Brilliant Songs Series 2
- etshamrock2
- Mar 28
- 43 min read
Updated: Mar 29
Brilliant Songs Series 2
By Ian Browne
Welcome to the second series of Brilliant Songs!
And what have I got for you today? Well now, let’s start with some Indie Alternative Rock, some Goth, throw in some Skater Punk & Speed Metal, a sprinkling of Indie Electronica; Trip Hop…of course, some Jungle Dub, and how about some early Grunge, Indie-Blues if you please and even some Sydney SKA nostalgia!
Yes, most of these numbers hark back to the 80’s into 90’s - but a few surprises leap from the ether into closer days. These articles have found their way to thousands via the band’s websites or their associated fanzines, to international music forums in entertainment and music. It is fair to say they have travelled the globe and it nice to be able to post them here as a second full series.
Yes, there is a formula to the articles penned, but the narrative does vary in its own way between bands, between genres. I do my best to give back to those who share their wisdom along the path in research.
Enjoyeth…
Brilliant Songs -MY STAR- Ian Brown (1998) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com
…lust for space dust, forming galaxy borders Never seeking new life, only planning war”
A brilliant name for someone from the arts, this is one of my favourite songs of all time! The sound of the guitar a subtle, transient wailing, the chords short and tinkling, that sitar intro… well, I feel I live within this song.
I enjoyed the early 90’s with Stone Roses on the airwaves in Sydney. Though Inspiral Carpets are my top of the Madchester genre pic, some of the Stone Roses songs really are classics. As for later years and Ian Brown solo, My Star has remained part of my own identity. The clip itself, well, I only saw it for the first time a couple of years ago when writing another post about the singer. It is a great clip, kinda dark and confusing. While it does take one away from the song itself in some ways, it matches the theme of course: As suggested by Kristina Waller for oldtimemusic.com (2023) “Brown’s lyrics convey a sense of resilience and determination, urging listeners to embrace their own uniqueness and strive for greatness.” While Ian Brown himself stated, “It’s a reflection of the highs and lows I encountered while trying to make a name for myself in the industry.”
….NASA corrupters, jeweled abductors Space exploration, excursion to the stars” Though the song relates to star travel and star wars, metaphorically Ian B examines the themes of resilience, self-belief, determination to jump hurdles, to follow the dreams the ‘star’ lights in a sometimes dimly lit world. His voice within is passive and non-confrontational. The music, splendid! That lead, the way it casually meanders, wavers, it is special! (See the guitar by itself live in recommended below) The chords jitter along somewhere between Sgt. Pepper’s Beatles to Indie pop, little bluesy fill-interludes between sections. In the meantime, taking on time itself, the rudiments style percussion is nicely energetic with that military march expression. I like how Tom Ray for scruffytheory.com (2020) describes the sound: ""psychedelic soundscapes fused with solid, low frequency rhythm section which owes as much to Dub as it does to Indie.”
…Astronauts the new conquistadors See you in my star I'll see you in my star”
Forever a real favourite of mine.
My Star https://tinyurl.com/26jenxk6
Live in Sydney: https://tinyurl.com/49pfchse
Recommended: Watch this to the end, flick past any ads, the sound is brilliant! An Egyptian twist later in the piece. I like this version with Aziz Ibrahim taking a little stab at those that think the riff was borrowed from The Beatles’ Dear Prudence: https://tinyurl.com/bdhdv59u
Sourced via getintothis.co.uk
Brilliant Songs -GREAT SOUTHERN LAND- Icehouse (1982) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com … standing at the limit of an endless ocean Stranded like a runaway lost at sea” Now, this is an iconic Australian artform! There is nowhere to hide, anyways, as it rocks up to so many television segments. It is so widely adored here in Oz, and the sentiment shared via a young lady at this post’s end, suggests a strong admiration far afield too. It has a soothing, calming, tantalisingly transient enchantment that never seems to fade. And though some lyrics could leave one questioning the lack of sensitivities towards our first nations brethren, the Gamilaraay language adaptation by a creative Mitch Tambo (link below) is a welcome odyssey.
…anyone will tell you it's a prisoner island Hidden in the summer for a million years”
The way Iva Davies sinks his voice into the old red earth of this continent, into the heatwaves of an Australian summer, is superb. The dreamy keys, Iva’s ghosting within yearnings, bolstered by an immediate chattery guitar in chorus effect, the band used the most modern polyphonic synths such as the Prophet 5 on this number. The way Iva rolls back into verse narrative with a lifting, gentle persuasion in the 3rd minute of the song, describing ‘a rainy day down on the harbour’ is massively comforting. Recorded in Iva Davies’s living room in Sydney’s Leichardt, the song was inspired via ‘homesickness’. In an interview with abc.net.au (2014) the song “was designed to capture the nostalgia and homesickness he felt during the band's first overseas tour.” With Cameron Adams for news.com.au (2014) Iva asserts his distaste of the Americanisation of Australia at the time, and how, “I wanted to get rid of all the postcard stuff, all the koala bears and get to something more substantial.” Uluru was his inspiration, where Davies describes the spiritual monolith as, “a great anchor, pinning the continent to the core of the earth” (abc.net.au 2017). I hear it Iva…
I was lucky in being able to interview Icehouse bassist Steve Bull a few years back, following the band’s live performance in front of 100, 000 in Sydney- alongside Amy Shark and Queen to raise money for those affected by the bushfires. Steve described Iva Davies as intuitive in his approach to song writing and song production, where nothing goes unnoticed within his surroundings. That interview is live from this website. Of course, Icehouse penned many a tune, but this one is Australian royalty. It’s funny, to me it seems more ambient post-punk almost dreamwave (yummo) yet it has hit the mark for many from all walks of life. And as a tune so widely portrayed in society, it beats the sh…te out of being bludgeoned about the cranium by those unceasing songs from that era the ‘pub bands’ today still wallow in. And as for my Icehouse post-punk suggestion, the guardian.com (2014) shared, “originally named Flowers, the band started life in Sydney in the late '70s. They played the beer-barn circuit during the punk era, developing a style that was part-Roxy Music, part Ziggy-era Bowie.”
... you walk alone, like a primitive man” The Gamilaraay language (NSW) version is such a grand sound. It’s funny, many Australians bang on about not knowing enough about Indigenous Australia, Indigenous ways: the bogan war cry “if you don’t know, vote NO” fitting here. Well, if they just switched over occasionally from their American films, or commercial TV networks, to NITV, then, their knowledge is instantly expanded 100%! A section of the lyrics to this song may sound a tad on da nose, but it was never meant to install any sense of a put down, and I have never once heard an Indigenous person suggesting it as being such. Perhaps the very fact it has been covered so nicely by an Indigenous singer, goes some way to dispelling this notion, if there ever was one. And Reigan Derry’s voice in English, awesome too, and who doesn’t feel at home with the call of kookaburra, right?
It's funny, but there is an article floating about which states how, ‘even Bowie knew the lyrics to this song!’ Really not that surprising, considering he called Sydney home during that era in music, and did a clip featuring a Bundjalung friend of mine’s cousin for Let’s Dance.
Anyway, I love a comment posted on Song Meaning which nicely sums up global fans’ emotional response:
“I adore this song. The beginning to end. It still takes a restless teenage girl away to foreign shores faster than any travel guide.”
