Spot The Influence, Affinity-(oh and down with plagiarism laws!)
One banter game us music buffs sometimes end up playing while jamming or even just talking is noticing melodic—or other—similarities between songs that aren’t usually associated with each other, for instance Siouxsie and The Banshee’s “Cities In Dust,” is like Quicksilver Messenger Service’s “What You Gonna Do About Me?”
Or The Replacements’ “I’ll Be You” is like Cat Stevens’ “Father And Son” or, The Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale” has a good deal in common with Little Anthony And The Imperials’ “Hurt So Good.” Then there’s the case of Continuous Peasant’s “So Denied” (2003)—the main riff and guitar solo was later used by Wilcoon their crowd-pleaser, “At Least That’s What You Said.” Now, it can’t be plagiarism if you can’t prove someone knew about it, but I’d love to go up to Jeff Tweedy and just say “hey, great minds think similarly….so when you gonna introduce us to your manager?” There’s many other examples, but I’ll just throw the idea out there as a theme, and this week’s top ten probably has very little or nothing to do with it.
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Silver Jews, “Self Ignition”
Recorded when I was in the band for the American Water sessions. It ultimately got bumped off the album in favor of “Honk If You’re Lonely Tonight,” maybe because it was too “pop” (in that old school sense of the word), but I remember Steve [Malkmus] really pushed for its inclusion. It did get released as the so-called ‘flipside’ of the “Self Ignition/Send In The Clouds” single in the U.K. Anyway, I doubt it will be played in San Francisco show, but if I get to talk to David [Berman] before the show, maybe I’ll broach the subject.
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Buzzcocks, “Hollow Inside”
The first week of April 1964, The Beatles occupied all five slots of he Billboard Hot 100. This feat has never been repeated. No, The Buzzcocks never even had a top ten single in England! Ah, if only my top ten list could have the authority of Billboard! For in the ipod of my memory, “Hollow Inside” has been re-released and is climbing up the charts with a bullet. It’s darker than the Buzzcocks singles, and clearly an “album track” but for me it’s right up there with their best, and yes The Buzzcocks remain a band that have way more than ten great, and I mean great, songs.
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Toby Keith, “I’m Just Talkin’ ‘Bout Tonight””
Alot of people on the ‘left’ (though not Willie Nelson) demonize Mr. Keith manly due to his public stance after 9/11/2001, and many on the right champion him allegedly for the same reason. Luckily, I got into him through this particular song which was his big country hit in the summer of 2001 just before he allegedly changed his image and become one of the most vocal spokesmen for American militancy (in music, at least). What was so refreshing about this song in the context of ‘contemporary country’ that summer (which I listened to alot as I drove through the ‘red states’ on my move from NYC to California) was the assertive uncompromising yet humourous stance of the male trying to pick up the woman for a one-night stand, a stance that is not so much sanctioned in contemporary ‘exurban’ country than it was in classic country or even in “If You Gotta Go, Go Now” byBob Dylan. It’s tempting to make the argument that Keith adopted the more acceptable aggressive patriotic stance after 2001 in order to help him ‘get away’ with such songs like this. In any event, I will probably always respect him a little more than most of my friends do because of this particular song.
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Rage Against The Machine, “The Ghost Of Tom Joad”
I definitely prefer this version to Bruce Springsteen’s original, which itself is a take on an old Woody Guthrie number; Rage Against The Machine here combines their usual power with more blatant message music than usual.
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Slim Harpo, “Stick Your Chest Out, Baby”
Frank O’Hara.
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The Gomorran Social Aid and Pleasure Club
Eponymous debut album from quirky-funky Oakland band with innovative instrumentation such as tuba, pots and opans, banjo, clarinet, etc. www.gomorrans.com
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Bob Marley
I heard “Lively Up Yourself” on the radio for the first time in a while, and, damn, was it fresh! Another reason Bob makes this week’s top ten is because he gave one of the best answers to an interviewer’s potential accusation of selling out I can imagine. During the late 1970s, when he had actually had crossed over into the pop top ten in England, an interviewer confronted him with the question: So many of your songs, Mr. Marley, criticize Babylon System, but how can you continue to sing them now that you’re reaping the fruits of Babylon? He gave her a slight bemused look, but didn’t lose his composure, then took a puff on a spliff and looked straight into her eyes, and said, “Babylon has no fruits.” Words to live by!
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Roseanne Cash, “Burn Down This Town”
Also heard this song on KPIG. It’s one of those “what’s this about?” songs, the passionate conviction with which she sings the lyrics, which on first listen seem to be political, or, wait, maybe about a relationship, or wait, why does she repeat the phrase “the christmas tree just burnt it all” at the end of the middle eight. All I know is that she ain’t just riding on her dad’s reputation…
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Peaches, Impeach My Bush
Nice to know college radio (in this case KALX’s DJ Fresh Pink) sometimes remembers its rockin’ (or punk) saplings. Don’t know about the entire album, but if the rest of this is like “You Love Me When I Get Mad,” which is a more rockin’ take on a similar theme as Joan Armatrading’s attempted ‘new wave’ crossover, “I Love It When You Call Me Names,” this Peaches track features Joan Jett) on screaming guitar, to help give the lie to the still oft uttered perception (by both men and women) that grrrrllls are responsible for the relative lack of rock on college radio these days
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The Silver Jews, “The Wild Kindness”
Another song from back when I was in the band—but that’s not why I’m bringing it up. Actually, I’m sitting in Mama Buzz cafe and a band is playing and they sound like a cross between The Velvet Underground and Tommy Roe—turns out the band’s name is The Wild Kindness. Well, even though that might be like me naming my band “Instant Karma” or something, I still had to introduce myself to them (besides, there’s at least one other band I know that has taken their title from a Silver Jews song), and it turns out the drummer is a very close relative of The Bigtakeover’s very own Suzanne Baran...so small world and all that…
