The Zimmermann Note

The first time that I bought a CD of any kind, I had bought the boxed set “Clash on Broadway”, a compilation of their works. I bought it for many reasons but most importantly the thought at the time that The Clash, in my eyes were deemed an band with an important message. It was the winter of ’91, about the time that I had heard Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ for the first time. I was just a freshman in college, seeing the world in a different light, with suburbia at a safe distance. Good music, for me, always seemed to have a message, whether it was rock, punk or folk. In their short career, the Clash became the blue collar band concerned with the well-being of everyday citizens rather than the elite.

‘London Calling from a faraway town, now war is declared and battle come down. . . ‘

The opening line from the title track ‘London Calling’ feels like an announcement, an all points bulletin, a perfect song to open up a politically charged double album with a wonderful bass line. The lyrics suggest concern both internationally, as well as struggles within the band as they were currently without management and had issues releasing the album over the length.

The album cover says it all. Paul Simonen crashing his guitar into the stage is such an iconic moment in the history of rock photography. The simple fact is that as iconic as this album cover is, it would just be a moment in time if not for the music contained within this double LP. London Calling solidifies, The Clash as one of the best. To have seen the Clash during their run would have been something special but alas I was a bit too young to be going to punk rock shows.

It was the same thing with ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ that emotional moment when rock and roll as we knew it suddenly shriveled up and died.

But what the Clash do with London Calling is bring thoughtfulness to punk rock and not give it some fleeting legacy. Realize by this time the “sound” of Punk is beginning to wane, almost considered a bit of a fad. But punk was not necessarily about a sound but an idea, something that had escaped music. Many of the bands of the movement had stated concerns regarding the future and The Clash never tried to avoid their message, but rather just change the music behind it. There was still room for politics in lyrics, and musicianship that allows for the Clash to grow in terms of their sound.

It was not just Strummer that was writing songs but also Paul Simonen who wrote his first song as a member of the band: ‘Guns of Brixton’ a song that spoke of the growing tensions of that area at the time.

Strummer was still the mainstay writing such thoughtful songs like “Spanish Bombs”, a commentary about Spanish Basque terrorist bombings in resort hotels. “Lost in the Supermarket”, was concerned with the growing amount of commercialism in our society. Strummer, who actually grew up in a fairly well-to-do family decided that that life was not for him. He was a proponent of Socialism and songs like “Clampdown” are suggestive of the evils of capitalism in our society. Turn Back the Clock to 1979 and England was in the throws of a class struggle and in most cases all capitalism did, in his opinion, offer the incentive but no real way to succeed.

The Clash pushed away from the punk sound, continually adding different elements to their sound like reggae, ska and jazz to their music. Songs like “Rudie Can’t Fail’ show that diversity in their work.

Almost 35 years later, the album sounds as fresh today as it did back then. The topics seem the same, the issues still persist but the voices of Strummer and Jones are no longer. Who is going to take their place?

Summerteeth is Jay Bennett’s creation. Consider the background for Wilco, the splitoff from an alternative country band Uncle Tupelo after one of the members (Another Jay by the name of Mr. Farrar) is upset that Mr. Tweedy is taking too much of the limelight and he creates Son Volt. Jeff Tweedy’s first release with his makeshift band is ok. In retrospect A.M. is not a great record but Jay Bennett does join the band in mid-94 and we start to see the morphing of Wilco’s sound. By 1998, we hear so many of Bennett’s beautiful arrangement’s combined with Tweedy’s tortured lyrics and this is the album you can hear his influence coming through strong.

The album also abandon’s much of their “Alt-Country” roots on this album. While local shows at the time would allow for Tweedy to present this material in a more stripped down manner, the albums are pushing into something far greater. The beginning of ‘I’m Always In Love’ is reminiscent of the Velvet Underground with it’s keyboard intro. ‘How to Fight Lonliness’ has this almost sneaky keyboard work in the back that just softens the song that it give’s it a bit of heart. In fact the more you listen to the work, and listen to the contributions that Jay Bennett makes on the album you realize just how important he is to the final sound on the album.