…you walk alone with the ghosts of time”
Great Southern Land http://tinyurl.com/274b7f7z
In both English & Gamilaraay with Reigan & Mitch Tambo (2023) http://tinyurl.com/yvapvdx4
Sourced via produto.mercadolivre.com.dr
Brilliant Songs -STREETS OF YOUR TOWN- The Go-Betweens (1988) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com … and I ride your river under the bridge ‘shine’ And I take your boat out to the ridge ‘shine’ ” When I play this song-n-clip in lessons it always captures my students’ attention, it really has that soothing, reflective appeal. And that’s the thing about this tune, it is loved so widely by so many, a real winner in Australia.
Tock-tock-tock, the intro to this number is an easy going acoustic ‘love in’, as the guitar allows you into the chorus immediately. Well-depicted in the clip here today: the old urban areas, the hotch-potch of tangled necessities that reside along city streets, the fascination of the various patterns edged onto the front of homes and places of business, the boisterous steel webbing of The Bridge─ this old clip is satisfyingly nostalgic. AND guilty as charged, I do enjoy watching the elegance of Amanda Brown. She is a fine musician too of course; while the band warm their faces in the Sydney sun and that delicious Spanish inspired guitar gently saunters in amongst the life-giving rays. Band co-founder Robert Forster, seen in the clip styling a fetching cloak, dangling from his shoulders, well I saw him at the Darwin Festival a few years back, and he was very charismatic. A friend of mine is pals with the band’s mixer Chris Neehause. In The Valley, my pal also met since passed frontman Grant McLennan a few times. At one gig there in Brisbane’s grungiest burb, the stage was only centimetres above the dancefloor. Here the band were busy setting up while Rob Forster surrounded himself with a throng of women, all the while holding his wine glass out, effeminately. Over the years the Go Betweens have charmed a bunch of people up there in Brisvegus, and anyway, I guess drummer Lindy Morrison was used to all the attention directed her partner’s way by that stage. Lindy is an interesting lady, and as described by Janice Headley for KEXP.org (2022) ‘Morrison came from a feminist punk activist background where she worked for Brisbane’s Aboriginal Legal Service’.
…watch the butcher shine his knives (shine) And this town is full of battered wives”
‘Streets’ charted much higher in NZ than it did here at home, and in the UK, but has since become something of a cult-of-admiration. And with all this yabber about old city streets, what is the song even about? The band had just moved to Sydney in 1987 after five cold years in England. As Andrew Stafford for The Guardian (2018) formulated, McLennan & Brown were in a relationship: “Grant and I were living together in Bondi Junction in Sydney, and that song was written very quickly in our sunny top-floor flat … It was written in, I would say, 10 minutes.”
So, it appears that for Grant McLennon it was about a new life in a new town, and Amanda returning to the warmth and familiarity of her own. In a park in Glebe, Amanda & Grant played it to the band for the first time. Now Forster was used to input in all the group’s songs and was a taken aback: “The fact that I hadn’t heard the song, it did miff me…But a week later it was fine.”
As suggested by Christie Eliezer for the Mixdown Mag (2022) the song emerged while, “McLennan was working out the construction of The Church’s, ‘Under The Milky Way.’” And Eliezer interviewed Forster about the song being played live: “Streets’ was more of a studio creation than a lot of the band’s other recordings were. It was a tricky song to play live. The timing was a bit unusual, requiring a lot of concentration on stage.”
There are two different film clip versions for this song, but I prefer the one here today, as I love the imagery of the band in the three biggest towns in Oz: Brisbane, Sydney & Melbourne. It takes me back to the Sydney of my younger years. Oh, by the way, the song is about Amanda’s town: “I ride your river under the bridge”… Sydney! But for Brisbane, its river glides under many bridges; moments are definitely included, especially the spurious shutting down of businesses in Brisbane at the time. So, both, as Amanda herself suggested in The Guardian (2018).
…every day I make my way Through the streets of your town” http://tinyurl.com/ykcac8fs
Sourced via kexp.org
Brilliant Songs -CREEPING DEATH- Metallica (1984) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com …I rule the midnight air the destroyer” From its arrival this song announces a power surge to heed. The power chords jarring to a halt in tow with razor sharp drum stabs. The roll of juddering thunder along the line, molten together with metal rhythm, bass and percussion: a grand machine gun entrance to a lengthy heavy metal sojourn. During my teens my metal head mates listened to Metallica, and I wasn’t that taken. But there was something there. In many ways this song is a journey of earlier days where speed metal had its time within the gory entrails of death metal. I can really hear this number rubbing off on bands in later days Suicidal Tendencies, No Mercy & Death Angel. I was actually about to pull apart a perhaps more instrumentally intensely structured number in Sanitarian, and while Creeping Death is not quite as fast-crafty as Dyers Eve, this is my favourite Metallica song, and it speaks more to me in its familiarity in the LA skatecore I loved so much.
I can’t help but be excited by the main chord arrangement: “I was in high school when I wrote the riff,” says Kirk Hammett in an interview with Dave Everley for Loudersound.com (2022)… “I was trying to write something heavier than the bands I was listening to, and that felt like the first time that I’d done it. Kind of, like, ‘Wow, I’m on to something!” In those days Kirk was in the band Exodus.
…blood running red and strong, down the Nile” Lyrically it is a biblical tale about revenge creeping across the desert to a strike at a Pharoah dogged in cruel slavery. Lars Ulrich, Cliff Burton & James Hatfield were inspired by the Hollywood blockbuster, The Ten Commandments. And here lies the difference between punk and metal… or death metal, where punk was more involved in anti-war, anti-right-wing politics; tossed about the room with daggy humour, rather than stories about missions into death and torture. Metallica announce their love of punk in the shirts they wear, the songs they cover, the guest appearances to stage by punk greats. They have bewildered with elements of scruffy, hardheaded 80s UK street punk and thumped it all down with a heavy metal sound, ignited with clever time changes and more mastered instrumental precision. Similarly, to GBH, one of master bassist for Metallica Cliff Burton’s favourite groups, the swinging back and forward in chord arrangement engages that sonic(y) Egyptian sound to aid in further illuminating the tale. Lars Ulrich never likes to be left out of the story and his rolls over the top and smashing of copper, as always hearty. The midway lead is Kirk Hammett worthy as expected, followed by the heavy chords and rib cracking stabs, the moment’s hard to hide from. But really, I love the outro with that machine gun fire once more, leading out from what is reminiscent of a hark back to the metal 70’s somewhat enchanted melodious lead sound. ….so let it be written Let it be done I’m sent here by the chosen one”
Creeping Death http://tinyurl.com/3kx46wzz
Live in Argentina http://tinyurl.com/y4by7p3s
Sourced via iheart.com
Brilliant Songs -EYES WITHOUT A FACE- Billy Idol (1984) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com
…I'm all out of hope One more bad dream Could bring a fall” This song wasn’t on the list for this series but I saw a host of Rage play it recently and decided to do so myself. A Billy Idol fan in the early-80’s, this was one of my favourite songs. And Billy was more ‘punk’ post-Generation X as a rocker, I felt. But this song was sensitive, sad, and well it just sounds great!
Now, you won’t see any glam metal hair bands featuring on my sites…ouch, not my ting! Stevie Stevens is as tight slacks pooncey as I will go, but his guitar on Billy’s songs does sound grand. His chunkier delivery arrives towards the back of this song before it all calms down once again into that sultry, soothing dream ambience. As for Billy Idol, he had, by this stage, jumped ship, leaving Ol’ Blighty for a life in New York City. Synth-n-hard rocken riffs were the order of the day for Billy cum-early-80’s. His new sound was vastly different from the previous London punk sound, and that Pistol’s Bromley Crew lifestyle. He had found fortune in the mainstream while exciting fans with his leather, studs, and spikey punk attire. This song however shows vulnerability, but his attitude remains, with resentful squints and pouts on show.
