#44: Horses- Patti Smith

Listened to: CD

From the howling vocals, to the virtuoso poetics, to the Mapplethorpe androgynous cover, to even the most minute details, I have always loved every inch of Patti Smith’s debut album Horses. Opening with the chills-down-your-spine lyric “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine” in the murky instrumentals of the Patti Smith Group’s rendition of Them’s “Gloria”, the album kick into high gear, introducing us to Patti’s wails and flails from the start. Patti challenged the role of women in music, and rather than play to the custie gender roles like her contemporary Debbie Harry, Smith became rough, grizzled, and every bit as hard rock and roll as a man. The song beats intensely, and on the wail of “And her name is, and her name is, and her name is” (which I always misheard as “and the nightmares”) if you’re not hypnotized, you must be dead. “Redondo Beach”, based on a poem by Patti Smith, takes on a bit more of a fun, bouncy feel, but Patti once again brings the grit, and reminds us that as bouncy as it gets, it’s still raw punk rock. I can repeat from memory every vocal movement on this track, and I’m unashamed to admit I’ve avidly studied this album to improve myself as a performer. “Birdland” is a chance for Patti to display her jazz roots, as the title is an obvious reference to Charlie Parker. The way Patti speaks the lyrics in the beginning never ceases to entrance me, and the slow crescendo is a rush. “Free Money” is one of smith’s most lamenting and beautiful tracks on the album, and I always feel like she’s opening up specifically to me (not in the psycho way, just that she’s so candid and radiant on this track, that it connects). “Kimberly” jumps in with that bouncy bass that you’re already familiar with on “Redondo Beach”, but Patti’s now talking about the collapse of the sky and the end of the world. One thing I hope you’ll discover is that while the album is musically exceptional, it is Patti’s poetry that make it such a masterwork. “Break It Up” has one of my favorite choruses of any song in rock history, and I can’t help but howl it out every time it comes on. The guitars play with such gritty finesse, and Patti seems to vocally lead the chorus as conductress extraordinaire. “Land” is a nine minute epic mini-opera, divided into three parts. “Horses”, “Land Of The Thousand Dances”, and “La Mer (De)”, which, of the three, the first is my favorite. It’s part epic poem, part punk rock anthem, part jam session magic, and every second of this track is genius. This masterpiece is followed up by the album’s closer, “Elegie”, the mystical track that always reminds me of Godspell, where Patti shows her most range, and softly sings us out into the abyss of the dark world she inhabits. The final track is so haunting, It lilts and floats in the air, leaving you feeling in awe of what an incredible thing just took place on your stereo.

Of course, the CD has a bonus of the band performing “My Generation” by The Who, live, and I presume it was the same live performance I saw on SNL oin the DVD, since it sounds nearly identical. I’m not going to tell you to listen to this album. Rather, I’m demanding any serious reader of this blog go out and buy it. You’ll be a far better person for it. Horses is one of the greatest albums of all time, and no human being should go without hearing it. That’s my doctor’s orders for the day.

-Mike

See you tomorrow for a very different woman of rock, Madonna, specifically #363: Ray Of Light.

#286: Los Angeles- X

Listened to: MP3

Now, I’ll come right off the bat. I’m not sure why “Your Phone’s Off The Hook But You’re Not” is supposed to be so special. I made it on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, but to me, it’s standard punk fair. The second track, “Johnny Hit And Run Paulene”, however, has a much more unique sound. It blends it’s punk beat with Chuck Berry style guitar riffs, and Morrissey type vocals. I would almost cringe at the punk cover of “Soul Kitchen”, the Doors classic. But knowing Ray Manzarek was sitting behind the board, while Jim may still be spinning in his grave, is a little more comforting.

It’s this third track that makes me realize why this doesn’t impress me as much as it should. I’m a big fan of Bikini Kill, and have been on a kick of them the past few weeks. This sounds like a more instrumental version of them, but ten years prior. By track four, “Nausea”, and it’s incorporation of an organ, it becomes abundantly clear this was a punk band who still understood music. X brings a musicianship to punk, with organs and glockenspiels, proving that punk can be more than thrashing guitars and thumping drums. And to those who say that well composed instrumentals isn’t punk rock, I say…well…

So, the next track “Sugarlight” brings in, yes, a cowbell. But the track is really held together by guitarist Billy Zoom, whose instrumentalism far exceeds anybody else in the band, as much as I adore Exene Cervenka. “Los Angeles” is a fun punk duet between the band’s two singers. Choosing to change the, is it the key, I don’t know, but by not using the same two chords, the song takes on a musicality that may or may not lose it it’s punk rock street cred. “Sex And Dying In High Society” has Exene and John Doe doing a harmony that feels more like a B-52’s song than a punk jam. “The Unheard Music” has a bass line that feels deeply Doors influenced, with deep, low harmonics from the two singers, and a prominent organ, all of which seem to suggest Ray Manzarek had some effect on X before they ever came to a studio.

