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#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.

#614: Arctic Monkeys – If You Were There, Beware

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‘If You Were There, Beware’ was always a highlight of mine from Favourite Worst Nightmare. Bought that album from Woolworth’s in about the first or second week it was released in April 2007. It was a big deal. A year and a bit had just passed and the biggest UK band of 2006 had come back with their second record. I think it’s always been my favourite album by the group. It was a bit like their first album but very beefy in its production. And the songs are good too.

Anyway, ‘This House Is a Circus’ seamlessly transitions into ‘If You Were There’ – one of the best moments on Nightmare – and the latter begins with an unforgettable riff that drew 12 year old me to it immediately. All the other instruments join in for the emphatic introduction which eventually give way to Alex Turner’s vocals for the first verse. All this time I’ve never put any thought into what the song was about; the vocal melody is so infectious that it just never came to mind. Though reading up on the lyrics (and just seeing fan interpretations) it’s somewhat agreed that it’s about the British tabloid press and the vulture-like manner in which they gather information from celebrities or the people they’re involved with.

Looking back on Arctic Monkeys’ discography now, it’s not so surprising that the band followed this up with Humbug a couple years later. I have a vague memory of people being slightly put off by the change in sound they undertook. Though evidence of what was to come was in this song all along. Matt Helders carries the track with some fantastic drum work, really leading the track’s rhythm when the song slows down just over a minute in. And overall the song’s direction changes so many times it’s as if there are four songs in one. It’s a mammoth of a song and maybe, just maybe, one of their most ambitious at that point.