Brandi Carlile - "The Story"

Happy birthday Danette!

Last year I broke with tradition and picked out a birthday song for her that she actually liked, instead of my usual manner of picking a song that makes me think of her (which she may or may not like).  This year, I'm returning to form, since I think Danette is mostly ambivalent about Brandi Carlile. 

Despite it being a breakthrough hit in 2007, somehow I was unaware of "The Story", the title track from Brandi Carlile's second LP, until she perfomed it on SNL, December 10, 2022.  I guess I was generally aware of her and her work, enough to know that she was well respected in the folk / alt-country genres, and had worked with legends like Tanya Tucker.   But the SNL version of "The Story" was a revelation for me.  

It begins simply enough as a conventional ballad:

   All of these lines across my face

   Tell you the story of who I am

   So many stories of where I've been

   And how I got to where I am

   But these stories don't mean anything

   When you've got no one to tell them to

   It's true, I was made for you

   I climbed across the mountain tops

Hello, this is where song really interesting.  Carlile breaks from the ballad format, and with a sense of urgency, cranks the "alt-country" knob from "country" to "alt":

   Swam all across the ocean blue

   I crossed all the lines and I broke all the rules

   But baby, I broke them all for you

   Oh, because even when I was flat broke

   You made me feel like a million bucks

   You do, and I was made for you

At the instrumental break, we see her switch from an acoustic to an electric guitar, and the band then proceeds to build tension (1:46 -- 2:10), making me lean forward in my seat, then they knock out a frantic 25 seconds (2:10 -- 2:35) that pays homage to Sonic Youth, before returning to a mostly a cappella stanza:

   You see the smile that's on my mouth

   It's hiding the words that don't come out

   And all of my friends who think that I'm blessed

   They don't know my head is a mess

   No, they don't know who I really am

   And they don't know what I've been through like you do

   And I was made for you

Turning back up the volume and with male back-up vocals providing white noise, they've now set up a loud-quiet-loud progression that would make the Pixies proud:

   All of these lines across my face

   Tell you the story of who I am

   So many stories of where I've been

   And how I got to where I am

   Oh, but these stories don't mean anything

   When you've got no one to tell them to

   It's true, I was made for you

   Oh, yeah, well it's true that I was made for you

I'm a sucker for story telling songs, so how could I not love this poignant meta-story?  Carlile was only 26 when she released this song, which is nearly the amount of time that Danette and I have been together.  Borrowing from what she and I often say about Pink Floyd and "Time" -- at such a young age, how do you write a song with so much insight to lived experience?  

Like Danette, this song has aged well.  Like Danette, my attraction to this song was immediate and visceral. Like Danette, this song reflects the story of who I am. 

The Story: live on SNL 2022-12-10, studio version, cover by Dolly Parton

Bonus link: the backstory on the "The Story"

Previous birthday songs:
2022: Plastic Bertrand - "Ça plane pour moi" 
2021: Adam and the Ants - "Christian D'or" 
2020: Walk Off The Earth - "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall"
2019: Nicki Minaj - "Monster"
2018: Bear Hands - "Giants" 
2017: Alvvays - "Archie, Marry Me" 
2016: Molly Hatchet - "Flirtin' With Disaster" 
2015: Avett Brothers - "Kick Drum Heart"
2014: Ani DiFranco - "32 Flavors" 
2013: The Green Pajamas - "Kim the Waitress"
2012: The Cure - "High"
2011: Blink 182 - "Josie"
2010:  Dead Milkmen - "Punk Rock Girl"  

Ashley O - On A Roll

Danette and I are late in watching Black Mirror, and we just recently watched the 2019 episode "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too", which featured Miley Cyrus playing a fictional version of herself (in a dystopian, sci-fi Black Mirror idiom, of course).  In the course of the episode, the "Ashley O" character performed a cleverly rewritten, up-beat synth pop version of Nine Inch Nail's "Head Like A Hole", retitled "On A Roll".  At the end of the episode, once her character has been freed and rebranded as "Ashley Fuckin O", she performs an actual cover of "Head Like a Hole".  

The full story of how this song and episode came to be, as well as Trent Reznor's reaction. are detailed in a 2019 GQ article.  I particularly enjoyed this episode because I remember when "Pretty Hate Machine" came out in 1990 and the impact it had on popular music. Sure, there had been bands like Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Godflesh, etc., but NiN was the first to have genuinely catchy songs and find a cross-over audience.  They had popular impact, and when they were played on the radio/MTV, they sounded nothing like anyone that had been played before. Listening to "Pretty Hate Machine" now, it sounds relatively tame -- but that's not a not a knock against NiN, but rather a testament to Reznor's impact: the reason why "Pretty Hate Machine" sounds conventional now is because for the last 23 years, artists have strived to replicate, incorporate, and in some cases just straight rip-off their sound.  That's real impact.  That fact that "Head Like A Hole" was 1) chosen and 2) works so well for this "Hannah Montana-in-an-alternate-universe" episode is just further illustrates this point.  Also, the song just simply rawks.

