Tag Archives: things

#1360: Ween – Things You Already Know

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In the space of two weeks in October 2015, I went from having one full downloaded album by Ween on my laptop to having seven. That time, the Autumn/Winter of that year into 2016, was when I fell deep into the work of misters Gene and Dean Ween and found myself having a “new” band to fawn over. The stars were aligning too. It was during that period the band got back together after Gene had left the band in 2012 to focus on his sobriety. It was like someone out there wanted me to start listening to them to prepare me for good times ahead. Once I’d gone through their studio albums, I found myself wanting more. Very luckily, Ween are one of those bands who literally have hundreds and hundreds of songs recorded that never made it onto albums. A noteworthy compilation of some of these is The Caesar Demos, originally shared on Facebook by Dean Ween in August 2011, containing cutting-room-floor tunes and demos made around the time the band were working on their 2003 album Quebec. That compilation is the source of today’s subject.

‘Things You Already Know’ is a song about that good, old situation of unrequited love. Or to put it simply for today’s generation, it’s about a simp. The narrator in ‘Things…’ wishes to woo their subject of interest by diffusing a mob, sailing them around the world in a yacht and promising them the moon and stars. A set of seemingly impossible tasks. It’s not meant to be taken literally, these are all just ways of saying that they’ll do anything to win the heart of this other person. It’s an obsession, one where the narrator seems to think that the other party is aware of the narrator’s advances when it’s very likely that this isn’t the case at all. The narrator takes it personally when, in the final verse, they see their crush with another man, trying to deflect it as a “Your loss, you didn’t get with me” type of deal when inside they’re hurting bad. Thinking about it now, it’s really the “grown-up” version of ‘Nan’ from the band’s first album. Both songs follow an obsessed narrator, who detail their misguided fascinations on a lady before facing reality and feeling slighted as a result. Both very entertaining in their own respective ways.

Had the song been fleshed out, I’m sure it would have been a shoe-in for the final tracklist of Quebec. But it wasn’t. I guess you could say it’s a little repetitive. The melodies are the same from verse to verse, chorus to chorus. The dualling guitar solo mirrors them. It’s anchored by the bouncing drum machine pattern. But it all sounds so good. And Gene Ween sings it in earnest too. It goes down as one of the great Ween tunes left on the cutting room floor. Those Ween fans who know about ‘Things…’ love the track, and I think I had an instant attraction to it when I heard it that first time. I have a memory of sitting behind an iMac at work and listening through this video of The Caesar Demos while doing something else. I went and downloaded the second “disc” of the compilation on 24th October 2015, mainly ’cause of the trifecta of ‘Eulogy for David Anderson’, this track, and ‘Hello Johnny’ on there. Those three alone can make my day. There’s still so much more on that compilation that displays the range of Ween’s creativity in that relatively small two-year span it took to make one of their most popular albums.

#1359: The Notorious B.I.G. – Things Done Changed

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Just to get the fact out of the way, this’ll be the only track by The Notorious B.I.G. you’ll see on here. Not for a reason that I don’t like any other song that he did. It was more that I had to be stringent with the songs I used to add on my old phone ’cause of the storage space and all. After hearing more music after initially hearing Ready to Die in 2014 or so, there were just so many more songs I came across that I preferred to add rather than other cuts from the album. It’s not like I had to add ‘Big Poppa’ or ‘Juicy’. I can go on nights out and hear those songs anywhere. It’s been a while since I’ve gone through it from front to back, though. I should do that again someday. I’m sure quite a few would go straight to the Liked Songs playlist. But for 11 years now, Ready to Die‘s proper opener ‘Things Done Changed’ – coming after the scene-setting three-and-a-half minute intro – has been my highlight on there since that first time I heard it when I was in first year at university.

So I’ll try and tell you from my perspective what it was like to listen to this that first time. At the end of album intro, Biggie Smalls talks about how he has “big plans”, he chuckles, strings in the background leave this in a tense, unresolved note. And then ‘Things Done Changed’ comes in. An emphatic drum fill kicks the track off, falling into a soundscape of rising strings and horns. The chorus contains the sampled vocals of Biz Markie and Dr. Dre – the latter of which contains the source of the song’s title. It had the hook, it had the beat. All sounded good so far. But then Biggie started rapping. “Remember back in the daaaays when niggas had waaaves / Cazal shaaades and corn braaaids”. Just on that flow alone, I was all in. I couldn’t help but pay attention to his voice, it had such a presence about it. I was only a small, small child when Biggie passed and wasn’t around on this earth when Ready to Die was released, but it only took this song to make me see why people listened to him and still talked about him with the regard they did, particularly in 2014 when it was Ready to Die‘s 20th anniversary.