The album ends on a song worthy of Elvis Presley, but with Patti Smith and Kathleen Hannah’s love-child on vocals (I know Kathleen is younger, but the image of Patti and Kathleen making a love child…yeah). This is anything but what I’ve grown up believing punk rock is.

It’s a real shame about X. It seems like from their debut in 1980 with this album, they were out to take punk to a new place, the next step in the evolutionary chain. Instead, it basically floundered through the 80’s, and found a slight return in grunge, and later with Green Day and Blink-182. The organs, the guitar riffs, everything seems to be from another world. This is a terrific album, but not a great punk album, at least not by the standards of what punk is. Most albums are on this list because they show where music went. X’s Los Angeles shows where music should have gone. I would have loved if more bands turned out like X, but no, we got cheesy pop-punk later instead. This is some great stuff, and definitely worth the listen.

-Mike

See you guys tomorrow for #338: Cheap Thrills by Big Brother And The Holding Company. We go from a highly underrated woman of rock (Exene Cervenka), to a woman who is, to me, the first lady of rock and roll, Janis Joplin.

#494: She’s So Unusual- Cyndi Lauper

Listened to: CD

You know, in the 80’s, Madonna was all the rage, but as a kid growing up in the 90’s, which was when radio stations still played 80’s music, since apparently the 90’s only had good music once the people who made it either broke up or died, her sexuality was lost on me. Instead, I found Cyndi Lauper to be more enthralling. She was fun, bouncy, colorful, and like a 13-year-old with a record contract (way before 13-year-olds actually became recording stars). She’s So Unusual is her debut album, and god bless it, it still has the same attitude and effect it did when it first came out. You can love it or hate it, but you’re sure to feel something.

The album kicks up on “Money Changes Everything”, with Cyndi’s voice howling and yelping out like a neon Patti Smith. It’s hard to appreciate this album, it’s simplistic themes and little girl posturing, in an age where every radio station is blasting Miley Cyrus or the 50 other Disney starlets who all get albums, but this kicked open that door, for better or for worse. Except, the composition on this far exceeds today’s musical candy. Listen to that accordion. Is Selena Gomez gonna bust out any of that any time soon? I think not. Plus, our lovely Cyndi here knows how to mix the pretty (her melodies) with the gritty (her vocals).

Of course, the song we all remember from our youth (when we were too young to appreciate “Time After Time”, but don’t worry, I’ll get to that) is “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. Hell, a video with Capt. Lou? Can it get any better? And could this song be any more girly fun? Come on. This is still the go-to anthem for pillow fights and jumping around in an effeminate fashion, as far as I’ve been made aware (unfortunately, I do not know first hand. Nobody ever accepts my invitation for pillow fights and effeminate jumping). Seriously, though, this is a brilliant pop song, compositionally, and Cyndi capitalized on the “girl power” market before anybody even knew what a Spice Girl was.

Do you recognize “When You Were Mine”? For those who have been following this whole time, this track first appeared on Prince’s “Dirty Mind” album. Personally, I think Cyndi does it better. Plus, her lack of changing the genders in the song either implies a lesbian affair or a lover who went the other way. Either way, pretty brave for little miss “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”.

Now, for anyone who says Cyndi can’t sing, and that her songwriting sucks, she putsone of her masterpieces right here to throw you off. “Time After Time” is a gorgeous song, and it’s amazing that the first three bubble-gum tracks came from other people, and this beauty was co-written by Cyndi. The harmonies, the melody, the simplicity of it, it’s so moving, so charming. Hell, this song was so good, it was covered by Miles motherfucking Davis! And I love toward the end, where rather than continue to harmonize on the chorus, she goes into that high “I will be waiting!”. I wouldn’t change a second of this song, or a note out of Cyndi’s mouth. Say she can’t sing now. I fucking dare you.

