Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 111

My Top 1000 Songs #105: Waitin' For A Superman

The Flaming Lips began their evolution from boisterous, guitar-driven, acid-drenched rock & roll to experimental, almost prog-like sophisticated studio productions on 1997's wonderful/insane 4-simultaneous-CD package Zaireeka . But they clinched it on the next one, 1999's outstanding The Soft Bulletin , the one that elevated the long-running act into true greatness. And while I adore the album from end to end, the stylistic shift is probably best captured on "Waitin' For A Superman." Its wide-eyed...

My Top 1000 Songs #104: What Is Life

Alongside the Who & Kinks, I tend to credit Sir Paul as being the progenitor of all things power pop. There's a direct line from "Got To Get You Into My Life" and "Hello Goodbye" through Ram and on into Big Star, Matthew Sweet, and beyond. But let's give George a little credit. His 1970 post-Beatles triple-LP solo debut was obviously full of a tremendous backlog of great tunes that couldn't break through the John/Paul monopoly, but for me the stand-out has always been "What Is Life," his most si...

My Top 1000 Songs #103: Sequestered In Memphis

I've talked previously about how long we're supposed to wait before we welcome new music into the pantheon of greatness. Presumably there's some waiting period, when the initial rush from first hearing something new that strikes your fancy fades, and we can make a more objective call as to whether the music has true staying power. So, not surprisingly, most of my Top 100 dates back 20 or more years; I think there have only been two songs from the current millennium so far.

Still, sometimes you'll...

My Top 1000 Songs #102: Sweet Lady Genevieve

A bright spot in the catalog of sometimes-iffy mid-70s Kinks albums. While Ray Davies was more focused on narrative theatrical productions during that Kinks era, he could still write an amazing stand-alone track when he got right down to it. "Sweet Lady Genevieve" appeared on 1973's Preservation Act 1, an underrated record with a handful of pretty decent songs, albeit wedged in among some concept-album set pieces that don't work so well as individual tracks. (Not to be confused with the followin...

My Top 1000 Songs #101: Tom Courtenay

I can't quite call this Yo La Tengo nugget (off 1995's superb Electr-O-Pura ) a pop song--the guitars are too noisy, the lyrics too strange. Call it pop-adjacent, perhaps. It certainly highlights guitarist Ira Kaplan's way with a catchy hook, fizzy distorted guitars eased along by those chirpy ba-ba-bahs harmonized by drummer Georgia and bassist James. You're humming along before you stop to try to figure out what it's all about--some name-dropped British actors (the namesake actor doesn't find h...

My Top 1000 Songs #100: Franklin's Tower

Wow, made it to 100. Only 900 more to go! (Ok, not sure I'm gonna be able to stick it out that long... especially once Musk drives Twitter into the ground and I don't have a place to share these posts. Maybe I'll find a new social media platform? Or just enjoy one less distraction in my day? Time will tell!

Anyway, "Franklin's Tower." Ok, perhaps not the most impressive example of the Dead's music--it's a basic three-chord riff played endlessly throughout the song--the verses, the choruses, the j...

My Top 1000 Songs #99: Hate My Way

Yesterday's pick at #98 was music at its most joyous, three-chord power pop that was all smiles... and here's the polar opposite--music as raw, emotionally devastating catharsis. A hair-raising standout from Throwing Muses' 1986 debut, I talked about "Hate My Way" awhile back in trying to come up with a shortlist of songs most likely to leave me a teary-eyed puddle of mush. Here's what I had to say there.

Live in 1988:

My Top 1000 Songs #98: Sick Of Myself

The lead-off track on Matthew Sweet's 1995 album 100% Fun had one simple objective: help the album earn that title.

Mission accomplished.

Live on Letterman:

My Top 1000 Songs #97: In The Court Of The Crimson King

While my discovery of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis came first, it was taking a chance on that first King Crimson LP--back in those pre-internet days, based largely on that insane cover and a (not complimentary) review in the public library's beat up copy of the Rolling Stone Record Guide--that opened up my obligatory high school fixation with old-school progressive rock. Yes, by then I'd picked up Discipline , the reformed King Crimson's re-emergence from a lengthy dissolution, but I understood the ...

My Top 1000 Songs #96: Sitting in Limbo

This wonderful tune from reggae legend Jimmy Cliff first appeared on a 1971 album, but I'm assuming most people, like me, discovered it through its inclusion on the essential soundtrack for the following year's The Harder They Come, a gritty film about a budding reggae singer (played by Cliff) trying to break out of Jamaica's mean streets. Unlike the reggae tracks that populated much of the soundtrack, or Cliff's gorgeous "Many Rivers To Cross" (more of a gospel tune), "Limbo" feels like straigh...