Monthly Archives: February 2015

My iPod #444: Mercury Rev – Goddess on a Hiway

Leave a reply

I have a vivid memory of watching the music video for this song on the TV, years before I really knew who Mercury Rev were or properly listened to Deserter’s Songs, and thinking that it was one of the most depressing ones I’d seen in a very long time. In it, three members from the band go out camping in a landscape dominated by dull shades of grey while front man Jonathan Donahue mouths the lyrics with a solemn and sad appearance on his face. And at the end of it is assumed that he lets himself drown in the pond whilst the other two members look out at the stranded boat he was once in. I can’t specifically remember how old I was then, but it was a downer to witness at a young age.

It still is at nineteen years of living. But the visuals do accompany the music very well, so I can’t complain. “Goddess” was released as the first single from 1999’s Deserter’s Songs a few months after the album’s release, though the song’s creation goes as far back as 1989 when Donahue was still a member of fellow band The Flaming Lips. The lyrics on that version are basically the same, but recorded very hastily I guess on with very limited resources. But it was on Deserter’s Songs where it got proper treatment like all of the other songs and was recorded finely with a range of instrumentation.

Starting off with a lone piano and bass, “Goddess” follows the dynamic of the ‘quiet verse/loud chorus’. Donahue sings rather softly accompanied by the rhythm section and aforementioned piano before exploding into the chorus where every other instrument bursts into the mix from a whimsical recorder to distorted guitars. The title is played with a bit too which is quite noteworthy. It isn’t until the last verse that the title is actually uttered, but at the beginning the lyric states “I got us on a highway” which… I don’t know why it always strikes me when it gets to that last verse.

It is a haunting listen. One which requires much attention. Great song from a great album.

My iPod #443: Sex Pistols – God Save the Queen

Leave a reply

“God Save the Queen”, the anti-anthem performed by Sex Pistols, was released as a track on the classic Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. ‘Accidentally’ released as a single during the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, the song inevitably caused controversy. The BBC refused to play it, a lot of radio stations were banned from airing it. It reached number two in the charts, but there has always been accusations that it was actually the highest selling single at the time and should have been one spot higher.

The track mostly makes fun out of the power that the Queen seems to have over the country. The lyrics note her to be some sort of robot fabricated by her ancestors, and in another instance as some sort of money laundering figure. Though the overall conclusion is that if we all get too hyped up for this monarchy malarkey that towers over the nation, listen to every word they say and take it face value… then there is no hope for us. Though with the lyrics delivered in the trademark snarly, snotty, and sarcastic tone by Johnny Rotten, it’s nothing to take very seriously.

I do really rate Rotten’s vocals on here though. Delivering lines occasionally ending with offhand sniggers and emphatic pronunciation on certain syllables, Rotten from casually speaking the lines at the beginning increases in vocal intensity with every chorus particularly on the “We mean it, maaaaaan” line climaxing with his restrained scream which leads into the “No future” coda. Makes you wanna thrash your arms about and shout at a wall.

So that’s my take on a great song. Very British. Very punk.

My iPod #442: Coldplay – God Put a Smile upon Your Face

Leave a reply

“God Put a Smile upon Your Face” is a track from Coldplay’s 2003 album A Rush of Blood to the Head, one which built upon the sound that the group had established with their preceding debut Parachutes. The former album contains some of Coldplay’s highly rated songs from “The Scientist” to “In My Place”. But I feel “God Put a Smile” doesn’t get much love as those, or any of the other tracks in Coldplay’s vast catalogue. Releasing it as a proper single in only a few regions may have something to do with that.

Starting off with Chris Martin singing the first verse with an sinister acoustic riff to set the ball rolling, the track picks up with a cool bass groove and steady beat with little guitar licks added by Jonny Buckland for effect. There’s something about this track that I think makes it have an edge over a few others. I think it’s quite a dark song. I know that ‘dark’ isn’t an adjective that you would normally associate with a band such as Coldplay. It just has that dissonant tone about it. The music video maybe reinforces this idea.

Honestly can’t say much about it. Nothing personal; it is a good track that fits in with that killer first half of the album.

My iPod #441: Louis XIV – God Killed the Queen

Leave a reply

“God Killed the Queen” is a song by the band Louis XIV on the album The Best Little Secrets Are Kept from 2005. A lot of people know the track due to its inclusion on the soundtrack for the sports game “SSX on Tour”; I saw it because, from what I remember, the new video for  the track was constantly being advertised on a music channel (which I think was Kerrang!). But it was only played at night, which was the one and only time I saw the full thing.

For its sub-two minute duration it is a very busy track to listen to. Based around 4 chords more or less, the track contains vocals and guitars which pan from one channel to the other within split seconds. Some vocal sections are buried underneath the mix, some of them fade into it a few measures late, and some overlap each other completely. Whoever mixed the song did a very weird job of it. Though I don’t mind it even if it may be a bit perplexing for some. And at least the steady rhythm section and various hand-claps and additional percussion provide a firm backbone for all of the production meddling to work around. It is a very catchy song to listen to. I’m still into it though all these years later.

Not much of a Louis XIV person; I only like this song. It’s about a one night stand by the way, in spite of the ‘shocking’ title.

My iPod #440: John Lennon – God

2 Replies

I could have written about every other song on John Lennon’s first post-Beatles album, but it was this one that came first. What can I say about it? Probably nothing that hasn’t been said before. But I will try my best to give you my opinion on why this phenomenal track is worth four minutes of your time.

“God” is the penultimate track on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon’s studio debut released in the winter of 1970. The album is one of the most introspective and personal works of its time if not to this day; if you hear it and think that he let go of his personal issues by the time you get to “God”, then it is in that where he hadn’t lays everything on the table by bluntly stating what he does and doesn’t believe in. After telling the listener his opinion on the God for the first minute or so, he provides a list of subjects that he doesn’t believe for the next minute in a half, ranging from “Yoga” to “Elvis Presley” before emphatically ending on “The Beatles”, before he simply stating that he believes in himself and Yoko Ono.

“God” was the definitive statement to end ‘the dream’ that Lennon’s former band had seemed to build up in the preceding decade. No one wanted to believe it. But it was when Lennon uttered the poignant ending line, that reality had to kick in. It was time for a new chapter.

It’s actually quite heartbreaking to listen to.