…I'm on a bus, on a psychedelic trip Reading murder books, tryin' to stay hip” Billy Idol announces for Rick Moore of Americansongwriter.com (2020) “Steve came up with a blistering guitar riff for the middle of the song that added a whole other dimension, rendering it more than just a ballad. I improvised a rapping part to go over the top. Rap was everywhere in New York at the time, in all the discos and clubs, so it made sense after my croon to start talking streetwise over Steve’s supersonic barrage of sound.”
… les yeux sans visage” Song meaning? Well, it was taken from the title here of a 60’s French horror flick about, “a woman whose face was injured in an automobile accident, and her father, a surgeon, who is trying to restore his daughter's face” (Bill Kirwin in quora.com). The father kidnapped women and removed their eyes, apparently, and the daughter thought he had no ‘human grace’, knocking him off herself with the help of some rather large hounds. Of course, otherwise, the song does lend itself to sounding like a romance gone wrong and what remains in its wake. I will happily admit to being a fan of the way the girls clap in this clip today.
…it makes me mad at truth For loving what was you”
Eyes Without a Face http://tinyurl.com/ynzrm7a3
Sourced via youtube.com/Austech
Brilliant Songs -LUCRETIA MY REFLECTION- The Sisters of Mercy (1988) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com ….dance the ghost with me” One of my favourite groups through time, this songs bounds out with heavy snare, that charismatic bass rumbles in, the dank world of the factory kicks over, and time must once again be given over to one of the lords of 80’s goth rock. The Sisters of Mercy run on long dawdling verse, and when Andrew Eldritch announces, “I hear the sons of the city and the dispossessed. Get down, get undressed” … you know you are in a special place. That voice is marvellous, the sonics of guitar a buzz; this is a truly rich industrial number. And they still tour the globe! A friend saw them in Brisvegus two years back with their Ambient Light tour, and they return for more 2024/25!
...Such things I hear, they don't make sense I don't see much evidence” The middle of the song heralds that divine guitar and though not driven by power chords, it is still quite a heavy number, baffled along with that driven snare, and grumbling bass line. ….love lost, fire at will Dum-dum bullets and shoot to kill” Forming in Leeds 1980, and deep within the creative whims of post-punk, by the mid-80’s these guys were dark romantic royalty. Oh, by the way, that boisterous drum machine they use is known as ‘Doktor Avalanche’.
Good ‘goth’, whether it be romantic, or dark existentialism, commands a sense of confidence in the listener. The Sisters of Mercy provide for expressive songs that engage the mind. As for this tune’s meaning, well according to songfacts.com (2024) “the fall of an empire and the aftermath of war, the title refers to Lucretia Borgia of the prominent Borgia family of the Italian Renaissance, who were notorious for their ruthless political tactics and alleged crimes.” An amusing fact being that front-man Eldritch actually wrote the song for Sister’s American bassist, Patricia Morisson, whom he thought typified a murderous Lucretia: her gift to the assailant was poison. Another good analogy penned via Ann Jensen of oldtimemusic.com (2023) “I hear the roar of a big machine, Two worlds and in between” paints a vivid picture of a society torn apart by conflict and the struggles faced by individuals caught in the middle”.
…I hear empire down”
Lucretia My Reflection http://tinyurl.com/45ey5d3d
Sourced via youtube.com/rafaelromero
Brilliant Songs -TRUE FAITH - New Order (1987) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com …I never thought that the day would ever come That my life would depend on the morning sun” New Order are an outfit that has quietly garnered respect from many, within a many varied walk of life. Where would the 80’s be without em? They deserve the success that has saturated them internationally. And as for the opening lyrics here, this remedy to the message, the way they are spun is nothing short of majestic.
… and the value of destiny comes to nothing” The thing about New Order is that while their music is intriguing and often nudging the sombre, Bernard Sumner’s voice has that endearing, comforting appeal. And though ultimately this song is a tad sad in its resolution, it too draws you in and makes you feel at home, at ease. I enjoy listening to later days New Order as well, where albums like Get Ready have some fascinating soundscapes. But really, for the stalwarts, and perhaps unsurprisingly, earlier New Order is closely in tune with predecessors Joy Division, who’s notoriety, if anything, continues to grow. Deep within the fuzzy fusion of experimental post-punk it wasn’t hard for New Order to build from their already techno-industrial endeavours into a modern dance track affect, while still holding onto that deliciously moody ambience. But yes, nowadays, New Order sounds far removed from those early days: i.e., Ceremony.
…get this feeling I'm in motion A sudden sense of liberty” It must be said that this song was written with success in mind, the band wanted a hit! Instrumentally it is driven by a number of synthesisers and a sampler. Peter Hook was disappointed in the band’s move into the dance era and pushed to allow stringed instruments to remain; his bass making the cut, but that too fell to remixing (Q Mag 2006). A great song to dance to, or just quietly ponder, it bounces away nicely with sharp stabbing snare and vehicle-in-motion keys. In later albums that synth-sound of cars moving has remained. Euphoric and sensitively, subtle chimes finalise the song, a nod to the sad tale spun. It must be said, though, a SP-12 drum machine was used during the recording, but Stephen Morris does play live in full percussion. And though thoroughly ‘mixed’ ─ the bass does control the flow and is nicely strident in its manoeuvring.
…I feel so extraordinary Something's got a hold on me” An iconic clip ready to surprise, I love the characters and their churlish attempts to unsettle one another. But what is this song about, I hear you ask? Well in 1999, Sumner told Q Magazine that it was written from the perspective of a drug user, though he himself wasn’t using heroin. But bassist Peter Hook explained to Songfacts that while the character in the song was impacted by some form of ‘influence’, it was not related to heroin. As seen in an interview with The Guardian nine-plus-years ago about his autobiography ‘Chapter and Verse’, Sumner described how his tough childhood in Salford helped shape some of the themes devoted to his Joy Division Days, and I am guessing these experiences too passed over into New Order. The final say does end with Sumner, I feel, where within that interview with Q Mag he stated: “I don't touch smack but when I wrote that song I tried to imagine what it's like to be a smackhead and nothing else matters to you except that day's hit.”
…my morning sun is the drug that brings me near To the childhood I lost, replaced by fear”
True Faith https://tinyurl.com/a9w7cfz
Sourced via musicvideo.fandom.com
Brilliant Songs – SWEET YOUNG THING AIN’T SWEET NO MORE– Mudhoney (1988) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com … Mama said Child "what you done?" Those of us revelling in Sydney’s hardcore scene during the late 80’s knew about grunge before Nirvana hit the scene, because we were already listening to, and going out to see, Mudhoney. And weren’t they grand live!
Though Sydney’s Hellmenn, also wicked live, were more skatecore, they too had that grungy edge happening. While Perth’s Scientists were one of Kurt Cobain’s big influences. But in terms of American bands, Mudhoney formed from a Green River split, and GR were known as the first of Seattle’s grunge outfits. And yes, Mudhoney too found the Scientists as an influence.
