Jibble's WeBlog
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes. - Walt Whitman
I learned of Queens of the Stone Age when a lot of people did, in 2002-2003 with singles from their album Songs for the Deaf. I was a casual fan then, liking their singles and enjoying them when they came on the radio. I, oddly, became a bigger fan of them after the 2009 release of Them Crooked Vultures 1st and only album. (QotSA frontman Josh Homme is also in Vultures, along with Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones of Led Zepplin. They have a distinctly QotSA feel to them). I then purchased the 2013 QotSA album ...Like Clockwork and loved it. So i was excited to buy their newest album Villains.
I think 4 years between albums is the perfect amount of time for this band. They don't radically alter their sound between albums, nothing on Villains would sound out of place on Clockwork. They just took their time and crafted a quality QotSA album, in Villains. The Way you Used to Do was the only single (so far) and was one of my "Songs of the Summer '17". My favorite song on the album is probably the 1st track Feet Don't Fail Me Now. It's a banger. I have a particular soft spot for good Rock and Roll because it's something I can share with my Dad (who listened to AC/DC, The Moody Blues and The Doors, among others, growing up). It's always fun to give my dad an album and say "Check this out". I liked the album and it made me excited to go to their show from Red Rocks on October 10th (with Avs social media alumnus @RyanBoulding).
0 Comments
I use the oldest words in the English language. People think I’m an ignorant bastard who doesn’t know the ten-dollar words. I know the ten-dollar words. There are older and better words which if you arrange then in the proper combination you make it stick. Ernest Hemingway said those words in response to criticism from people, such as William Faulkner, who criticized his vocabulary in his stories. And it was true: Ernest Hemingway didn't need big words to create big emotions. Tom Petty's music was brilliant because it was Hemingway-esque. Take, for example, the song Wildflowers. It's upbeat & whimsical and it opens with the line: You belong among the wildflowers In a few basic cords and one simply poetic line Petty's able to convey something that can be extraordinarily hard to tell say: You deserve, just because you're human. Over the next 2+ minutes he maximizes this feeling with basic chords set against the simple but powerful lines: You belong among the wildflowers "Wildflowers" is the biggest word in the song, but the song crescendos to the end, building up a feeling of self-worth and self-empowerment worth more than a million self-help gurus and self help books. If you happen to be happy (as I am) it reaffirms that it's ok to be happy. You, me, I should be happy, because no one else compares to me. Simple chords, simple words; arranged in the proper order. They stick. Hemingway would be proud. Take the very next song on the Wildflowers album, You Don't Know How it Feels. The beat is the most basic beat in rock: bum-bum-cha _ bum-bum-cha. My son has taken 3 music lessons, and when he heard this song he said "Dad, this is the beat I'm learning". The oldest beat in Rock. And the song is about how everyone has a different experience. But it's all about sharing the journey too. But let me get to the point, let's roll another joint One basic beat and one chorus of 4 lines create thoughts that both honor everyone as an individual, and ties us all together on this journey of life. Like the aforementioned Hemingway, Mark Twain or the Poet Laureate Billy Collins, Tom Petty is firmly in the American tradition of folksy storyteller using simple tools to create emotions and tales that are timeless and wise. It's American comfort food; so timeless and so quintessentially Americana. Unlike Hemingway, he told stories about women too. She's a good girl, loves her mama Five lines and a fully developed American woman. His music covered everyone in the American experience; young and old, women and men, city and rural, happy and sad, black and white. He used his easy southern drawl and put it into every American music style; Blues, Country, Southern Rock, Folk, New Age and good old Rock and Roll to tell stories about Americans of all stripes. Stories of their hopes and dreams and frustrations and failures and heartaches; from The Last DJ to the American Girl - raised on promises. He used better and older chords, better and older rhythms, and better and older words and he arranged them properly.
And his songs stick. Here's some Tom Petty Songs I love:
Last Dance with Mary Jane Wildflowers The Waiting is the Hardest Part Crawling Back to You Time to Move on Swingin Into the Great Wide Open Free Fallin Learning to Fly Running Down A Dream Refugee No Reason to Cry Dreams of Flying Handle with Care The Last DJ You Don't Know how it Feels Christmas All Over Again There's a whole lot more too |
Jibbles - Denver-ish, COI used to write about the Avalanche. Now about whatever. All opinions are ill-informed Archives
November 2020
Categories |