Tag Archives: my ipod

#1100: Eminem – The Real Slim Shady

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If you were to start going through this series from the very first post and up to here, you’d think that the only hip-hop artists I listen to on the regular are Eminem and Kanye West. Not that there’s anything wrong with this. They’re both two of the best to ever do it in the genre. But, you know… I’d like to think I have a varied taste now. I wasn’t able to write the posts in time, is all. I started this blog when I was 17, and at that age, in my eyes, Eminem and Kanye were the best ever and no one could beat them. Times have passed, and their flaws – musically speaking – have become apparent to see as the years roll on. But their classic songs are still classics, including this one right here, which everyone knows and is still one of Eminem’s most popular tracks almost 25 years after its release.

‘The Real Slim Shady’ was the first single to be released from Eminem’s second major-label album, The Marshall Mathers LP. It had only been just over a year since the rapper blessed everyone’s screens with ‘My Name Is’, introducing the world to Slim Shady and the persona’s wild, wild antics. Now Em was back, laughing at the chaos left in his wake and making his mark again as a labelled misogynist and advocate of domestic violence (taken from Wikipedia, I’m sorry), being the White man succeeding in a Black man’s game and ultimately poking fun at the imitators who had made themselves present in the aftermath of his success. It’s a mixture of silliness and seriousness as Eminem criticises vapid boy/girl pop groups, journalists and critics and the general public. He also cusses out Will Smith in one of the funniest diss lines to be put to paper.

I was five when all of this was happening, so I didn’t really grasp Eminem’s magnitude at the time. To me, he would just pop up with his new singles every time a new album was coming around. I wanna say I do remember watching that VMA performance of the song where he got hundreds of lookalikes to stand menacingly as he rapped through the track. ‘The Real Slim Shady’ doesn’t have that much a personal connection with me, but it’s always just been there existing almost as long as I’ve been around, and it’s damn good. Does it sound a bit dated? Sure. I mean, those cultural references in the lyrics aren’t anything but stuck in the late ’90s/2000 dead-on. But once Eminem gets to rapping, I never get that feeling to skip it.

#1099: The Who – The Real Me

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Goodness, the amount of times I’ve written about songs from The Who’s Quadrophenia on here. One of the most represented albums on this blog. But I can’t say anything else apart from it’s just that good. To me, anyway. Anyone who’s been reading these for the longest time will know how I feel about that record. There’s only one more song to be covered here, I swear, just if you were getting sick of all the Quadrophenia coverage. That should be coming relatively soon too, if you’re thinking about what track it could possibly be. Then that’ll be it. No more. Until then, though, I have to make some notes on the album’s outright introduction (following its opening overture) of ‘The Real Me’ where we’re introduced to the story’s main character, Jimmy, and all of his problems.

The premise of Quadrophenia is that this central character suffers from a multiple-personality disorder, four personalities which each possess characteristics of the four Who members, who’s trying to deal with this alongside handling familial and sexual relationships, and battling with his identity as a Mod of the 1960s. ‘The Real Me’ spells out to the listener that this narrator is not all that right, and we follow his journey for initial help as he asks his doctor, his mother and, finally, a preacher for any solution, to get to the bottom of what exactly is going on in his head. His questions are left unanswered by the end of it all, leaving the narrator with just a tad of unresolved confusion, leading into the album’s instrumental title track.

‘The Real Me’ hits right out of the gate, with aggressive guitar chords from Pete Townshend, a bustling drum pattern from Keith Moon, and an off-the-wall bass guitar performance by John Entwistle that he knocked out in the first take. Quoted that he was was only “joking around” when doing it, he certainly puts a different spin on laying a bass line under a song in the fact that it doesn’t really match a chord progression or follow any melodic element within the song. It’s truly a beast in itself. Very sure you can hear his fingers smacking the strings around 2:10 too. And plus, he’s also on those blasting horns that come through on the choruses too. The Who didn’t have splash out on those brass bands, Entwistle always had those covered. Daltrey’s trademark growling vocals have become even more pronounced following their last effort with Who’s Next, and I can always try and match the anger, the grit and overall attitude when I attempt to sing along myself. I even try to replicate that voice break on the final “Can you SeE the real me” before he roars out that “mother”at the end of the track. Suffice to say, it doesn’t end so well for me. If there’s another album opener that’s as full-throttle as this, I like to be pointed to its way. This one would take a beating.

#1098: Kanye West ft. Ty Dolla $ign – Real Friends

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So it actually has been eight years since Kanye West initially released The Life of Pablo, before making some fixes to the mixes some of the songs, adding a few new ones too, and then released it again a few months after. That was a hectic time to be a Kanye West fan. When is it not, really? This new record that eventually became TLOP was constantly being renovated and shaped up even in the lead up to its unveiling. It could have been released in 2014 as So Help Me God, which fans will still say is West’s best unused album title. It was going to be called SWISH for the longest time, up until a week before the release West announced on Twitter that it would indeed be named The Life of Pablo. Think there was meant to be a prize for any Twitter use who guessed what the “new” title would be after West announced that “TLOP” were the initials of the album’s official name. Wonder if that person ever got their prize.

Yeah, I was there when it was all happening. Was a hectic time. I was in my year out of university doing work at Songlines magazine, August 2015 – July 2016. A month before that February ’16 release of Pablo, even though I can’t remember this specific part myself but it’s what Wikipedia says, Kim Kardashian announced that the GOOD Fridays weekly music release that West had previously utilised in the run up to Dark Twisted Fantasy was back. The song that marked its return was today’s subject, ‘Real Friends’. Now, I have a vivid memory of loading up the exclusive page dedicated to the song on Kanye’s official website and playing it at least three times on repeat. Thought it was the best thing he’d done since anything on Dark Fantasy. Yeezus has never done much for me. And the standalone singles from 2014/15 were okay. This really felt like the Kanye return I had been waiting for for years.