From the album Superfuzz Bigmuff, this song was original, it stood out. While it had that perhaps unintended comical element to it, ‘us’ Massappeal fans found it easy to adapt to, as it threw out those chaotic down winding heavy in distortion chords, and those Mark Arm screams, also reminiscent of the sound the Sydney hardcore lords exploded with. But I feel the ‘punk’ exited grunge, where into the 90’s; though not an unpleasant sound, bands like Pearl Jam were more like mainstream rock.
…. mama’s little pills spilled all over the floor” No smoke-n-mirrors here, the song is about a mother finding her daughter stuck into her happy pills, coming undone. As stated by Lance Davis for don’tcallitnothing.squarespace.com (1991) in relation to comparing the 90’s to the 60’s/70’s treatment of women in some songs, as objects to be controlled: : “Sweet Young Thing Ain’t Sweet No More,” the narrative isn’t exploitative. If anything, the lyrics posit a traumatic home life in which drug addiction and attempted suicide are symptoms of a deeper problem.”
I love how this song launches with slide along the neck of the guitar, the whammy bar given a good work out, and those drums kick in with a nice rattling double back tilting echo. I love how the song pulls up middle ground and that chunky rhythm sections clambers in, nice and heavy, all the while Mark Arm roars into the heavens before a nice little calming rhythm-n-bass section arrives and that slide again; the echoing percussion, takes over once more. This number ‘up loud’ is sure to grab your neighbourhood’s attention!
…mama can’t handle her on her own.”
Sweet Young Thing Ain’t Sweet No More https://tinyurl.com/jbwjnm69
Sourced via Reditt.com/r/grunge
Brilliant Songs – JUST BECAUSE- Jane’s Addiction (2009) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com …When we first met And we passed around gifts. That was a long time, ago And yours didn't fit.” How’s that guitar sound! This song erupts from the outright, and like the first series of Brilliant Songs, where the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Higher Ground, and Fishbone’s Sunless Saturday burst at the seams with high energy, this song too shudders from the heavens. Though it arrives later in the day for 2009, when I hear this number it really takes me back to my late teens & early 20’s. A healthy source of medicine for a sombre moment, it deserves to be caste amongst the royalty of brilliant tunes, and it’s the 2nd from this LA outfit to arrive to this series.
…If I was you I'd better watch out.” Dave Navarro’s guitar never fails to deliver! Like a lorikeet high on nectar, that flamboyant chorus is a storyteller in its own right, sending us along on this ecstatic trip, his lead, though not as well-journeyed as Three Days, as always, an indulgence. The bass, not to be left out, rumbling through the strings in tandem with the final lead. Jane’s Addiction could be described many things genre. When Flea played bass for them, Anthony Kiedis described them as a spacey, peace-stoner vibe. I’d suggest their own construction of indie psychedelic alt-rock with a tinge of goth-n-metal. Whatever you’d like to throw to the wind as a label, these guys share their craft wrapped in originality, a class of their own. Front-man Perry Farrell as ever ready to intrigue, jolting about the cock-rock poses here, but is obviously having a good time. The percussion needs to be vibrant to keep up with it all and is nicely blast beating!
…You got the most Ah, but nobody loves you.” This was the Jane’s first song in six years and the first studio album in 13-years. Written by a number of band members and crew, the song is pretty straight forward: don’t take the small things for granted! Take notice of what is going on about you, as you should, and respond with thoughtfulness to others. In an interview with Jon Viederhorn for MTV.com (2003) in relation to past more enrichingly surreal moments, Perry Farrell stated it was suggested that ‘Jane says to stop being so selfish and do something to make someone smile.’ The band wanted a celebratory, positive song, while still being able to ‘take you on a sonic journey’. Just Because, Perry announces, "It's about people's ability to stoke each other out for no other reason than just because. It's very rare when a person will just make ya a bagel just because. I wanted to plant a seed that hopefully will become kind of infectious with people doing things for each other just because."
As for me, and I’m sure just about anyone else who loves the vibrant grooves of alternative rock, this song is nostalgic, and a real gem in terms of how it sends you along into a world of elation. The only problem with this song, is that it ends!
… Oh, you really should have known. Just because Just because.” https://tinyurl.com/296s7xue
Sourced via imvdb.com
Brilliant Songs -CRIMSON- Morcheeba (2010) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com ..Down the dusty trails of treason Lies a dangerous game, there's danger” This song is all about the lyrics, oh, and Skye’s voice of course! No stranger to headlining the Byron Blues Fest is Morcheeba and while in Sydney, within one of their soirees to our shores, a lady known to me, Renee Simone, supported them. Hailing from a mid-90’s Folkstone, Kent, I have been blessed in arriving to Morcheeba’s FB site on two occasions with my reflections of their superb songs.
….I can smell the good years burning And it won't fade away” Beautifully woven together, Skye Edwards is a gem of a charm in being able to completely swoon us into submission. I love hearing their latest craft arriving to SBS Chill, while this album, Blood Like Lemonade, has such interesting storylines swimming within Skye’s seductive potion. There were three-songs from this album bidding for my attention, but this number is more challenging to emotion. A seemingly sad number, I make no mistake for sharing this today, as life does this, and it is refreshing to hear.
….Got to soothe my shattered senses Please forgive me, time to think” I once believed this to be a true tale of Skye’s loss of love in the wreckage of life, but it is a work of fiction, perhaps spun within the gamma rays of some sad truth. Or, better still, not such an innocent intention after all…
….Sunshine suicide survivor Wasted angel, numb with pain, so wasted” As discussed in Guest Listed Blogspot.com (2010) Skye Edwards asserted that the band wanted to give back to their fan base, the stayers, returning to a less commercialised sound: "The first song we wrote together after deciding to make another album was Crimson, which I'm really proud of." Skye beams, "I think it's one of our darkest moments in Morcheeba so far. I absolutely love singing Crimson. The woman in the song is really psychotic, she tries to kill her married lover by running him off the road, but it's quite fun to be her voice."
I placed the live version ahead of the studio set today, not because I don’t love the trip hop version, but the instrumental here, the bluesy lead, voonderval! Honestly, how can a human not be inspired by Morcheeba? To chillax; getting down to groove within, my life requires a fix of Skye weekly. ….Hell bound, hopeless for you Nothing left to hold on to.”
Album version https://tinyurl.com/acyj9p8a
Sourced via youtube.com/opalstardream
Brilliant Songs – STUPID MONDAY- The Stupids (1988) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com …soul inside me snapped for life it must mend Searching for the others that love does depend.” This song made the cut as my favourite punk number from my Punk & Hardcore series a few years back. I guess I came along a bit later to The Stupids. My brother bought their album Jesus Meets the Stupids in 88, a time when we were all slamming up the Sutho Royal in Sydney to the likes of Drokk, Terrible Virtue & Massappeal. Anyway, by then, The Stupids were touring the US with Ludichrist, and here in Oz with The Hard-Ons, having already released three albums previously. Close friends from our scene enjoyed that latter symbiosis out on the harbour for a ferry gig. A punk band, thought of as UK skater punk, they hailed from Ipswich, England in the mid-80s. Why do I love this song so much? Well, the energy; very punk, very high! But also, they were a funny bunch of fellas too.
