Monthly Archives: February 2021

#799: Tom Jones & Stereophonics – Mama Told Me Not to Come

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Um… well, I was five years old when Tom Jones & Stereophonics released their cover of Randy Newman’s ‘Mama Told Me Not to Come’ (popularised in the ’70s by Three Dog Night), and it’s just stayed in my head since then. I think it played at the end of an awards show one time. I may have seen the music video every once in a while. It was a long time ago. It’s just a solid jam.

Stereophonics were part of that ‘post-Britpop’ thing that was going on in the late ’90s in the UK and were getting their places in the charts. They are also a Welsh group. So what could be better than pairing up this current Welsh band with this fellow Welsh legend? The result works very well. Tom Jones owns it, no doubt. Stereophonics’ singer Kelly Jones doesn’t do too bad either. He’s got that gravelly tone in his voice that a lot of people like. Together, the Jones sound like they’re having a great time. The track stays very true to the Three Dog Night cover instrumentally. It’s all about the vocals here.

Looking back on it, I think this whole era was meant to be some sort of comeback to the mainstream for Tom Jones. The album that this song is on, Reload, mainly consisted of cover versions of a lot of songs alongside a star-studded list of featured artists. He covered Talking Heads’ ‘Burning Down the House’ with the Cardigans. That was reasonably successful. The one original track, ‘Sex Bomb’, was massive and I remember that being played everywhere. The album got to number one twice in the UK and became Jones’ highest selling record, so I think the aim of bringing him back to the masses worked.

#798: Supergrass – Mama & Papa

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Quite surprising to me that this is the first song from this album that I’m to do a post on. I’ve shared my interest in Supergrass a lot of times before, I thought I surely must have covered at least one track. But I haven’t, so here it is for you today. Supergrass’ self-titled album, their third, often referred to as the ‘X-Ray album’ because of its cover was released in the autumn/fall of 1999. I got it as a gift in… 2006, I wanna say. I’m really big on Supergrass. I don’t think there’s one dud in the band’s discography. X-Ray’s probably the one that I enjoy the least. Not because it’s bad. It doesn’t have the immediacy and the hooks like I Should Coco or In It for the Money. It’s a slow burner. A bit more experimental too. Though it does have some great songs on there, ‘Mama & Papa’ being one that I only really started appreciating a few months ago.

The track is the final one on the album, bringing things to a calm and kind of sad ending. Quite funny that after using a variety of instruments apart from your usual rock ensemble throughout the album, they close it out with an short and sweet acoustic number. After two false starts, it gets under way with a twinkling arpeggiated guitar chord and a misty ‘ooh’ backing vocal. Bassist Mick Quinn takes the lead vocal on here, singing about being alone in the park, looking up at the sky and missing his mum and dad. We’ve all been there. Usual singer and guitarist Gaz Coombes provides the harmonies and that aforementioned ‘ooh’ in the breaks.

On a live listening party for the album last year, Quinn guided Supergrass fans through the tracklist with quips and anecdotes about how each song was made. He didn’t say much about this one. Coombes was playing the track’s riff in the practice room and Quinn sung over the top. I was also listening during that ‘event’, and it was there that ‘Mama’ got to me. Only took 14 years.

#797: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – Mama

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Eight years. Eight years I’ve been doing this series and the beat goes on. Have a read of the first one. Back to the scheduled post.

I haven’t known ‘Mama’ for as long a time as a lot of the other songs on here. I listened to Face the Truth initially in 2018 when I was at my first job at uni, and I could get away with being on Spotify for the whole day and go home without really achieving anything. It was a strange place to work at. Then as Stephen Malkmus was to release his electronic Groove Denied album in 2019, I revisited Truth again and ‘Mama’ stood out as a highlight.

