Rory Gallagher and the album ‘Against the Grain’

If I were to consider a short list of constantly touring road warriors of the blues, Rory Gallagher of Ballyshannon, Donegal, Ireland would find himself near the top that list. Gallagher‘s fifth studio album, namely Against the Grain, played on this fact with the noticeably worn finish on his Fender Stratocaster guitar. That Gallagher played against the grain of more commercially successful music by focusing on blues-rock, British blues and regional blues, which continued with this album. The Against the Grain album was released in October, 1975.

(The cover for the Rory Gallagher album Against the Grain, released on October 1st, 1975, was Gallagher‘s fifth studio album).

Let Me In opens Against the Grain with a hard driving chord progression that blends the four primary instruments of the album, namely guitar, bass guitar, keyboard and drums, with a robust musicality. The core message for this song was to address a love interest in the pursuit of physical intimacy.

Cross Me Off Your List rolls the instruments into the performance, opening first with drums as performed by Rod de’Ath. Lyrically, the song captures a sense of being romantically at odds with his woman. Gallagher reasons with his woman to hang onto the relationship while she pushes in the opposite direction. While the tension is clear, the song resolves nothing but having us feeling confused.

Ain’t Too Good rolls into the full slate of instrumentation with the keyboard play of Lou Martin. The blues sensibility of this song takes us further than Cross Me Off Your List, with guitar player and singer Rory Gallagher almost giving in to what feels like shabby romantic treatment for the first seventy percent of the song’s lyrics. The seeking of redemption then comes with a romantic request to reconsider; we as listeners do not learn how that request works out.

(Rory Gallagher, pictured here, played guitar and sang on Against the Grain).

Souped-Up Ford opens with Rory Gallagher shredding the opening riffs the match the confident mood the song presents. The song is completely an attitude play for the terrain to be conquered, whether considered literally or figuratively as the irresistible romantic.

Bought And Sold tempers that high flying confidence of Souped-Up Ford with the temperature and tempo of experience. Lyrically and musically, we feel not saddled with sadness nor foot to floor and ready to score; the song offers the pragmatic awareness of that in-between space of moving ahead with a fresh approach, knowing to cash in on our losses and to get after the goal with the next effort.

I Take What I Want rolls in instrumentally, beginning with what I take to be the bass guitar of Gerry McAvoy. I hear a song speaking with an over-the-top sense of bravado in projecting a certainty of romantic success in seeking success with a new romantic partner. Inviting the prospective partner to pack a bag based on what his taking possession of how the love interest will or should feel is aggressively forward yet confident.

(Gerry McAvoy of Belfast, Northern Ireland played bass guitar on Against the Grain).

I feel an answer to I Take What I Want with in Lost at Sea. Gallagher‘s singing feels as melodious as any he offered on the album, the impression of a more acoustic song-playing compared to the electronic guitar of what came feeling musically deliberate. The sense of an emotional rescue to becoming romantically lost due to the forward approach of the previous song attests to a new romantic lesson. The keyboard and electric guitar heaviness to the song’s conclusion offers an outstanding sense of completeness to Lost at Sea. The song I Take What I Want was written by David Porter of Memphis, Tennessee, Mabon Lewis ‘Teenie’ Hodges of Germantown, Tennessee and Isaac Hayes of Covington, Tennessee.

All Around Man offers a series of metaphorical statements with one clear point in mind. Gallagher aims for intimacy through a series of one-night stands. With this song, Gallagher cares not for the relationship damage left behind as he states his intention to leave at the first sense of the cheated upon party catching on to the dealings. The full-throated singing, guitar-tuning and other instrumentation speak to the desperation of the underlying feelings in play. Bo Carter of Bolton, Mississippi joined Rory Gallagher in writing this song.

Out on the Western Plains continues playing in a higher key, invoking an interesting sound that could have been accomplished with a similar outcome with a banjo rather than a guitar. The lyrics echo the deliberateness of this approach, making for a compelling statement about the danger encountered with the approach to romance suggested by All Around Man. That the album Against the Grain has so successfully affected this sense of continuity impresses me immensely. Huddie Willian Ledbetter of Mooringsport, Louisiana reportedly wrote this song, with Rory Gallagher arranging it.

(Lou Martin of Belfast, Northern Ireland, played the keyboard on Against the Grain).

At the Bottom continues from Out on the Western Plains with a further emotional advance from feeling a sense of attack for his romantic approach to knowing that his approach has led to loneliness. The mood musically and lyrically reflects an acceptance that metaphorically gives us an emotional and intellectual understanding of the loss. This song, as clearly indicated by the title, defines the recognition of loss and recognition.

The instrumental only Cluney Blues adds a moment to reflect on the recognition of loss that I feel from At the Bottom. Simply and with confident sense both of need and style, Cluney Blues lets those feelings sit, register, and then prepare us for the final song of the album.

My Baby, Sure completes the album with the uplifting and candid acceptance of landing on accepting his romantic confusion. A rich girl’s daughter is out to have the occasional good time with Rory Gallagher, yet there’s no chance that intimacy or love will ever be possible in this context. The feeling is a wacky acceptance of these truths mixed with a need to comically tell himself, as the song’s singer, to remember to respect himself and move on.