‘Things Done Changed’ sees Biggie put his storytelling skills at work immediately, as he compares the days (presumably of the ’70s/’80s when he was a young man) when people were friendly, having neighborhood barbecue parties in peace to those in 1993 (when the song was written) where it seems like everywhere you turn around people are getting and shot and getting into fights without a moment’s notice. It’s something that if a young kid’s parents shared the same sentiment, the kid probably wouldn’t care ’cause parents never know anything about anything. Biggie did know from first-hand experience and made his worries and feelings sound so engaging and thought-provoking in the process. He raps about how futile it is trying to fight using your hands like how it used to be, because everywhere you turn someone’ll have a gun on them to end that fight very quickly. And while all that’s happening on the streets, on top of that, he had to worry about his mother having breast cancer too. The track depicts a stressful time for everyone involved. It’s a great one. Such a strong way to open a debut album.

#1358: Nick Drake – Things Behind the Sun

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It always comes back to Pink Moon. There have been a few “last songs from an album” posts around recently. After this, there’s only one more to come from Pink Moon. Any fan of it will be able to correctly guess what song that post will be for. But for now, this one’s for ‘Things Behind the Sun’. The track is the longest one on Nick Drake’s third and final studio album, positioned right in the middle of it, acting more as the closing number for the LP’s first half before you’d flip the vinyl around and listen to the second. Even back when I first heard the track in late, late 2012, it did feel like I was listening to what was meant to be considered the record’s most poignant moment. This and the preceding instrumental, ‘Horn’, together make up a one-two punch of poignancy. They both sounded so much sadder than anything else than the numbers that came before. But then again, I think ‘Horn’ acts as more of the tone setter, the moment of quiet reflection before the storm of ‘Things…’ begins soon after.

Not like ‘Things…’ is this wild, raucous rock number or anything. It’s just as acoustic as everything else the album delivers. It’s a storm in terms of the tone… there’s something uneasy, disquieting about it. It’s probably the minor key it’s in for the verses. That would do it. ‘Things Behind the Sun’ sees Drake detail his disillusionment with his musical endeavours. He goes out to perform, but he doesn’t trust the people who go and watch him. And as he goes about his way, observing people on his idle travels, he sees how they act and concludes that there’s no point in trying to win their hearts with his music – the likelihood is they won’t listen anyway. It seems to me that this is a track – another being ‘Harvest Breed’ – where he more or less implies that he won’t be around for much longer, or at least has thought about the end of his life, but doesn’t want to “name the day” on which it happens or reveal that he’s tried to end it before. So until then, where the more sprightly, happier chord progressions come in, he’ll take his time, find delight in the dark humour he appreciates that makes other people frown and generally keep to himself with his head down while he carries on feeling depressed. He’s comfortable in his state of dejection. It’s all very bittersweet.

And just like almost everything other song on Pink Moon. the track is provided to you solely by Nick Drake with his weary vocal and fingerpicked acoustic guitar. Goes to show how much you can do with so little. One thing I’ve always liked about this tune is how rhythmic Drake’s playing style is. He sort of skips around from one chord to the next throughout, playing a root note or two in between. It really shows during the guitar break halfway through when he jumps higher and higher with the progression before dipping back downwards again and repeating the process again. I’ve always thought this and ‘Which Will’ – which if you didn’t guess, will be the next song – both had a rhythm that could have been infused into a hip-hop track of some kind easily, which I guess would be sacrilege to some for weird reasons, but it’s just how I feel. Then Kendrick Lamar used a re-recorded sample of ‘Things…’ in one of his own songs – unreleased, mind you – and my point was proven. But overall, it’s disheartening to listen Drake’s track and hear how let down he was by the fact – and it was a fact at the time – that his music wasn’t going anywhere, not making him the big star that he wanted to be and that people told him he could be. It happened eventually, people love his music now. If only he’d stuck around.

#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.