The song intro with those clear, alluring, almost Middle Eastern inspired chords reminiscent of an earlier-times sonic GBH arrangement - which then blow into a bouncy punk section as the bass and drums choral, where moving along the chain and exciting the senses arrives an intense frilly DK-esque section… finally falling into a beefy powerchord display that steels time, it is clearly a winner of an intro! As the middle section moves in, a grinding skatecore section arrives with down winding chords. I like the little screaming fills throughout, and yes, the outro brings on that exciting intro collection once more, but bringing on an extension into a higher octave, where a small lead rings out finalising an energetic and boisterous number. To me, this is a winner within the punk genre. Either the standard album or the John Peel recordings, both satisfy willingly.
….with a twisted tongue he looks to me expects me to fall.” What I have gathered from this number is a songwriter a bit over those around him, especially as he has had to suffer them throughout a rainy week in doors. It’s about sticking up for yourself and moving on, “searching for the others…..
That being said, the album, Jesus Meets the Stupids, is daggy, awesome, you bet, but about simple mishaps in life worth taking the piss out of. Heavy hardcore riffs and good old punk speed, I love this album. A band that not only played skatecore but skated themselves, songster Tommy Stupid is known for demanding that, “punk is my wife!” In 2014, Zac for caughtinthecrossfire.com suggested of an 80’s The Stupids, “strapped on their skateboards, harnessed every single drop of their teenage energy and set about to have as much fun as a human being could possibly have. Songs about skateboards, food, dogshit, insects, dumb stuff, having fun and more skateboarding flowed from every pore.”
Stupid Monday - John Peel Sessions https://tinyurl.com/3ed5spp8
Sourced via maximumrocknroll.com
Brilliant Songs -FROM THE EDGE OF THE DEEP GREEN SEA- The Cure (1991) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com ...and she listens like her head’s on fire Like she wants to believe in me.” This song came from an era in music where fusions of old and new became accepted willingly by punters. The band held their own whatever, and not everything The Cure does can be deemed ‘goth’, many tunes are uplifting. This song, however, is dark, alluring, and tickles the neural pathways in a way almost unmatched. Though radio time for numbers like Friday I’m in Love brighten the week, the album in general has that highly seductive brooding ooze of tranquillity and is in fact the band’s 5th best seller through time. Honestly, how does a Cure fan actually go about choosing a classic from a lineage jam-packed full of greats! But, The Edge of the Deep Green Sea has a power, a dark enchantment that is hard to match in any genre, over any era!
…I’ve never been so Colourfully-see-through-head before”. A young lady I had a serious crush on played out part of this song at a party one night in Cronulla. Fresh off the shelf, I suggested that she might like to ponder this Green Sea of sound, and she was letting me know that she got it! But while that moment with her hands up high in the either will always stay with me it is important to me personally on many levels. I saw the Wish Tour live twice in ol Sydney town. On the second concert, Robert Smith took notice of me acting out part of one of his songs too. Anywayz, The Cure are a spiritual encounter, their sound only matched on the ethereal level via The Cocteau Twin’s dizzying magic.
…so, I try Put your hands in the sky” On an instrumental level the lead section is of sonic royalty! Honestly, let the song roll through to this moment. The sound of the guitars will take you somewhere special. It is a bewitching and all-encompassing soundscape, one, with me trying to describe, would only prove lacklustre. From the outset the sound of synth signalling time and wailing guitar tremolo drawing down on the clock, that bass gurgling in its command, and then ‘bang’ …in comes that heavy percussion and the wining of chords are sent in to steal you along on this mission where two souls must unwillingly part. True to the era, moments of darkwave, and Curve-like sonic explosions, excite, while the drums rattle more heavily than previous albums to an at times energetic Madchester inspired arrangement. Live at the time, the light show, with all the marine fauna in kaleidoscope as a backdrop to this genius; Gallop in high hair patrolling the front of stage, well now, wow!
While this is a sad journey: romantic, tragic, dark, and beguiling, it truly is a remarkably powerful sound that engulfs time and refuses to be ignored. Live a little, hit the links below!
…we’ll be here forever And we’ll never say goodbye”
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea https://tinyurl.com/2k7h2v88
Sourced via youtube.com/curedtc4
CONFIDENCE MAN Holiday (2022) Kickin’ off and I lose control, I'm born to fly, I want it all” …I miss the 90’s and letting loose on the dancefloor. No witnesses will be found, but dancing to Massive Attack the other week was voonderval! Now, call me strange, but I love watching women dance, and this song is a groover. And like when viewing Jungle’s clips, when I saw Holiday live on The Sound a couple of years back ─with Janet Planet strutting her stuff─ it excited me! Yes, they drew a huge crowd to Glastonbury not so long ago, but they have been well-received here at home too.
From an indie-electro-pop Brivegus, they have taken the UK & Europe by storm over recent years. Anyway, with a taste for adventure and off-kilter sense of humour, their latest clip was done partially in da nuddy from a chopper above London! But today they have more layers on, sorry, but a great song to enliven your day, just the same…
Live in Sydney for The Sound https://tinyurl.com/5476tbxa
Official Vid https://tinyurl.com/2mek3yj3
Sourced via readdork.com
Brilliant Songs -BREAKFAST IN BED - The Allniters (1983) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com…you’ve’ been crying Your face is a mess” Now, when that trombone sounds, the rat-a-tatt-tat of snare, and the keyboard chorales alongside the back-n-forth guitar riffs; lazy bass circles the chorus, my whole world stops and a deep calm saturates this old Earth. Today I have chosen a ‘cover’ as a Brilliant Song, only, until I began researching this song, I had no idea it was…and UB40 also covered this splendid number, it turns out.
Breakfast in Bed is a Dusty Springfield song from 1969. My parents are both Dusty fans, ‘but’ this tune never went through the family speakers until 1983 when my sister arrived home with the Allniters’ album, d-d-d-dance! As for this song, well its meaning is lyrically obvious.
…don’t be shy You’ve been here before” Gloriously reggae, this Sydney SKA outfit funkified us with the lively hit Montego Bay. The whole album is grand. During the punk into post punk days, Allniters were part of the Sydney (new) MOD scene, and though it could be suggested the group as just copying the British Madness & Specials sound, they also explored jazz in fusion, while including violin up front on some numbers to a vastly glorious experience!
…what’s your hurry Please don’t hit and run” Through d-d-d-dance! I just love that solid trombone and sax, Perry Andronos on bass, very generous! Julie Conway really does give justice to this song, her voice passionate and resonating! She brings a celebratory fresh vibrancy to the whole album! In my punk bio -My Life as an 80’s Sydney Punk- I discuss a yearning for a London SKA experience. Thinking about what London had on offer for me, I used to lie back in my home in Cronulla 90’s, ten years after being introduced to the Allniters, chilling out of a morning in bed listening to d-d-d-dance once more.
…like it’s always been before”
Breakfast in Bed https://tinyurl.com/2c96j6t6
Sourced via historyofaussiemusicblogspot.com
Brilliant Songs -THE SHIP SONG – Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (1990) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com
... You are a little mystery to me Every time you call around” A friend of mine used to live next door to Nick Cave in Melbourne. Another friend played gigs with him back in the punk days there. Of course, Nick is a man of bohemia. When London hasn’t snatched him away from us, Berlin has.
From the album The Good Son, this is a very sincere song. Many of Nick’s tunes relate to the dark attributes of life yet this, though niggling within a birth of despair, is about trust and care: arrive, wash your fears away, and while you are at, send your love through my soul.