The reason why this album did not have more commercial success than this still defies logic. On the surface this is a perfect mixture of pop and folk and tragedy. There were instant singles such as ‘Candyfloss’, ‘Shot in the Arm’, ‘I’m Always In Love’ and ‘Can’t Stand It’ combined with the solemn “She’s a Jar” and the haunting “Via Chicago”. Mixed in-between are plenty of classics like “How to Fight Lonliness” and “In a Future Age”. What we truly see is a songwriting duo in Tweedy and Bennett using their strengths, Tweedy with his folksy lyrics and Bennett with his pop backgrounds to write some of the most beautiful and frightening songs that you would ever hear.

Consider the lyrics “I dreamed about killing you again last night and it felt alright to me,” is not a line that you might consider a relatively adjusted male might write about. Obviously Tweedy has had his share of health issues over the years and might yell at you if you are sitting and talking during a show but he would never seem unfriendly nor would appear to be a killer.

There have always been some favorite Wilco moments for me but one of them was hearing the song “Future Age” at a Jeff Tweedy solo show over 10 years ago. Tweedy had added some pedal effects and the delicate song had this newfound beauty.

Tweedy’s subjects over they years have typically been about relationships and or personal matters rather than subjects that are external such as politics, social issues and even religion (although he did touch on the subject matter briefly with both Uncle Tupelo as well as on the Mermaid Avenue project where he wrote songs based on selected lyrics from Woody Guthrie.) This was one of those personal albums that the dug a little deeper for a pop album and that was definitely why it always appealed to me so.

Arcade Fire burst onto the scene in 2004 with one of the most important albums of the decade. “Funeral” burst onto the album discussing the somber subject of death but at the same time being very uplifting. What Win Butler and co. are offering on these albums is a theatrical performance in their music. I say this by not allowing this to get to their heads. This is a band that arrives onstage and is having plenty of fun and not just going through the motions. Their music feels spiritual, offering a bit of a “Revival” feeling. Considering some of the emotions coming out about this time (2004), with the fall of Emo, Arcade Fire wants you to stand in the aisle and feel the power of the music, they want to walk up on the stage and heal you.

Funeral is one of those albums that was lasted the test of time I think that partly because of the beauty they are able to portray even though what they are portraying is very sorrowful. The other concept that Arcade Fire holds onto is the idea of working with a central theme for an album and sticking to it. Each of their albums have represented main ideas (Death, Religion, The Suburbs) and the songs all revolve around this main idea rather than just sticking the first 12 songs onto an album.

I still remember listening to this album for the first time and how the first track Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) struck me in such a way that I knew that this was something special. The album had come out in 2004 and there just hopeful, that we are not going to stand still. Instead of watching my parents cry I will dig a tunnel to your house and we will go to the middle of the city and push onward because I do not want the sadness around me (in my neighborhood) to hold me down.

It sets off a stream of concepts wrapped around this very concept of not letting death control us but also not allowing dreams misguide us or failing to live up to our own expectations. It sets off not about remembering the past and being somber but pushing towards the future.

Also, realize that this album came a couple years after 9/11 and I think that the shock of the event had somewhat stifled Americans in their ability to live and this album suggests the complete opposite. This country has never had to deal with a tragedy on this level, unlike other parts of the world so our response was overly somber. We had lived in an almost “Funeral-like” state and what Arcade Fire suggests is to snap out of it and did it with such a fashion that it was not offensive but inspiring.

The Smiths – Strangeways Here We Come

Strangeways Here We Come is the Smith’s swan song. The band would break up a couple short months after recording the album which makes the title somewhat suggestive. For me the Smiths were always the R.E.M. counterpart across the great pond, who throughout the 80’s per the primary challengers in the UK rock scene.. While Stipe and Morrissey wrote about different subjects lyrically, musically the bands were similar sounding insofar as the guitarists relished the sounds of the Rickenbacker.

Still, Steven Patrick Morrissey is one of a kind. Part egotistical, part maligned and maybe a bit emotionally unstable, there is still a loveable quality to Morrissey whose stage persona seems to have always been true to himself. He preens and prances and flaunts like a queen for everyone to see. The fans play the role to a T, bum rushing the stage at the perfect moments just to touch him or hand him a rose. (Obviously trying to get onstage early on, might scare Mister Morrissey off and end a show prematurely so make sure it’s later on in the night) He is not the most reliable individual in terms of showing up for a show. I seem to remember that years ago, he was going to spend a week on the Craig Kilborn show only to cancel every day of the week. He recently cancelled most of his most recent American tour for various ailments that you would almost wish that Edward Rooney would go searching for him.

