Continuing A-Z, I'm currently on album #2 of the two Alice in Chains records I have on my iTunes collection. More on that in just a moment.
What has gone on since I lasted visited you with thoughts on Al Green? Well, more Al Green, as soothing and positive as ever. By the way, songs really don't sound that different when stuck between other songs. I shouldn't make that bold of a blanket statement, actually. In this case, they didn't. Some songs sound perfect within their original context, but though still good, kind of silly when placed haphazardly within a "Greatest Hits" setting. Take the song "Like A Rolling Stone" for example. Perfect opener to Dylan's epic, "Highway 61 Revisited". Within the "Greatest Hits" format, oh sure it sounds good, but it LIVES on side one of "Highway 61 Revisited". It belongs there. It speaks most powerfully from that original post. Yet I digress. The Al Green listening portion was rather enjoyable.
Albert Hammond, Jr. got on my nerves a little bit. Especially with the ridiculous seven minute instrumental, "Spooky Couch". I do like a few of his songs. "Cartoon Music for Superheroes" is a good song. His stuff is mostly forgettable to me, though.
Why don't I have more Alejandro Escovedo? I saw him live a couple years ago and it was amazing. Yet for some reason, I only have three of his songs in my collection. Most certainly, one of the best three song sequences I've listened to so far during this project.
Two albums worth of Ali Farka Toure, the king of the desert blues singers, one with the amazing Ry Cooder, were definitely interesting, and at times incredible. Yet I think I need to be in a certain mindset to listen to "World Music". Don't get me wrong, I appreciate his music, but two albums in a row of not understanding a single world is rough.
Speaking of rough, that brings me to Alice in Chains. I was wondering how I'd react to listening to this band again. Back in the mid '90s, "Dirt" was in constant rotation on my cheap little boombox CD player that I had for years. However, at the time, I was an angsty teenager, who soaked up all the screams, distorted guitars, adn anger that grunge had to offer. As a man in his early 30s, I'm slightly removed from all of that. I could venture a guess that the last time I listened to "Dirt" from start to finish was probably somewhere around '96 or '97.
What I really worried about was it being painful to get through, and thereby offending my younger self who probably swore that this was the be all end all of music and only old, out-of-touch losers wouldn't get it. Was I now one of those old out-of-touch losers? Partly yes, partly no.
I still appreciated it on a certain level. The songs brought back a lot of memories, but certainly didn't have the same raw, emotional power that they did when I first heard them. I mostly felt sad listening to Layne Staley's dark lyrics, knowing how it would all end up for him. It came as no surprise to anyone that he died a lonely drug addict's death early in 2002. The only surprise, maybe, is that he made it that long.
I will say this about Alice in Chains, though. They were the perfect representative for the heavier elements of grunge. Staley's jagged, rough and pained voice, were the perfect foil to Jerry Cantrell's metal sensibilities. They never had the pop thing going that Nirvana or Pearl Jam had, and they always seemed a tad heavier and darker than Soundgarden. Yet at times, they displayed elements of all three.
Honestly, I think of all the bands I mentioned, Alice in Chains music seems the most dated. I used to love the song "Rooster", but now kind of feel like, "What the hell's he talking about?" Man, I am getting old! I don't listen to music this heavy anymore, so getting through this, though fun in a nostalgia sort of way, has been a little difficult. This is not to say I haven't enjoyed hearing some of it again, it's just that for better or worse, we all seem to grow out of certain stages. I can officially say, right here in April of 2010, my grunge phase is over. Many apologies (or should I say All Apologies) to the sixteen year old version of myself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs6RefV1td4
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3 comments:
Dude! I occasionally have the regression to my pre-teen/teen self where I indulge in AIC, PJ, or Nirvana. I am usually surprised at some newfound appreciation for the music, because in my older age, I understand music more and I hear things that my novice ear missed when i was younger.
Also- The Rooster is about Vietnam, I believe. I remember hearing that back when it was in heavy rotation on MTV. A big fatty metaphor.
Oh, and i still love some grunge. I can't say i love all of it, but there is a "greatest hits" sort of list in my mind of some tracks that will never get old for me. None of this, by the way, includes those rip-off bands from the late nineties up until today that have cheezed-out the idea of grunge... ya know.... Creed, Staind, Nickelhack... eeecccshshshhh...
Another note on grunge... looking back, I notice themes/words that were very popular and now kind of laughable when seen in hindsight. These words are in so many grunge songs:
dog
saving / being saved
down
I've just been thinking about Alice in Chains again, and yeah... they've written some of my fave hard grunge songs... Would, Man in the Box, Them Bones... It's really all about Facelift and Dirt.
Another note on grunge... looking back, I notice themes/words that were very popular and now kind of laughable when seen in hindsight. These words are in so many grunge songs:
dog
saving / being saved
down
I've just been thinking about Alice in Chains again, and yeah... they've written some of my fave hard grunge songs... Would, Man in the Box, Them Bones... It's really all about Facelift and Dirt.
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