murray's character does a karaoke version of "More Than This." The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.

 

Day After Day #55: Intruder

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Intruder (1980)

Peter Gabriel has had many incarnations in his career. He was that weirdo in the giant flower costume during Genesis' way-out prog phase. As a solo artist, he reinvented himself as a cutting-edge alternative pioneer, incorporating new production techniques, interesting collaborations and world music. He became a strong voice for social justice and human rights throughout the world. In the mid-'80s, Gabriel became one of the biggest pop stars around and made innovative videos. He started one of the music download stores in the late '90s.

As a kid, I was familiar with Gabriel through his Genesis ties and from his song "Solsbury Hill" from his first self-titled solo album in 1977. But I became a big fan with his third album, also called Peter Gabriel but nicknamed Melt, in 1980. The first single "Games Without Frontiers" got a lot of play in Canada, where it went to #7 on the singles chart; it only got as high as #48 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Indeed, the entire album is masterful. For the purposes of this feature, I'm discussing the leadoff track, "Intruder." A creepy tale of a thief detailing how he breaks into houses, it's unsettling and a little disturbing. The first thing you notice are the drums, played by Gabriel's old bandmate Phil Collins (who was having a busy year). It's the first song to use the gated reverb drum sound that became so popular in the '80s (think songs like "Modern Love" and the Power Station's "Some Like It Hot"); Collins and producer Hugh Padgham stumbled onto it accidentally when the reverse talkback feature of the console was left on and the drum sound was heavily compressed. Gabriel decided to build the song around the drum pattern and asked Collins to take the cymbals off his kit and just play that pattern through the entire song. Add to that the creaking noises made by guitarist David Rhodes and it's enough to set you a little on edge.

"I know something about opening windows and doors/I know how to move quietly, to creep across creaky wooden floors/I know where to find precious things in all your cupboards and drawers. Slipping the clippers, slipping the clippers through the telephone wires/A sense of isolation, a sense of isolation/Inspires me."

The song builds as Gabriel screeches, "Intruder's happy in the dark/Intruder come/Intruder come and leave his mark...I am the intruder."

The minimalist atmospherics seem like a forebear for what acts like Nine Inch Nails were doing in the early '90s.

Gabriel has always been a great live performer and in concert, he transforms the songs into something different. I saw him on the tour for his 1986 album So, which was a monster hit thanks to dance songs like "Sledgehammer." I'm sure his newfound fans on that tour who thought he was just the guy dancing with chickens in the "Sledgehammer" video were probably a little shocked by the utter creepiness of "Intruder." I thought it was amazing.

And on his 2011 album New Blood, Gabriel re-recorded "Intruder" as an orchestral piece that he said was inspired by legendary director Alfred Hitchcock and composer Bernard Herrmann. As seen in the video below from a Live on Letterman, the drums are gone and replaced by foreboding strings and even as a cuddly looking guy in his early 60s, Gabriel is still menacing as the intruder.  

Gabriel has been more active behind the scenes for the past 20 years, but he finally released an album of new material last year and it was really good. Crazy to think that he's in his mid-70s now, but time marches on for all of us, I suppose.

Day After Day #54: I'm an Adult Now

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

I'm an Adult Now (1988) 

I grew up in Canada until I was 14, when we moved to the U.S., where I've lived ever since. I eventually became a U.S. citizen, but I never lost my affinity for the Great White North. I kept rooting for Toronto teams and still paid attention to Canadian music. 

So there I was in the fall of '88, a senior at the University of New Hampshire, and as I often did, I was watching MTV's 120 Minutes when a new video came on by a band called The Pursuit of Happiness. The singer was a nerdy-looking guy with long hair singing about being an adult now. It had the perfect combination of sarcastic lyrics, hard rock crunch and girl group backing vocals. I was hooked and I soon picked up the album, which is where I learned they were Canadian. 

As it turns out, this was TPOH's second version of "I'm an Adult Now," which singer Moe Berg wrote in 1985 and released as a single the following year. Berg and drummer Dave Gilby had just moved to Toronto from their hometown of Edmonton and formed the band. They didn't wait to land a record deal, opting to go the DIY route and self-release singles. They made a low budget video for "I'm an Adult Now" on the streets of Toronto and it soon got airplay on MuchMusic (Canada's version of MTV) and Toronto rock stations. 

Eventually, the band signed with Chrysalis Records and recorded their debut album Love Junk with producer/legend Todd Rundgren, re-recording "I'm an Adult Now" in the process. The album was a punchy power pop masterpiece, melding big riffs with super catchy choruses and melodies. Berg avoided cliche as he penned social critiques like "Consciousness Raising as a Social Tool" and "Walking in the Woods" and self-deprecating odes like "Hard to Laugh," "Ten Fingers" and the big single.

"I'm an Adult Now" is a cynical look at adulthood that I related to as a 21-year-old (even though Berg was pushing 30 by the time the re-recording came out). Of course, I didn't know jack about being an adult because I was still in school and hadn't really been out in the real world yet, but that was right around the corner. 

"Well, I don't hate my parents/I don't get drunk just to spite them/I've got my own reasons to drink now/I think I'll call my dad up and invite him/I can sleep in till noon any time I want/Though there's not many days that I do/Gotta get up and take on that world/When you're an adult, it's no cliche, it's the truth."

The remake went to #6 on the Billboard Alternative songs chart and #22 on the Mainstream Rock chart; the album never charted in the U.S. but went to #28 in Canada. (Check the video below of them playing a few songs on some MTV show called Mouth to Mouth. I don't remember that show at all, or its obnoxious host Steve Skrovan.)

I actually got to see TPOH on that tour, opening for Duran Duran in Worcester in January '89. My friend Arthur, the arts editor of the UNH newspaper I also worked for, was going to interview Berg after the show and he had an extra pass so I tagged along. TPOH ripped through a kickass opening set with not much reaction from the half-full crowd of Durannies; I mean, we were enjoying it. The headliner's set was less interesting; they were in a bit of a career lull after being huge for much of the '80s and seemed to be going through the motions. That's not a dig at Duran Duran; I like the band and they certainly rebounded numerous times and are still going strong, but they weren't at that point.

