Tag Archives: mama

#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.

My iPod #523: Alexisonfire – “Hey, It’s Your Funeral Mama”

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The video isn’t really eight and a half minutes by the way. Someone messed up on their part.

I think this song is awesome simply because it is about go-karting.  I have never heard of another song which touches upon the subject, even if there was it would never come close to topping this one.

“Hey It’s Your Funeral Mama” is a song from Alexisonfire’s second album Watch Out!, released in 2004. Why that’s the song’s title I couldn’t tell you. I have the feeling it may be taken from a film, or may have sprung up in a conversation between a band member and their friend. We’ll probably never know. The hilarious music video has nothing to do with the subject matter either. Alexisonfire hold auditions for Alexisonfire clones so the real band can take a break while the clones do their shows for them. It’s a good watch.

Alexisonfire songs always get me pumped up and motivated even if I’m not planning to do anything active. “It’s Your Funeral” is no different. Straight from the beginning, the alternate muted and power chords give off the sound of engines revving up before racing off as soon as the lead guitar line enters the mix. Overall, the guitar playing is sick. And slick. Kudos to Wade MacNeil and Dallas Green. But the highlight throughout the whole track is the interplay between MacNeil, Green and lead screamer George Pettit’s vocals. One guy will be singing their heart out in one line before the other abruptly comes out of nowhere to scream the next. A very hard to sing along to by yourself, for sure.

A really enjoyable song in the long run. Something to thrash your arms about and go wild to.