If you’re looking for that same beauty in “She Bop”, shut your eyes and ears. People love this track, but I’m not too big on it. It’s not my style, but for fans of this style, it’s a great example. I still dig the reverb and synth for what they are, but it’s just not my dig. Sounds too much like…the 80’s….eugh. I mean, what I like about Cyndi is she’s so saccharine that it’s forgivable, it’s like so colorful it’s blinding, which makes it great. This is just standard 80’s fare.

“All Through The Night” is not, in fact, the Cole Porter song from the musical Anything Goes. They are two very different songs. This did not stop me from being over-confident, thinking they were the same, and not bothering to learn the other one in 11th grade, leading me to look like an ass at rehearsal when I sang Cyndi Lauper. This anecdote ought to be enough to show you the emotions I have toward this song.

“Witness” sounds more like The Clash than the Cyndi Lauper we’ve all come to believe in. Just listen to the bass (or bass-y synth in this case) or the guitars. This is a fun kinda track, nothing mind blowing, but shows Cyndi’s diversity in musical taste. It sounds as reggae as it does pop. Especially the drum only breakdown toward the end. “I’ll Kiss You” can be summed up best by the wikipedia entry “The song is a ska-influenced track that typifies Lauper's quirky songwriting from early in her career. With lighthearted lyrics it details a woman's quest to find the perfect love potion so that she can seduce her boyfriend. The B-side, "Witness", has a reggae feeling to it.” Yeah, suck it Gwen Stefani. You ain’t the First Lady of ska, it turns out.

“He’s So Unusual” typifies what I always respect in artists, and does it in the oddest way. I always respect artists who “know their roots”. Cyndi does, but not Patti Smith or Janis Joplin. Instead, she honors the individual who’s heavily influenced her, the woman for whom this song was first written, Betty Boop. Much love to Miss Lauper for her odd homage. Admit it, she’s cute.

The album closes on “Yeah Yeah”, which is a fun, upbeat number to close on, even if it sounds like a lost B-52’s track. It’s nice to listen to, though not one of the albums most stellar tracks. I like the way Cyndi sorta just blends that cute-sy voice from “He’s So Unusual” with the Patti-esque wailing.

Honestly, I like the hell out of this album. It’s fun to drive to, it’s fun to just let it all loose to, and it’s a great example of pop song crafting. Cyndi may have been singing about simple themes some times, and may have been putting on some really girly, poppy acts, but to me, it’s clear by this album that Cyndi is truly the mother of the “riot grrrl” movement, and god bless her for it. A world without Bikini Kill is a world I don’t want to live in. Except Cyndi had a sensitive side, as seen in “Time After Time” and the later release “True Colors”, and she really was a gifted songwriter. Though, now that I’m rolling with the thought of Cyndi doing riot grrrl stuff…can we get Cyndi and Kathleen Hannah in the same studio?

Long story short, definitely listen to this album. There is no way to completely hate it, no matter how opposed you are to all things pink and frilly. Here to prove that is my good friend, Tom Lorenzo (though he hates everything except one track).

-Mike

By the way, tomorrow is #214: Bo Diddley/Go Bo Diddley by…yeah.
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Tom Lorenzo:

Ok ladies and gents. I’m gonna keep this one a bit short and sweet. If you guys remember, I guest reviewed Led Zeppelin II a little while back. Well I’m back and this time, I am not fucking happy.

So Mickey recommended I review Cyndi Laupers “She’s So Unusual”. I figured, why the fuck not? I enjoyed reviewing Zeppelin II. I figured I may like reviewing other albums as well. But good god man, this album was excruciating to listen to.I’m gonna be up front. For the most part, I hate the 80’s. Some good movies have come from the 80’s, and my favorite band Metallica rose in the 80s. But good lord, I hate the popular music of the time. And I am here to say, this piece of shit album is too 80’s for its own good.

I can say, there is only one good song on this album. We’ll get to that in a bit. “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” was a big hit in its day. Wanna hear what I say to that? Fuck you people of the 80s. Almost every song on this album just comes off as amateurish. The lyrics were nothing to write home about, the beats are antiquated as shit. The only positive I can say is Lauper is a semi decent singer. What’s the good song you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. It is “Time After Time”. It didn’t have any stupid beats or synthesizers or shit. It doesn’t sound 80s at all. It’s a good ballad and I actually like it. Not because everything else was shit. This was really good and I’ll give some props for that. But not much and not for long.