We could see Berg and his bandmates watching the show from the sidelines, so we were looking forward to the backstage interview. I had never been backstage at a rock show before so I was particularly excited, plus it was going to be cool to meet this great new band. So it was a supreme bummer after the show when we went to go backstage and were told TPOH had already left; apparently, there was a mixup and their manager never told them we were supposed to interview them. On top of that, security wouldn't let us go backstage even though we had passes. Annoyed, we just left and headed back to Durham.

Despite this disappointment, I continued to follow TPOH, although I never did see them live again. Their second album, One Sided Story, was excellent but didn't make much of a dent in the U.S. TPOH moved over to Mercury Records in '92 and released The Downward Road in '93. The song "Cigarette Dangles" got the Beavis & Butt-head treatment, but the album again didn't sell well and the band was dropped. TPOH released two more strong albums on a Canadian indie before splitting up in 1997. They've reunited several times over the years to play shows in Canada, including a tour to support the 30th anniversary reissue of Love Junk in 2018. Berg has become a producer and has also toured with the Trans-Canada Highwaymen, a CanRock supergroup with Chris Murphy of Sloan, Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies and Craig Northey of Odds.

"I'm an Adult Now" still resonates, although I suppose as more of a wry look back than anything else. I mean, I'm 56, fer Pete's sake. Although my adult status was questionable in 1988 from a maturity standpoint, I've got full adult cred now.

Day After Day #53: The Underdog

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

The Underdog (2007)

There's a problem with being consistently good. If the worst thing you do is perform well, you tend to get underrated. Whenever you do something exceptional, you don't get credit for it because your baseline is so high. That's the case with the band Spoon. They've been so good for so long that they don't get their propers when they exceed expectations. 

Already 12 years into their career, Spoon was making progress in 2005 when their fifth album, Gimme Fiction, was released. It got good reviews, went to #44 on the Billboard 200 and had songs placed in movies and TV shows. It was the springboard for 2007's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, the band's annoyingly named but excellent sixth album. The album entered the charts at #10 on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the Billboard Top Independent Albums chart and things were clearly looking up for the Austin band.

A big reason for that upward momentum was the lead single "The Underdog." It was different from any Spoon song that had come before. Punctuated by acoustic guitar and a horn section, the song is pure pop brilliance, with lead singer Britt Daniel warning about how overconfidence and stubbornness can lead to your demise.

"You got no time for the messenger/Got no regard for the thing that you don't understand/You got no fear of the underdog/That's why you will not survive."

"The Underdog" doesn't feel so much like a veteran post-punk act as it does a mid-'70s song from the likes of Paul Simon or Billy Joel. That's not an insult. The sheer craftsmanship of the song is undeniable and it's the reason why the song has ended up in movies such as Cloverfield, 17 Again, Horrible Bosses, Spider-Man: Homecoming and I Love You, Man, as well as numerous commercials.

The song didn't hit the Hot 100 but it did reach #26 on the U.S. Alternative Songs chart. But it did quickly become Spoon's signature song. They played it on Saturday Night Live and the Late Show with David Letterman. The song was produced by Jon Brion, who is known for his work with Aimee Mann and on soundtracks.

Spoon has continued to produce consistently fine albums, with four more releases since 2007, the last being 2022's Lucifer on the Sofa. I saw them on the tour for the 2010 album Transference at House of Blues in Boston; I was struck by the number of older folks at the show until I heard a couple talking about how they heard a story about Spoon on NPR. 

Sometimes a band's lot in life is to be that group that never sucks. There are worse fates.

Day After Day #52: Hate to Say I Told You So

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). 

Hate to Say I Told You So (2000)

There have been many cases over the years where a band releases a killer song and nothing happens. Radio doesn't play it, people don't hear it and those that do hear it don't react to it. 

This happened to the Swedish band the Hives when they released their second album Veni Vidi Vicious on Burning Heart and Epitaph in April 2000. There wasn't much of a reaction to it until Alan McGee, a music executive and founder of Creation Records, saw the video for "Hate to Say I Told You So" on German TV and signed the band to his Poptones label, which released a compilation of the band's first two albums. The album went to #7 on the UK album chart and led to Veni Vidi Vicious being re-released in the U.S. in April 2002.

This time around, people listened. "Hate to Say I Told You So" was suddenly getting played on rock radio (this was back when there were still stations playing new songs) and MTV started playing the video. The timing was better for the song to hit in early '02: it got lumped into the whole garage rock revival that was happening with the Strokes, the White Stripes, the Vines, etc.

On top of all that, the song just kicks all of the requisite ass. The Hives know how to deliver the goods, playing propulsive garage punk with a sense of humor. They wear matching suits, they've got goofy stage names like frontman Howlin' Pelle Almqvist and they've got boundless energy. On "Hate to Say I Told You So," the Hives ride a catchy riff and just pummel the listener into submission with awesomeness, slow the din down to a lone bass line and then rev it up again. This is one of those songs that will get you ready to run through a wall.

"Do what I please, gonna spread the disease/Because I wanna/Gonna call all the shots for the no's and the nots/Because I wanna/Yeahhhhhhhh."

In the U.S., the re-released song went to #6 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart, #35 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #86 on the Hot 100 chart. The album went to #63 on the Billboard 200, but more importantly, it allowed the Hives to establish themselves as a premier live band. I saw them in the summer of '02 at the Roxy (now the Royale) and they blew the roof off the place. Almqvist is a master performer and loves to work the crowd with stage banter and the band is constantly in motion. 

Over the 20+ years since, the Hives have released four more albums, although there was an 11-year gap between Lex Hives and last year's The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, which was an excellent return to form. They still do what they do best: rock the hell out and have a ton of fun doing it (see their performance last year on the Howard Stern Show below).

Day After Day #51: I'm the Man

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). 

I'm the Man (1979)

As you go through your life, there are certain songs that just grab you: You hear them once and you can't get enough of them. For me, one of those is Joe Jackson's "I'm the Man." 

I was 11 for most of 1979 and starting to really get into pop music. Jackson's "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" was all over the radio up in Toronto. It actually was first released as a single in October 1978 and didn't do anything, but was re-released later in '79 and became a hit (#21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and #9 in Canada). I heard it a lot that summer and really dug it, so when Jackson released a second album that fall, I paid attention.