Face the Truth was listed as a proper solo studio album by Stephen Malkmus, much like the 2001 album. The Jicks are still credited on the back though, and feature on many of the tracks. It’s more or less a Jicks album. I do think though, that Malkmus plays all the instruments on ‘Mama’. He did so on the Pavement song ‘AT&T’ and there’s something about both tracks bring off the same vibe. Maybe it’s the drums, I’m not sure.

In ‘Mama’, Malkmus sings about the good times of his youth. Just being a kid in the house while mum and dad were doing mum and dad stuff. It’s easygoing, very laidback. Very sunny and relaxed. It’s a nice tune. Things pick up a pace in the middle for the guitar solo and middle instrumental before slowing right down into the last verse and chorus. I also think that this was his take on Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Proud Mary’. The tracks are too close in tone for it to be a coincidence. Pavement played some CCR back in the day; I think it’s fair to say he’s a fan.

#796: Kid Cudi ft. Kanye West & Common – Make Her Say

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‘Make Her Say’, a song by Kid Cudi featuring Kanye West and Common, leaked in the early months of 2009, I remember that happening quite well. I was in Year 9, couldn’t tell you the US equivalent, and my friend who was always visiting websites for new music ended up downloading it. He showed it to everyone. When you’re 14 you’re trying to impress anyone you can. That he was able to get this download was a big deal for him, I guess.

Anyway, ‘Make Her Say’ was originally titled ‘I Poke Her Face’, reflecting the sexual content in the lyrics and also as a nod to the Lady Gaga sample that is heavily featured in the track. The title wasn’t appropriate for radio, thus the change in name. It features Cudi, West and Common rapping about having their eyes on women and detailing their own sexual fantasies about them. It’s all in good heart, even if it’s all a bit dirty. Talk about threesomes and spitting/swallowing is all in there, but the main act that’s highlighted is fellatio and how satisfying it is.

The track is actually very minimal in production, I’ve realised. I think this video is what Kanye took the ‘Poker Face’ sample from, and he just spliced it up, put a drum beat over it and made it a new song. Work’s greatly, though. Especially the way that Gaga’s vocals pop up here and there and work alongside the verses from Cudi, West and Common. The original leak had a full minute of Lady Gaga singing at the end; that’s the version I still listen to today. That was cut down for the album for reasons I don’t know.

#795: Pavement – Major Leagues

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No kidding around here. I think Pavement’s ‘Major Leagues’ might be one of my favourite songs of all time. Every time that first kick drum comes in with that blanket of reverberated piano, guitar and all the rest, I’m just taken to another place. Terror Twilight is one of my favourite albums; ‘Major Leagues’ comes near the midway point of it, and it continues the mellow and very chilled vibes that the album establishes from track one. I’ve written a whole post dedicated to that record. Have a read when you have the time.

Like many other Pavement songs, it’s one where no one but Stephen Malkmus could explain what it truly means. For me, I think it’s a track about relationships, taking them seriously or not taking them seriously at all. Not being afraid to take things on to the next step and looking at the bigger picture, which I think the whole ‘bring on the major leagues’ refrain refers to. But then there are lyrics about magic Christians and kissing wine that can leave you clueless. It’s typical Pavement/Malkmus stuff, and it always works so well. “Lip balm on watery clay/Relationships, hey hey hey” is one of the best opening lyrics to a song too. Just want to say.

Its music video, directed by Lance Bangs, is also up there on the list in my head of favourite music videos. It features Stephen Malkmus miming to the song, and is intercut with footage of the band playing mini-golf and practising in the studio during the making of Terror Twilight. I had to know more about the making of it, so I contacted Bangs on Twitter. He told me that the scenes with Malkmus were filmed in the Mima Mounds Natural Preserve in Washington State, while the mini-golf scenes were filmed in Portland on 82nd Street, at a place that “closed/went out of business”. So there you go. You want to travel to places associated with Pavement, there are two for you. Whenever we are able to travel again. There is another official video for ‘Major Leagues’ which has a boxing theme; I don’t think that one is as good.