"For any writer, but for the beginner in particular, it's wise to eliminate every possible distraction. If you continue to write, you will begin to filter out these distractions naturally, but at the start it's best to try and take care of them before you write. I work to loud music--hard-rock stuff like AC/DC, Guns N' Roses and Metallica have always been particular favorites--but for me the music is just another way of shutting the door. It surrounds me, keeps the mundane world out. When you write, you want to get rid of the world, do you not? Of course you do. When you're writing, you're creating your own worlds."
Yesterday I spent hours interviewing, training and testing for a teaching program. Clearly I needed music for the occasion.
In hard rock, teachers are always depicted as the bad guys, which is particularly flattering. We must be doing something right if guys like Alice Cooper are inspired to rage against us. Besides, who really wants to hear a song about how great it is to go to school?
The All-Time Top Five Songs About School:
Alice Cooper, "School's Out"
The former Vincent Furnier once observed that the happiest minutes of a kid's life are on Christmas morning and the last day of school. Thankfully, he chose to immortalize the latter with his best-ever lyrics ("We've got no class, and we've got no prinicpals...") That malevolent chorus, the universal subject and the unforgettable hook made this not only Alice's signature song, but GWAR's as well--their cover is by far the best thing they've ever recorded. Still my favorite performance might be this one from The Muppet Show. It always reminds me of Max in Where the Wild Things Are.
Nirvana, "School"
There's no greater example of Nirvana's ability to say a lot with a little than this song from Bleach. Over two chords and fifteen words, Kurt Cobain expressed the angst of nearly every high schooler on an album that was recorded for $606.17. A couple of years later, he was headlining at Reading.
Pearl Jam, "Jeremy"
School shootings are much more vivid in America's consciousness than they were when Pearl Jam dropped "Jeremy" on us, but nothing will ever stop this song from giving me chills. Eddie Vedder voiced the song's antagonist ("Clearly I remember picking on the boy") and came up with the scariest depiction of ostracized kids in modern music. Pearl Jam rarely make music videos, and reportedly fought the final cut of this one for being too sanitized. I don't know if I want to see what they really had in mind.
Ramones, "Rock n' Roll High School"
In the best two minutes of Roger Corman's Rock 'n' Roll High School, the Ramones breeze through an ode to ditching school in favor of more enjoyable pastimes. It looks downright innocent now--the Ramones sound as sunny as the Beach Boys, and all-American sweetheart P.J. Soles climaxes the scene by blowing up the school. That moment alone will probably keep this movie safe from remakes.
Van Halen, "Hot for Teacher"
Nothing has ever made school as much fun as this song and video. That awesome drum intro? The catchiest riff in entire the Eddie Van Halen oeuvre? Synchronized dancing in pink suits? The instantly singable chorus? Yes sir!
By the way, as long as we keep hearing about the bee girl and the Nevermind baby, can anybody tell us what really happened to Waldo?
Unsurprisingly, some of the music I enjoyed in high school hasn't aged well. The Dead Kennedys have lost most of their charm, Pink Floyd's grandiosity sounds self-important, and the Black Crowes are irrelevant once you've immersed in the Stones. However, in compiling a recent birthday mix CD, I rediscovered a high school hero who overcame all my attempts to resist him.
Judging by his terrible hit Skynyrd/Zevon mashup and the fact that he licensed a song to Mitt Romney's campaign (in fairness, Rock stated that any candidate could use his music, sans permission,) I should be ashamed for promoting this schmuck. But no artistic or personal disappointment can swallow the fact that Devil Without a Cause rocks all over.
I'm kind of amazed that Kid Rock was lumped in with the nu metal fad when Devil broke. The one-note angst of Korn, Staind etc. is nowhere to be heard in this vigorous, 14-song blend of classic rock and old school hip-hop. The country touches, MC delivery and deftness with samples all remind me of Beck, albeit with no hipster pretenses. Kid Rock isn't trying to get on any Pazz & Jop lists, and if these are the results, we should be grateful.
"Bawitdaba" and "Cowboy" are the party-starting hits, so ingratiating that it's almost impossible to foresee the the rest of Devil keeping up. But the Kid and his Detroit band, Twisted Brown Trucker, do more than deliver, offering some of the freshest post-grunge of the '90s ("I am the Bullgod," "Somebody's Gotta Feel This,") and surprisingly authentic tributes to hip-hop's pioneers ("Wasting Time," Welcome 2 the Party.") The riffs are infectious, the band oozes with character (chops less so, but that's part of the charm) and the album flows as seamlessly as one of Rick Rubin's '80s triumphs.