"I'm the Man" was the title track of Jackson's second album and it was a blistering new wave rocker about a conman, or a "spiv" as the Brits say (according to Jackson). Unlike some of the early punk acts, Jackson's band on his first three albums was full of terrific musicians who could masterfully play new wave, rock or even jazz. Bassist Graham Maby powers "I'm the Man" with a killer bass line, with Gary Sanford on guitar and David Houghton on drums racking to keep up. 

I loved it and would be constantly listening to my radio to hear it again; this was before you could hear anything on demand, so I was at the mercy of radio programmers. Eventually, I bought the 45. The lyrics were great, too, as Jackson's character is constantly trying to find the next big thing. Jackson was being lumped into the "Angry Young Man" category with artists like Elvis Costello and Graham Parker, but like them, he was just having fun. 

"I'll speak/To the masses through the media/And if you got anything to say to me/You can say it with cash/'Cause I got the trash and you got the cash/So baby we should get along fine/So give me all your money cause I know you think I'm funny/Can't you hear me laughing/Can't you see me smile/I'm the man."

He pushed for "I'm the Man" to be the first single off the album and the song totally flopped, failing to chart anywhere but Canada, where it hit #23 on the singles chart. The next single, "It's Different for Girls," ended up going to #5 on the UK Singles Chart. 

I didn't get the album until many years later, but man, it's so good. Those first two albums are kinda perfect to me. He ended up really blowing up with 1982's Night and Day, which had the huge hit "Stepping Out." I got kind of sick of that one because it was massively overplayed on radio, but it's a great song. I've picked up a few of his albums over the years, although he's been all over the place musically. In the late '90s, he started playing classical music. He's gone back to his rock roots every so often and he's still touring.

I've probably heard it a thousand times, but I never get sick of "I'm the Man." It'll never stop kicking ass, and it's even better live (see a classic performance from the Rock Goes to College show in early 1980).

Stuck In Thee Garage #516: February 23, 2024

Happy Friday, nerditos! Another week is in the books, and that means we get to blow off a little steam for a few days. That may or may not involve imbibing beverages from glasses. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about glass in hour 2. It was pretty nice, guys.

Here's to the playlist:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

DIIV - Brown Paper Bag/Frog in Boiling Water

Laura Jane Grace - Punk Rock in Basements/Hole in My Head

IDLES - Gift Horse/Tangk

Goat Girl - Ride Around/Below the Waste

Cheekface - The Fringe/It's Sorted

Rick Rude - Area Woman Yells at Junk Mail/Laverne

Chelsea Wolfe - Dusk/She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

The Umbrellas - Games/Fairweather Friend

Sprints - A Wreck (A Mess)/Letter to Self

Ducks Ltd. - Cathedral City/Harm's Way

Torrey - Really AM/Torrey

David Nance & Mowed Sound - Cure vs. Disease/David Nance & Mowed Sound

Los Campesinos! - Death to Los Campesinos (demo)/Hold On Now, Youngster (Demos)

Butcher Brown - Down With the King/Single

Bloodshot Bill and King Khan - Boo/Tandoori Knights

Ty Segall - Move/Three Bells

Hour 2: Glass

David Bowie - Breaking Glass/Low

Wild Flag - Glass Tambourine/Wild Flag

Screaming Females - Glass House/All at Once

Jay Reatard - Night of Broken Glass/Singles '06-'07

Superchunk - Break the Glass/What a Time to Be Alive

Guided By Voices - The Brides Have Hit Glass/Isolation Drills

Pill - Dark Glass/Soft Hell

She Sir - Dark Glass Tomb/Rival Island

Radiohead - Glass Eyes/A Moon Shaped Pool

The Beatles - Glass Onion/The White Album

Jo Passed - Glass/Their Prime

Shearwater - Glass Bones/Jet Plane and Oxbow

Death From Above 1979 - Glass Homes/Is 4 Lovers

Fucked Up - Glass Boys/Glass Boys

Bob Mould - Little Glass Pill/Beauty & Ruin

Oh Sees - Flies Bump Against the Glass/Smote Reverser

Are you getting it? ARMAGEDDON IT HERE. 

Day After Day #50: A Quick One, While He's Away

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). 

A Quick One, While He's Away (1966)

The problem with being a classic rock act that's been around for 60 years is that you tend to become old hat to a degree. Your big songs have been played to death for decades to the point where even diehard fans don't want to hear them anymore. But when you play concerts (if you're still playing concerts), they want to hear those same old songs. 

The Who has certainly been down that road. They've written some of the greatest rock songs of all time, half of the original members have passed away, their big hits have been licensed endlessly to TV shows, movies and commercials and they were still touring as of a few years ago. Fortunately, they've got a deep catalog of excellent songs that don't get beaten to death and still sound fresh.

We're digging way back to before I was born for this one. It was 1966 and the Who were preparing their second album. They had another 10 minutes to fill and manager Kit Lambert encouraged Pete Townshend to write something longer, so he came up with "A Quick One, While He's Away," a 9-minute suite of mini-songs about a girl who has an affair while her lover is away. The band ended up calling the album A Quick One (although they changed it to Happy Jack in the U.S., where the song of the same name was a hit). 

"A Quick One, While He's Away" was Townshend dipping his toe into writing a rock opera (along with the songs "I'm a Boy" and "Disguises"); it featured six distinct movements, starting with an a capella section with all four band members singing. Frontman Roger Daltrey sings the next two sections, changing his voice from a low register to his normal voice. Bassist John Entwistle portrays Ivor the Engine Driver in that section, followed by another harmony section and then Townshend sings lead on "You Are Forgiven," the final movement. 

The Who were already honing their reputation as an amazing live band and incredible versions of this song are found on their great live album Live at Leeds and on The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (which was only released in 1996; they blow away every other act in the all-star show). 

"A Quick One" was an early taste of what was to come from the Who. Their next album, 1967's The Who Sell Out, was a masterful concept record paying tribute to pirate radio stations and included jingles and fake ads between songs, as well as another mini rock opera called "Rael." Townshend then wrote probably the most famous rock opera ever, Tommy, which came out in 1969 and eventually became a movie and a Broadway musical. And then, well, I don't need to go into the rest of the Who's career, but they did a lot of interesting stuff.

