Monthly Archives: October 2024

#1181: R.E.M. – Shaking Through

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The “How I Came to Know and Love Murmur” story is one I’ve told many a time in the past. It’s probably written in every post for the songs I’ve talked about from there so far. Written one way or another, the point remains the same. It’s the trouble when an album and nearly all the tracks click with you immediately. If you’re gonna write a blog about them like me, the origin stories between songs aren’t going to vary by any wide margin. So “I heard the album in one go and it was immediately a favourite” is the best you can get out of me. It’ll be the same for ‘Sitting Still’ when that comes around, which will be sooner than you think.

I’m very sure the album’s tenth song, ‘Shaking Through’, was another one that I understood – in terms of feeling, gauging the lyrics not so much – on the first try. The track is tremendously upbeat and carries on a musical theme on the album that consists of holding back on providing the chorus, just for a little while to get another verse in, so that when it eventually hits it comes as this cathartic release. And that release is matched by the belted-out melody of the chorus lyric. “Shaking through/Opportune”. Not sure what it means. This whole period of R.E.M. was Michael Stipe coming up with anything on the spot, whether it made sense or not. But kinda just looking over them, I’ve come to see the track as a celebration of good things to come. One of hope, optimism and opportunity. I just get that sense about it.

Well, I guess that’s all I’ve got to say about the track, really. I guess I’ll just list a few things about the track that perk my ears. Bill Berry switches from striking the hi-hat to striking the ride cymbal during the choruses. That’s something. Usually drummers would just decide to stick to one or the other. Not him, though. The “in my life” bridge where Stipe’s then joined in by a bunch of overlapping vocals is goosebump-inducing. Everyone likes a key change, especially when it’s done right, and it is done so for the song’s final-final chorus. And just when you think it’s over, there’s an unrelated looping instrumental that brings the song to a proper close. The band always liked instrumentals on their albums, didn’t they? ‘Shaking Through’ was recorded for the Chronic Town EP that preceded Murmur in 1982, but left off. The ‘lyrics’ aren’t as fleshed out. I don’t think it’s as good as how it eventually turned out. But the feeling is still all there.

#1180: Pavement – Shady Lane

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Ah, the second song I ever heard by Pavement. I can sort of remember hearing it for the first time. I may have been flicking through the channels as I was wont to do in the day, found myself going back to MTV2, and when the channel popped up on the screen, there was the video for ‘Shady Lane’ playing. The chyron came up near the song’s end showing the band and song name, “PAVEMENT”, “SHADY LANE”, just like that, and I immediately recognised them as the people that did that ‘Cut Your Hair’ song, which I also saw on MTV2 sometime before and immediately took a shine towards. So now I knew two Pavement songs, and both of them sounded pretty cool.

A couple more times I saw that video on the same channel, and after those instances it was a guaranteed ‘liked’ song in my head. Seeing the video didn’t answer the question as to who the lead singer in the band was. No one visibly lip-syncs in the ‘Cut Your Hair’ video, and Stephen Malkmus’s head is missing in the shot where the band’s performing in ‘Shady Lane’. So I was still puzzled on that front. ‘Stereo’ fixed that, but that’s a story for another day. I got an iPod Nano from an “uncle” of mine when I was 12, “uncle” as in “male family friend”, and ‘Shady Lane’ was an instant add on there. Been a mainstay in any music library of mine ever since.

‘Shady Lane’ is the second song on Pavement’s Brighten the Corners album from 1997. Also released as the second single from it too, hence the video. That album is very much about turning 30 years of age, a point I’ve said before in another post for a song from that album, and the pressures that come along with it. ‘Shady Lane’ handles the topic of getting into a steady relationship, settling down and having the kids, the pets, the white picket fences. That’s the ‘shady lane’ in question. Malkmus wants that going for him, he straight up says so. And he brings it round to us all, saying that everybody wants one. And needs one too. But of course, Malkmus doesn’t spell those things out, writing about them in the quasi-cryptic but earnest manner that only he can. There are some brilliant lyrics in this tune. Possesses a fine riff. There’s a fake-out ending halfway through. It’s a great singalong. I much prefer the album version to the single edit, which was sped up a bit and has a higher pitch as a result, but I edited it so it ends before the ‘J vs. S’ instrumental. Always thought it took the momentum out of things.

#1179: Madvillain – Shadows of Tomorrow

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Almost slap-bang in the middle of Madvillainy, the certified classic alternative hip-hop album made by the legendary pairing of producer Madlib and rapper MF DOOM (RIP) comes ‘Shadows of Tomorrow’. I’m trying to think of how I felt about the track when I first heard the LP sometime during 2013… Nothing comes to mind. But I do remember playing it to a good mate of mine when I was visiting him in university the following year. One of those times where I was like, “Hey, have you heard of this album, Madvillainy? It’s sick, man.” Played it really loudly too. It probably sounded strange to the people he was sharing his accommodation with. But I think by that point I’d become friends with all of them at that point, so anything was fair game. Safe to say, it must have clicked with me somewhere along the way.

The track’s first half is rapped by Lord Quasimoto who, for those not in the know, is just Madlib but with his voice altered to a higher pitch. If you’re interested in what you hear, The Unseen would be a good place to start in order to obtain more knowledge on the Quasimoto character. For the second half, Madlib raps with his normal voice. And I want to say that this was the first track where he had ever done this. If not, someone correct me please. But I want to say I read that somewhere. Left me thinking maybe he should rap with his natural tone a lot more often, he’s got the voice to do it. But only he could find the records he does in order to make an instrumental like the one here. Sometimes you just have to stick to what you know you do best, I guess.

