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My iPod #465: The Beatles – Got to Get You into My Life

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“Got to Get You into My Life” is the jubilant, horn-heavy, Motown influenced ode to marijuana written by Paul McCartney, appearing as the penultimate track on the Revolver album. Why do I say it’s an ‘ode to marijuana’, you may be thinking. Well because that’s what it is. McCartney said it himself; the statement can be read in this authorised biography. Sorry to all those who’ve thought it was a typical song about yearning for love. But the real influence behind it makes the track all the more clever, slick and a bit humourous.

But when the first note plays and the blaring horns play the memorable introductory phrase it doesn’t matter what it’s about, you just know that the song is gonna be a good one. It doesn’t disappoint. Paul pulls off yet another stunningly smooth vocal take amongst the aforementioned brass instruments, leaping from the tamest of notes to the other end of the spectrum in a matter of milliseconds. It’s may be a bit worthy to note that Paul is the sole Beatle to sing on here with no harmonies from John and George, something that’s eventually mirrored by the former’s sole vocal presence on the next track. Still the two are make their presence known in the music, particularly George who from out of nowhere brings out a stellar lead guitar solo at the song’s climax, cueing the celebratory coda.

A brilliant track. It’s the last song on the album that you can get up and sing your heart out to before things get a bit philosophical and spaced out for “Tomorrow Never Knows”. Really dig it.

My iPod #449: Eels – Going to Your Funeral Part I

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Going to Your Funeral Part I is the second track on Electro-Shock Blues, the second album by the alternative band Eels. Recorded during a period in which several friends and members of frontman E’s family passed away, the album is regarded to be the band’s best work because of the brutal honesty and sincerity within each of the sixteen tracks on it.

Preceding this song is “Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor“, a lullaby-like track with lyrics taken from E’s sister’s personal journal before she unfortunately ended her own life some time after. “Going to Your Funeral Part I” depicts the scene bluntly stated in the title after the tragic event. You’d think that coming right after it, it would only concern the funeral of his sister and that’s what we’re made to believe for the first and second verses, but it is only until the final verse which has E almost screaming into a megaphone about remembering an old friend he used to hang out with behind their old school.

Beginning with an ominous drone that pans from left to right and quickly fades out, the track then gets to a crawling start carried by an unsettling groove led by an intense but very slack bass line that oozes from one note to the other. E comes in with a light falsetto vocal after, but over the dark bass line and overall atmosphere still isn’t able to to make the track less dissonant than it already is. The style changes during the choruses where cute xylophones and backwards slide guitars enter the mix; those only appear for a short time before returning to the grungy sound again.

Only five minutes into the album, the listener is already provided with two tracks that sound the complete opposite to one another. Though the first hints at the unsettling feel with light music and heavy lyrics, “Going to Your Funeral Part I” really hits it home.

If you want to know why it’s specifically labelled as “Part I”, here is “Part II”.

My iPod #445: Blink-182 – Going Away to College

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Tom DeLonge is not a member of Blink-182 anymore. Seems strange just typing that sentence. I was confused as everyone else when the events leading up to his departure starting appearing on Twitter, and still am weeks later. Doesn’t seem right not having the three guys together. But that’s how it goes I guess.

Let’s go back to a more simple and happier time by discussing today’s track, “Going Away to College”. The song is track four on Blink’s breakthrough album Enema of the State from 1999. The notes at the end of “Aliens Exist” merge straight into the lone guitar by Tom which starts “College” off before the Mark and Travis join in. It is mainly written by Mark Hoppus, I assume as he takes the lead vocals on it, and is from the perspective of a guy who we’ll guess is going away to college soon and is having all these feelings about leaving his loved one behind. There’s nothing much else to it. It’s a very sweet three-minute pop punk love song. One of my favourites from that album. So much so that I added it to my version of their Greatest Hits compilation which I then went to upload on YouTube. You won’t find it. That account got terminated.

Just a note, you might want to listen to this and “What’s My Age Again?” together. Makes it a bit more complete if you ask me.

My iPod #438: Radiohead – Go to Sleep. (Little Man being Erased.)

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“Go to Sleep.” was the second single to be released from the album Hail to the Thief, Radiohead’s sixth album released in 2003. The record marked a return to the guitar oriented music the band were known for, after taking a few years down the electronic/experimental route with “Kid A” and “Amnesiac“. Though it gets a bit of flack for not being as cohesive as other Radiohead albums, and because its almost-hour-length is a bit too much for some to handle. Thom Yorke had the same feeling; he posted an alternate tracklist showing what the album may have been had the band taken more time on it. Good to see that today’s track made it on there.

The song has many twists and turns to it. It starts off with an acoustic guitar driven riff playing at a 10/4 time signature that after being accompanied by Thom Yorke’s wailing vocals for a while is joined by Phil Selway’s drums and delicate electric guitar touches via Jonny Greenwood. The track then takes another turn when tom-tom drums dominate the mix as Yorke starts singing about the possibilities of the loonies and the monster taking over and Greenwood’s guitar becomes more distorted and frantic, eventually producing random noises and glitched out sounds as the song fades out.

It’s one of the songs from the album that I’ve known for the longest; I watched the video on the television way before I ever bought the album. It will always be a favourite track of mine from it.

My iPod #425: Manic Street Preachers – The Girl Who Wanted to Be God

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“The Girl Who Wanted to Be God” is a track from Manic Street Preachers’ album “Everything Must Go“, released in 1996. This album was their first after the disappearance of lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards (which happened twenty years ago yesterday, if you didn’t know) though some tracks on it included lyrics that Edwards had left over – today’s track is one of them, though Nicky Wire did contribute lyrics too. I’ve personally never looked into the lyrics much though the title is also the name of a poem by the late Sylvia Plath, whose work Edwards was known to study. Take from that what you will.

Admittedly the part of the track that got me straight away were the sensational strings that give the track this elating feeling of freedom. After seconds of a choppy guitar and a meddling rhythm section that start the track off, the strings suddenly appear to play the chorus melody and I’m launched into the air and find myself soaring through the sky, faster than the speed of sound. And then James Dean Bradfield reinforces that feeling by belting out the title phrase which makes up the song’s chorus. The verses are good; they have a good melody to them. But that chorus…. some days it will pop in my head, and I can be repeating it for minutes on end.

If I were lucky enough to be a member of Manic Street Preachers in 1996, I would definitely have wanted this to be a single. Could you imagine thousands of people singing back that chorus to you at concerts? Man. Better than “Kevin Carter“, I think. Though however glorious the strings and wailing guitar may be, it still reminds me of music that should be in the background of a flight advert or the theme music to a soap opera. I really don’t know why, I just get that vibe from it.