Ashley O - "On A Roll"

Ashley Fuckin O - "Head Like A Hole"

Nine Inch Nails - "Head Like A Hole" (studio, live 2013)

The Specials - "Enjoy Yourself"

"Hello, Hi, I'm Terry, and I'm going to enjoy myself first."

Terry Hall, lead singer of The Specials, died last December of pancreatic cancer at age 63.  First of all, 63 no longer seems that old. Second, I was pretty young when The Specials were at their height, and though some songs got airplay in the early days of MTV, it was not until I was much older that I really appreciated them.  There were many good bands in the ska revival / Two-Tone genre, but The Specials were like The Clash with respect to punk: other bands might be enjoyable, but they were important, and Terry Hall was a big part of the reason why.  The membership of The Specials and their many permutations is a complex story, and certainly Jerry Dammers should receive most of the credit as the primary song writer, but to me, if it didn't have Terry, it wasn't The Specials.  

While I've mentioned The Specials here many times, I have yet to review the LPs.  I don't have time to really share all my thoughts about the two primary LPs from their classic lineup, but the short version is while their debut "The Specials" (1979) has better individual songs, I always thought their 1980 follow-up, "More Specials", was a better LP, start-to-finish.  It wasn't until researching this post that I discovered that genre-bending "More Specials" is credited with influencing 90s genres such as lounge and trip hop.  

So, if I'm not reviewing the entire LP, the obvious choice would be the opening/closing versions of the song about mortality, "Enjoy Yourself".  I always enjoyed how it joyfully opened the LP, as well as the dirge-like reprise that closed the LP.  What I did not know until recently is that this is a cover of a 1949 song, titled "Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)", first made famous by Guy Lombardo.  Ok, technically, it's a cover of the slightly different version by Prince Buster as a B-side in 1963 (and later released as an A-side).  Either way, all versions of this song are enjoyable and clearly timeless.  

Apparently, The Specials had been planning to work on a new LP, but I guess that won't happen now.  I'll eventually review "The Specials" and "More Specials", but until then you can appreciate the unexpected story of their sophomore LP's opening and closing song.  

Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think 

Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink

The years go by, as quickly as you wink 

Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think

The Specials: "Enjoy Yourself" (studio), "Enjoy Yourself (reprise)", "Enjoy Yourself" (live 1, live 2)

Prince Buster: "Enjoy Yourself", "Madness / Enjoy Yourself" (live)

Guy Lombardo: "Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)"

While researching this article, I saw that original drummer John Bradbury died in 2015.  

Electric Chairs - "Barbie Girl"

I haven't seen "Barbie", yet, anyway.  I suppose it's too big to ignore, and I'm sure Greta Gerwig and company have done a good job, but I guess I'm more of an "Oppenheimer" guy.  I can only assume that Aqua's 1997 minor hit "Barbie Girl" is featured in the film.  I got their debut LP. "Aquarium", based on the strength of "Barbie Girl", but I can't remember the last time I listened to it.  

I'll assume you've heard Aqua's version of the song: it's fun and cute, while remaining subversive.  But have you heard the cover by Electric Chairs?  They released an EP in 2001 of different mixes of the song.  I haven't seen that EP (there can't be many copies in existence), but I first heard this song on The Orb's excellent "Back to Mine" mix CD (check out the entire series).

The Electric Chairs version really brings out the disturbing, menacing, predatory element* that is present in the Aqua version, but a lot easier to miss.  When Aqua sings "Come on, Barbie, let's go party", it sounds like a dismissive critique.  When Electric Chairs sing "Come on, Barbie, let's go party", it's a threat.  And when the beat comes in (~2:38), it is simultaneously super cheesy and awesome -- a plastic but fantastic copy of what a dance beat should sound like.  

Electric Chairs - "Barbie Girl (TF Long Version)"

Aqua - "Barbie Girl" 

* I was tempted to draw a parallel to Sonic Youth's cover of the The Carpenters' "Superstar", but SY's cover changes the meaning of the song, inverting victim to predator.  I think the Electric Chairs cover just emphasizes the scathing commentary that was lurking under Aqua's Europop veneer.  

Sinead O'Connor - "War"

We found out today that Sinead O'Connor died.  Probably best known for her cover of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U", if you weren't there, it's hard to convey just how big she was in the early 1990s -- right up until she became famous for her other cover: Bob Marley and the Wailers's "War".