All in all, ‘Shadows of Tomorrow’ is a tribute to other legendary artist, composer and all-round cosmic man Sun Ra. In fact, the lyrics are one of Sun Ra’s poems entitled ‘The Shadow of Tomorrow’. So really, all of Madlib’s work on the track goes onto the instrumental, as he pretty much recites the poem word for word – maybe adding an additional word here and there. The ode to Sun Ra is further emphasised by the sampling of the man himself, with excerpts of his dialogue taken from the 1974 film, Space Is the Place, in which Sun Ra stars. The instrumental’s enough to put you in a trance. I think it’s the fact that the music stays in one chord, led by that droning note, which also gives it this mystic Eastern quality. And if you’re one who’s deep into philosophy and the workings of time, then I couldn’t think of a better song to listen that would get your brain working.

#1178: The Beatles – Sexy Sadie

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Beatles fans know there was a point where things for the band would never be the same again. Well, more than a few points, to be fair. The death of their manager Brian Epstein in August 1967 is one that can be brought up. But for the purpose of this post, I’ll bring up another. The trip to India in 1968. Before they left, they made ‘Hey Bulldog’ and ‘Lady Madonna’. According to their engineer, everyone seemed to be in great spirits. The group went to India for their Transcendental Meditation course under the tutelage of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Then they came back to the UK, began work on what became the White Album, and as we all know, they weren’t liking each other quite as much anymore. A few things happened on that India trip, one in particular was the inspiration behind the song in question today.

‘Sexy Sadie’ was originally titled ‘Maharishi’. John Lennon wrote the song and had every intention of releasing it under the original name before George Harrison implored him not to and provided the alternative title. While on the TM course in India, Lennon heard through the grapevine that the Maharishi had been making moves on some of the female students, acting in a very un-Maharishi way. Turned out this may have not even been true and was just a rumour started by a hanger-on of the band. Nevertheless, Lennon was angered and immediately disillusioned, completely lost faith in whatever he felt he was being taught and wrote the song in response. Lack of better words, it’s a diss track. So whenever the phrase ‘Sexy Sadie’ is said, just replace it with ‘Maharishi’ and you gain a little more understanding.

I really enjoy the way John Lennon sings this track. Think it may be one of his most underrated performances. The vocal melody’s one that continuously rises and fall, contrasting between his falsetto and his natural voice, stretching out syllables and elongating vowel sounds seemingly with little effort. And alongside you get the backing vocals of him, McCartney and Harrison throughout, piping up with “wah-wah-wahs” and “see-see-sees”, culminating in the part where they all sing the last line, which in turn falls into the song’s outro. That was also meant to be much longer, by the way. Must have been edited down for space on the LP. You can hear the track’s unedited ending section below. Would have been cool if it was left in, but the song’s great all the same. And that’s White Album out of here. No more songs to come. But click on the little “white album” tag below and you can read about all the songs I like from there.

#1177: Dananananaykroyd – Seven Days Late

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After having known Dananananaykroyd’s second and final album There Is a Way for 13 years, listening to it since near the day it was released in 2011 and becoming very familiar to every song on there in the process, I made the decision to buy it outright and get a physical copy back in January. It wasn’t cheap. Almost £20, it was. But I knew the music was good, so it was worth it. A lot of things became clear once the copy came in the mail and I opened those liner notes up. For one, I’d been singing along to the majority of the tracks on there, completely differently to how they were originally written. And two, almost all of the music was written by guitarist David Roy and, bar three songs, the lyrics were covered by John Baillie Jnr, who’d been more of the backing vocalist on the band’s previous album while mainly acting as the second drummer. I guess that’s why those two stuck together in a new band when the ‘Kroyd split up a few months after the album’s initial release.

I’ve gone on a bit of a tangent there. Let’s take it back to the point about singing the wrong words. Yeah, that’s what I’d been doing all this time. ‘Seven Days Late’ is a track on the album where there’s a lot of shouting involved. And being the people of Glasgow they are, they were unapologetically Scottish in the way they enunciated their lyrics. It’s an endearing quality. I could only mimic what I could understand, apart from those phrases where it was very clear what was being said. ‘Seven Days…’ is the most intense song on the album. I remember being sort of blown away by Bailie Jnr’s scream at about 2:20 when I first heard it. Bear in mind, I was 16. But there was nothing from Hey Everyone! that made me think they had that kind of scream in them. Really from the chest, sounded truly pissed off. And I’m sure the whole song is simply about someone deciding to stay in a room somewhere and do nothing until their mum and sister comes to take them away.

Thinking about it, there should be no reason why a simple subject like that should be matched with such ferocity and urgency in the music. And if it does, you’d think it probably wouldn’t work out too well. But that’s exactly what goes on here and, in contrast to what I stated in the last sentence, it works out very well indeed. This track makes me damn-near want to punch a wall. Multiple times or something. That’s sometimes what it has to come down to. There’s a frustration and tension that builds and builds throughout, and when the track leaves you hanging when things pause for a brief second near the end, those anxious feelings are beautifully alleviated by the final chord where the band members breathe an almighty sigh of relief – like sitting in a nice, warm bath after a tiring day. It’s such a good moment, I get goosebumps every time.