Still if you look back at the 80’s as a whole, the Smith’s legacy is probably, in my opinion,the strongest to come out of Great Britain during that era. While, at the time there were several synth bands that might have received much of the notoriety, or even bands like U2 or the Cure who’ve had more lengthy careers, it’s the Smiths that will continue to inspire artists, musicians and singers down the road. There has to be someone that can string together the crazy self-absorbed lyrics that Morrissey was able to write through the first half of the decade that were both serious and seriously funny.

On “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before”, he Morrisey admits to loving you but only slightly less than he did before.

(Of course I can imagine if I tried to pull this shit with my wife that she would not be throwing roses at me.)

On the surface the song suggests a relationship gone wrong but this should not just be considered a romantic relationships. The title implores the idea that the band had not really deviated from its sound throughout it’s short career and the comment above could be directed at the music press who seemingly found it in their nature to criticize that facet of their albums.

‘Girlfriend in a Coma’, has that same sarcastic underbelly. “Girlfriend in a Coma, I know, I know, it’s serious”, played over some wistful melody and to me that is where the dark humor lies. For example, there lacks the seriousness of “Death of A Disco Dancer”, for example, but rather sounds like an uplifting pop song. The same could be said for “Unhappy Birthday” which was clearly not all that hateful sounding when Johnny Marr wrote the music for it.

I would be curious to see what the band’s legacy would have been like if they had soldiered on past ‘Strangeways’, whether they would have tried to reinvent their sound or rather the breakup was a necessary component to keep their legacy intact.

Well one of the first rules that I have broken is that I chose two albums instead of just 1 for the 48th best album of Zimmy’s life, that it just seemed immaterial to mention Ritual without mentioning Nothings Shocking so this is a 2-for-1 special.

There is no doubt that Perry Farrell is an asshole but I have always felt that Jane’s Addiction was that bridge between heavy metal and grunge, the bridge between alternative and stupid. Before there were bands like Jane’s Addiction there were bands that dressed in tights and used more Aquanet than a female sophomore that grew up in the 80s. Before there was Nirvana, there was Jane’s Addiction leading the way.

Before he sold out, he was instrumental in creating the concept for Lollapalooza, a traveling freakshow concert lineup that featured some of the best stars of the modern rock era. Today it has turned into a 3 day bloated lineup in downtown Chicago that has been privy to various “Sweetheart” deals by the city.

Before that, he was the lead singer of the first band that I can think of that matched the power of Led Zeppelin. It’s not just Farrel’s stage persona nor his band as equal credit should be given to Dave Navarro (Guitar), Steven Perkins (Drums) and Eric Avery (Bass).

Where Jane’s was so unequivocally special, was in a track like ‘Three Days’, which can only be described as epic and is able to contain all the beauty and rage of a band like Jane’s Addiction displays. A song like “Three Days” should be defined as a reason why rock and roll was created in the first place, the story told by Farrell and brought to life behind Avery and Navarro. It segments three different songs into one, starting off slow and beautiful before ending in a rush.

It was often the quiet moments that would balance out the power. ‘Classic Girl’, an ode to Farrell’s girlfriend when he wrote it shows off his gentler side before it ends with a flurry. Unlike some other albums from this era that sound a bit dated, I have always felt that this and ‘Nothings Shocking’ were quite bold for what they had accomplished and that was an attempt to reinvent the idea of Zeppelin. Zeppelin was not just a hard rock band but one attuned in blues, jazz and classical music. Jane’s brought a bit of LA funkyness to their outfit.

‘Jane says, I’m done with Sergio.’ Fact is that I have never been done with Jane, which has to go down as the great females of Rock. You would think that at some point someone should call timeout to the rock bands that continually write about our fictitious heroine but no, this never happens. In this crazy world we live in there have been plenty of songs about women, sex, drugs and rock. In this case, the song is Farrell’s muse. What makes the song classic is Farrell’s ability to drive this emotional crutch that he has on her. The frustration is heard in his singing, as he completely admires her yet watches as bad decision after bad decision force her in bad directions. At some point in your life you are sitting there and wondering to yourself, why is she with him, what does she see in this piece of shit?