…come loose your dogs upon me And let your hair hang down” As much as I love The Weeping Song, and Do You Love Me, this matches them as my Cave fav! A charming entry ensemble with piano harmonised by a crooning choir of sorts; searching out the nursery rhyme-like-chorus, the main theme of the song moves straight in and stays throughout. It is a tirade of peace, a ballad of beauty, of comfort entangled in the imperfections of this life. A hammond organ and a vibraphone feature ─ putting the verse on notice, the organ sounding out time in tranquillity at its finality.
In his own words for Reddit (with AGriaffesEye), Nick describes the song’s meaning as, "I wrote the song because Anita and I would argue at a constant pace and I would always tell her to unleash the dogs and burn the bridges as a way of saying you can say what you feel but forget the past and let's move forward.”
I chose the clip of Nick and The Ship Song here today at the Sydney Opera House. Apt, really, when you think about it, as many ships have passed by this splendid location. Undoubtedly Nick has suffered his fair share of trauma with the loss of two sons in recent times. Does he find solace in his masterpieces, or do they taunt and haunt him? Nick shared his thoughts in an interview with Lauren Baxter for The Music.com (2019)… “Grief is something that is so awesome and so vast and so beyond our tiny selves that we really have to just kneel down to it. It’s simply beyond us.”
He seems to have taken this as part of the journey through life, one not always rolling about in the mud of paradise, while he continues to give back to us with his art.
…but when I crawl into your arms Everything, it comes tumbling down”
The Ship Song @ the Sydney Opera House https://tinyurl.com/2jpp5jxn
* Created by Three Drunk Monkeys, the "Ship Song Project" film is set to a reworking of Nick Cave's immortal ballad and features performances by some of Australia and the world’s preeminent artists including Neil Finn, Kev Carmody, Sarah Blasko, Angus and Julia Stone, Paul Kelly, Temper Trap, Martha Wainwright, Katie Noonan and Daniel Johns (Ad News.com.au 2011)
Sourced via youtube.com/Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Brilliant Songs -HOW SOON IS NOW?- The Smiths (1984) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com
…I am the son and the heir Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar”
We haven’t been in the world of Brilliant Songs for a while. So, let’s celebrate the return of the series with a very depressing song. And, I will go as bold as to say, that this is one of the most wonderful songs ever penned; ever sounded around this beautiful planet of ours.
….so you go and you stand on your own And you leave on your own And you go home and you cry And you want to die” The clip (seen below) is as much important and fascinating as the song itself. Put a gorgeously interesting woman in a charismatic hat, and my friend, you have majesty! That -whining down into the chorus guitar- is one of the great moments in musical history. It is a sad scenario in a working-class town in northern England, in this case Manchester. Is there hope? Well, I’ll let you decide.
…you shut your mouth How can you say I go about things the wrong way”
That tremolo on guitar, floating hypnotically along in an ever seductively psychedelic trance. The sonics when the mood swings further south and the pitch alerts disaster, well, we all need our times amongst the solemn aspects of life. And, though Morrissey has been criticised in the past for needing to “cheer up”, these sorts of songs, moments, do speak to people in times of hardship. I think it is ‘beautiful’ in all, sad, yup, but useful.
And what do the fans make of this classic? …“What makes “How Soon Is Now?” my favourite Smiths track is not just the starkly depressing lyrics from Morrissey, although they certainly more than play their part…but Johnny Marr’s frighteningly bleak guitar playing” (Medium.com 2018). According to Chris Gill for Guitarworld.com (2020) that ‘pulsating’ tremolo groove effect is all down to timing speeds between four amps, to arrive at that wonderful ‘bouncing triplet pattern’ as guitarist Johnny Marr, “wanted the intro to be as potent and recognizable as Layla”.
It reached 24 on the UK charts in 85. But on re-release in 1992, when I was stolen by this clip and number; a moment in history where all moods-n-emotions in music were well catered for, it then sparkled in a romantically-starved purple at 16!
…I am human and I need to be loved Just like everybody else does.”
How Soon is Now? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33-5bsbQj-w
Sourced via imdb.com
Brilliant Songs -WHEN YOU WERE MINE- The Church (1982) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com …I looked through my hands and you drew me the line.” From Blurred Crusade, I love a great start to a song. Not dissimilar to the soundscape of The Cure’s Push from the first series of Brilliant Songs, I love all elements present: the bass commanding time, the transy delay; the entry of chugger in the 6-strings, and the powerful edginess of those drums. This song takes me back to my young teen years by the beach in Cronulla, while it also remains a timeless piece, and right up there as one of my favs.
…on a world like this, a hundred turns left to go.” A Sydney based 80’s band whose popular singer was originally from England, Steve Kilbey’s brother Russel went on to front another Sydney band I enjoyed in the 90’s known as the Crystal Set. The Church’s psychedelic post punk sound has ignited the imaginations of people around this planet, and the band are still touring to this day! Oh, and while I am at it, The Church supported The Cure in London, and with a goth band I appreciate, Fields of the Nephilim.
…and they drown, and they're born And they live once again.” And what is this song all about, I hear you ask? Okay, we all have a love we regret parting with, or at least find ourselves reminiscing; appreciating the time spent together. Well, rbhsjukebox.wordpress.com (2015) felt, “When You Were Mine starts out slow and builds, proving the band’s skill at simplicity and complexity. It’s a beautiful song of loss with a magical guitar solo.”
But as the last lines of the song suggest men in painted faces living on many islands, there are those that feel this song represents Indigenous Australians’ relationship to the Dreaming. Another states ‘past lives’, which is definitely what the lyrics offer up. Kilbey spawns poetry throughout his lyrics, so I guess it’s his business in the end.
…in a storm like this, a hundred kisses of snow.” The guitar solo is a wonder, the chorus throughout, glorious. And as for that divine guitar sound? Guitarist Marty Wilson-Piper shares he and lead Peter Koppe’s combination on the album Blurred Crusade as,
“a wonderful moody intertwining meshing beautiful noise coming out of the amp. Peter was doing the same sort of thing so our guitars were just spiralling giants in lush soundscapes. We also both had Boss stereo chorus/tremolo pedals, (made out of metal not plastic). You can hear the tremolo effect on Peter’s solo on ‘Field of Mars’. This combination of amps, guitars and effects made our guitars sound like waterfalls of sparkling diamonds” (martywilson-piper.com, 2010).
…what's real and what's dreamt become close and entwine When you were mine.”
On Countdown, When You Were Mine https://tinyurl.com/yv2xfurk
Sourced via migsound.wordpress.com
Brilliant Songs-DISPARATE YOUTH- Santigold (2012) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com
…a life worth fighting for.” In days since passed, Brooklyn based Santigold has arrived to our shores for Splendour in the Grass & the Harvest Fests. Born Santi White, back in the early-mid-2000’s she was the founder & vocalist for Philadelphia punk band, Stiffed. As the years rolled by Santigold has toured with the likes of Kanye West, The Beastie Boys, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The Guardians song reviewer Michael Cragg (2012) announced Disparate Youth as, "an absolute corker, all sleek new-wave keyboards mixed with frantic bursts of guitar and Santigold's intriguingly emotionless delivery”. This number has turned some heads over the years and has arrived to video games & TV series in the U.S. I love this song, the clip too. I enjoy it when the ska keys roll in after the first few versus; subtle, but guiding and effective. From Masters of My Make-Believe, this is a different sound to the rest of the album, which, similarly to her first, still shows variety in sounds throughout. Santigold manages to include the various genres that support her stance in life. The previous 2008 album Santogold, rebels with a ska-punk edge, some reggae-dub, indie rock, and RNB-meets-jungle. This album, recorded partially in Jamaica, and though with less of that punk vibe, has a more embellished RnB tickles jungle bustle. Disparate Youth, though not so dissimilar to the groove of our Blue King Brown, has a more dub edge than its siblings on Masters of My Make-Believe. It harbours Santigold’s ‘no prisoners taken’ attitude but in a sensitive communicate.