I'm 95% certain I watched this live in 1992 on SNL, though it's possible that I watched later coverage of it and the mists of time have caused me to conflate source.  The reaction was nearly universal revulsion, and it's safe to say this greatly curtailed a promising career.  I wasn't offended, but I was surprised at her boldness and conviction.  

And with the benefit of time, it should be clear to all her detractors from 31 years ago that she was 100% right.  I don't recall child abuse in the Catholic Church being well-known at the time, but that started to change after her performance.  There are innumerable villains in the story, but when you're the pope, the papal buck stops with you.  

What I didn't know until today is that Bob Marley's original song, from the 1976 LP "Rastaman Vibration", is based on a 1963 speech to the UN by Ethiopia's Haile Selassie:

That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned; That until there are no longer first-class and second-class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained; And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique and in South Africa in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed; Until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and good-will; Until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all men, as they are in the eyes of Heaven; Until that day, the African continent will not know peace. We Africans will fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil. 

Bob Marley adapted that speech into a song, and Sinead O'Connor adapted the song to be about child abuse.  She repeated the song (sans picture) at the 1992 Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert.  

Her SNL version starts off a little shaky and unsure, likely because she knows she's on the precipice of an act she can't undo, before it builds to its powerful conclusion.  The best definition of bravery I've seen says it's not about "not being afraid", but rather "being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway."  Sinead was brave, and she was right.  

Sinead O'Connor -- War (1992 SNL; 1992 30th Bob Dylan Anniversary Concert)

Bob Marley & The Wailers -- War (1976 LP version, live 1979)

N.B. It's also a nice reminder that if all you have is "Legends", which admittedly was standard issue when I was in college, you're missing out on Marley's overtly political canon.  

Len - "Steal My Sunshine"

I've always liked Len's 1999 hit single "Steal My Sunshine", but I always considered it more of a guilty pleasure rather than a song I would end up writing about.  It's fun, festive, infectious, has a nice groove, sounds like summer, and I just love how Sharon Costanzo sweetly sings "L-a-t-e-r that week".  Her voice, contrasted with her brother's raspy vocals, helps craft Len's unique sound.  It also blows my mind to think that this song came out last century -- it feels like last year. 

I recently discovered, quite by accident, that there was a recent (2021) cover by LA band Bikini Trill, who seem to be channeling the same aesthetic and sound that Len did on this record some 20+ years prior.  It's a fun cover, and Bikini Trill -- who were probably not yet in grade school when the original came out -- finds a new perspective on the song while still maintaining the essence of the original.  

But what really blew my mind about "Steal My Sunshine" was recently learning the funky sample repeated throughout the song comes from the 10 second break in the 1976 song by the Andrea True Connection, "More, More, More".  I have a vague contemporary memory of this song from the 1970s, but I could not have told you that it was sung by former porn star (!) Andrea True, and I'm sad to say I did not recognize the sample from Steal My Sunshine until I learned of it from "Show Me the Sample".

So summer is just about officially here, so it's time to dust off the Len version, the new Bikini Trill cover, as well as the source of the sample.  If you don't immediately listen to all three songs, you'll miss a million miles of fun.  Enjoy.

Len - "Steal My Sunshine"

Bikini Trill - "Steal My Sunshine"

Andrea True - "More, More, More" (the break is 2:20--2:29 in this 3:11 radio edit);  6:16 LP & 12" version (the break is 2:30--2:39 in this version, and then repeated at 5:20--5:29)

Julee Cruise - "Summer Kisses, Winter Tears"

It's been almost a year since her death, but somehow I failed to mark the passing of Julee Cruise.  I indirectly referenced it when I wrote of the death of Angelo Badalamenti, but somehow I mistook sending a flurry of texts to my friends last year for actually writing about it.  

Having covered Julee extensively in the past (Twin Peaks, Industrial Symphony #1, Floating into the Night), I'm not sure I have anything new to say.  I have a fair amount of her later collaborations (i.e., those not with Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch), but instead I want to draw your attention to a cover of an Elvis song she did for the "Until the End of the World" soundtrack, "Summer Kisses, Winter Tears".  

I'm guessing it was recorded during the sessions for either "Floating into the Night" or maybe even "The Voice of Love".  To the best of my knowledge, it never appeared on a Julee Cruise LP and the soundtrack is the only place to get it.  

As I've mentioned before, Cruise was a titan in the dream pop genre and her discography is just too short.  Unless there are some unreleased tracks sitting in a vault somewhere, this is it, so enjoy this excellent Elvis cover -- and bonus points for a cover of an obscure B-side too. 

Julee Cruise - "Summer Kisses, Winter Tears"

Elvis - "Summer Kisses, Winter Tears"