Day After Day #206: Head On

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

Head On (1989)

Some bands are just cool. They don't have to try to affect this image, they just are. The Jesus and Mary Chain are eminently cool, and they have one of the coolest songs of all time.

The post-punk band was formed in Scotland in 1983 by brother Jim (vocals, guitar) and William Reid (guitar). The initial lineup included Douglas Hart on bass and Murray Dalglish on drums, but Bobby Gillespie stepped in for Dalglish for the recording of the band's debut album, 1985's Psychocandy. The band developed a reputation for being difficult, playing short gigs (20 minutes) with their backs to the audience, refusing to talk to them. After some incidents of audience members throwing bottles at the band, the U.K. press tagged the band as "the new Sex Pistols" and the group was banned from playing in several communities.

The album was legitimately great, combining pop melodies with plenty of guitar noise, providing a blueprint for countless shoegaze bands to follow. After the album came out, Gillespie left to focus on his own band, Primal Scream. JAMC released Darklands in 1987, which went to #5 on the U.K. Albums Chart. The band's rowdy rep continued, with Jim Reid responding to some hecklers in Toronto by hitting one in the head with his microphone stand; he was arrested and spent a night in jail, but the charge was eventually dropped after he apologized and made a charitable donation.

The third JAMC studio album, 1989's Automatic, was credited to the Reid brothers, who performed along to a drum machine and synthesized bass (drummer Richard Thomas played on one song). The album got mostly poor reviews mainly because of the mechanized rhythm section, but in retrospect, Automatic was one of the group's stronger efforts. The first single, "Blues from a Gun," was JAMC's most successful song in the U.S. to that point (hitting #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart).

The second song, "Head On," is that cool song I mentioned earlier. It goes against type, with none of the band's usual feedback. The key is Jim Reid's low-key delivery, which sums up his and the band's coolness succinctly.

"As soon as I get my head 'round you/I come around catching sparks off you/I get an electric charge from you/That secondhand living, it just won't do/And the way I feel tonight/Oh, I could die and I wouldn't mind/And there's something going on inside/Makes you want to feel, makes you want to try/Makes you want to blow the stars from the sky/I can't stand up, I can't cool down/I can't get my head off the ground."

The Reids were no longer stirring up violent crowds, but they were calmly and efficiently delivering post-punk hotness.

"As soon as I get my head 'round you/I come around catching sparks off you/And all I ever got from you/Was all I ever took from you/And the world could die in pain/And I wouldn't feel no shame/And there's nothing holding me to blame/Makes you want to feel, makes you want to try/Makes you want to blow the stars from the sky/And I'm taking myself to the dirty part of town/Where all my troubles can't be found."

The song performed better in the U.S., where it hit #2 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, than the U.K., where it got to #57 on the Singles Chart.

Just two years later, the Pixies covered "Head On" on their album Trompe le Monde and released it as a single. It's a little louder and done pretty well, but the original still wins out. A few others have covered it, including David Hasselhoff of all people (see below at your own risk).

After Automatic came out, JAMC released an EP called Rollercoaster and then headlined a tour with My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr. and Blur. In 1992, the band released Honey's Dead and joined the second lineup of the Lollapalooza tour (which I saw in Mansfield, Mass.). JAMC recorded with a full band for 1994's Stoned and Dethroned and scored a hit with "Sometimes Always," on which Jim Reid duetted with Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star, who was dating William Reid at the time.

They released one more studio album, 1998's Munki, before breaking up. The split was announced in 1999, but the band wasn't getting along on the previous year's tour. On the final night of the tour in Providence, the promoter ran off with the band's money and the band reportedly got in a fight with the cast of the show Riverdance. William Reid began a solo career as Lazycame, while Jim Reid founded a band called Freeheat. 

JAMC reunited in 2007 to perform at Coachella and released a new song for the soundtrack of the NBC show Heroes. The band toured North America in 2012 and has toured several times since, releasing new albums in 2017 and this year, the strong collection Glasgow Eyes. But they'll never be cooler than on "Head On."