The flipside to ‘Jane Says’ is ‘Summertime Rolls’, the perfect love song that feels more about that perfect serene hippie landscape where there is not a care in the world. ‘Summertime Rolls’ is one of those songs that as a youth you realize there is a level of manipulation in love songs as they typically clench at your heartstrings more than they probably should, i.e. the emotion is stronger than the song, but this is one of those “love songs” that I can still appreciate.

I cannot seriously make the argument which Jane’s album was better and a flip of the coin would truly determine it. The band disbanded in ’91 and has reformed since then but has not met the same level of creative output.

I was going through my singer-songwriter phase of my life and looking back at that time, I guess I never realized just how depressing some of the music that I was listening to actually was. Elliott Smith came around to my life about the time that I got interested in Wilco and was pushing away slightly from the R.E.M. elephant that was getting a bit too difficult to push up the stairs. Elliott Smith could be listed in the dictionary under “Troubled Artist”.

I still remember hearing Waltz #2 for the first time on WXRT and thought that this was just a fantastic song. Smith had written a song that was perfect for the lyrics because of a certain correlation to the lack of emotion and formality of a waltz, to that same lack of emotion the subject of the song displays. However, in the live version above there the starkness offers something more haunting. For me it was often the differences between the pop song and the acoustic versions that posed different emotions and meanings and it also shows, in my opinion how musicians such as Smith decided to display their music.

(For those of you that are keeping score at home, as you know I do post videos and such for every review and I have been picking the appropriate videos normally as I revise my initial thoughts and post to “The Note”. It has been difficult in certain cases in viewing this live material knowing that Smith is no longer among the living and the Jools Holland video did seem especially difficult to watch).

Depression and drug problems aside Smith had several talents as well and on XO, we do see a growth in his work

Smith was a talented artist that was able to combine both the lyrics as well as weaving great songs that only comes a couple times in a generation. For me, it was always the production value, which made this album the pinnacle of his career. While I definitely appreciate his earlier stripped down efforts, XO, suggests there was a burgeoning talent beyond the lyrics.

Often times when you revisit albums such as this you forget how it seems so easy for these individuals to write such poignant works while at the same time try to find that in today’s artists.
I think when it comes to Smith that the initial parallel in music style/life issues would have to be Nick Drake but I think that might be a little bit different if things had turned out better.

There are songs such as “Bled White” which feed both his inspiration and despair; that the protagonist cannot write without being high.

Often times when you revisit albums such as this you forget how it seems so easy for these individuals to write such poignant works while at the same time try to find that in today’s artists.
I think when it comes to Smith that the initial parallel in music style/life issues would have to be Nick Drake but I think that might be a little bit different if things had turned out better.

Wire’s “Pink Flag” is a great album, one of the best punk albums to come out during the 70s without a doubt. However, to take an album like Pink Flag and then follow it up with “Chairs Missing” takes skill. Punk always had a feel of trying to destroying the Progressive Rock bands from the era and what Wire ends up doing is creating a Progressive Punk album that feels both like a follow-up to “Pink Flag” as well as an ode to Brian Eno.

Chairs Missing often feels like a journey rather than a declaration. The album often challenged by early impressions of punk which was often a deconstruction of rock and roll and then reconstructing it back up into a stylish punk. In my honest opinion, this is why this album is head and toes better than Pink Flag and many other Punk records in that they understood the limitations of punk and chose an avenue to explore.

Whether you call them art-punk or post-punk they were definitely influential and that list of bands is continually growing (Sonic Youth, R.E.M., The Cure, Guided By Voices, Joy Division, My Bloody Valentine .etc), for starters. While always being a critics favorite, they have never received the popular reception that they were due.

