The Keys, the Cat and a raspy Dylan
By MATT BERRY
STATIC and FEEDBACK staff writer
1. The Black Keys — “If You Ever Slip”: This song comes off the upcoming soundtrack for The Hottest State, and shows the further evolution of the band’s sound. It incorporates the classic rock and psychedelic groove of Magic Potion while including the grit and old-timey feel of The Big Come Up. The breakdown in the middle is already getting me excited to see it live, wondering how crazy Dan Auerbach will go with it. Then, Auerbach has a vocal duel with himself, with one voice seemingly in another room due to Carney’s production skills.
2. Cat Stevens — “Blackness of Night”: In all honesty, I’m not sure if I’ve ever listened to this song. It seems to follow much of the tried and true Cat Stevens formula: acoustic guitar with psychedelic lyrics. It does feature some layered tracks on top, with horns, organs, and strings adding to a song which can best be summarized as “Good 1970s Folk Music,” with emphasis on the 1970s part.
3. Bob Dylan — “All Along the Watchtower” (from 1995’s MTV Unplugged): Ah, 1990s Dylan. Those garbled, nasal lyrics. Seeing Dylan live in 2005, I was immediately aware that I was essentially paying to see reinterpretations of his songs by a great band with the lyrics spoken quickly and with a rasp in his throat. This song follows the original formula more than some of his other live interpretations, though he does add much of the rock influence that Jimi Hendrix contributed to the song’s far superior cover.
4. Pearl Jam — “Smile” (Boston 5-25-2006): “Stone Gossard on bass, Jeff Ament on guitar!” Quite possibly the happiest Pearl Jam song ever recorded. Ament is clearly loving being able to play on six strings, as he hammers the whammy bar during the chorus. Like Gossard and drummer Matt Cameron, Ament has written several of the band’s more complex and beloved songs, proving that he’s not just in there to follow the beat, but can add much to the band’s catalog.
5. Bob Dylan — “Not Dark Yet”: The best song Bob Dylan has written in the past 30 years. It paints the picture of an old man ruminating on the life he’s lived, the pain he’s suffered, and other philosophical mutterings (“Behind every beautiful thing there’s been some kind of pain” tears the heart out of you). Dylan’s narrator is pained and alone, and although he may appear as though he’s content with that at this point in his life, inside he is not. He claims “I was born here and I’ll die here against my will. I know it looks like I’m moving, but I’m standing still.” In the end, he’s resigned to his fate, but not before he has exposed his numbed nerves to us, perhaps as a warning to what the passing of time can do to a person’s soul. The bitterly honest lyrics are Dylan’s most heartfelt since perhaps “Tangled up in Blue”
6. Cat Stevens — “Trouble”: Honestly, what’s not to love about Cat Stevens? This song’s terrific lyrics and Stevens’ proficient vocal ability make it an instant classic to those who hear it. Having heard Eddie Vedder’s cover several times, it’s amazing to say that Stevens easily bests the Pearl Jam frontman in vocal ability and connection to the audience, at least for this one song.
7. Tom Waits — “Midnight Lullaby”: A piano, a sax, and his gravelly voice is all Tom Waits needs to send your head bobbing to the beat. Recorded in 1973 when Waits’ voice was only slightly raspy (as opposed to the barbed-wire-through-the-nasal-passage treatment he gives his new song), this song is simply relaxing, with Hush Little Baby supplying the outro on the piano, as if Waits as just lulled us to sleep.
8. The White Stripes — “Fell in Love with a Girl”: Their breakout hit, the song is one of the band’s more overrated songs, though it’s not bad. To me, it’s simply a shame it took three albums and a heck of a lot of good songs for the band to find acclaim. Heck, the first song on their first album (“Jimmy the Exploder”) would have had me hooked all the way back in 1999.
9. Dr. Dog — “The Girl”: I have fallen head over heels for this band since We All Belong was released. Never before have I heard a catchier album. "The Girl" aptly uses bass, organ, and fuzzed out guitar with the lead singers’ often off key screams to pull you kicking and screaming into the audio landscape that they’ve constructed with 24 inch tape.
10. Pearl Jam — “In Hiding”: One of the first Pearl Jam songs I learned to play on guitar, In Hiding is a complex ode to Eddie Vedder’s desire for privacy. Perhaps there is a part of Vedder that wants to stay behind locked doors for days on end to escape the gaze of those who always want a piece of him. The end of the song, however, seems to indicate that in his time in hiding, the world changed so much that he didn’t need to worry about anything anymore. Maybe the song describes the aftermath of Pearl Jam’s self-imposed exile from the mainstream in the mid-1990s, which saw them release experimental albums, sue Ticketmaster, change drummers, and abandon much of the media frenzy that surrounded them in the early part of the decade. Yet, as they emerged with 1998’s Yield, they still had their loyal fans and each other to fall back on.
August 19, 2007