The 500 - #227 - Doolittle - Pixies

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 Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #227
Album Title: Doolittle
Artist: Pixies
Genre: Alternative Rock
Recorded: Downtown Recorders, Boston, MA, U.S.A.

Released: April, 1989
My age at release: 23
How familiar was I with it before this week: Two songs

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #141, moving up 86 places since the 2012 list.
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Here Comes My Man

Doolittle is the second studio record from Boston-based Alt-Rockers the Pixies. I wrote about their debut record, Surfer Rosa, in May, 2022. When I penned that post, I mentioned, erroneously it turned out, that I had only been familiar with one song from the group. It was the track Where Is My Mind? which is featured significantly in the climactic scene of the film Fight Club. There are actually two tracks from Doolittle that I had heard prior to this week – Here Comes My Man and Monkey Gone To Heaven. They are in regular rotation on my home's internet streaming station of choice, Radio Paradise.

Radio Paradise is a listener-supported, commercial-free streaming music service that features four channels (Main, Rock, Mellow & Global). Although there is no mandated charge, my wife and I support it with a modest $5 monthly subscription. The service is trying to expand and I recommend you give it a try. A new channel was recently launched - Radio 2050 - which combines music with conversations about important issues.

I was texting with a friend this week about Doolittle. He goes by the pseudonym Various Artists on social media accounts and has guest blogged for me twice. He is a huge fan of Pixies and shared his own blog entry about seeing them at the Ottawa Civic Centre in April, 2011. He began his post with a story about the moment he fell in love with the Doolittle record after being lukewarm about it for several months. 

That got me thinking about albums that didn't wow me at first, but eventually became favourites -- often dominating my stereo system, headphones and car radio for months at a time. 

Three come to mind:

• Acadie by French-Canadian musician and legendary producer Daniel Lanois.
• Trick Of The Tail from British progressive-rock band Genesis, released in 1976 following the departure of founding member and singer and theatrical front-man Peter Gabriel.
• Tommy the two-disc rock opera from The Who, #96 on The 500.

In all three cases, the records came with positive reviews and were recommended by friends whose opinions I valued. My expectations were high when I gave each one its first spin on my turntable. I was nonplussed. I didn't dislike the music, but I wasn't hooked. I was just ... "meh".

However, I stuck with each one and my perseverance was rewarded. Suddenly, each one clicked. At first, it was a single track -- an earworm that was "cloggin' my noggin". Then, song by song, the records won me over and spent hours on my audio devices.

A Technics Linear Tracking Turntable, similar to the one I owned.

I think, in part, this was due to living in a generation before digital, on-demand music. In order to hear most records, I had to purchase a physical copy. This financial commitment inspirited an obligation to justify the purchase. 

Music writer and broadcaster Alan Cross said much the same last week in an appearance at the Forked River Brewery and Pub in London, Ont. In a two-hour Q&A session, Cross posited that music today, typically released via on-demand streaming, is disadvantaged. A song, or a record, has to capture the attention of today's listener quickly or risk being clicked away into audio oblivion.

Cross, speaking at Forked Brewery Pub, Saturday, February 3, 2024

Cross, who has hosted the radio program (and now podcast) The Ongoing History Of New Music for 30 years, supported his views on audio technologies through examples. He talked about his transition from disdain to love of the mellow folk-duet Battle Of Evermore from Led Zeppelin's fourth studio release (often called Zeppelin IV- #69 on The 500).

Album cover for IV from Led Zeppelin

Zeppelin's song, a mandolin-driven track featuring lyrics inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord Of The Ring fantasy series, was nestled in between the much heavier Black Dog and Rock And Roll, and the band's best known epic, Stairway To Heaven. 

Cross admitted he begrudgingly listened to The Battle Of Evermore because he was simply too lazy to get off his bed and move the needle. However, over time, the repeated listens made him a fan and he now considers it to be one of his favourite tracks from the British rockers.

That, he suggested, is unlikely to happen today, when a quick tap on a smart phone screen would dismiss the song forever. Can you imagine a young music listener discovering U2’s masterpiece album The Joshua Tree (#27 on The 500) today? The opening track, Where The Streets Have No Name, begins with an instrumental section that fades in with a slowly building series of atmospheric synthesizer notes. The guitar comes in after 40 seconds and the bass and drums don’t appear for another 30 seconds. It is the type of song that takes its time to build to a magnificent crescendo; however, it is also the type of song that could quickly bore a new listener... especially one with a short attention span and a device that allows for a song to be instantly relegated to digital purgatory with the flick of a finger.

Album cover for The Joshua Tree by U2.

I agree with Cross' assessment and consider myself fortunate to have grown up in the heyday of vinyl records. I am also delighted to have a Spotify account and access to 100 million songs on demand. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to hear Doolittle to prepare for this post. I listened to it in its entirety (never skipping a track) and much like Tommy, Acadie or, in Cross' case, Battle Of Evermore, it won me over.

I realize that I meandered a bit from the topic of Doolittle on this post. We sometimes call this "birdwalking" in the teaching profession. It happens when you plan to teach a specific lesson but let questions from the students lead you to a meandering series of stories and anecdotes -- like the seemingly aimless sandpiper foraging on a beach.

I appreciate you taking that stroll with me today. Better information on the album can be found on the accompanying episode of The 500 Podcast. Guitarist Joey Santiago from Pixies is the surprise guest this week and, despite being flanked by comedians Josh Adam Meyers and Patton Oswalt, he provides funny and engaging commentary on his band and the making of Doolittle.