It was never released as a single (probably because it was 9 minutes long), but "A Quick One" definitely ranks with the Who's best songs. The band stopped playing it after 1970, but brought it back for their 50th anniversary tour in 2014. 

The "You Are Forgiven" section was used in the movie Rushmore, and the song has been covered by the likes of Green Day, My Morning Jacket and Graham Coxon.

Thankfully, the song still retains its power, especially the live version from the Rock and Roll Circus, which is amazing. Watching the still-youthful band bashing it out perfectly in front of contemporaries like the Stones, the Beatles and Clapton is exhilarating.

Day After Day #49: Velvet Roof

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Velvet Roof (1992)

The alt-rock gold rush of the early '90s was something to behold: It opened the door for a lot of bands who might otherwise not have had the opportunity to get their music out to a wider audience, but it also slammed that door shut fairly quickly. 

One of the bands to get swept up in the guitar-rock frenzy was Buffalo Tom, a three-piece formed at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1986. A friendship with J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. led to him handling production on the band's first two albums, the first of which was on SST had a lot of hints of Dino Jr.'s feedback-laden crunch as well as influences including Husker Du and the Replacements. Buffalo Tom fared better in England at first and toured internationally before beginning work on their third album, 1992's Let Me Come Over, which was released on RCA and Beggars Banquet.

But instead of following the example of on-the-rise bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden, Buffalo Tom opted to go in a more Stonesy direction, adding acoustic guitars and alt-country ballads to their straightahead rock sound. You can hear the newfound maturity in songs like "Taillights Fade," which got some radio airplay in the Boston area and is probably the band's best-known song. The band has said they wanted to accentuate the acoustics over the electrics, but the label brought in Ron Saint Germain (who had worked with Bad Brains, Sonic Youth and Living Colour) to remix the tracks and he brought the electric guitars up. 

One song where that is especially evident is "Velvet Roof," which is my favorite BT tune. The song gallops along right from the start as singer-guitarist Bill Janovitz sings about a woman who he can barely keep up with. "Scraggly hair and messed up shoes/I'm lookin' all around for you/Find you in a corner bar/But you can't find the keys to your car/She's as sharp as a razor blade/But she could cut my wrists open just the same."

Janovitz's guitar chugs away infectiously while the rhythm section races alongside, before the song breaks into a harmonica solo, of all things. As "Velvet Roof" powers to a close, Janovitz asks, "Hey man, what's the matter with/Hey man, what's the matter with you?"

The band's videos from this album got some play on MTV's 120 Minutes, but ultimately, the album didn't chart in the U.S. The followup, 1993's Big Red Letter Day, performed better, as "Sodajerk" got some attention (including in a few commercials and in the band's appearance on the ABC show "My So-Called Life"). The album got up to #8 on the Billboard Heatseekers Album chart and #185 on the Billboard 200. Jon Stewart also called BT his favorite band and had them play the final episode of his syndicated mid-'90s talk show. 

BT released two more albums before getting dumped by their label and taking a hiatus for several years to raise families and work "real" jobs (Janovitz works as a realtor in the Boston area and has written books about music, including one about Leon Russell that I'm reading right now). Since 2007, they've released three more fine records, with another one due out this year. BT shows have been rare the last few decades, but they've announced a short European tour for later in the year. They may not have hit it big in the '90s, but they've got a fairly rabid fan base. 

I've seen Buffalo Tom many times, as recently as December. To this day, "Velvet Roof" is a highlight of BT shows. 

Day After Day #48: Sun City

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Sun City (1985)

I visited my daughter in Toronto over the weekend and after we went to dinner one night, we decided to watch the Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, which is a fun behind-the-scenes look at the making of "We Are the World," the 1985 charity single featuring some of the biggest names in pop music at the time. It's really well done and even though I was never a huge fan of the song itself, seeing how it all came together is pretty great. The effort was inspired by the Live Aid concert and the Band Aid charity single that came out the previous year to raise money for starving people in Africa.

The mid-'80s was prime time for charity records. A supergroup of Canadian artists dubbed Northern Lights released "Tears Are Not Enough" in May 1985 to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. Performers included Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young, Anne Murray, Bryan Adams, Geddy Lee and Mike Reno of Loverboy. The following year, Ronnie James Dio organized the Hear 'n Aid project to fight famine in Africa, featuring lead vocals from Dio, Rob Halford, Don Dokken, Kevin DuBrow of Quiet Riot, Geoff Tate of Queensryche and others, with guitar solos from a slew of shredders including Vivian Campbell, Buck Dharma, George Lynch, Yngwie Malmsteen, Neal Schon and others. The song itself includes a ridiculous number of solos, but it's kind of a fun listen anyway.

But this series is about songs I actually like, so I'm going to write about another song jam packed with big names that came out that year: "Sun City." This wasn't a charity song, however; this was a protest song in opposition to apartheid in South Africa, the system of institutionalized racial segregation that ensured the country was dominated by its minority white population. Put together by Steven Van Zandt (better known as Little Steven of the E Street Band), the project was credited to Artists United Against Apartheid. Van Zandt wrote the song about Sun City, a luxury resort and casino developed by hotel magnate Sol Kerzner in Bophuthatswana, an independent state of South Africa's apartheid government. There was an international boycott of Sun City by performers for years, but some played there, including the Beach Boys, Linda Ronstadt, Cher, Liza Minnelli, Frank Sinatra, Paul Anka, Rod Stewart, Elton John and Queen. 

Van Zandt had originally wanted to use Sun City as a parallel with what was going with Native Americans, but journalist Danny Schechter suggested doing a twist on "We Are the World" to push for change. Van Zandt, Schechter and music producer Arthur Baker then assembled a hugely diverse lineup of musicians to take part, including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Bob Geldof and Daryl Hall, who were on "We Are the World." But they were also able to get Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Bono, Pete Townshend, Ringo Starr and his son Zak Starkey, DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Run-DMC, the Fat Boys, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Joey Ramone, Stiv Bators, Michael Monroe of Hanoi Rocks, Jimmy Cliff, John Oates, Bonnie Raitt, George Clinton, Peter Wolf, Jackson Browne, Kurtis Blow, Bobby Womack, Darlene Love, Eddie Kendricks, David Ruffin, Pat Benatar, Herbie Hancock, Peter Garrett, Nona Hendryx, Clarence Clemons, Gil Scott-Heron and others. The song was included on an album that featured additional songs from some of the participants. One of the songs was "Silver and Gold," written by Bono and featuring Richards and Wood (U2 later released their own versions of the song on Rattle and Hum and as a B-side).