So at the end of the day, I sure as shit wouldn’t recommend this to anyone unless they were my sworn enemy. It really blows my mind to think this was popular back in its time. I mean, what the fuck has happened to music? In my Dads day, popular music consisted of Led Zeppelin, The Who and The Rolling Stones. Then the 80s came and fucked everything up. But I’ll give the 80s three things. One, pop music was so shit, we had Metallica rise up and unleash hell. Two, it allowed rap to come about and change things. And three, it sure as shit is better than todays pop like Lady Gagonacock. When an album like this is popular, it really makes me fucking hate everyone. See you guys soon. I plan on reviewing Tom Waits’ “Mule Varitaions” next.

#128: Marquee Moon- Television

Nick Young:

Listened to: MP3

For some bands finding a sound that instantly enables listeners to identify as “quintessential (fill in the blank)” just comes naturally. When the Strokes released their incendiary debut album “Is This It” in 2001, they confidently oozed sex and frustration from every aching pore so well and with such reckless abandon it’s as though Julian Casablancas and company burst forth from their mothers’ wombs already angsty and horny as Hell. In short, they were born to make records.

Fellow New York City rockers Interpol exuded the same vigorous innate certainty on their 2002 debut “Turn On The Bright Lights.” Their unique breed of disaffected intensity is most apparent on their suffocated single “Obstacle 1,” a song the band revealed during a WKQX Radio interview was written after watching a news report about a model’s untimely death. However, though the lyrical content belongs strictly to them, I have a hard time believing the song would exist at all without Television’s colossally influential 1977 LP “Marquee Moon.”
To listen to both songs back to back is to experience a startling revelation: “Obstacle 1” is basically “Marquee Moon’s” eponymous title played at double speed (as if Interpol covered the song and released it at 45 RPM instead of the expected 33 RPM speed). I mean this not as a negative criticism. Quite the contrary actually- I believe imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery. Both songs are great in their ways. Still, “Marquee Moon” does have one advantage over its darkened 21st century reimagining:

It came first.

Television’s debut came at an absolutely perfect time in music history. The album broke conventions of what a punk record or a rock record could sound like. The end product can’t be lumped into either genre. “Moon” takes the spirit of both sources and, as Ian Curtis once apathetically wailed on Joy Division’s “Disorder,” loses the feeling.

Current Indie artists such as the Mae Shi and Girls have found a way to harness the soul-consuming numbness that Television once so gracefully evoked and have brought it into our time. I could easily imagine Girls frontman Christopher Owens croon “the world was so thin between my bones and my skin,” a lyric from “Marquee Moon’s” second track, “Venus,” sung with cool, atrophic indifference by Television lead singer Tom Verlaine.

His voice has aged quite well since the years it haunted CBGB’s in the era of the Velvet Underground- most likely because anyone growing up today (or in any other time for that matter) learns at some point that it pays impassive. Jim Jones of the Diplomats / Def Jam’s Blakroc really hit the mark when he rapped, “It don’t bother you, it don’t bother.” I think Verlaine would agree. Hey, whatever works right?

Television best conveys the universal human struggle to remain aloof on the album’s eponymous ten-minute centerpiece when Verlaine describes a chance meeting with a ragged, rail-riding hobo who sounds like he’s the physical embodiment of the drifter, “the poor boy whose story is seldom told,” in Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer.” The derelict instructions seem simple at first. The complexity of his words is entirely reliant on how you interpret them:

“Look here junior- don’t you be so happy, and for heaven’s sake, don’t be so sad.”

Does ‘junior’ find this comforting or unsettling? Will he embrace life in all of its gloriously maddening uncertainty? I have an idea of how he interpreted it, but so do you. It’s not really about how the vagabond’s attempt at consolation affect Verlaine- I’m sure he’s thought it over plenty. It’s about what the lyric means to you, the listener. You can either appreciate it for what it is or you can complain about his diction as he spins his tale.* Personally, I think everybody should listen to this album at least once. If it’s not your thing, at least there are still four hundred and ninety-six other records I can recommend during this insane online odyssey of ours.


*That’s actually a lyric from “Marquee Moon’s” third track, “Friction.”

-Nick

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Mike Natale:

Listened to: MP3

I must admit, I knew nothing of Television before listening to this album, aside to the fact that when Jeff Buckley’s debut album Grace was released, one reviewer suggested that the album’s “shimmery, dynamic style suggests careful study of Tom Verliane, who, I later discovered, is the lead singer and guitarist for the band. So, since Buckley is a personal idol of mine (I know that sounds biased, but everyone has a bias, especially because what you draw from art depends on what you bring to it. I just choose to wear my bias on my sleeve) I was excited to check the album out. I was told repeatedly it was a major force in the post-punk movement, and thereby a major influence to modern alternative rock.

