10: "Why I Don't Believe in God" by Everclear from the 1997 album (So Much for the Afterglow) lyrics
Despite all the awards and accolades while they were at their peak, I still think of Everclear is still one of the great underrated rock bands of the last couple of decades. After Sparkle and Fade, a lot of media-types were basically writing off Art Alexakis and Co. As something of a one-hit wonder. I even remember one time when I was listening to an Everclear song on the radio and at the end of the song, the DJ said something like, "That was Everclear from their album Sparkle and Fade, which is exactly what that band did." Well, not quite. So Much for the Afterglow was a brilliant follow-up to Sparkle and Fade, ultimately going double-platinum after a string of successful singles. Alexakis (that's a Greek name, mind you) has a Springsteen-like knack for writing about common everyday struggles and deeply personal issues in a way that is uniquely eloquent and touching . "Why I Don't Believe in God" was never released as a single, but it is far and away my favorite Everclear song of all time. For a long time, I never understood when people would say that art or music "spoke" to them, but this particularly dark and sad song speaks to me in a way that is difficult to explain.9: "Anarchy in the U.K." by Sex Pistols (from the 1977 album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols) lyrics
I think I still remember where I was the first time I heard – and I mean really heard – the Sex Pistols for the first time. I think I was a junior in high school and a friend was driving me back to my folks' house. I asked what was playing on the car's tape deck and somebody else in the car told me we were listening to the Sex Pistols. I was kind of like, "Oh...Really?" I had heard of the Pistols, but I had never really listened to them before and I liked what I was hearing. Although I usually have a pretty good memory for these kinds of times in my life, it's really kind of a blur from there. 1970's punk was a something of a revelation for me, as I had been listening to a steady diet of 80's metal and "classic" rock for about a decade. I really don't know how long it took me to buy my first Pistols album, but I know I went kind of crazy there for a while. I was watching Sid and Nancy at least once or twice a week and buying just about every Sex Pistols tape at the mall's Camelot store...and there were a lot of compilations floating around back then. And the Pistols opened all kinds of other musical doors for me, paving the way for my later interests in bands like The Clash. I think one of the things that I still love about "Anarchy in the U.K." is that the first lines of the song are probably still the most blatantly and purposefully offensive song lyrics in the history of music. "Holidays in the Sun" would be a runner-up for my favorite Pistols song ever.
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| My favorite picture of Joe Strummer Taken from the booklet of the Clash on Broadway box set |
8: "Gangsterville" by Joe Strummer (from the 1989 album Earthquake Weather) lyrics
I was pretty much in the thick of my obsession with the Sex Pistols by 1990 or so, and I was working a part-time job at the local library. One of my coworkers was a girl whose brother was pretty big in Dayton's indie/alternative music scene and she seemed to know quite a bit about the vintage punk bands that had influenced our generation's budding college-rock scene. She loaned me some well-played cassettes of the Clash's eponymous first album as well as the masterpiece London Calling and it wasn't too long before I was really taken with them. I have loved The Clash ever since then, but I have always preferred Joe Strummer's vocals and song-writing to that of Mick Jones . This might be in some small part due to the fact that Joe had also performed the theme song to Sid and Nancy, which was probably my favorite film back then. But Joe's style has always been much different from Mick's and this is most apparent when you compare their respective post-Clash work.
Joe Strummer's musical evolution is something of a fascinating path. In his early days, he started out playing the ukelele for a band called the 101'ers. The Wikipedia article on the 101'ers has them pegged as a "pub rock" band, but I remember seeing them referred to as a ska or reggae-like act some years ago. A few years after joining the 101'ers, Joe would rise to prominence as a punk icon as the front-man and guitarist for The Clash. In and of itself, The Clash would go through an incredible musical evolution during their decade together. During his time with The Clash, Joe Strummer would experiment with the Latin American sound, rockabilly, reggae and dubbing. These sounds would ultimately shape his post-Clash work with the Latino Rockabilly War and the Mescaleros. This incredible blend of musical genres, along with Joe's distinctive "gravelly" singing voice and his documented contempt for enunciation made him one of the most incredibly unique performers in rock history.
Joe Strummer's Earthquake Weather was released a few years after he left The Clash for good. I think I bought my first copy of this album on cassette in 1990 or 1991. I actually remember the day quite well, but in retrospect, I must say it wasn't really a day worth remembering when I think about it. I had heard just about all of the major releases by The Clash and I happened to have a little extra cash in my pocket the day I discovered the album at the record store. I bought it without having heard a single track on the album, so I wasn't really sure what I was getting. "Gangsterville" is the opening track of the album and while I love every song on the album, this particular track has been my favorite since the day I bought the album. One of the most favorite things about the song is the way it begins, with the Joe yelling, "Let's rock again!" before the first verse kicks in. The song features some classic Strummer lyrics, including some historical references and even a few lines that required footnotes when the lyrics were printed on the album's sleeve. "Gangsterville" has some great guitar work by Zander Schloss, including a terrific, multi-part solo . There's also a hint of calypso music in there if you listen closely. Leave it to Joe to build a masterpiece out of such an uncanny blend of different elements.
7: "Heart-Shaped Box" by Nirvana (from the 1993 album In Utero) lyrics
1993 was a big turning point for me, as I was finally able to really come into my own. I was starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel with my undergraduate studies and an impending career path. I had also made some new friends and some important new relationships were on the horizon. I bought In Utero very soon after its release and I will always associate the album with memories of an important transitional period in my life.
I had initially resisted Nirvana when Nevermind exploded into popularity because I was pretty fixated on the notion that grunge was killing heavy metal (although, I think that pop-sounding sappy metal had as much to do with the temporary demise of heavy metal as grunge did, really). But sometime in the summer of 1992 or so, I heard "Territorial Pissings" and "Drain You" and I was pretty impressed, so I borrowed a cassette tape of Nevermind from a friend to give Nirvana a closer listen. The quality of the recording was pretty bad, so I ended up buying the album on CD shortly thereafter and I really enjoyed it. A lot of the singles had been played to death on MTV and I found myself enjoying the less popular songs on what was basically the second side of the LP/cassette release. I picked up Incesticide right after it came out and blew a lot of cash on Nirvana singles and bootlegs in the months that followed, so by the time In Utero was released, I was pretty excited about the chance to hear some new material. In Utero certainly didn't let me down. "Heart-Shaped Box" was the first single from In Utero and I remember being completely captivated by the video the first time I saw it. To me, the song is just so perfect with its enigmatic lyrics and a sound that is raw and bleeding with emotion and energy.
6: "Remember the Mountain Bed" by Billy Bragg and Wilco (from the 2000 album Mermaid Avenue Vol. II) lyrics
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| The great Woody Guthrie |
It was quite a while after I had purchased my own copies of the Mermaid Avenue albums on CD that I discovered "Remember the Mountain Bed" on Vol II. I had a lengthy commute to work at the time, and I would try to listen to albums all the way through instead of skipping around and just listening to my favorite songs. That way, I'd stretch my material out instead of running out of stuff once I had heard all of my favorites. So one morning while listening to Vol. II, I came to to "Remember the Mountain Bed" and I finally gave it a good listen. I will never forget the moment I heard the lyrics "You smiled when I said the leaves were just the color of your eyes" because I immediately thought of Thomai. As I listened to the song, it reminded me of the life Thomai and I were building; who we were, where we had been and where we were going. As soon as I got to work that morning, I pulled the lyrics up on the Internet and sent them to Thomai in an e-mail. To this day, I still feel like there is so much about this song that really captures the essence of our relationship and how great we are together.