The video, directed by Jonathan Demme, filmed most of the artists performing the song on the streets of Manhattan and in Washington Square Park, with some artists filmed performing in a studio.   

The song itself is an uptempo combination of hip-hop, R&B and rock that doesn't mince words and has a super-catchy chorus of "I, I, I, I, I, I ain't gonna play Sun City!" It's definitely a combination of some folks you wouldn't normally see together on a song (Ruffin, Benatar, Kendrick and Springsteen on one verse; Clinton, Ramone, Cliff and Hall, and Love on another, Ruben Blades, Oates and Dylan on yet another), but damn if it doesn't work.

"Relocation to phony homelands/Separation of families I can't understand/23 million can't vote because they're black/We're stabbing our brothers and sisters in the back."

The song got good critical reviews but only about half of U.S. radio stations played it because of lyrics criticizing President Ronald Reagan's policy of "constructive engagement." Here in the Boston area, the song got a lot of play on WBCN, where Schechter worked in the '60s. I don't remember seeing the video a lot on MTV, but I was living in a dorm that didn't carry that station on the lounge TV. "Sun City" hit #38 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #21 on the UK Singles Chart, #8 in Ireland and #4 in Australia and New Zealand. Of course, it was banned in South Africa. The Sun City album reached #31 on the Billboard 200 chart. It was a struggle to get the documentary about the project aired, since PBS refused to run it, saying it was promotion for the artists involved. 

The album and single raised more than $1 million for anti-apartheid projects, but its impact was definitely felt worldwide and in 1994, apartheid finally ended when Nelson Mandela was elected South Africa's first president.

Van Zandt has remained outspoken on social issues, but also reached a different level of fame when he joined the cast of the Sopranos as Silvio. I'm guessing his character probably wasn't as concerned about apartheid in 1985, but it's good that Little Steven was.

Day After Day #47: Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved (1970) 

By the time 1970 rolled around, James Brown was already into his fourth act. He started out as a gospel singer in his teens, then moved into R&B in the mid-1950s. By the early '60s, he had become a star on his own and topped both the pop and R&B charts. And then by the late '60s, Brown began to perfect what came to be known as funk. 

Brown was a tight bandleader and he was backed by incredible musicians who locked into a groove and kept it going while JB was doing his funky thing up front. As we moved into the '70s, there was a lot of unrest in America: the hippie ideal of the '60s ended in the dark cloud of the Vietnam War, Altamont and the Manson murders. 

Just two years earlier, he was playing in Boston the night after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the concert was broadcast live in an attempt to prevent riots in the city. From the stage, Brown appealed for calm and it apparently worked. Racial tensions were high and Soul Brother #1 was voicing his concerns. 

Brown released "Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved" as a two-part single in December 1970, with part 1 on one side and part 2 on the other. JB and sidekick Bobby Byrd traded off vocals, exhorting listeners to get up, etc. They don't ever specify how or what listeners should get involved with, but I suppose at that time, it was fairly obvious. 

"Do it, raise your hand/Do it with the other and practice/Say you're doing something/Come on, raise your hand/Expect me to call you tonight/Do it, raise your hand/Expect you to say/There goes my man."

The groove is powered by Bootsy Collins on bass, his brother Catfish Collins on guitar and JB's horn section just rips. The full 7-minute is on the excellent Polydor compilation Funk Power 1970: A Brand New Thang, which features JB releases from that year. 

It's seriously hard funk and you can hear its influence throughout the rest of the decade and then later in hip hop, where the song has been sampled more than 400 times. Among the songs it appears in are "Eric B. is President" by Eric B. feat. Rakim, "Bring the Noise" by Public Enemy, "The Sounds of Science" by the Beastie Boys, "Welcome to the Terrordome" by Public Enemy, "Set It Off" by Big Daddy Kane and "Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)" by Pras feat. Mya and Ol' Dirty Bastard.

By the mid- to late '70s he had fallen out of favor as the more commercial sounds of disco took over and his bandmates went on to join other groups like Parliament-Funkadelic. He bounced back in the '80s with "Living in America" on the Rocky IV soundtrack, which got him a top 10 single for the first time since 1968. But the '80s also found Brown, who had been a stickler for demanding his band members and entourage remain drug and alcohol-free, using copious amounts of drugs including PCP. He ended up serving two years in prison for various drug- and assault-related charges. He died in 2006.

To me, 1970 was Brown at the peak of his powers, although pretty much anything he released from the late '50s to 1974 is top notch.

Day After Day #46: Love Will Tear Us Apart

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Love Will Tear Us Apart (1980)

There are classic songs, and then there are monumental songs. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" falls into the latter category. It's what comes to mind when you think of that post-punk, goth sound. Joy Division, of course, was much more than that, but sadly, singer Ian Curtis had already taken his own life before the song was even released.

Formed in 1976, Joy Division released an EP in 1978 and their debut album, Unknown Pleasures, in 1979. Led by Curtis' deep baritone and the powerful but sparse musicianship of Bernard Sumner (guitar, keyboards), Peter Hook (bass) and Stephen Morris (drums), the band recorded its second album, Closer, in March 1980 and were preparing to leave for a U.S. tour when Curtis killed himself in May. 

Depressed over his failing marriage and his worsening epilepsy condition, Curtis died in his own home on the night before the potentially career-making tour. "Love Will Tear Us Apart," a non-album single recorded in March, was released in June, before the album came out the following month. 

The song was recorded in the same studio as "Love Will Keep Us Together," the Neil Sedaka song that became a huge hit for the Captain & Tennille; some interpreted it as an answer to that, but others saw it as a direct commentary on the crumbling of his marriage. It had been recorded twice earlier, once for a Peel session in 1979 and then in January 1980 before the final version was done in March.