I think one element that stands out is that energetic dub-electronica percussion. It sounds awesome! In its own way Disparate Youth is a powerful number, the instrumental is bold, but patient; funky, sure, but it allows Santigold to let her intentions be known in a solemn ‘as it is’ momentum. This will always be a winner for me and a song worthy of playing more than just once in any sitting.
...don't look ahead, there's stormy weather Another roadblock in our way.” So, what is this vibrant piece about? Santigold enlisted a friend Sam Fleischner to make this clip in Jamaica and she had an island inhabited by a tribe of feral kids in mind (3rdandlamar.com 2020). Michauex11 for Songmeanings.com (2015) describes Santigold’s intentions as, “the artist majored in African American Studies. This is about slavery and the desperation for youth to climb out of the hole… for ‘a life worth fighting for.’
…oh, we set our dreams to carry us.” As for the variety I suggest in Santigold’s formula, in the wake of the release of Disparate Youth this was a quote from the lady herself in an interview from her London Hotel with Robin Murray for Clashmusic.com (2012):
…”what is deemed playable on radio has gotten so narrow. Seriously, I had a writing session where someone was like “you have to use these chords.” I was like really, is that the rule?! I think that’s stupid, I don’t think it should be that now; I don’t think there should be a tight formula, I don’t think that the same producers should be producing every song on the radio, I don’t think the same writers should be the same writers should be writing for every single song for every artist. It makes it boring; what a boring landscape.”
…..Oh ah, oh ah, Frozen to the core Oh ah, oh, a life worth fighting for.”
Disparate Youth https://tinyurl.com/3tm76cyp
Sourced via 3rdandlamar.com
Brilliant Songs-NUMB- Portishead (1994) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com
….Unable so lost I can't find my way”. Why an outfit, who took their title from a town near Bristol, this powerhouse of the 90’s Trip Hop scene should incorporate the sounds of native birds from coastal Sydney, is anyone’s guess. But really, this is only one of many Portishead songs I could have run with here today, but it is the sound of the honeyeater birds of Cronulla where I grew up, as why I have wanted me to pen this tribute for some time now.
…A silence, this silence I can't bear” Portishead started out in 1991. This song emanates from within their first album Dummy; a real jewel in the music history of this planet. Their brooding mix of nostalgic jazz meets film horror, from swing to cabaret to acid house and hip hop, Portishead are a standalone entity. The way they incorporate instrumental and loops in sampling is nothing short of majestic. I have always thought the earlier Portishead sounds really merge well with the inner-city and south-western burbs of Sydney, a sound wafting through the dark corridors and rouge lit rooms of its old Victorian terrace houses. But from the tropical umbrella tree in our front yard in Cronulla as a kid, the red-wattle bird, a medium-sized bird with a no-nonsense territorial temperament, this number is most reminiscent. While these edgy, somewhat psychotic calls were in fact mastered by the band Deer ─ who covered this song live with a violin, they will always remain a memory of my childhood.
…I'm fooling somebody A faithless path I roam” Numb begins with an embolden shrill of violin accompanied by that brash backbeat, jumping into the use of a gong-effect instead of traditional snare, a fascination, a chameleon at large within typical trip hop fashion as time moves along. Moments where time stalls and vinyl-scratch-chattering; the sounding of a male’s voices overhead, loom comical, in the main it has a somewhat soothing appeal amongst the enchantment of the old school horror flick Hammond organ laments, and groaning double bass.
…Feeling so unholy”. The song is about loneliness, regardless of what, or who, is happening at the time. Gunslinger357 for Songmeanings.com suggested: "‘The child roses like, try to reveal what I could feel’ is her speaking of the little girl inside her that hopes and longs for real love, trying to show her to get past her hurt and look for something real, where should, could feel true love and happiness.”
Beth Gibbons is a star, right! Her voice, her mood, a buzz! The music, the sampling, all wonderful, but her voice belongs in every moment. Beth Gibbons has worked alongside trip hop pioneers Massive Attack and has even written songs for Nina Cherry. Portishead will always remain a charm, an intrigue, and this song with its nutty birds of coastal Sydney will remain a treasure for me personally.
…it just won’t leave me alone, oh no”
Live in NYC https://tinyurl.com/ys4kuzau
Sourced via dreamstime.com
Brilliant Songs -WE HAVEN’T TURNED AROUND- Gomez (1999) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com … to steal the time and haunt the place” Last weekend a neighbour told me that two of the guys from Gomez recently played live just a block from where I live. A sugarcane town, I couldn’t believe it! I dug Gomez during the late 90’s and saw them live at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney. Considering how much I love this song and what it meant to me at the time, it felt weird when realising that I hadn’t heard it since then! Upon playing it this week my blood turned cold, it is such a beautiful number.
…so you want to spin the world around?” Hailing from England’s Southport, Merseyside, these guys were popular there on that island, and in Australia. This tune arrived to their album Liquid Skin. Gomez emulated an indie-psychedelic, American bluesy sound, and while hearing this number again this week, it dawned on me that it was reminiscent of a slowed down Seattle Sound number, when the punk roots had withered, and that Pearl Jam or metal influence was more apparent.
…to stem the tide and point the blame” Ben Ottewelle’s voice is a killer, and many thought so back in the day too. He calms the journey. As an entry call to the song, cello also arrives here and there with a nice droning effect. Acoustic guitar is the main player where mid-song a gentle violin arrives. The calm then falls into a crescendo of guitar and bass which is then silenced by the violin’s jealous return, seeing out the masterpiece. For such a mellow number, We Haven’t Turned Around is such a lyrically and vocally powerful song.
….so you want to make catastrophe? Could you send it right over to me?” And, as for song meaning, Karaokeparty.com (2024) describes, “themes of societal disillusionment, desire for change, and the struggle to find meaning and purpose in a chaotic world.” The lyrics suggest a frustration in, “the repeated attempts to create change, possibly in response to a negative situation or societal issue.”
Funnily enough, I also moved to just a few blocks from Enmore Theatre, not long after seeing Gomez play there back in 99. Funny buggers, they closed the set with a visual on-stage display in tribute of David Hasselhoff. They entertained us, and made us sad, and made us reflect. As for this number: ‘timeless’? Well yes, even for those of us who have neglected it for so long.
…maybe it’s a trick of the light Maybe, yeah.”
We haven’t turned around https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THI4U3OsDQY
Sourced via open.spotify.com
Brilliant Songs -UNFINISHED SYMPATHY - Massive Attack (1991) www.shamrocknewsmusic.com …The curiousness of your potential kiss Has got my mind and body aching” Announcing to the world that Trip Hop had arrived, this song is historical. Even though the outfit’s members had been prominent in Bristol’s live electronica scene mid-80’s, then known as The Wild Bunch, as Massive Attack this was their first big single.
