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#1187: The Beatles – She Came in Through the Bathroom Window

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Well, this track comes as a bit of a weird one to talk about. It’s The Beatles. ‘She Came in Through the Bathroom Window’ is from Abbey Road. Everyone likes that album. When I think about it, it’s not the one I return to when I want to hear a Beatles album in full. That would probably go to Revolver or Rubber Soul or something. But I won’t argue that it has some of the band’s best songs on there. ‘She Came in…’ is a part of the medley that makes up the majority of Abbey Road‘s second half, kinda closing out its first part, and was performed in one take alongside ‘Polythene Pam’ whose closing solo segues right into the introduction.

For the longest time I looked at the medley with a bit of a side-eye. Blasphemous to say, I know. This was the masterstroke that marked the ending of the Beatles’ recording career. But seeing as it was made up of tunes that John Lennon and Paul McCartney had in the can going back to 1968, the album was released in Autumn 1969, I used to see it as the guys sort of scraping the bottom of the barrel for material and shmushing them together. Although I appreciate it a lot more these days, I do usually have that feeling lurking in the back of my mind. As a result, I like some of the parts more than the whole. And I can’t say that I have a deep, deep connection with this particular tune other than I found myself singing it to myself whenever I was out shopping or in the shower. If I was singing it in those situations, that probably means I’ve liked it somewhere along the line.

‘She Came in…’ was inspired by a real-life incident where a fan broke into Paul McCartney’s London home, literally through the bathroom window while he was out. The parts about being ‘protected by a silver spoon’ and sucking her thumb ‘by the banks of her own lagoon’ I have no idea about. Only McCartney could tell you if he asked him. But being a grandmaster of melody that he is, he makes the whole two minutes the song goes on for sound rather good. I guess he just let his imagination run wild about this particular person, wondering what she does as a job and what her aspirations may be. It’s all a bit up in the air, this one, regarding the lyrics. But regarding the harmonies, the backing vocals, Harrison’s guitar licks, the sort of half-time tempo McCartney’s bass takes for the second verse. That’s all good, good stuff. One of my highlights out of the so-called ‘Long One’.

#1176: Nirvana – Serve the Servants

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While thinking about what I was gonna write for this song, its chorus just kept on repeating itself in my head. It’s a funny thing about ‘Serve the Servants’. This was the opener to Nirvana’s In Utero, the album consciously made, at the behest of main man Kurt Cobain, to sound a lot more unpolished and possess a rawer feel to counter the “overproduction” of Nevermind. And sure, it gets that theme going from the first second with the sound of a drumstick count-in and that blast of an opening chord. But once its rhythm and near-groove properly sets in with melody in tow, it’s just as catchy and much of a tune as anything that came on the album before. It’s not the most massive of changes. That shock really comes in on the song after.

I first listened to In Utero just over 11 years ago. It might have even been during this month in 2013. That was a special year for the album, ’cause it marked 20 years since it was originally released and there was a whole special 20th anniversary release that was coming around the corner at the time. My take on it? I like it a bunch. It’s probably my favourite Nirvana LP. Nevermind will always been seen as the outright classic, but I just prefer a lot of the songs on Utero. The majority of the first half of the former has been overplayed over the years to the point where I can go long points without having to listen to it. Plus, might be a little silly, but there’s something about Nevermind that’s a little too perfect to me. It’s the little oddities and things left in on In Utero that I’ve always felt have made it the more rewarding listen.

‘Serve the Servants’ is a tune that I’ve never really been able to figure out. It appears to be about a lot of different things all brought together. Cobain touches upon his own boredom with the music business, getting older and the pain that comes with it, relationship issues with his dad and references the Salem witch trials. So, maybe it’s fair to say it’s a bit of an autobiographical thing going on with a totally different subject put in to throw the listener off. Maybe it’s all just words Cobain put together to sound good. Too bad he can’t tell us now. But it’s always been an engaging tune to hear. In comparison to the power chords of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, ‘Servants’ rolls along with this odd riff which usually shouldn’t work but very much does. Cobain sings louder in the verses compared to the choruses where he’s nearly mumbling. The solo’s a trip and doesn’t just follow the vocal melody of the verse, and at 2:42, something I’ve just noticed, someone flat-out coughs in the middle of it. You gotta dig that sort of stuff.

#1173: Supergrass – Seen the Light

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My old TV, provided by Virgin Media, had this feature where you could go into its guide and select a variety of music videos if ever you wanted to watch them. It was pretty cool. Television hadn’t yet got to the point where you could easily hook up your laptop right up to the big CRT screen. And if it had, I couldn’t anyway because I didn’t have a laptop. But it was neat to be able to watch whatever music video that tickled your fancy, in very, good quality, and in full screen without a problem of adverts or buffering and all the like. And it was through that that I came to know ‘Seen the Light’, a track from Supergrass’s 2002 album Life on Other Planets, which was also released as a single in early 2003.