My iPod #24: George Harrison – All Things Must Pass

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Hello again.

So… the year is 2010. The Beatles: Rock Band had been released on the 9th September 2009, and I was already Beatles crazy, if you want more information see Across the Universe.

By the year 2010 started, I had downloaded Sgt. Pepper, Revolver, Abbey Road and Let It Be. I then went on to download more of their albums as the year progressed.

I received The Beatles: Rock Band as a present for Christmas 2009. I originally wanted my cousin to get it for me, so when my mum, sister and I went to her house, I would know what what be in that huge box covered in wrapping paper. It turned out she wasn’t able to get it. She did, however, get me a Sgt. Pepper mug. I didn’t want a mug. I wanted The Beatles Rock Baaaaaaaand 😦 Of course I couldn’t complain to her. I was still quite depressed though.

My mum got it for me instead. It was the limited edition, with the postcards, the drums with the Beatles skin, and the Hofner controller. It was happy times, I played almost every day the first week I got it.

I had no friends to play with though. Not a lot of people in my school had a Wii….. or cared about The Beatles. Yes, I did get the Wii version. But only because I didn’t have a PS3 or XBox at the time.

I have a PS3 now. If anyone wants to add me, my PSN is ‘Kyei-ManJamie’ 😀

I’ve been going on for quite a while now. I am going to tell you why the song is on my iPod. All in due time.

I probably searched for ‘The Beatles: Rock Band’ in Google one day, because I found the Rock Band Forums which had its own TBRB sub-forum. I joined that shit, and spoke with everyone about how much I loved the game.

One particular thread that caught my eye was the Community Mash-up album thread, I am the member ‘jamzftw’ by the way, and basically it was just an fan album influenced by ‘LOVE‘, the soundtrack album released in 2006.

This will probably be my longest blog.

So, to put things short, that album was completed and I practically went on a one man mission to complete the second.

At that point I was into The Beatles music, and their solo efforts too.

Before I knew Spotify existed, I used we7.com to stream my music for free. I had ‘Imagine’ and ‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’ already on the computer, and I found out that ‘All Things Must Pass’, George Harrison’s cathartic debut release, was the highest-selling out of all the ex-Beatles members.

What an album it is. It has so many great songs, ranging from large-‘stadium’ rockers e.g. Wah-Wah to gospel-churchy efforts e.g. Awaiting on You All. It must have been a relief for Harrison to get all his material out after years of being overshadowed by Lennon/McCartney. It absolutely deserves the five star, 10/10 reviews that it got in 1970 and the continued praise it receives today.

‘All Things Must Pass’ is a very hopeful song about death. Don’t look at death with a sense of foreboding, when it’s time to go…. it’s time to go. Don’t be scared. Sunrise doesn’t last all morning. A cloud burst doesn’t last all day. It’s not always going to be this grey. All Things Must Pass away.

R.I.P. George Harrison

Until next time.

Jamie.

NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!

The Strokes new album ‘Comedown Machine’ is released next week.

It is available to stream on Pitchfork Media.

I listened to it earlier today.

I also have to say, if you aren’t a fan of ‘Angles’ then you probably won’t be much a fan of this new album. You could probably label it as ‘Angles Part II’.

When ‘One Way Trigger‘ first came out earlier this year, I wasn’t really into it. Listening to it again today, I still couldn’t bear to hear Julian Casablancas’ falsetto vocals. It’s just not something that suits him.

Then ‘All the Time‘ was released around Valentine’s Day, and that was the one where I thought, ‘Yeah! This is good! It’s like old Strokes blah blah blah.’ It was like how ‘Under Cover of Darkness’ went down with almost everyone. ‘All the Time’ just sounds more Strokes-y to me.

However, people who want that old Strokes sound back will probably be waiting for an eternity. Yes ‘Is This It’ and ‘Room on Fire’ are albums that can’t be beat. But that was ten-twelve years ago, dudes.

The Strokes have changed their sound and will probably continue to carry on changing it for years to come. We will all have to face this fact. Besides, we should take this album into open arms, cradle it, share it with friends. Strokes fan should appreciate it. I am a Strokes fan, I’ve only listened to it once. Who knows? It may just be my new favourite after another listen. Maybe.

I bet their next album will be released early days of 2016.

Until next, next time.

Jamie.