"When routine bites hard and ambitions are low/And resentment rides high but emotions won't grow/And we're changing out ways, taking different roads/Then love, love will tear us apart again."

The song became Joy Division's first to make the UK charts, reaching #13 on the UK Singles Chart; it also hit #42 in the U.S. Billboard Disco Chart. 

"Love Will Tear Us Apart" was a bit of a departure from the sound of Joy Division's first album, with guitars overshadowed by synths and Curtis crooning like Frank Sinatra. The band's influences included the Doors, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, the Velvet Underground, Siouxie and the Banshees and Kraftwerk.

After Curtis died, the surviving members regrouped and formed New Order, which focused on more of an electronic synthpop sound and went on to a long and successful career. 

Meanwhile, Joy Division's legacy is immense. Their sound became the template for many artists who followed, including U2, the Cure, Tears for Fears and later, post-punk acts like Interpol, Bloc Party, Preoccupations and Editors. The band was featured in two major films, 24-Hour Party People and the Ian Curtis biopic Control. 

"Love Will Tear Us Apart" was the NME's #1 song of 1980 and later chosen as the best single of all time by the publication in 2002. And it's been included on any number of best-of lists over the last 40+ years. 

"Do you cry out in your sleep, all my failings exposed?/There's a taste in my mouth as desperation takes hold/Just that something so good, just can't function no more/But love, love will tear us apart again."

Day After Day #45: Fascination Street

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Fascination Street (1989)

Rock historians love to credit 1991 as the year that the alternative went mainstream, but it had been happening for a while before that. I mean, look at 1989. Sure, there was still a lot of dumb stuff being released, but you also had artists like Love and Rockets, the B-52, the Cult, Pixies, XTC and Nine Inch Nails all getting attention. 

And then there was the Cure. By this point, they'd already been around for a decade, but they had already released some amazing singles: "In Between Days," "Close to Me," "Let's Go to Bed," Boys Don't Cry," "Just Like Heaven," "Hot Hot Hot!," "Why Can't I Be You?" After years of being big everywhere else, their 1987 album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me got them some notice in the U.S., hitting the top 40 of the Billboard 200 album chart and getting steady play on MTV. 

In '89, the Cure released their eighth album, Disintegration, in May. Whereas the previous album was pretty diverse sonically, this new release drilled down on the gloomy, guitar- and synth-driven density. The Cure was already the goth go-to band and they still dressed the part, but they weren't a one-trick goth pony. The biggest song on this album, "Lovesong," is exactly that: a love song that frontman Robert Smith wrote for his wife. It's still fits in with the album's aesthetic, but it went all the way to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. "Lullaby" is a creepy little ditty about a kid being unable to sleep after hearing a disturbing lullaby. 

But "Fascination Street" is magnificent. "Lullaby" was the lead single everywhere but in the U.S., where "Fascination Street" was first because it was featured in the movie Lost Angels (which starred one Adam Horovitz). It's a pulsing, snarling ripper that's driven by a killer bass line; the intro seethes for over 2 minutes before the vocals start. Smith has said the song was about a misadventure the band had on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

"Oh it's opening time/Down on Fascination Street/So let's cut the conversation/Get out for a bit/'Cause I feel it all fading/And paling and I'm begging/To drag you down with me/To kick the last nail in."

The song hit #1 on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart and got to #46 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it was just an introduction into the rest of the album, as "Lovesong" and "Lullaby" were much more successful. The album reached #12 on the Billboard 200 chart and remains the Cure's best-selling album to date.

My introduction to the Cure was through my high school classmate Kristin, who sat next to me in English and was goth before anybody knew what that was. She loved to make fun of the hard rock bands I listened to, although she did lend me her copy of Aztec Camera's cover of "Jump." But it was thanks to her that I started checking out the Cure and the Smiths and I fully acknowledge retroactively that she had much better taste than me in those days. I bought Kiss Me x 3 when it came out in the summer of '87 and Disintegration was one of the first CD purchases I made in the summer of '89. I love putting it on for long road trips because you can kind of get lost in the atmospherics.

The Cure's output slowed down in the 2000s, with only three albums released. A new one was rumored to be coming out a few years ago but it still hasn't arrived. Although they did a North American tour last summer and broke Ticketmaster in the process. 

Anybody who writes the Cure off as mopey gothsters is missing the point. They're a great band, period. 

Stuck In Thee Garage #515: February 16, 2024

What is cool? Who is cool? Who defines what cool is? Beats the hell out of me, but there have been plenty of songs written about coolness over the years. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played a bunch of said songs and the results are, dare I say, pretty darn good. 

This playlist died on its way back to its home planet:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Ducks Ltd. - On Our Way to the Rave/Harm's Way
Arcwelder - Lafayette/Continue

Liquid Mike - Small Giants/Paul Bunyan's Slingshot

Ride - Peace Sign/Interplay

Gustaf - Starting and Staring/Package Pt. 2

Polyrhythmics - Clydesdale/Filter System

Dehd - Mood Ring/Poetry

Shannon & the Clams - The Moon is in the Wrong Place/The Moon is in the Wrong Place

Rick Rude - Winded Whale/Laverne

Guided By Voices - Local Master Airplane/Nowhere to Go But Up

David Nance & Mowed Sound - Mock the Hours/David Nance & Mowed Sound

Waxahatchee - Right Back to It (feat. MJ Lenderman)/Tigers Blood

MJ Lenderman - Hangover Game/And the Wind (Live and Loose!)

J Mascis - Old Friends/What Do We Do Now

Dyr Faser - Two-Headed Monster/Impressions

Health - Crack Metal/Rat Wars

Hit Bargain - True Crime/A Dog A Deer A Seal

Hour 2: Cool

The Stooges - Real Cool Time/The Stooges*

Sugar - Granny Cool/File Under: Easy Listening

Dandelion - Super Cool/Dyslexicon

Lo Tom - Pretty Cool/Lo Tom

Kiwi Jr. - Cooler Returns/Cooler Returns

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - The Cool Change/Sideways to New Italy

The Smithereens - Behind the Wall of Sleep/Especially for You

Joe Jackson - Look Sharp!/Look Sharp!