The 500 - #312 - Nothing's Shocking - Jane's Addiction

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 Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 312

Album Title: Nothing's Shocking

Artist: Jane's Addiction

Genre: Alternative Rock, Alternative Metal

Recorded: Eldorado Studios - Los Angeles, California

Released: August, 1988

My age at release: 23

How familiar was I with it before this week: Very

Is it on the 2020 list? No

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Mountain Song

Two years ago, I wrote a post about the album Pink Flag -- the debut release by the band Wire. Artists and music critics who love it consider it to be part of the post-punk movement (which arrived in the early 80s). Therein lies the conundrum:

How could an album released at the outset of British punk in the seventies be influenced by the genre it was helping to create?

After all, Pink Flag was released in 1977, just as punk was gaining a foothold. Wire arrived on the British music scene along with the three most important punk bands of the era, The Damned, The Clash and Sex Pistols.

Pink Flag - debut record by Wire (1977)

Nothing's Shocking, the debut studio record from Los Angeles alternative-rock band Jane's Addiction is similarly perplexing. It was released in 1988, but sounds much more like the alternative rock that would become popular in the early 90s.

The late 80s were a time when the charts were dominated by hair metal -- a sub-genre of heavy metal that was influenced by the glam rock of the 70s. Popular bands included Bon Jovi, Poison, Motley Crue, Twisted Sister and Def Leppard.

The members of these groups were dressed in spandex, denim and leather, with long and teased coiffed hair. The music featured catchy riffs, "gang-vocal" harmonies, virtuoso-level guitar solos with a big drum sound. Most hair metal songs were hard-pounding anthems that invited audience participation, but every album contained at least one soft, heartfelt ballad. These songs were often the "hits" that, alongside each group's pretty-boy appearance, attracted a loyal female following.

I was more of a Progressive Rock fan in the late 80s. My favourite bands were Rush, Marillion, Queensryche, Genesis, Yes and Peter Gabriel. However, I certainly liked some hair rock - Def Leppard in particular - and I had adopted some of the fashion choices (see below).

With my future wife, Summer 1988 Algonquin Park

Little did we (or the hair metal bands we loved) know that things were about to change. In 1991, Grunge hit the mainstream. It was a sudden revolutionary groundswell in the landscape of music that, unless you experienced it, is hard to quantify.

Almost overnight, hair-metal was dead or at least comical and tragically dated. In November, 1991, I watched the band Skid Row perform on Saturday Night Live. I felt connected to popular music -- with my finger clearly on the pulse. This was my generation of sound on television's biggest stage.

Just a few weeks later, Nirvana appeared and everything shifted. Suddenly, I felt like a dinosaur, a member of a bygone generation. There was a new sound taking over -- and I didn't understand it...yet.

However, according to Vice writer Jason Heller, "if grunge was the nail in the coffin of 80s hair metal, then alternative metal built that coffin". At the forefront of that coffin-building movement was Jane's Addiction. Formed in 1985, they are Perry Farrell (vocals), Dave Navarro (guitars), Steven Perkins (drums) and Chris Chaney (bass).

Jane's Addiction promotional photo - 1987
(l-r) Navarro, Chaney, Perkins, Farrell

I can't remember who first played Jane's Addiction for me. At the time, I was working at a restaurant called Mother Tucker's Food Experience so I am pretty sure it was one of the cooks. I do remember that it was the song Jane Says from Nothing's Shocking.

I was fascinated by the inclusion of steel drums in the song and, and wondered about the band's name. Who was Jane?

Years later I learned that Farrell picked the name to honour his roommate and muse, Jane Bainter, who had originally pitched the name "Jane's Heroin Experience" -- no relation to my former place of work.

Bainter (1988)

Then, some time later, I saw a broadcast of a blistering performance of the band’s Mountain Song from the MTV studios. It reminded me of Led Zeppelin, but there was a grittier, androgynous and slightly dangerous quality about it. Written by Farrell before the group's formation, it chronicled the challenges of a heroin addict who climbs a mountain of euphoria when using, only to come crashing down to a painful reality.

Farrell (right) performing with Navaro and Jane's Addiction

Farrell, who lost his mother to suicide at age three, struggled with heroin addiction through the late 80s and early 90s. Despite this monkey on his back, he was a force in the music industry. Not only did he front Jane's Addiction and the side project, Porno For Pyros, he also conceived and created the Lollapalooza Music Festival in 1991.

Poster for Lollapalooza - Toronto (1991)

Unlike other music festivals that took place over several days in a single venue, Lollapalooza toured across the United States and Canada through the summer of 1991. Taking its name from a 19th Century expression meaning "an extraordinary and unusual thing, person or event", the festival featured artists from a number of musical genres (rock, folk, hip-hop, electronica) and non-musical performance artists, including the Jim Rose Circus Side Show – the  modern-day version of a carnival side-show, complete with strongmen, contortionists and the fully-tattooed "Lizardman". There was even Zamora - The Torture King who ate fire, swallowed swords and punctured himself with electrified skewers.

Zamora - adding weights to a sword swallowing stunt

The festival was a massive success and expanded to become a series of international tours, each featuring the biggest acts of the day. Now, the event is now held annually in Chicago's Grant Park. It is a four-day affair held in late July. This year's iteration features 150 bands on nine stages, including headliners Metallica, Dua Lipa, J. Cole and Green Day.

The event has made Farrell an incredibly rich man, but he still performs. He will be fronting his band Porno For Pyros on the final night of the 2022 Lollapalooza on July 31.

Thirty-seven years after forming, Jane's Addiction announced a multi-city tour supporting The Smashing Pumpkins. They will hit my region in Southwestern Ontario in late October. 

The band that was once ahead of its time is now a nostalgia act, playing songs from their four-album catalogue -- mainly hits from their first two records -- for fifty-somethings like me. However, the ever-creative Farrell has hinted that recording new material may be in their future. Who knows -- maybe there are more coffins to build.