Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 46

My Top 1000 Songs #719: We Used To Be Friends

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.] 

A song becoming too intractably associated with a tv show or movie or commercial can cut either way. Sometimes it totally ruins the song (for the longest time, I hated the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" because it made me think of Sunkist soda, and it took decades to appreciate the song again); other times, it can actually be a plus (I think the only reason...

My Top 1000 Songs #718: US 80's-90's

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.] 

Another prime example of The Fall at their most accessible (to the extent they're ever truly accessible). Mark E. Smith's acerbic rant is given a boost from one of their more muscular but catchiest hooks, a riveting battle between post-punk (yet somewhat psychedelic, classic-rock-informed) guitar & bass riffage and open-mic delirium, with a new wave beat. ...

My Top 1000 Songs #717: Trust

The Pretty Things' 1968 opus S.F. Sorrow is one of the defining documents of late 60s UK psych, though it never got quite the same love (at least in the US) as Sgt. Pepper or Piper At The Gates Of Dawn or even, say, Satanic Majesties Request . But it's loaded with great songs, ranging from acid-drenched mind-benders to straighter, prettier cuts. It's also ostensibly the first "concept album" (beating out the Who's Tommy), though it's narrative is hard to parse, and as such is generally better enj...

My Top 1000 Songs #716: Georgia

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.] 

As noted here on multiple occasions, one of the highest peaks of my musical life has been Yo La Tengo's run of wonderful 90s albums. I just adore the fizzy blend of post-punk bombast and catchy noise-pop and post-Velvets balladry, which, alongside Pavement and a few other artists, really set the tone for that decade for me. So I always wonder why more band...

My Top 1000 Songs #715: Big Day

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.] 

Here's an unexpectedly cheery and big-hearted ditty from Brian Eno and Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera. It appeared on Manzanera's 1975 solo debut Diamond Head, one of two tracks co-written and sung by Eno. It's a slightly skewed little tune, the lyrics coming across like an official tourism commercial for Peru--yet the cool descending bassline over ja...

My Top 1000 Songs #714: Proto-Pretty

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.] 

A delicious bit of baroque pop from Wondermints' 1995 self-titled debut. The song, and the band, never got the attention they deserved, but somehow this track found its way to me just as I was entering a mid-90s power-pop phase (through some comp I've long since misplaced). Something about the complex, layered, Wilson/Bacharach/McCartney sheen (with an int...

My Top 1000 Songs #713: Cherry Bomb

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.] 

1976 debut single from the Runaways, co-written by Joan Jett. And, c'mon, it's "Cherry Bomb." Not a lot of explanation needed. It still saddens me that there are apparently people on the planet who have not, at some point in their lives, had to suppress the urge to greet their parents, "Hello daddy, hello mom. I'm your ch-ch-cherry bomb!"

Live 1977:Joan Jet...

My Top 1000 Songs #712: You Still Believe In Me

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.] 

Does this list really need a third visit to the Beach Boys' 1966 classic Pet Sounds?

Sure, why not? Hell, if I expand the list to a Top 1500, I'll probably squeeze at least half the album in. Cuz those vocals, c'mon, that just can't be real...

Plus--the perfect Brian Wilson moment, laying down perhaps the most sublime vocal & orchestra climax ever included i...

My Top 1000 Songs #711: Near To The Wild Heart Of Life

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.] 

In 2012's "The House That Heaven Built," the Japandroids concocted a distinctively thrilling post-punk call-to-arms anthem. The title track of 2017's Near To The Wild Heart Of Life served as a like-minded sequel (or remake), a similar-sounding (if marginally more polished) blast-force anthem designed for maximum fist-pumping volume. Ok, fine, the lyrics ma...

My Top 1000 Songs #710: Courage The Tack

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.] 

On again/off again Guided by Voices player Tobin Sprout was stuck in the George Harrison role, contributing a couple tracks per album while Robert Pollard got most of the glory. Yet Sprout, both with GbV and on his solo records, is a hidden treasure. True, most of his material follows a set formula, almost fanatical in its simplicity--maybe 3 chords (4 wou...