Superchunk - Cool/Clambakes Vol. 10: Only in My Dreams - Live From Tokyo 2009

The Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You/13 Tales from Urban Bohemia

The Jesus & Mary Chain - Just Like Honey/Psychocandy

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - We Real Cool/Push the Sky Away

Blondie - Atomic/Eat to the Beat

The Nation of Ulysses - Cool Senior High School (Fight Song)/13-Point Program to Destroy America

Dizzee Rascal - Fix Up, Look Sharp/Boy in Da Corner

Sonic Youth - Kool Thing/Goo

*Thanks to a weird MP3 gremlin, this was actually a Green Day song. Ugh.

Check out the big show HERE!

Day After Day #44: Eternal Life

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Eternal Life (1994) 

When people think of Jeff Buckley, they tend to think of his cover of "Hallelujah" and THAT VOICE. The song that inspired a zillion bad covers from American Idol contestants and was licensed in countless TV shows and movies. And yeah, it's great, but I don't really need to hear it again.

Even though Buckley only left behind his debut album Grace and a posthumous double album of demos and songs he was working on for his second record, his legacy looms large. Although his biological father, Tim Buckley, was a well-known folk singer in the late '60s/early '70s, Jeff said he only met him once before Tim Buckley died of a drug overdose in 1975. Jeff was actually raised as Scott Moorhead (his middle name + his stepfather's last name), but he started to use the Buckley name after his father died. 

Buckley was a guitarist before he focused on singing, playing jazz, reggae and metal in a variety of bands. After moving to New York City in the early '90s, he started performing solo at clubs and cafes and soon attracted attention from record labels. He signed a deal with Columbia, released the Live at Sin-e EP and began recording Grace. 

Released in August 1994, the album ran the gamut of Buckley's interests: Zeppelinesque grandeur on songs like "Mojo Pin," "So Real" and the title track; maudlin covers of "Hallelujah" and Nina Simone's "Lilac Wine"; an all-out rocker in "Eternal Life"; and the epic midtempo lament of "Last Goodbye." And all of it powered by that incredible octave-jumping voice of his (he had a tenor vocal range that spanned around four octaves). Some critics weren't sure what to make of Buckley because of the varied nature of the album: Was he trying to be the next alt-rock hero or would he rather sing jazz standards? Turns out, it was both.

Grace didn't sell well out of the gate, but it gradually picked up steam, especially as MTV started playing the video for "Last Goodbye" on the regular. Plus the album was getting rave reviews from the likes of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Bob Dylan and David Bowie. It eventually went gold in the U.S. in 2002. 

I had read about Buckley ahead of the album's release and picked it up the week it came out. I was prepared for this incredible vocal talent because that was getting a lot of hype, but I was impressed at what a great guitarist he was, too. "Eternal Life" is a great example of that. It's the heaviest song on the album and the angriest; Buckley said it was inspired by anger at various things, including the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Manson murders, World War II and the Jonestown massacre.

"Racist everyman, what have you done?/Man, you've made a killer of your unborn son/Oh crown my fear your king at the point of a gun/All I want to do is love everyone."

As heavy as the song is on Grace, the version he was playing live was heavier and angrier (see the video below). It was amazing how he could go from singing an angelic lullaby like "Corpus Christi Carol" to thrashing out this pissed off stomper.

"When will I find the strength to bring me release?/Tell me where is the love in what your prophet has said?/Man, it sounds to me just like a prison for the walking dead/I've got a message for you and your twisted hell/Oh, you better turn around and blow your kiss goodbye to life eternal."  

Buckley toured around the world after the album's release for nearly two years. He was working on his follow-up that was to be called My Sweetheart the Drunk and living in Memphis. On May 29, 1997, he went swimming in Wolf River Harbor, a channel of the Mississippi River, and disappeared. His body was found several days later; his autopsy found no signs of drugs or alcohol in his system and ruled the death an accidental drowning. He was 30.

It would have been interesting to see what Buckley did with his career. He could have gone in any direction and probably would have.

Day After Day #43: Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) (1978)

Of all the acts that emerged from the initial British punk scene, the Buzzcocks may be the most underrated. The band was formed by Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto in '76; Devoto left the band a year later (later forming the band Magazine) and Shelley took over on vocals.

They were signed to a record deal on the day Elvis Presley died, August 16, 1977 and it wasn't long before they were releasing incredible singles that combined punk energy with incredible pop songwriting. They released their first single "Orgasm Addict" in October and their first album, Another Music in a Different Kitchen, was out in March 1978.

Honestly, there are so many great Buzzcocks songs I could write about, but "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" is yet another great song about unrequited love (much like yesterday's). It was on the band's second album, Love Bites, which was released in September 1978.  

The song was written by Shelley while the Buzzcocks were touring the UK. According to one of his final interviews, he heard the title line of the song while watching the movie Guys and Dolls and then wrote the lyrics in the band van the next day. He wrote the song about a man who he liked but who didn't return his affections at first; eventually they ended up together for seven years. 

"You spurn my natural emotions/You make me feel like dirt and I'm hurt/And if I start a commotion/I run the risk of losing you and that's worse."

It's a simple song in that it's essentially two verses and a chorus, but it's so damn stirring and emotional while also being completely relatable. Who hasn't pined over someone who doesn't feel the same way?

"I can't see much of a future/Unless we find out what's to blame, what a shame/And we won't be together much longer/Unless we realize that we are the same."

The song went to #12 on the UK Singles Chart and was ranked #1 by the NME in its Tracks of the Year for 1978. It got more exposure in when it was included on the compilation Singles Going Steady, which was released by IRS Records in September 1979 before the band toured the U.S. for the first time. The album collected the Buzzcocks' singles and B-sides and is one of the best albums of all time. 

A third album, A Different Kind of Tension, was released in the fall of 1979, but it didn't do as well as the first two and the Buzzcocks eventually split up in 1981. Shelley launched a solo career (remember the song "Homosapien"?) while the other members formed new bands. The band reunited in the late '80s and toured with Nirvana in '94. A new album, All Set, was released in '96; I saw them at the Paradise in Boston on that tour. Sadly, it was sparsely attended but the band sounded great.

Four more albums were released before Shelley's death in 2018. Steve Diggle continues to lead a version of the Buzzcocks that released an album in 2022.