(Rod de’Ath, of Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire, Wales, United Kingdom, played the drums and percussion on Against the Grain).

Matt – Saturday, October 1, 2022

Nirvana and the album ‘MTV Unplugged in New York’

It will have been twenty-seven years in November when Nirvana performed with a combination of three other musicians to create the 14-song live album that became MTV Unplugged in New York. The quartet of Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl and Pat Smear, at points, were augmented with Cris Kirkwood and Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets and cellist Lori Goldston through the last, most famous performance of the band in New York City. Each song included below leads to the underlying track from MTV Unplugged in New York.

(The album cover for Nirvana‘s live album MTV Unplugged in New York. The album, while recorded in 1993, was not released in 1994).

MTV Unplugged in New York opens with About a Girl from Nirvana‘s debut album, Bleach. The myth underpinning the song is that it was written for a girlfriend of Kurt Cobain‘s, though that girlfriend reportedly learned of it by reading the 1993 Michael Azerrad biography Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana.

The original version of Come as You Are landed on the Nevermind album. The alternating apparently contradictory seems to be a critique for how the world tells the people of the world, especially those coming of age, to act. The lyric about having no gun, claimed by Cobain to reassure people that his critique was of the larger society rather than individuals in it, took on a meaning not intended in the original song after Cobain had committed suicide with a shotgun.

(Included in the picture of Nirvana of Seattle, from left are Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Kurt Cobain and Pat Smear).

Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam was written by Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee of the Scottish indie band The Vaselines. Kurt Novoselic plays accordion on what in retrospect is a clear sign of spiritual struggle that Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain was experiencing.

Written and originally performed by David Bowie, The Man Who Sold the World gets into the notion of having sold out a sense of responsibility for the moral weight of the world. Whether this stands in for something specific weighing on the band or members of Nirvana isn’t fully clear to me, though the Bowie album from which the song is drawn was one that posterity recognizes resonated with Cobain.

The song Pennyroyal Tea is the first live song on the MTV Unplugged in New York album from the album In Utero. The lyrics referencing Canadian Leonard Cohen can be viewed through the prism of Cobain experiencing a spiritual crisis. My personal take is that it is interesting Cobain seemingly Grohl seemingly disagree on how to play the song before commencing Pennyroyal Tea. Personal pain and loathing come through strongly in this song.

(Lori Goldston played cello for eight songs that appeared on the album MTV Unplugged in New York, including the four songs beginning with Dumb).

Dumb becomes the second song to repeat from an another album, with In Utero getting the second nod. The song, like About a Girl, is described by journalist Gillian G. Gaar as sounding Beatlesque, which is to say inspired by Cobain‘s reported appreciation for The Beatles. Listen for the pop sensibility in About a Girl and Dumb, to see if you catch something different than songs from the album Nevermind.

The song Polly returns Nirvana‘s live session on MTV Unplugged in New York to the album Nevermind. The song is reportedly a song of a man having kidnapped a 14-year-old girl as she was leaving a rock concert. The rather gruesome and graphic torture that follows, and is depicted in the song, is horrific.

On a Plain brings a song thematically of alienation that returns Nirvana‘s live album to the studio album Nevermind. While string together disparate poetry to develop the theme, the clear drug reference Cobain as narrator makes to being so high that he’s on a plain begins the song, and frames the ride clearly with the close of the song in concert.

Something in the Way returns yet again to the studio album Nevermind while changing the emotional level of the show. The song previews the final song thematically where the concert ends, though at this point in the show the sequencing signals a continued numbness that started, at least artificially with the use of drugs with On a Plain, in this song.

(From left to right are Shandon Sahm, Curt Kirkwood, and Cris Kirkwood of Meat Puppets. Curt Kirkwood and Cris Kirkwood performed with Nirvana for three songs that appeared on the album MTV Unplugged in New York prior to Sahm joining Meat Puppets).

Three songs performed with members of Meat Puppets begins with the song Plateau. Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets wrote this and each of the three songs starting here. The song feels like a clear emotional critique of messages offered by spiritual and secular authorities claiming to offer support yet who peddle in cliché that isn’t substantial or legitimately helpful.

Oh, Me starts from an emotional place where Plateau ends, which is to say seeking spiritual and secular substance in the song being sung. The result feels like the singer question motivations for the song. In not seeing the motivation, there is what I call a temporary feeling of being well with where the singer lands.

Lake of Fire, the final Meat Puppets song of the album, seems to offer a repudiation of the notion of being well. Lake of Fire is a clear spiritual repudiation of the behavior of bad folks. The spiritual competition of angels and demons for the souls of these folks is the spectator sport that gives the who notion a lyrical cache.

All Apologies represents the last Nirvana original song on the MTV Unplugged in New York album. All Apologies is the third song drawn from In Utero for Nirvana‘s live album. The notion that the song apologizes for is the spiritual revelation shared that life ends with death, and that all we get to experience is what we take time to understand. In other words, “all in all” reflects the consideration of life and death, with the meaning we take from it being “all we are.”