It is such an engaging number, that percussion with the bell dinging along throughout is nothing short of addictive! Shara Nelson’s voice is powerful and beguiling. I feel the song consorted well with acid house at the time, and though this creative outfit’s career took them to the darker, alluring enchantments of Mezzanine and 100th Window, Unfinished Sympathy holds its own and remains a classic with that intensely enjoyable prementioned Ring 1 synth bell sample, and awesome beat. At the time it was released on their first album Blue Line, the Gulf War was in full swing. To avoid controversy and to ensure radio play accessibility they released the album and song under the title 'Massive’.
…You're the book that I have opened And now I've got to know much more” Massive Attack were the instigators of the trip hop movement, no one can deny them of that, where Nina Cherry also worked alongside them on various song projects. In time, well-known creative, Tricky, would be less notable in the outfit, but made his presence known in the earlier stages. For this number an orchestra was mustered to attend the recording for the strings. This saw them going over budget, and the band’s 4wd was then sold to allow for cash flow.
...Really hurt me baby, really cut me baby How can have a day without a night” The song’s meaning was well-conveyed by Cereal for Songmeaning.com (2016) “beautifully conveys the feeling of emptiness as a result of this desire, she is missing something she needs. Also, perhaps a resignation to the fact she won't get what she wants, expresses her angst and despair about the fact the other person pulled away, or someone does not requite her love.”
The piano and violin both work well in drawing in a sense of realisation to this lady’s yearnings, I feel. And the clip itself is a winner. A British invasion of LA, Shara Nelson rolls along West Pico Boulevard and its all walks of life. If you are really clever you will realise that MA-stayers Robert del Naja, Andrew Vowels & Grant Marshall are seen in her tailwind at different stages. I never tire of this clip, and this number will never dim or fade.
…Like a soul without a mind In a body without a heart I'm missing every part”
This is a video-lecture of the deconstruction then reconstruction sampling of this song. Very worthwhile, I enjoyed this!
Pointblank Music School Berlin https://tinyurl.com/mpn7f7dk
The clip for Unfinished Sympathy https://tinyurl.com/mr26f2uh
Sourced via tombishop72.medium.com
Brilliant Songs -TRIP AT THE BRAIN – Suicidal Tendencies (1988). www.shamrocknewsmusic.com ...Ended up in a cemetery of a thousand wasted days But that's alright with me, cause that's where most of my memories lay” Now this song holds a special place in my memory when punk; hardcore, married up with speed metal, and now nothing was off the table. Trip at the Brain also rated highly in the top 10 of my fav punk-hardcore songs during the series Screamen Larry & I penned a few years back. It is emboldening, that rhythm section is unbeatable, only matched perhaps when the whole shebang drops gear, and that emotive downswing riff arrives to bring us into that famous ST reflection of the melancholic, less amiable moments in life. Now Rocky George has the best metal guitar sound anywhere. His leads are fluid journeys, and the smaller lead-fills arrive to moments tickling the psychedelia in us all. I love the sound of this percussion galloping along and gleefully bolstering that crafty rhythm section. The energy of bass and percussion is also on show with drummer extraordinaire Dave Lombardo smashing the number out willingly himself with the band in later days (link below).
When the drums roll down and the bass has that clumsy slapping jangle, the huge wall of now slowed-down six-string rhythm is truly infectious, an intrigue that really stood out during this era. Well, it hasn’t aged in that sense either. Rocky George’s lead then arrives as a real winner with its sympathetic yearning and sound connecting soul. It is splendid! As for Mike Muir, well yes, a fine frontman, he really pumps up the energy - drifting between supercool surf-skate local, to down on his luck back lanes with torrid skies lamenter. Go it? Even in the earlier punk days of ST one of his biggest influences was Black Sabbath. This number from an album of powerfully streetwise and emotive soundscapes is a classic from the late 80’s when metal was incorporated to lift the temperature and bring a more dynamic edge to the experience. I struggled at first with skatecore, thinking metal had now dominated over what I thought was already a worthy recipe. But with the arrival of Join the Army, and that solidly dark humour of SOD, and dripping with pace Uncle Slam etc, this allowed me to adjust. From skater punk, and into the mid-eighties where it was now known as crossover, or just plain thrash, guitarist Mike Clarke (No Mercy) was partially responsible for this new later 80’s groove with his love of metal. Oh, in the early days the Texan/San Fran band DRI was a big player in all this too of course.
…I took a wrong turn and ended up at my heart It could barely even pump no blood it was so thrashed and torn apart” As for song meaning, it’ all seems pretty straight forward. Maybe it isn’t? From songmeaning.com (200) epicmikenomore asserted, “It's an anti-drug song. Muir said it himself. Just read the free styling part of the song.” While Dann Alexander (.com 2019) announces, “Trip at the Brain” magnifies the sense of mental escape that anyone longs for. The escape of the daily grind in their heads. On reflection, the track can be looked at as another glimpse into mental health awareness at a time when it was more heavily stigmatized.”
Well LA; Venice Beach, a very interesting part of the world just the same, but really there are some sordid things that have occurred there on the street over the years that could definitely unsettle a brain. Anyway, whatever you take from this vibrant number, it nuzzles down into a realm of its own and must be respected by both punk and metal clansman alike.
….Fly with me Flying free”
Trip at the Brain https://tinyurl.com/28epcyxy
Dave Lombardo on drums for ST https://tinyurl.com/mr3rjp3k
Sourced via detoyboys.nl
Brilliant Songs -FACE TO FACE – Siouxsie & the Banshees (1991). www.shamrocknewsmusic.com …Face to face my lovely foe Mouth to mouth raining heaven's blows” While Tinderbox is my fav Siouxsie & the Banshees album, and where I also enjoy Siouxsie Sioux’s punk days, this album Superstition really has some tasty moments where nostalgically moody moments arrive willingly. Face to face is no exception where that sultry Egyptian …or is it a Siamese keening, is seductive, and Siouxsie’s hollering jeremiad really gets the empathy radar up and about. She wasn’t that taken by being involved as the main song for Batman Returns but the idea of Catwoman in the script ignited her passion in partaking. Musically it involves strings which provides that longingly passionate yearning with those violins of course. They were recorded in Los Angeles only after the song itself was recorded in Bath with the band; stalwarts Budgie & Steve Severin in tow. Martin McCarrick played dulcimer, keyboards, violin and cello for the Banshees, but it is unclear if he was part of the recording later in LA, where Danny Elfman weaved his magic with the strings’ production.
….Commit your crime in your deadly time It's too divine” The song’s meaning is clear for Scary Valentine @ songmeaning.com (2002) “I think this song is about 2 lovers/soulmates having a difficult time because they haven’t found their own personal identity.” And as to Siouxsie purring at one stage? Well, as this number features on the Batman Returns film, the attached clip suggests the real meaning lies with Batman & Catwoman in the ballroom in cosy waltz together. All that really matters here is that beautifully alluring enchantment this song promotes and Siouxsie Sioux’s superb voice.
…This danger thrills and my conflict kills” Such a big player for so long: Queen of Punk, Queen of Post Punk, of Goth, but where is Siouxsie Sioux and the band now, I hear you ask? Well, they’re not planning to tour this year, and The Banshees certainly haven’t had an album released since 93’s Rapture. But they are currently celebrating the re-release of their 83 album Nocturne. Their sound alone continues to be an influence for so many alternative bands since their unearthing in London during the 70s. Anyway, this number today is a nice return to the creativity of the early 90s.
….We're Siamese twins writhing intertwined”
Face to Face https://tinyurl.com/y5t9uwux
Sourced via girlfromwinterjargon.com