I am close to finished on my bit about power pop, but I have decided to again digest the musical detritus ringing through my head. I would like to fairly regularly report on songs that do not get the proper exposure. Oh, I suppose a few of these songs get a spin now and again, but I'd like to try and focus on the great songs that mean very little to the average listener. In short, here are five songs I hope people have not yet forgotten. These are my notes from underground.
1. “I Threw it All Away” - Bob Dylan, Nashville Skyline (1969)
Though I’m not a fan of the frog voice, this is a surprisingly remorseful and stately song from the characteristically prickly Dylan, who six years before released the unremittingly spiteful “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” Not to say a songwriter cannot sway from pole to pole, especially given the six year swing, but sometimes it seems as if Dylan would grow out of the grumpiness that characterized songs like his wounded-pride classic “Positively 4th Street.” Perhaps he did not need to “grow out” of such angry brilliance? I suppose, though, for all the grown-up literary gravitas of “Tangled up in Blue,” he could still summon the angry meanness for a crabby entry like “Idiot Wind.”
2. “The Whole of the Law” - Yo La Tengo, Painful (1993)
Yo La Tengo did a wonderful cover of the aforementioned Dylan song, so I thought I would revisit another one of their fine covers, this one of an Only Ones’ song. Yes, them again. For one, Yo La Tengo ditched the sax, which incidentally is a lesson I wish all rock bands would have learned since after, say, 1957: The Saxophone is intrusive! Okay, The Coasters can do it, but please - David Bowie, you should have put the saxophone down; it does not sound good. For some very strange reason, the punk generation brought the horn back into pop music and for that, among other reasons, they should be spanked.
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Article comments
1 - JC Mosquito
I think "Sad Song" or pretty much any song off Lou Reed's "Berlin" trumps everything in the sad song sweepstakes. Joy Division's Closer rate a very close second.
2 - bryan price
Indeed. Lou Reed certainly could turn a sad lyrical trick. Ian Curtis tried too hard though; I find his lyrics less and less affecting as the years pass.
3 - zingzing
on saxophones. i used to think like you. i used to hate the sax. but, then i found it can be used in a multitude of ways, and the closer one gets to shronk, the better. get "buy" by the contortions and come back again.
on robert wyatt. the man is a genius. i love rock bottom, but i must say that i like his rough trade period the best. his version of shipbuilding is magnificent (and costello, as good as he is, is no wyatt), but his version of chic's "at last i am free" has to be his best cover. "old rottenhat" is my favorite album of his.
on ian curtis/lou reed. lou wrote for the people (at least early in his career). no matter how confrontational he wanted to be, he also considered his audience (whether he wanted to please them or piss them off is another issue). his lyrics were most often stories, or character sketches, and it's pretty difficult to get to know the real lou reed through his lyrics. of course, just what the real lou reed was was probably a mystery to lou reed as much as it was to anyone else.
ian cutis was a different sort of writer. he wrote very personal stuff. if you "find his lyrics less and less affecting as the years pass," that's not because he tried too hard, it's because now you have to try harder and harder to put yourself in the frame of mind you once did. ian's lyrics were not necessarily "sad," they were more horrific through their obvious personal truth.
4 - bryan price
No, I have some James Chance stuff, I like it, but it's his main thing, it doesn't intrude on a song that is fine without it. You should know, but a lot of the funkier more undergound disco No-New York groups used the insturment ot great effect.
Here is an example of what I detest though: The Cure song "A Night Like This" which for about two minutes is wonderful, then a god awful sax solo ruins it.
And you're right, Lou Reed had a novelistic quality that I find very engaging, more engaging in fact, than reading someone's diary.
That's just me
5 - JC Mosquito
Joy Division also had a sad sound - or morbid, or whatever you care to call it - a perfect complment to IC's lyrics & vocals.
Has anyone ever heard of "The Hungarian Suicide Song"? That's not it's real name, but way back in the 40's or 50's it was supposedly responsible for a number of suicides in Hungary. And... it's an instrumental of all things - talk about a sad song.
6 - zingzing
no-wave stuff is definitely a good example of how to properly use a sax, which is, as a series of squeels and belches. when it's used to create melodies, or played smoothly at all, it is unbearable.
(although i actually kinda like the solo on "a night like this..." i have strange memories associated with that song.)
i suppose you could say which style of lyrics you like better (novelistic vs diar... istic). but, that just shows which you prefer, and isn't really a good way to judge who's lyrics are better or worse. i suppose i have a soft spot for ian curtis' lyrics, although i rarely listen to them anymore. i listen to joy division for the music mostly... i don't know if i would call their music "sad" or "morbid"... more "cold" (unknown pleasures) or "harsh" (closer). they definitely had an amazing sound. one of the better bands of the late-70s, i say.
gonna go look up this hungarian song. might not listen to it today. maybe tomorrow.
7 - bryan price
I do like Lou Reed mostly, but he has baaaad lapses, "I Wanna Be Black"? Just not good. Ian Curtis never would have written that. But on the same album is "Street Hassle" one of his greatest achievements, with a cameo by...should I even say the name...Bruce...ah, never mind.