As you’ll see above, the video doesn’t feature a physical presence of the band in any way. They must have been out on tour promoting the album or something. But is instead a clip consisting of followers going crazy over their apparent leaders, whether it be the congregation in a church or rabid fans at what appears to be a Fabian show. The video’s also made so it looks like various characters within it are miming the lyrics to the song. It’s a weird one, but also quite funny. And I guess it all ties in with the song’s lyrical matter too, which concerns the moment of joy and rapture that has been felt among the people now that their eyes have ‘seen the light’. What that light is isn’t really specified. But what matters is that there’s a sense of happiness and freedom, now that it’s been found.

I’m sure I’ve made some statement in the past referring to how this specific album by Supergrass is where they really wore their glam-rock influences on their sleeves. It’s apparent throughout the whole record, and ‘Seen the Light’ is one prime example. The way Gaz Coombes enunciates his lyrics (“Now that our eyyyyes have seeeeen the liiight, uuuuuuh”) the general tone behind the music. It’s a clear Marc Bolan/T.Rex tribute. Not that I’m complaining though. The whole track is a feel-good affair filled with very humorous moments, like the freaky/weirded out guitar(?) solo, a ‘baa’ from a sheep that makes a random appearance and an Elvis Presley impersonation, again by Coombes, that caps the whole track off. Fair to say, I think the group were in very high spirits when they were recording this.

#1172: 1990s – See You at the Lights

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1990s. A band I’d be surprised anyone would know. If you were to comment and say, “Hey, don’t be so sure”, then, nice. You’re one of the few. I couldn’t say I have much of an opinion on the band though. First time I’d heard of them was back in 2007 or something. That was the ripe time for indie bands in the UK, those mid-2000s. And watching MTV2 in those days, there was always something new around the corner. 1990s showed up occasionally on the channel with the video, ‘You’re Supposed to Be My Friend’. That tune, I thought, was all right. What struck me was how both old and young the band looked, all at the same time. Then a few months down the line, the video for ‘See You at the Lights’ came round and the song became an instant hit to me. Lot of time was spent trying to figure out the usual time slot that the video was usually shown in. But then YouTube became available and I could watch/listen anytime I wanted.

It all begins with that beginning wordless hook. If that doesn’t get you singing along, then there’s not much point listening to the rest of the song. It always come back to it. But when it doesn’t, the song concerns a narrator who’s going out with a lady and basically has nothing to say but good things about her. She could be the one. He sees the light in her. This time in the relationship appears to be taking place around Christmas time too, hence the references to snow, stepping into the ‘white’ and the obviously clue, the mention of a Christmas tree. I’ve always liked the general tone of the music in this too. I’ve always envisioned a busy city centre at nighttime with all these bright lights everywhere when I hear this song, which I think the song is going for. It all comes from the lyrics, brings about a lot of vivid imagery.

The music video in itself is very endearing too. It’s an animated one. Quite dated in today’s world. It looked quite dated back in 2007 too. But there’s no denying it’s a bit of fun to watch. It features an animated version of the band, sitting on the ledge of a giant building in Glasgow, staring at the moon and lip-syncing to the song. With each verse, they get up to slightly different antics, from bobbing to the music in the first verse to singer Jackie McKeown jumping onto the drummer’s heard during the last one. It’s all pretty simple stuff, but has a lot of charm. I never really followed up with 1990s after this, though. I do know that you can find this song the album Cookies, and they released another record a couple years after. If you happen to like both of them, I’m glad I could be of service.

#1171: They Might Be Giants – See the Constellation

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Apollo 18‘s one of my favourites out of the first four They Might Be Giants albums, which consisted of just John Flansburgh and John Linnell backed by a synthesized rhythm section while the two handled their respective guitar and accordion. It’s got a real rocking feel throughout, with the usual fake drums and bass sounding much less so than they did in albums before. Plus, the theme of space is very much reinforced by the packaging, the LP’s title and a few of the songs on there. Makes it feel quite complete in that regard.

‘See the Constellation’ is one of those numbers that lean into the whole space theme the album has going for itself and might just be one of the harder, pepped-up rockers the band have in their whole discography. Quite psychedelic too. Starting off with a guitar riff paying homage to The Monkees’ ‘Pleasant Valley Sunday’, the track soldiers on with a smacking snare drum punctuated by chopped up samples of Dee Dee Ramone doing count-ins for Ramones songs. Tremolo’d guitars come in during instrumental breaks, there are these twangy synth sitar strums that arrive in the mix too. The psychedelia is laid on thick. But it works tremendously well.

Lyrically, there’s not a lot of fat to chew, but the imagery’s very nice. The first verse is directly inspired by a promotional photo of an artist who was on the same label as the Giants at the time. The second is a short snippet of a memory of the narrator trying to look up at the sky past the city lights. And the third and final verse seems to come from the constellation itself, the guy made of dots and lines, the figure to whom which the whole song is dedicated. John Flansburgh signs off with the psychedelic question, “Can you hear what I see in the sky?” And after a moment of calm, with Dee Dee Ramone still chirping at the back, the track blasts off with an explosive instrumental coda that trails off into the night. This is a very fun one. And there’s more to come from this album in the future.