David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

The quick story is that Ziggy Stardust was always Bowie’s best moment; the true incarnation of the Glam Rock where Bowie’s messenger changed rock and roll. Ziggy Stardust is the story of a rock and roll star who is living on Earth when there was no need for rock and roll due to the planet’s imminent demise. Ziggy’s dream is about a “Starman” who is going to save the earth, however, the dream is not really his own but by those that are going to end the world (as we know it). This news of course is of hope and thus the people believe Ziggy’s message and it rises Ziggy to lofty heights, however, there is a demise as well and well he’s destroyed in the end.

Glam rock has a certain flair for the flamboyant which was present not just in the 70s but also influential throughout the 80’s with just about any hair band or Flock of Seagulls impression you could think about, pulled out the makeup and Aquanet and paraded around MTV. Rock became a commodity where image was everything and we have to thank Bowie for bringing it to the big screen. Sure there were countless others such as T.Rex or Roxy Music, but Bowie is Bowie even had the Flight of The Concords, doing “Bowie”.

Bowie’s charm was always his ability to be a chameleon from one album to the next, wearing different masks, a concept that was central in the evolution of the lead singer. What keeps albums such as this standing out is that these concepts have been lost on today’s generation of rock musicians, forgetting the theatrical showman of the 70s and preferring the gaudy nerd look as if their audience has always been their computer screen. What is so great about this album is that it’s about rock and roll.

By the early 70’s we see the growth of rock and roll from being hidden to be a major factor in our society. The rock and roll star is the hero to many. Bowie just doesn’t glamorize his role but plays with his sexual ambiguity throughout. Consider this version of Starman live from the show Top of the Pops in 1972. Realize how powerful this must have been 40 years ago. This open flirtation not only with the camera but with his bandmates as well.

Metaphorically speaking however, the story of Ziggy Stardust tries to determine the emotional bond that a rock band/musician has with their fans. For Stardust, he is only the messenger but that message is strong enough that we see the result is that fans desire to own their idols. Inevitably the rock star can only exist if they allow for the fans to own part of them which in this case destroys Stardust and thus the story becomes a vicious circle amongst itself.

Ziggy Stardust fortells the warning of the future; the concept at which rock and roll tears at the souls of it’s idols, a story that we have heard plenty of times before.

The Olivia Tremor Control quite simply offered a fortuitous display of pop and psychadelic ear candy that tried to mix the similar worlds of mid-era Revolver Beatles and Beach Boys and then attempt to do the entire project underwater. Their project was more than just the members of the band but rather a collaborative effort of other “Elephant 6 Members” and beyond. However, what differentiated them from other bands was the complexity that they were making their recordings in a lo-fi environment. Remember, this was before the days when tracks could be mixed onto a computer screen and even the most basic of software offered you limitless amounts of opportunity to explore. Instead the band had to go through fairly complicated routines whereby everyone’s part had to be exact.

Being complicated is one thing but being good is another. Dusk at Cubist Castle feels very visual and besides the music that is playing games inside your head it is the lyrics as well. Consider tracks 12-21 that are all titled “Green Typewriters” if you were viewing the setlist, and no this is not an error. But this suite offers a bit of a movie within a movie, small vignets of stories within the lyrics, a more elongated instrumental before we are brought back down.

There is somewhat of a happy vibe to the music they are creating. Call it underwater floatation devices rock and roll. For a person like myself that often feels as if I am in a perpetual daydream, I can admit that if I am listening to them in the background, I am in a happy place.

The Godmother of Punk, or so they say. While she has been in the past bothered by the opening line to ‘Gloria’ (“Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine”), I would admit that the line to start off this album feels so deliberate and shocking. She then goes on to paint a very vulgar pornographic picture of a woman from the male point of view, wrapping up with the Christian exclamation of “Gloria” (“Gloria in excelsis Deo”).

As would be the case for many on this list, I was often inspired by the mentors of the 80’s to seek their influences of the prior years and for Michael Stipe, Patti Smith was that inspiration. However, what was so punk about Patti was her ability to seek out gender-bending personas. Consider the subject matter of the lyrics of Gloria coming from Smith, especially during an era when rock and roll was male-dominated.

The cover to the album taken by Robert Maplethorpe, also can be said to carry so much weight before even listening to music. Throughout her career she pushed boundaries when others might have been timid. Her lyrics were often poetic, many times stinging and eerie and it’s not just the storylines which carry weight but the manner at which Smith portrays these words.