Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 3

My Top 2000 Songs #1088: Simple

Our prior visits to Phish on these pages have been songs which were perfectly solid (if not better) in their original studio form (though some obviously thrived on stage, as is typical of most of the band's work). "Simple," however (like some of the best songs of their forerunners the Grateful Dead), has no studio counterpart. (A demo was recorded for the 1994 Hoist LP but didn't make the cut.) Which is a shame, as the song's deliriously infectious riff, and especially its interwoven harmonies, ...

My Top 2000 Songs #1087: Do Ya

After a few years as a 60s British pop act (which had some great singles but didn't get much play here in the US), The Move added guitarist Jeff Lynne and started to pivot in a harder rock direction. The biggest stand-out track from this period, "Do Ya," written by Lynne (but still sung by Move frontman Roy Wood) was somehow relegated to a 1972 b-side (though was later added to CD reissues of that year's Message From The Country). It's largely a Who-styled 3-chord rocker with added T. Rex-ish gl...

My Top 2000 Songs #1086: Pink Turns To Blue

Fourth Hüsker Dü track on the list, and seems pretty clear my sympathies lean towards the Grant Hart side of the equation (not that there's been any shortage of Bob Mould appreciation in these parts). Particularly when it comes to 1984's Zen Arcade. I recognize the double LP has its afficionados, but I find it largely unlistenable, way too noisy and shrill and largely devoid of recognizable hooks (in contrast to the massive 1985 one-two punch of New Day Rising & Flip Your Wig , which won me over ...

My Top 2000 Songs #1085: Colours

To the extent I listen to Donovan--which, frankly, isn't all that often--I prefer his late 60s light psychedelia to his mid 60s meet-the-British-Dylan acoustic folk. But there was a happy collision of the two on the 1968 remake of "Colours." Apparently when compiling a greatest hits record, the label wasn't able to use the original 1965 single, so Donovan recorded a new, more fleshed-out version with some studio musicians (including, as with several of his songs, a pre-Led-Zeppelin John Paul Jon...

My Top 2000 Songs #1084: The Big Sky

Some 2000+ entries into this 6-year-old blog, and Kate Bush is making her debut appearance. Which feels strange, 'cuz... c'mon, it's Kate Bush! But she's one of those artists I appreciate & respect more than I actually enjoy listening to, so I didn't spin up her records all that often. 

To the extent I do, it tends to be 1985's Hounds Of Love. That was the one we used to play on the college station all the time when it came out, so I retain a certain fondness for it. The record went through somet...

Frank Sinatra: Watertown (1970) (also, Led Zeppelin)

I'm by no means a Frank Sinatra fan (aside from the occasional Sunday morning kitsch-value spin, when I put my lounge music collection on shuffle-play and he might pop up). But I picked up Watertown, his 1970 commercial bomb (later subject to some critical reappraisal) maybe a decade ago when I read about it on some music blog. It was described as Sinatra's attempt at a post- Sgt. Pepper /post-Tommy concept album, at a time when every rock act was trying the same thing, a failed attempt to sound a...

My Top 2000 Songs #1083: My Past Lives

It's summer 1990. Just finished my second year of law school, working as a summer associate at a Chicago law firm--way up in the Sears Tower (now Willis Tower), tallest building in the world (at the time), which made for some cool views but long elevator rides. At least one day a week, I'd spend my lunch hour at the nearby Tower Records on Wabash (long gone, like all Tower Records stores). 

I still distinctly remember picking up Too Much Joy's Son Of Sam I Am CD on one of those visits. It had act...

My Top 2000 Songs #1082: Forever Far Out

One of the most recent releases to hit the list, reaching all the way back to the halcyon days of 2022--seems like a different time, before the black plague of the orange turdgoblin's return, when joy could still be felt from sea to shining sea. And as with the other inclusions from the past 5 or 10 years, I add the usual caveat that, having not yet been subject to the ravages of time, who knows if this will still be a favorite once the glow of its freshness wears off? (Though I'll note that, in...

My Top 2000 Songs #1081: Child Of The Moon

The Rolling Stones' 1968 single "Jumpin' Jack Flash" was celebrated at the time as a return to their bluesy rock & roll roots after the Sgt. Pepper -flavored psychedelic diversion of Their Satanic Majesties Request--a record maligned at the time but which has come to be recognized as a pretty excellent document of the times. "Jumpin'" repurposed the "Satisfaction" lick (or maybe Buffalo Springfield's "Mr. Soul"), and it's a great song--one that would probably be here on the list but for the decad...

My Top 2000 Songs #1080: Pictures Of You

Robert Smith has always fronted two very different versions of The Cure: The spooky goth ideal for rainy day listening; and the infectious indie pop that's just catchy enough for radio without losing its dark edge. On 1989's Disintegration , arguably the band's best LP, Smith merged both styles successfully, somber pieces that still bring the hooks. "Pictures Of You" is that perfect hybrid, a gorgeous, haunting track that doesn't skimp on the moody atmospherics, with some spine-tingling keyboard ...