But Joy Division's sound was very novel, I hardly listen to them anymore, but I will admit Martin Hannet did a good job with them, they put the bass at the center of their songs and had a freakishly amazing drummer. Ian though could not dance, I get a pain watching his emotive wiggle. That's here nor there though.
Ian was a much better writer than barney, who a friend of mine theorized wrote all his songs about Ian...I don't know it that's true or not though.
8 - zingzing
"Ian though could not dance, I get a pain watching his emotive wiggle."
it's been said that he based his dancing on his epilepsy, (which i cannot spell). i can't tell if that's a fantasy, an outright lie, or just an excuse. as strange as it was, it was something to see. very intense in its own little way.
"Ian was a much better writer than barney"
true. his lyrics go from the truly horrible to the improbably workable. barney's got a way with one-liners, and little turns of phrase... a charming awkwardness, i suppose. but! it must be said that sumner is a fucking musical genius (on some level), and one of the most forward-thinking musical artists of the decade. without new order... i can't bear to think of dance music in the 80s.
9 - bryan price
True enough about New Order.
Though I don't know if I appreciate dance music as much as you, I certainly like pop music, especially challenging pop music, and New Order had a sound that was supple enough to be lithe and fun on the one hand and cold and hard on the other, true pop minimalists (at least on the first two albums). But don't misread that, I like Republic too, but I haven't heard past that.
10 - zingzing
the new albums are alright. nothing spectacular, but servicable, with some great singles. i'd say that few bands were as good as new order was in the 80s. they walked a line between experimental and pop that was truly divine with remarkable consistency.
i'm a big fan (apologist?) of republic. a fine pop album. still, not the album technique was, but of course it wasn't...
11 - bryan price
I've been listening to a lot of this type of challenging pop music lately, here are some songs that walked that line very well:
"To Hell With Poverty"-Gang of 4, "Totally Wired"-The Fall, "She is Beyond Good and Evil"-The Pop Group, and "Bob Hope Takes Risks"-Rip Rig and Panic.
I suppose all these bands leaned more toward the experimental side than New Order, but...by the way, where's your new Fall review?
12 - Christopher Rose
This is a nice enough piece but Dylan and Costello are underground? In what weird parallel universe is that???
13 - JC Mosquito
You'd be surprised how many people there are out there that are unfamiliar with Dylan other than to make some rude remark about his singing.... and they have no idea who Costello is at all. Seriously - I know quite a few people like that - curiously, they all like Celine Dion. I dunno what's up with that.
14 - bryan price
I think that is a fair criticism, I tried adressing it in the introduction, but perhaps I failed. I don't think eitherof them are underground, but I don't think "the average" person or many people at all for that matter are too focused on "I Thre It All Away" or "I Want You." But you are right, they are by no means "Underground."
15 - El Bicho
Gloomy Sunday is the Hungarian Suicide song.
16 - zingzing
""To Hell With Poverty"-Gang of 4, "Totally Wired"-The Fall, "She is Beyond Good and Evil"-The Pop Group, and "Bob Hope Takes Risks"-Rip Rig and Panic."
ahh, all good stuff. (i haven't heard RR&P... they are a pop group offshoot, yeah?) i got some maximum joy recently, and have been searching for later pop group stuff recently (to no avail).
"I suppose all these bands leaned more toward the experimental side than New Order, but..."
mmm. dunno. i'd say new order were just as experimental at the time (well, in 80-83,) but they were just experimenting with different things (ie-synths, drum machines...disco...). ever heard video 586? it's an(other) early version of blue monday, almost totally synthetic. and how was putting out 9 minute singles back then? (well, lots were... but they weren't always that good.)
"by the way, where's your new Fall review?"
in hell! actually, it's not out in the states yet, is it? maybe i will search it out... maybe i will write one... i dunno. i have a difficult time writing reviews about my favorite groups. i don't know why.
17 - zingzing
that's "who," as in "who was putting out 9 minute singles..."
18 - JC Mosquito
"Gloomy Sunday" - thank you. The odd thing is, it was redone (also as an instrumental) Stateside too, but didn't lead to any mishaps or even tears as far as I know.
19 - bryan price
you seem to like to write, I see your commentary everywhere. I have not quite got a hold on the whole sweaty-sewing cirlce, blogcritics bitchy underhanded, "gotcha" community commentary thing...
...though after looking at your two reviews I have come to the conclusion that you don't like to push it.
I do wish you would write more, you're good for it...better than most of the boring shit that comes through the pipeline anyway...
20 - zingzing
i'm not sure that a fall review would really be in keeping with the stuff i have been writing about in that column so far... you were talking to me, right?...
anyway, the fall are utterly likable and not at all obscure and/or unfairly maligned... which seems to be where my column is going. actually, the fall are utterly unlikable and somewhat obscure, if never unfairly maligned... i dunno... depends on how much i like the album. if i go nuts on it, then i'll know it. if i don't care for it much, i'm sure my opinion will change. writing about the fall isn't easy, because what makes a fall album a good or bad fall album is all in the subtleties, and my reasons for liking or disliking a fall album are pretty personal, i suppose.
next: yoko ono! (maybe)
actually, i'm really busy for the next couple of weeks, then incommunicado for a while...