There's plenty of range here. The slow jam is far better than it has any right to be ("I Got One For Ya,") and "Only God Knows Why" is a lovely cowboy ballad, in spite of the auto-tune. The Kid is a cocky narrator, with Devil's themes revolving entirely around Robert James Ritchie, but he's self-aware enough to be a likable rogue. The title track is a rousing statement of purpose from a still-hungry artist, and the Kid is affecting, even poignant, when he closes with a Bill Withers interpolation on the autobiographical "Black Chick, White Guy."
Of course, Kid Rock hasn't been able to deflect the inevitable artistic decline. More recently, he's been releasing mediocre heartland rock with none of the bourbon-soaked swagger that made Devil Without a Cause definitive. Still, nothing will change the fact that he made some of the best rock of the late '90s. Kid Rock will probably never make an album this good again, and he doesn't have to.
Robert Christgau, who usually hates metal, might agree. "Not since great Motörhead has there been a hard rock album with so many laugh lines," Christgau wrote of Devil. "Belatedly fulfilling the rap-metal promise of Licensed To Ill, he makes the competition sound clownish, limp, and corny, respectively."
For almost as long as I can remember, my friend Ellen has been teaching me new things. Recently she informed me, over beers, that David Lowery of Cracker is a redhead. This led to all sorts of conversation.
How does one make a redheads mix CD? Do authentic gingers get preference over impostors like David Bowie? Does the redhead need to be the bandleader? What if it's Ginger Baker? How many of Josh Homme's bands can I include?
This is all arbitrary of course, but it was fun to think about. Here's the result:
Well Red
Gillian Welch, "My First Lover"
Florence and the Machine, "Kiss with a Fist"
Queens of the Stone Age, "No One Knows"
Heart, "Crazy on You"
Neko Case, "I Missed the Point"
Julie Christmas, "If You Go Away"
Cream, "I Feel Fine"
Megadeth, "Sweating Bullets"
Mastodon, "Just Got Paid"
David Bowie, "Sound and Vision"
Bonnie Raitt, "I Feel the Same"
Camper Van Beethoven, "Take the Skinheads Bowling"
Juliana Hatfield Three, "My Sister"
Tori Amos, "Crucify"
Portishead, "Machine Gun"
Phish, "Bouncing Around the Room"
Willie Nelson, "City of New Orleans"
Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins, "Rise Up with Fists!!!
The Sex Pistols, "EMI"
Guns N' Roses, "Paradise City"
One thing I like about theme mixes is that they prompt me to investigate new music. Gillian Welch was a gift from my buddy Ian, and a perfect tone-setter for a mix that ended up with a good dose of country. Ellen herself once gave me an excellent mix called Countryish, which is represented with the Bonnie Raitt and Neko Case tracks here.
Ellen is not a headbanger, although she's a good sport about my inability to compile 20 songs without a blast beat. Clearly I couldn't make a redhead mix that didn't include Dave Mustaine and Brent Hinds, so I tried to pick songs that she'd enjoy. I settled on Megadeth's theatrical "Sweating Bullets" and Mastodon's rollicking ZZ Top cover.
This mix actually ended up with more female singers (10) than almost any other that I've made. "Kiss with a Fist" mildly terrified me when I first heard it, but now I like it enough to stash it next to Queens of the Stone Age. I also found a new appreciation for Tori Amos (who usually gives me the creeps) and Portishead. On the other hand, Julie Christmas always takes my breath away, and the only problem with Jenny Lewis was picking just one project of hers to for Well Red.
With much respect to all these redheads, my all-time favorite was saved for last. Axl has probably appeared on nearly all of my mixes, and "Paradise City" has made it to at least half of them. I still can't start it unless I have the next seven minutes free.
What about David Lowery, who sparked the whole discourse? If you can find him here, I'll hook you up with a copy of Well Red.
"For any writer, but for the beginner in particular, it's wise to eliminate every possible distraction. If you continue to write, you will begin to filter out these distractions naturally, but at the start it's best to try and take care of them before you write. I work to loud music--hard-rock stuff like AC/DC, Guns N' Roses and Metallica have always been particular favorites--but for me the music is just another way of shutting the door. It surrounds me, keeps the mundane world out. When you write, you want to get rid of the world, do you not? Of course you do. When you're writing, you're creating your own worlds."
Posts
