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#1142: Animal Collective – Rosie Oh

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The first few times I’d be playing through Animal Collective’s Centipede Hz when I was getting into the group all those years ago, I’ve gotta say its third song ‘Rosie Oh’ passed me by without much of a second thought on my part. It gets a bit of a raw deal with is position in the tracklisting. The album’s hyped up with its charging first track, which in turn is followed by the unpredictably hyper second (also the first single). You wonder how this hectic momentum built by these two numbers will be carried on. Then ‘Rosie Oh’ comes into the frame, and it sounds like a stroll in the park compared to them – albeit containing the same loaded production choices that have been established in the opening tracks. But somewhere along the way, I came to appreciate it a lot more. And now I can write three paragraphs about it with that appreciation.

After playing a huge part in the direction of the sample-heavy, neo-psychedelia of Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox aka Panda Bear took more of a backseat for Centipede. Quite literally too, as he resumed drumming duties as the four members decided to make their music as more of a typical rock band unit again. Lennox provides two tracks on the album that he takes the lead vocal. One of them I’ve discussed already. ‘Rosie Oh’ isn’t quite as large and swooping as ‘New Town Burnout’, but it certainly surprises you in terms of its structure. There’s a bridge, which you’d think would return back to the melody of the beginning verses, but it goes into another section that in turn goes into a somewhat sudden and unexpected ending after a simmering instrumental break.

The track seems to be an account of someone who has no place to go after being forced out of wherever they once used to live, carrying nothing but a backpack on their person. They’re offered a ride by a stranger and a place to stay by another, but the narrator refuses these and opts to go on their merry way. Maybe the ‘stroll in the park’ feeling of the music is something that’s very much intentional. It’s literally what’s described in the words. Still, being on their own raises the question of whether their lone experiences are essentially worth it without at least having someone their to accompany them. Someone who can be invested in their feelings and bring some relief when things get too heavy. The narrator has an existential crisis at the song’s end: Did they forge this path in life, or did they just let it happen to them? It’s left unresolved, and the album continues onto the next track. But ‘Rosie…’ is definitely an interesting one. More interesting than I think people give it credit. Thumbs up from me.

#966: David Bowie – Oh! You Pretty Things

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It was a sad day when David Bowie died. I remember it well. If you’re into hearing about that experience, I covered it in my post about ‘Life on Mars?’ some time ago. The story’s all there. His passing was something that came out of nowhere, and something of a trigger that set off the strange year that 2016 turned out to be. Bowie was gone, but the music remained, and the most logical thing to do was listen to his music just to feel good and listen to his voice. I most certainly did that. The Hunky Dory album had been in there ever since I got my laptop in 2013. However, ‘Changes’ and ‘Mars’ up to 2016 had been my favorites from that record, and I was sure that wasn’t going to change anytime soon. But Bowie died, and then I came across a 1972 live performance of Bowie singing ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’ on the BBC. It was watching that that made it properly set in that the man was gone. Also made me appreciate the song a lot more than I did before.

Well, I think the main thing to take note of is Bowie’s vocals throughout. The track is about a master race of some kind taking over the world, based on the ideals of Nietzche and Aleister Crowley. Quite dark origins. But Bowie turns it into something positive and relatable by basing the lyrics on the kids – the pretty things – of the ’70s who were into these strange new things that parents just weren’t able to understand. And Bowie sings about all of this right from the heart with the most sincerity. That delivery ‘put another log on the fire for me’ in the first verse, that hits the sweet spot. If the whole track had been just Bowie and the piano, I wouldn’t even mind, but it’s a very cathartic moment when the rest of the band enter on the first beat of the chorus. That sense of tension is all released in that burst of energy. And still, Bowie continues to blow the track away with his vocal. Joined along with Mick Ronson on the backing vocals, the chorus is the greatest opportunity for a singalong if ever there was one.

I don’t know what else to tell you, readers. Between the quieter contemplative verses with Bowie and the piano and the rousing choruses where the rest of the band joins in, I can’t find much fault with this song. Makes me wonder why it had to take Bowie’s passing to make me listen to it again. It was right there that whole time. But it’s nothing to work myself up about, I know. Same thing applies to a lot of people in that situation. I do wish I knew how to play the piano though. If I learned it enough, I could wow people by playing the intro/outro to this track. Not a lot of people did it better than Bowie though. What a wonder he was.