"Ever Fallen in Love" has been covered many times over the years, including by the Fine Young Cannibals (recorded for the Something Wild soundtrack, went to #9 in the UK), Pete Yorn (for the Shrek 2 soundtrack) and by Canadian pop-punk act PUP. Shelley even did a cover for a charity single in 2005, featuring guest stars like Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant, David Gilmour and Elton John. A true classic for all seasons.

Day After Day #42: Fade Into You

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Fade Into You (1993) 

Oh hey, it's Valentine's Day. Happy candy hearts to all that celebrate. Nearly six weeks into this endeavor, I'm not going sappy with it. I was trying to think of a good love song to write about and kept coming up with things that were more anti-love or at least anti-Valentine's Day. 

But then I remembered "Fade Into You," a dream-pop classic from the early '90s by Mazzy Star. It's about as chill as chill gets, with David Roback's drifting slide guitar and singer Hope Sandoval singing softly about an unrequited love that she longs for endlessly. It's only 4+ minutes but it feels like it should go on for another hour, just carrying you on a wave of melancholy.

"I want to hold the hand inside you/I want to take a breath that's true/I look to you and I see nothing/I look to you to see the truth."

The song hit #3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1994 and was the band's only song to crack the Billboard Hot 100, getting up to #44. The song got plenty of play on radio, from alternative to adult alternative (those stations you'd hear at the gym or the bank that wouldn't offend your parents), and on MTV, where the video featured iconic images of Sandoval singing and the band playing in the Mojave Desert. 

The band has kept fairly mum about the song over the years. Sandoval, who wrote the lyrics, has only said, "I think it's a good song" about it, while Roback (who composed the music) only said that the band wasn't trying to write a hit and didn't delve into its meaning.

"Fade into you/Strange you never knew/Fade into you/I think it's strange you never knew."

The song was on 1993's So Tonight That I Might See, which follows a similarly hypnotic path, although Roback stretches out on guitar on songs like "Wasted" and "She's My Baby." Back in my single days, I used to listen to music as I went to sleep and this was one of the albums I would often put on. You could just float away listening to Sandoval's voice and the dark, psychedelic dream of the music. I was usually out by the third or fourth song. Don't get me wrong, though: I listened to it plenty during daylight hours as well. It was sort of the antidote to blasting Rollins Band or Nirvana; you can't listen to the hard-charging stuff 24/7.

The band only released one more album in the '90s, 1996's Among My Swan, which was less successful. While working on another album, Sandoval asked out of her contract and the band went on hiatus. Eventually she formed a solo project, Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions, and released a few albums. She reunited with Roback to release another Mazzy Star album, Seasons of Your Day, in 2013 and later an EP, Still, in 2018. Roback died in 2020 of cancer.

"Fade Into You" is one of those songs that immediately makes you think of that era. It's become as much of an iconic identifier of the early '90s as Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower" is for the '60s in movie montages. Countless films and TV shows have used it to soundtrack scenes, often romantic ones. It still holds up and it still carries you away.

Day After Day #41: Low Self Opinion

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Low Self Opinion (1992)

The early '90s were an interesting time for music fans. One minute, there was dopey shit like Warrant's "Cherry Pie" and the remnants of hair metal clogging the airwaves. And then within a year, a guy like Henry Rollins is shirtless and shouting, not just on MTV but even on mainstream talk shows. 

As much as people like to retroactively credit Nirvana for changing everything, it had been building for years. Bands like R.E.M. and the Ramones (and to a lesser extent Husker Du and the Replacements) were gaining mainstream acceptance in the late '80s with varying degrees of success. Then in the summer of 1991, Jane's Addiction headlined the first Lollapalooza touring festival and brought along an interesting bill: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Living Colour, Nine Inch Nails, Ice-T and Body Count, Butthole Surfers and the Rollins Band. The success of that tour showed and the growing popularity of so-called alternative bands was a natural transition into the alt-rock explosion in the fall of '91 led by Nirvana et al. 

So it was in early 1992 that I started seeing the video for "Low Self Opinion" by the Rollins Band on MTV. I had been growing disenchanted with metal and hard rock for years; U2 and R.E.M. were my favorite bands by the early '90s. But I still liked the heavier stuff, so the massive stomp of the Rollins Band was very appealing. On "Low Self Opinion," though, it wasn't the usual dumb metal subject matter. Rollins plays the role of drill sergeant/psychoanalyst, barking at his subject while his killer band blasts away behind him: Chris Haskett is a masterful lead guitarist, while Andrew Weiss on bass and Sim Cain on drums provide a thunderous bottom end. Of course, Rollins was well known for fronting punk icons Black Flag in the '80s before he started his own band.

"The hatred you project/Does nothing to protect you/You leave yourself so exposed/You want to open up/When someone says lighten up/You find all your doors closed/Get yourself a break from self-rejection/Try some introspection/And you just might find/It's not so bad and anyway/At the end of the day/All you have is yourself and your mind."

As great as seeing the video was, it was when the Rollins Band appeared on the Dennis Miller Show, a syndicated show airing on Fox locally and starring the former SNL Weekend Update dude, that I became a big fan. You could see how much Rollins puts into his performances, all sweat and fury, channeling his rage into blasting his music right through your head. It was pretty intense and put to shame a lot of those metal acts that would act tough as they sang about smoking in the boys room or whatever. It was sort of an amalgamation of punk and metal and dammit, I was there for it.

Rollins started showing up on MTV, hosting 120 Minutes and doing interviews, while still playing his brand of uncompromising music. Ironically, Rollins Band videos were starting to get played on MTV's metal show Headbangers Ball. Then a few years, they had a minor hit with "Liar" off their next album Weight, played Woodstock '94 and got nominated for a Grammy of all things. Rollins released a few more albums with different lineups before putting the band on hiatus in 2003. He reunited the mid-90s lineup for a short tour in '06, but since then has focused on his spoken word tours, writing and hosting his great radio show on KCRW. He's also done some acting in a variety of projects, including Heat and the show Sons of Anarchy. 

I saw the Rollins Band play several times, including on that last tour, and caught his spoken word tour last year when it came through Beverly. He does spoken word like he did music: intense, sweating profusely and really well. He also turns 63 today, which is insane. So happy birthday, Henry.