Category Archives: Music

#619: The Band – In a Station

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I’m not a massive follower of The Band. I do have to admit that their self-titled album from 1969 is great though. Has a lot of great songs on there that I haven’t talked about but will in the future. Until last year that was the only album of theirs that I listened to. Music from Big Pink, the album that today’s song is taken from, is all right in my eyes. The follow-up is much better. Though it must be said that Big Pink is probably one of the most important releases of the 60s. A lot of contemporaneous groups were influenced by its organic qualities and noted it as a way forward in music following the heavy psychedelia of 1967.

‘In a Station’ is the third number on here, written and sung by the band’s pianist Richard Manuel. The Band had three main singers: Manuel, drummer Levon Helm, and bassist Rick Danko. Out of the three, Manuel arguably had the best voice. He had a lot of soul in it. Very vulnerable and his delivery could be devastatingly heartbreaking on some songs. That’s not too different here. Manuel sings about walking through a station, noting what he sees and what he hears and wonders if the people he witnesses would ever care to have any sort of personal interaction with him. It’s quite an existential track topped with vivid imagery and quasi-philosophical lyricism.

The main focus musically is all in that centre channel where Manuel’s vocal is along with those rich keyboards by Garth Hudson and the rhythm section. Then Danko and Helm join in for some fantastic harmonies in the choruses. Robbie Robertson’s acoustic guitar is on the right and Manuel’s rhythm keyboard is on the left but they’re really hard to notice when you’re listening to the melodies in the vocal. It’s a very sincere song; it can really take you out of yourself for a few minutes.

#618: The Who – In a Hand or a Face

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‘In a Hand or a Face’ closes out The Who by Numbers, The Who’s seventh album released back in 1975. It goes that Pete Townshend, the band’s guitarist and main songwriter, was severely depressed and suicidal during the making of the record. He quit drinking after a long period of severe alcoholism. He was having an existential crisis due to the fear of turning 30 and wondering if he was getting to old for the whole ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ thing. The album as a result has some of Townshend’s most personal, soul-seeking material on there. After nine tracks, including one written by bassist John Entwistle, ‘In a Hand’ sees Townshend at breaking point despite the triumphant confidence with which the music is delivered.

An emphatic crash cymbal and chunky guitar riff begin the song before a thunderous drum roll gets the rhythm going alongside a salutary opening guitar solo. The song is relatively simple. It’s mostly three chords. But there’s an assertive behind every note, chord, and drum fill played that makes the song sound very nonchalant and unfazed. Lyrics-wise, Townshend writes about seeing people in various situations and trying to put himself in their shoes. He asks the listener whether they’ve ever hard the same experiences and self-assesses where he’s at in comparison. His conclusion? He was “going round and round”.

A pulsating rhythm section break marks the song’s key change, and Roger Daltrey, Townshend, and Entwistle repeat its main refrain before the instruments ring out on an unresolved chord. I guess Townshend was in so much of a spiral at the time he didn’t know where he was going. With The Who, with his life…. It wasn’t a great time to be him.

#617: Led Zeppelin – Immigrant Song

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‘Immigrant Song’ was originally released as the opener to Led Zeppelin’s third album Led Zeppelin III in 1970. However the version of the track I regularly listen to, enjoy the most, and therefore see as the definitive take is the performance that appears on the band’s monstrous How the West Was Won live triple album from 2003.

This version is actually mixed from two live performances the band did on 25th and 27th June 1972, so it’s almost cheating in a way, but despite this I vastly prefer it to the take on LZIII because of the rawness and gruesome delivery of every instrument on show. As soon as that snare hits and Bonham, Page and Jones come in together with the riff, it is almost like being booted in the face. And it just goes on and on. It helps that there’s a great emphasis on the low frequencies here so every hit on the bass drum really hits. Plant’s vocal isn’t tampered with at all unlike on the album. It’s basically the four men, in their prime, doing their craft in the most massive way possible.

Then when Plant finishes his vocal, he just lets the instruments do their thing in a lengthy instrumental passage. John Bonham, the powerhouse he was, leads it all throwing in these random fills and cymbal crashes with John Paul Jones keeping up somehow. Page carries out a solo amidst all of this. After what seems like an eternity it all comes to a resolution and sharp stop. If only it was the actual official take that everyone knew. I honestly feel this version of the song blows every other one out of the water. I mean, it’s for you to decide though. The album version is below.

#616: John Lennon – Imagine

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This was meant to be posted yesterday. I knew that I had to do it and I was going to… just slipped my mind. Sorry if anyone was properly waiting for it.

This probably isn’t going to be a very long one though. We all know it. It’s ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon. One of the most iconic songs of all time, optimistic in its message, soothing with great vocal and piano melodies too. Or the most hypocritical ‘peace and love’ BS that gets played year in, year out depending on your level of cynicism. Here was one of the richest men in the world telling me to imagine having no possessions? Who does he think he is?

That seems to be a take that a lot of people have gathered. It’s a take that made a lunatic shoot and kill him years later. I think Lennon had good intentions all the way throughout writing the song. I think some people just like to complain. I do agree that can get tiring hearing it a lot of the time. It was definitely overplayed at some point in time but I don’t think I was around then. I haven’t heard it that much lately. Maybe that’s why I can listen to it without wanting to skip. Can’t deny – it is a true classic.

#615: John Linnell – Illinois

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John Linnell, one of the two Johns out of Brooklyn-based band They Might Be Giants, released his solo debut (and only solo release to this day) State Songs in the autumn of 1999. Fifteen of the songs on there are named after various states of the US but in no way are about them in any shape or form. He actually used the concept as a way to avoid coming up with actual titles for songs, and with that he found himself with 50 titles to choose from.

‘Illinois’ is the album opener. There are no lyrics on it. It is purely instrumental. The interesting thing here is that only instrument on here is a carousel organ, a piece of apparatus that you would rarely find on any other commercial album but here is present on about five tracks. In ‘Illinois’ it is specifically a Wurlitzer 103 Band Organ. Its paper roll was cut and punched by a Mr. Bob Stuhmer and the take as you hear it on the album was recorded at his home.

The instrumental sets off the album’s tone very well. It’s very triumphant and somewhat optimistic in its delivery and the melodies here are very infectious. I never thought a carousel organ could build such a sense of anticipation. The song ends and transitions into the following track but that’s for a day years away from now.