Huddie Ledbetter, or Lead Belly, arranged the traditional expression of the final song of Nirvana‘s MTV Unplugged in New York album. Where Did You Sleep Last Night emotionally leaves Cobain and the band out in the cold, separated from the lost relationship with one’s beloved after she had been found cheating. Whether drinking had been involved or not is unclear, yet the man is left literally out in the cold after a brutal automobile accident. The feeling, along with the emotion of the ending, is what Nirvana and the band has left us with MTV Unplugged in New York.

This album is one of my favorites, regardless of the genre. My hope is that you found something meaningful in here to appreciate.

Matt – Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Tom Petty and the album ‘Wildflowers’

Tom Petty was a guitarist springing onto the new wave rock scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Born in Gainesville, Florida and coming to prominence with the band Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, this album was written in a style intended and allowing for listening from beginning to end. There’s hits here, nonetheless. Join me for a ride and a listen to the 1994 album Wildflowers, which was billed as a solo album for Petty without the backing of the Heartbreakers.

(The album cover for Wildflowers by Tom Petty).

The song Wildflowers leads this 15-song album with a simple and folksy, almost country sound to it. In an interview for Performing Songwriter from 2014, Petty said of the writing process that he “just took a deep breath and it came out. The whole song. Stream of consciousness: words, music, chords. Finished it.” Playing the song in one take speaks wonders to the simplicity and charm of it.

You Don’t Know How It Feels follows the song Wildflowers on the album Wildflowers as a song clearly about getting into drugs. In fact, the song was a bit controversial, but less so than the B-side from the single for You Don’t Know How It Feels. The song Girl on LSD was intended for the album, though never landed there.

(Tom Petty in the video You Don’t Know How It Feels, which is a part of the Wildflowers album).

Time To Move On provides a none too subtle message of moving past the drugs and getting on with adulthood. The song gives a hat-in-hand message of seeking forgiveness and facing the uncertainties ahead.

The second single released from Wildflowers was You Wreck Me, aiming for a more pronounced rock beat with a positive feeling. Offering the sentiment of getting euphemistically wrecked (rather than rocked) by a love interest, perhaps asking his girl to “just play dumb to whatever you know” can be forgiven with the thought of Tom being “the boy in corduroy pants; you’ll be the girl at the high school dance.” That’s a shy high school kid’s dream thought if I ever heard one.

It’s Good To Be King, a song described by Matthew Greenwald as dealing “with the phenomenon of rock & roll stardom,” calls out the Mel Brooks film History of the World, Part I (1981). Greenwald goes on to add that Petty said “This [rock & roll] life is great, …yet it’s not the only thing in my reality. An elegant, folk-rock-ish melody frames the song.”

(A single of It’s Good To Be King on vinyl from the Wildflowers album by Tom Petty).

The song Only A Broken Heart gets a bit more downtrodden and angsty, yet filled with determination for landing romance again once able to overcome the pain and fear of separating from the initial love.

Honey Bee revs up the music a sense of driving desire that is more rock & roll than country. The feeling of erotic feelings echoes You Wreck Me with less of a pop feeling and more of a cheating feel here.

(An image of Tom Petty from a Rolling Stone magazine article on Wildflowers from November 2019).

Don’t Fade On Me offers another feeling of sadness akin to that offered as consolation with Only A Broken Heart. In Don’t Fade on Me, the melody drives feeling like a blues song. The lyrics drive less toward strict consolation than toward probing towards clarity by asking questions geared at landing on meaning.

Hard On Me rebukes the questions asked in Don’t Fade On Me, at least in my interpretation. Petty almost steps back and points a finger of blame.

A country pop feeling of friskiness hits the listener with the song Cabin Down Below. The lyrics and rockabilly feel of this song are a straight up ask for time away with his lady and the narrator.

(A compact disc single of Cabin Down Below from the Wildflowers album by Tom Petty).

To Find A Friend plays as a straight up middle aged man that left his wife, committed adultery, and suffered from bad decisions. Reacting in kind, the wife lost a similar sense of lost self-respect and alienation among friends.

In a song that feels like a reaction to To Find A Friend, A Higher Place feels like a metaphorical call for redemption after seeing the reality of adultery. The song has the feel of a highway song of two folks who found a soul needing that next step, and looking to rationalize this as a call to love the one your with out of the clear and present need among both parties.

House In The Woods is another driving blues song of desire expressing intense love and desire from man to woman. The song Where Did you Sleep Last Night by Huddie William Ledbetter (Leadbelly) comes to mind.

Crawling Back To You might simply be the truest, most painful beautiful song on Wildflowers. Two people at cross purposes with each other find something they need to see in themselves through the eyes of another. The truth comes with these lines that resonate like little else:

“I’m so tired of being tired / Sure as night will follow day / Most things I worry about / Never happen anyway.”

Closing the album is the call to action, bringing things to a head. Wake Up Time is an idealist’s call to admit that walking this life alone is no way to live a life. The cost of feelings is a cold truth, and the risk of love takes the bravery of getting hurt. Admit it; show your vulnerability; with love you will shine.

I completely love the album Wildflowers. Thanks for coming along on this ride and sticking it through with me until the end.

Matt – Wednesday, January 29, 2020