Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 106

My Top 1000 Songs #148: Wasn't Born To Follow

Another track from one of my favorite records, the Byrds' 1968 Notorious Byrd Brothers ; and another instance of the Byrds providing the definitive take of a song written by someone else. In this case, it's a Carole King/Gerry Goffin tune, which the Byrds had the luxury of recording first (King recorded her own slower, piano-based version with her short-lived band The City that same year). It's a beautiful tune, delightfully melodic, but given a jangly, pastoral vibe by McGuinn et al. (with that ...

My Top 1000 Songs #147: California (All The Way)

I spend a lot of time kvelling about Pavement and Yo La Tengo and Guided By Voices... But Luna were just as big a part of my 90s listening (and life) experience, albeit in a more understated, easy-to-take-for-granted way. I loved their 1992 debut, especially some of the upbeat rocking stuff. But the follow-up, 1994's Bewitched, established the template that would last throughout the band's run, a mellower, more laid-back vibe that blended the moody psyche-tinged shoegaze sounds of frontman Dean ...

My Top 1000 Songs #146: Twenty Four Hours

A second fave from Joy Division's epic second (and final) LP Closer . And it's a doozy. Musically, there's a thrilling dynamic, shifting back and forth between the hushed, atmospheric sections (driven by Peter Hook's creepy bass riff and swathed in producer Martin Hannett's reverb-drenched ambience) and the frenetic, double-speed, guitar-driven bits. And of course, with Joy Division, it's the devastatingly dark lyrics that drive everything home, a break-up song to end all break-up songs. As with ...

My Top 1000 Songs #145: Without You

Not a huge number of ballads on my list--when I think about my favorite songs, it's the killer hooks that tend to come to mind more often that the softer stuff--but if you're thinking ballads, you can't do much better than this one.

It's also one of the small number of cover versions on the list. Now, don't get me wrong. Badfinger's original, from 1970's No Dice, is damn near perfect, yet another piece of stellar songwriting from late power pop genius Pete Ham. But it's Harry Nilsson's time-stopp...

The Best Of 2022: The Final (?) Mix

One more sign I'm the consummate music nerd: Every year, I still feel a warm tingle the moment I hit "burn" on my computer's CD-burning program and lock in my annual best-of mix. Spent yesterday culling my list down to 80 minutes. (As is my practice, the mix is largely upbeat, catchy numbers, a few ballads aside; while a later 2-CD deluxe edition will capture the mellower tunes and other tracks that just missed the cut for the highlights reel, plus hopefully some tunes I overlooked that I see on...

My Top 1000 Songs #144: Blister In The Sun

Spring of 1983, nearing the end of my junior year of high school, and I was hanging out with my buddy David listening to records at his house in Highland Park. We took a spin through The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads , the Heads' outstanding double-live LP (which to this day I prefer to the better-known Stop Making Sense). And then he pulled out some new vinyl he'd recently picked up, the debut from the Violent Femmes (hailing from nearby Milwaukee).

And in the moment it seemed like the coole...

My Top 1000 Songs #143: The Whole Of The Moon

Here's another example of a band that I wouldn't count among my favorites coming up with a song I totally adore. (To be fair, The Waterboys have grown on me over the years; I actually prefer a lot of their more recent records to the older "classic" run.)

Maybe the song is a little too earnest. Maybe it suffers from some telltale signs of 1985 production. And maybe it runs on a bit too long.

But still, it unfailingly moves me. That memorable "I saw the crescent, you saw the whole of the moon" conce...

My Top 1000 Songs #142: Tempted

I've written frequently, both here and in my book, about the outsized role Squeeze's 1981 LP East Side Story  played in showing me that the best new music wasn't getting played on the radio or MTV. Tracks like "In Quintessence" (my personal favorite), "Mumbo Jumbo," and "Piccadilly" were all wonderfully fun pop tunes that seemed perfectly designed for pop radio. But "Tempted" went even further, shedding the new wave/power pop elements of those other tunes for a wholly traditional (yet newly refur...

My Top 1000 Songs #141: Map Ref. 41°N 93°W

Much like "Outdoor Miner" from the prior record, "Map Ref. 41°N 93°W" again establishes that, amidst the widely divergent styles traversed by the band's original 3-LP run, from raw punk to synth-driven experimentation, they can come up with an unexpected yet absolutely devastating pop hook, almost as if by magic. While much of 1979's 154 , the final entry of that original studio triad, moved into darker, at times industrial terrain (while retaining the punk immediacy of its predecessors), "Map Re...

My Top 1000 Songs #140: Waterloo Sunset

Another one that feels kinda obligatory, like obviously if you're counting off your favorite songs, at some point you need to figure in where you're going to slot in "Waterloo Sunset." It's a little hard to get too excited. It's fun to tell the world why something a little left-field, be it INXS's "Don't Change" or Amy Rigby's "Don't Ever Change" (cute what I did there, no?), fills you with so much emotion. But "Waterloo Sunset"? What else is new?

I don't pull out 1967's Something Else all that o...