This is a sad, sad song. The sample loop that continues throughout set the icy tone from the very beginning, but the sense of desolation is only reinforced by Kanye’s lyrics concerning his own failures in being a less than awesome friend and family relative, something that fans were quick to jump on when thinking about great being in the family sounded when exploring that theme on ‘Family Business’, and his inability to trust anyone he may come across knowing that at any moment they could take advantage of him. Singer Ty Dolla Sign comes in in various places, lending his heartfelt vocals to the proceedings, particularly to the choruses in which West jokingly states that he deserves all the hate and bad treatment he gets because of… well, everything he’s done that gets people talking. This and ‘FML’, a track that I would have written about too had the stars aligned, are the one-two punch of sincerity in what was the tail-end of the original album before the “bonus” tracks were added on (“Wolves” was meant to be the true album closer, but things changed), and both hit me right in the gut every time I hear them both. Kanye would get sad on records that followed, but there’s something about them that can truly make a heart sink on one of those days.

#1097: Arcade Fire – Ready to Start

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Whoa, whoa, wow. I haven’t written about a song from this album since December 2013, when I covered ‘City with No Children’. One of those instances where I can’t say time’s flown, because I can’t remember writing that post at all. Didn’t write so much about the song on there from what I can see, but more about what it meant to me and all that melodramatic stuff. Well, I can try and change it up on this occasion. Also… I’m not the most massive fan of Arcade Fire all that much, so there’s not a lot of stuff of theirs on this site anyway. I’ll tell you now, there’s only one song left from The Suburbs I’ll be writing about in the future, and then that’s it for Arcade Fire on here. I’ll leave it to you to guess what that song is.

I’m thinking back to 2010, and I’m quite sure that ‘Ready to Start’ was the first song I heard from The Suburbs. It was a massive coincidence, however, because I wasn’t even aware that Arcade Fire was releasing a new album at the time, so I had no idea who this song was by, but I know it sounded good. I want to say that the song was playing in an advert for a TV show on E4 (that’s a channel over here in the UK), which was repeated almost every day and in the same time slot too. I also want to say that the TV show in question was Skins. A Google search by my 15-year-old self showed that this was indeed a new Arcade Fire song, and I downloaded The Suburbs not too long afterwards. Strange how these things work out.

I do like ‘Ready to Start’ a bunch, though. The finishing chord from the previous track on the album segue right into the ticking snare hits of the track’s introduction, which in turn transform into the driving rhythm that ultimately carry the song for the rest of its duration with a strike of those crash cymbals. ‘Ready to Start’ is a song about self-determination, forging your own path in life and finding the strength to do so amidst pressures from various outside forces. Contributors on Genius say it’s about the band’s indie credibility being questioned by their peers as they were signing onto a major label and shaking hands with those suit-wearing cigar smoking big wigs. I guess that could be right too. What I know is, the music sounds dramatic as anything. Almost hypnotizing during those choruses. And it comes to a climactic moment when it goes into half-time for the outro before returning to its regular tempo. Oh, and I was right, it was Skins that ‘Ready to Start’ was appearing in the trailer for. See? Look at it down there. Takes me right back, it does.

#1096: The Killers – Read My Mind

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So I think this might be the greatest song The Killers have ever done. Forget ‘Mr. Brightside’ or ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’. Nah, it’s ‘Read My Mind’ from the band’s Sam’s Town album, their sophomore effort released back in 2006. I remember that era of the band quite well. That album came around when I was just starting my first year of secondary school. ‘When You Were Young’ arrived as the triumphant first single, Brandon Flowers had the moustache. ‘Bones’ followed as the next single. Their first Christmas single followed. That’s a good one. And then came ‘Read My Mind’ as the third single.

Now, to me, The Killers have always been a band that you can always count on for great singles. They always seem to be the best songs on every album they make. And when it came to Sam’s Town, each one that followed after the next continued that winning streak the band had established ever the first release of ‘Mr. Brightside’ years before. Now, eleven-year-old me would see the ‘Read My Mind’ video frequently on MTV2 when it was time for its release, and I thought the song was cool, you know? The group were riding around on bikes and getting up to all sorts of antics in Tokyo, and the music matched the uplifting mood of the visuals. But a closer listen to the song in proper headphones throughout the years revealed just how hooky and infectious the entire track is, from the those ghostly backing vocals to the guitar fills after each iteration of the ‘read my mind’ title phrase in the verses. There are a lot more melodic tidbits to latch on to, but those are just a couple I can highlight.

I don’t know what the song’s about. Brandon Flowers has never really given much away in terms of the meaning either. What he has said before is that it’s one of his favourite Killers songs, it started out as a completely different song and that it means a lot to people because when they play it live at concerts the crowd goes crazy. It must be important to the band in some way, as their latest singles compilation is named after a lyric from the song. From what I’ve gathered, looking back at this period in the Killers history, they were very much on their Springsteen/U2 tip and the lyrics seem to be very much in the vein of the former, written from the perspective of a self-determined man who’s looking to get out of town with this lady he’s interested in. There’s a ‘Born to Run’ feeling about it all, but Brandon Flowers and co. deliver it all in a way that make it distinctly Killers. Also, gotta give huge props to the solo on this track. Huge feeling of release when it cascades into the bridge.