So let me where my bias on my sleeve again. I dislike “alternative rock”. Don’t get me wrong, I dig Radiohead and some others, but it’s frustrating how every music act today is alternative. Everybody who listens to some music, be it the black clothing clad emo kids, the screaming, roaring death-core, metal-core, math-core, I-have-low-self-confidence-and-feel-the-need-to-fit-in-core toolbags, the tonue-so-far-in-their-cheek-it’s-piercing-through Weezer fans, or the hipster indie rock college radio “I listen to bands nobody’s ever heard of, and loudly criticize anything remotely popular so that makes me cool” douche bags, everybody seems to think they’re rebelling against the “mainstream”. But when you ask them to point out this “mainstream” music, they just point fingers at each other. It would seem that Jonas Brothers fans are the only true rebels these days.

But the true struggle I have with “alternative rock”, primarily the college radio brand, is that it’s become so about not succumbing to the musical mainstream that it stops being musical. Any one who feels the need can front an “indie” band, and while the instrumentalists get better and better, the “singers” seem to just worsen with time.

I realize these first three paragraphs were a rant against today’s music scene, but I thought it only fair to inform you of the melodic battlefield I’ve walked through to finally get to Marquee Moon, today’s album.

The first three tracks of the album failed to impress me initially. I thought “Great, here’s another ‘alternative rock’ band.” But then I realized. This album came out in 1977. Like the MC5 nearly ten years before them, Television was way ahead of it’s time. So, while today those first three tracks may seem nothing special, you have to put yourself into the context in which they were composed, and you’ll truly appreciate them for what they are. You may not enjoy them, but you’ll appreciate them.

It is the fourth track on the album where the genius truly begins. The 10 minute epic title track is equal parts Pink Floyd and Patti Smith. It boggles the mind to imagine a 10 minute track being released as a single, and even more shocking is the discovery that it actually had some success. But all this surprise disappears when you hear the track, which seems to go in a million different sonic directions, while never once ceasing to be an honest outcry from Verliane, who’s guitar virtuosity is in full effect. I’m not sure if Verlaine had even heard Serge Gainsbourg’s Histoire de Melody Nelson, but this track could be an English-language demo from it.

The next track, Elevation, can only be described as what happens when a Talking Heads track sleeps with Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures. Since it’s not as musically ambitious as the previous track, it’s able to pack all that energy into the melody, unleashing a powerhouse of strumming and vocals.

While Marquee Moon may be the most musically dynamic song on the album, I was most impressed by the track Guiding Light for being so…well, normal. Guiding Light could very easily be a Kelly Clarkson ballad. Albeit that may be a bit of a stretch, but it can’t be denied that this track has a very classic sound to it, which is unexpected when one listens to the rest of the album, and reminds me of the first time one hears Here Comes Your Man by The Pixies on Doolittle. Guiding Light caused me to admire Verlaine more, for understanding that good music is good music, and that rebellion shouldn’t be an artists sole goal.

After Prove It, another track equal in force and compositional prowess, comes Torn Curtain, the album’s final track (unless one listens to Little Johnny Jewel (Parts 1 & 2) on the CD version) The chorus of Torn Curtain has that powerful, finale nature that reminds me of the finale of Godspell. For the record, I love Godspell. I’d hate to compare Marquee Moon yet again to Histoire de Melody Nelson, as the two are extraordinarily different albums as a whole, but Torn Curtain does have that same closing satisfaction one gets from Cargo Culte on the aforementioned Gainsbourg album. Torn Curtain leaves one with a sense of completion or closure upon finishing Marquee Moon, but that by no means should encourage you to take the album off your record player. Though I’ve only listened to the album twice so far, I can just feel that this is one of those albums that gets better each time you listen to it. For anyone who is a music lover, Marquee Moon is definitely worth a listen, and to imagine any “indie” music fans that haven’t heard this is like picturing Green Day fans who’ve never heard the Sex Pistols. You know they exist, but when you finally meet one, it take everything in you not to smack your forehead with the palm of your hand.

One more fun fact: Tom Verlaine was in discussion with Jeff Buckley to produce his second album. He produced the original sessions. Yeah, I now have the utmost respect for Verlaine.

-Mike

So, thanks for reading, and see you all tomorrow for #154: The Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest.