The 500 - #406 - Rid of Me - PJ Harvey

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 406

Album Title:  Rid of Me
Artist: PJ Harvey
Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock, Punk-Blues
Recorded: Pachyderm Studios, Minnesota
Released: May, 1993
My age at release: 27
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Man-Size

This week, I am fortunate to have a guest blogger Karen Snell. Interestingly, I have never met Karen. Our mutual friend, James, suggested we follow each other on Facebook because we had common interests, particularly music. Consequently, we have known each other "virtually" for about five years. 

Last May, my blog post for PJ Harvey's 2000 record, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (#431 on The 500 list), was published. Karen reached out and let me know she was a big fan who had seen PJ in concert. Realizing that another PJ Harvey record was imminent, I asked her if she'd be willing to share her memories for this record, 1993's Rid of Me. To my delight and great appreciation, she agreed. Enjoy!

Rid of Me album Cover (1993)

I’ve liked PJ Harvey for a long time, and probably my biggest PJ-related musical memory happened when I went to see her at The Warehouse in Toronto on October 30, 1998. 

For those of you who might have also frequented this venue back in the day, you might remember that there were two adjacent places to see concerts right down by the lake, a few blocks east of the Harbourfront area, right at the foot of Lower Jarvis Street.

Blue dot in the red circle shows the location of The Warehouse and The Guvernment Music Clubs

The first venue in this location opened in the mid-80s as a club called RPM. It was later renamed The Guvernment, and became an intimate location for live shows. The second was a larger concert space, conveniently located right next door. It was dubbed The Warehouse when it opened in 1996 and renamed Kool Haus in the early 2000s.

The Guvernment Music Club 2006

The Warehouse had crazy posts from floor to ceiling at various spots throughout the concert space. This made for pretty poor sight-lines if you stood in certain areas, but, if you could get in front of them, it was a terrific concert-going experience. At capacity, The Warehouse could hold several thousand people.

I saw a lot of great concerts in these adjoining locations through the 90s and early 2000s, including The Heads, Pretty and Twisted in 1995 -- which was the lamentably short-lived side project featuring Concrete Blonde’s Johnette Napolitano and Wall Of Voodoo alumni Marc Moreland and Danny Montgomery. I also saw Portishead (fantastic show!), The Chemical Brothers, Moby, The The, The Orb, and Amon Tobin in 2012, not long before the property was sold and the buildings torn down.

Kool Haus (formerly The Warehouse) being demolished in 2015

However, it was PJ Harvey’s concert in 1998, that ranks as one of the best and certainly one of the most memorable. 

Waiting for the concert to begin, as usual, brought on a ripple of anticipation throughout the crowd, as people talked with their friends and jockeyed for the best places to view the stage. When PJ came on stage, there was the typical crowd reaction of cheering, clapping, and whistling, everyone anxious for her to begin.

PJ Harvey Live at the V Festival (2003)

What happened next, though, literally sent chills down my spine. PJ began playing the opening of Catherine, a fantastic song from the album she was touring at the time. As she did, an intense hush fell over the crowd to the point that you could have heard a pin drop. It was amazing! Literally thousands of people went from cheering, clapping and talking to being utterly transfixed within seconds of her starting. Nobody, anywhere, in the whole place, was making a sound. You could hear her voice ringing out across the hall. This was truly one of the most memorable moments I’ve ever had at a live gig in my life! Of course, she went on to rock out the whole evening and the crowd came back to earth to sing along and make noise with her, but that opening is seared in my memory!

PJ Harvey is always great live, and I saw her again in 2004 at the Phoenix in Toronto, which was also a fantastic gig; nothing, however, quite matched this amazing concert opening on that night in 1998.

For this album, Rid of Me, I think you’ll find this performance of PJ singing the title track at Big Day Out Festival in Sydney in 2001 captures a little of that magic of 1998. She can really dominate a massive crowd.

However, if I had to recommend just one song on Rid of Me it would probably be Man-Size. It has great vocals and PJ rocks out in a way only she can -- with her unique voice and raunchy guitar -- all the while exuding extreme confidence in her music, her body and herself. She is even commenting on gender and power while she’s at it, It’s pretty fantastic stuff!

Honourable mention and a particular recommendation for guitar-lovers is the track Ecstasy – great!

Unapologetically unique throughout her career and consistently evolving, Polly Jean Harvey has always been a risk taker. You might really love one or two albums more than the others because they’re all unique. They are well worth the time listening to with care, as she always has something to say.

This week's Guest Blogger - Karen Snell

The 500 - #407 - Sandinista! - The Clash

 I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 407

Album Title:  Sandinista!
Artist: The Clash
Genre: Too many to list

Recorded: 5 Studios - Manchester, New York, Kingston, Jamaica & London
Released: December, 1980
My age at release: 15
How familiar was I with it before this week: One song
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Police On My Back 

On Episode 407 of The 500 Podcast, host Josh Adam Meyers welcomed guest Tom Morello, best known as the guitarist for Rage Against The Machine & Audioslave. Morello is equally noted for his political activism. Consequently, he was the ideal guest to discuss Sandinista!, the fourth studio release by English post-punk legends The Clash. 

Sandinista! album cover by The Clash

Morello shared the following quote when discussing the politically charged song Washington Bullets from side four of the three-disc album:

"My world view was intact before I heard The Clash, but to have your favorite band reflect your world view back to you in a way that you don't see from the educational or authority figures in your life was powerful. Their point of view was not in the classroom and not on the news, but it was absolutely true and accurate. There are bands that you like, bands that you love and then there are bands you believe in. For me, that's why I put both hands around The Clash forever." 

I was walking when I heard Morello make this statement. I had been listening to the podcast while loading groceries into my car and this quote stopped me in my tracks. It was a sentiment I understood and it resonated powerfully. For me, it wasn't The Clash, it was the musician Peter Gabriel who reflected my world view with the passionate political statements he made on songs such as Games Without Frontiers, Not One Of Us and the anti-apartheid protest song Biko on his untitled 1980 record (sometimes referenced as Melt). 

Peter Gabriel's third untitled record (1980)

Morello had summarized the passion that drew me to music when I was in my early teens. The incredible feeling that comes when all the things you've been thinking and feeling are reinforced by intelligent, kind and passionate artists who package ideas with lyrical and musical beauty. Although I didn't articulate it completely as an early ten, this was the thing that drew me to music. It was the reason I spent hours in my bedroom listening to records and memorizing the lyrics that spoke to the best version of me.

I realized that The Clash is a band that should have played a more important part in my life as a teen. Don't get me wrong, I liked them and owned a copy of London Calling (which we will get to in about six years...it is #8 on The 500 list.) The band wasn't a big part of my musical orbit at that time. I was deep into my progressive rock phase, so bands such as Rush, Yes, Genesis and the aforementioned Gabriel dominated my turntable. 

The consolation to missing out on this record in my early teens it would be that I got to discover Sandinista! this week. It is a lengthy record with 36 tracks, so it has been playing in the background for several days. There are many genres explored by the band on this record. There is funk, rock, gospel, reggae, rockabilly, folk, dub, rhythm and blues, calypso disco and even rap (at a time when that genre was in its infancy). It was challenging to select a song for my Spotify mix, but I finally settled on Police On My Back after consulting with my friend Claudio, who is a big fan of The Clash and Sandinista!

So, beyond the bands you like and love...is there one you believe in?

 

 

The 500 - #408 - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got - Sinéad O'Connor

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 408

Album Title:  I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
Artist: Sinéad O'Connor
Genre: Rock, Folk Rock
Recorded: S.T.S Studios, Dublin, Ireland
Released: March, 1990
My age at release: 24
How familiar was I with it before this week: Somewhat
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: The Emperor's New Clothes

It is difficult to quantify the impact Sinéad (Shin-Aid) O'Connor made when she exploded on the commercial music scene of 1987. Her shaved head and black combat boots made her stand out in a time when teased hair and mini-skirts dominated the female music scene. However, it was her voice that captured the attention of many, including me. Perfectly pitched and effortlessly fluctuating from the hauntingly ethereal to a powerful, primal scream. There was no denying her talent and mystique.

I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got - Sinead O'Connor

Her second record, the platinum-selling album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got , was a commercial juggernaut - propelled mainly by her emotional performance of the Prince song Nothing Compares 2 U. However, as I listened to it this week, it was a deeper cut on the record that captured my attention.

"These are dangerous days,

To say what you feel, is to dig your own grave."

Those fifteen simple words, from the song Black Boys on Mopeds, certainly resonate today. They are words that would prove prophetic for O'Connor. Two years after the release of this record, she made what was construed as a provocative attack on the Catholic Church. The backlash resulted in an immediate decline in her career. It would be two decades before she would experience some redemption, as people began to understand the precise nature of her criticism which really concerned sexual abuse of children within the church. O'Connor's experience is a good example of what is now called Cancel Culture.

The 500 - #409 - Strange Days - The Doors

 I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 409

Album Title: Strange Days
Artist: The Doors
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Acid Rock
Recorded: Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood, California
Released: September, 1967
My age at release: 2
How familiar was I with it before this week: Somewhat
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Love Me Two Times

Strange Days album cover

Much like a visit from tedious relatives, the popular experimental group The Doors are best tolerated in small doses. It is a style of music that can often be too gloomy and introspective -- a depressive hangover from a different generation. However, all is not uninspiring. A song by The Doors can be perfect on a mixed playlist. Their songs also play brilliantly on many movie soundtracks such as the following:

• Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) adds the perfect amount of discordant whimsy in the strange British comedy The World's End 
• Love Her Madly captures Forrest Gump's unrequited love for Jenny in the 1994 film.
• And I can't imagine Apocalypse Now without hearing The End playing through the hypnotic and unnerving opening sequence.

That being said...I've never owned a record by The Doors. This week, as I listened to Strange Days on Spotify, their second studio release from 1967, I again found myself fatigued by their sound. 

Last March, in my review of Rum, Sodomy and the Lash (Album #440) by Irish band The Pogues, I made a similar statement. The Doors are like the laptop steel guitar, perfect in moderation...but not easily digested all night. In fact, as I cued the record up for a third time, my wife asked, "Is there something else we can listen to?"

True to my word, I gave this record a half-dozen quality spins in a variety of circumstances. There are some tracks on Strange Days that I quite enjoyed and lead singer Jim Morrison's lyrics always get me thinking.

Jim Morrison of The Doors 

Morrison's poetry, much like the music of The Doors, is hit and miss. Some lyrics stopped me in my tracks when I first heard them as a teenager. However, as the years passed, I outgrew them. Regardless, they still get your thinking, even if to wonder..."What does he even mean?" The middle passage from When The Music's Over is one example of a lyric that would have floored me as a 17-year-old, heck, it still grabs my attention now:

"Cancel my subscription to the Resurrection

Send my credentials to the House of Detention. 

I've got some friends inside."

I suppose Morrison was a much like the beat poets and writers that surrounded him in the sixties (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac William S. Burroughs). They were all embracing alternate forms of spiritualism while challenging conventions, pushing up against authority and viewing the world through an unreliable lense. Sometimes soft, sometimes focused and sometimes warped and clouded by heavy drug use. For all four writers, their outcomes were varied, but, when they worked, they really worked.

Burroughs, Ginsberg and Kerouac (l-r)

I suppose it's fair to finish by letting the poet explain himself. When asked about his work, Morrison once said:

"Our work, our performing, is a striving for a metamorphosis. Right now, we’re more interested in the dark side of life, the evil thing, the night time. But through our music, we’re striving, trying to break through to a cleaner, freer realm. Poetry appeals to me so much-because it’s so eternal. Nothing else can survive a holocaust but poetry and songs. No one can remember an entire novel, but so long as there are human beings, songs and poetry can continue. If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it’s to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel.”

The 500 - #410 - Time Out Of Mind - Bob Dylan

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 411

Album Title: Time Out Of Mind
Artist: Bob Dylan
Genre: Country, Blues, Rockabilly
Recorded: Criteria Studios, Miami, Florida
Released: September, 1997
My age at release: 32
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Not Dark Yet

Recently, I watched Beastie Boys Story, an unusual documentary in that it was filmed while being presented in front of a theatre audience. Surviving members of the band, Michael "Mike D" Diamond, and Adam "Ad Rock" Horovitz, were co-hosts on a stage with a coordinated multimedia presentation playing behind them. Together, the pair recounted their 40-year friendship and the history of their Hall of Fame hip-hop group. 

Near the end of the documentary, as they discussed the retirement of the band following the death of bandmate and friend Adam "MCA" Yauch, Horovitz shared the following quote: "I'd rather be a hypocrite than the same person forever."

For various reasons, I thought about this quote a great deal, particularly how it resonated in context with Time Out Of Mind, the 30th studio release by legendary musician and songwriter Bob Dylan. Dylan has 11 records on The 500 list, including two in the top ten. Consequently, I will be writing about him regularly over the next eight years. Frustratingly, I grew up an anti -fan. In my younger, less tolerant days, I regularly did a hacky impersonation of him to my friends to amplify my disdain. My dislike for Bob Dylan is well documented in my social circles.

Here's the thing. I understand his popularity and appreciate his mountainous talent. He is a multi-instrumentalist and phenomenal songwriter whose brilliant lyrics draw from a broad range of social, philosophical, political and literary influences. He is an important part of American entertainment and was an integral force in the counter-culture of the sixties that led to positive change through the civil rights movement and beyond. How could I not admire this living legend?

He has received ten Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, an Oscar, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Nobel Prize for literature. He has a special citation from the Pulitzer Award and has been inducted into multiple Halls of Fame. He is a singular force in the world of art, literature and popular culture. 

Bob Dylan receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama (2016) 

I get all of that, but, I could never get "it" -- that special magic that Dylan's music seems to hold for his legions of die-hard fans. I've tried. My roommate Brendan from Teacher's College played Dylan records all the time in our townhouse. In fact, on a 14-hour road-trip from Thunder Bay to London, Ontario, he and I took turns picking cassettes from our respective collections. He tried his best to get me to see the light Dylan was shining -- It just failed to illuminate me and, as each cassette played, I sat transfixed to the road ahead...waiting disinterestedly for either it, or the journey, to end.

The 14-hour drive from Thunder Bay to London

Consequently, when the record became the next on my list, I played it with begrudging reticence. I thought to myself: "I'll give this the necessary two listens, get a quick post hammered out (probably about that Thunder Bay to London trip) and move on."

Several days later, I have played the record at least six times. I admit, it is fantastic and will certainly be part of my regular rotation for years to come. I was transfixed by the moody and atmospheric music on my first few listens. As I dug deeper, I immersed myself in Dylan's dark, rich poetry -- full of clever turns of phrase, literary connections and well-measured figures of speech. This record is an absolute delight and I suddenly find myself saying..."I finally get that elusive it".

Naturally, I wondered why it took me this long. Perhaps it was because Dylan wrote and recorded Time Out Of Mind when he was exactly my age? Maybe it was the introspective themes of love, loss and mortality (which haunt me daily) are at its core?

Who know?

Who cares really?

"I'd rather be a hypocrite than the same person forever". So, I willingly accept that my disdain for this artist was poorly placed.