Rhinofy-Heard On The Satellite
“Among The Leaves”
Sun Kil Moon
I couldn’t take one more play of “Touch Of Grey.” That’s what they were spinning on the Spectrum, SiriusXM’s Gen X adult alternative. Aren’t some tracks too burned out to EVER play?
So I pushed the button for the baby boomer alternative station, the Loft, and heard this.
And it’s exquisite.
I didn’t think I liked Sun Kil Moon. Not that much. And I forgot it was the guy from the Red House Painters, who were close, but no cigar. But if they made more music like this I’d tell everybody to stop watching TV, going to the movies, reading books, and to just turn on their radio.
Then again, they don’t play this kind of stuff on terrestrial radio. Not on Top Forty, the only place with critical mass. And tracks like “Among The Leaves” deserve critical mass…because of the FEEL!
You hear the sound and you’re immediately relaxed and transported, floating above your life, watching omnisciently as you go about your business.
And then there’s the string part, the viola. How did they come up with this? It’s like your mother putting you to bed, reading you a story, kissing you on the forehead. Hearing it you feel everything’s all right in the world. I imagine Mark Kozelek hearing it in his head before he built the record. Or his friend, the player, saying “I’ve got a perfect part for this!” It makes the track.
It doesn’t matter what the lyrics are. It’s about the sound.
The intro is kind of like “All I Need” off Air’s “Moon Safari.”
And I’m thinking maybe it’s the atmosphere. Clouds rolling into Santa Monica, ending the brutal heat wave. Myself in such a good, relaxed mood.
Yes, Kozelek does not have a classically pretty voice. It’s like your girl or boyfriend singing to you, almost amateurish, but that adds to the intimacy.
And “Among The Leaves” is nothing if not intimate. You just want to get closer, you’ve just got to get closer, you’ve just got to hear it again.
“Lilywhite”
Cat Stevens
“Tea For The Tillerman” was the hit. But “Mona Bone Jakon” contained that song from “Harold and Maude,” “Trouble.”
Trouble
Oh trouble set me free
If you’ve got enough talent you don’t need the beats, none of the penumbra, voice and guitar are enough. If the song is good enough. And “Trouble” is. One of the most perfect song placements in a movie EVER!
Life is about trouble. The rich have money but no amount of cash can keep you on an even emotional plane, can prevent someone from hitting your car, breaking up with you.
Oh, this is so wistful and so real, unforgettable.
And there’s a little more on this track than just Cat and his axe, but you can imagine him sitting on your couch singing it to you.
And be sure to listen to the covers, by the troubled Kristin Hersh and Elliott Smith, even Bruce Robison and Eddie Vedder:
All faithful. No rearrangement is necessary. Sometimes you can’t improve upon perfection. This is the song that many know but plenty don’t. They need to.
And the opening cut on “Mona Bone Jakon” is “Lady D’Arbanville.” When I heard this originally, I didn’t know she truly existed, I figured she was an ancient queen, already dead if she ever walked the earth. Years later, Patti appeared in American movies. And however beautiful she was, she didn’t live up to the song. Cat Stevens idealized her. Ain’t that love.
I thought of all this as “Lilywhite” played.
“Tea For The Tillerman” was the breakthrough, but it was just a tad slick, made for everyone, whereas “Mona Bone Jakon” seemed to be made just for you, the listener.
“Summer Breeze”
Seals & Crofts
That GUITAR! Its sting makes the track, it’s equivalent to the viola in “Among The Leaves.”
This was a hit during Thanksgiving vacation. I remember driving through Westport, Connecticut with my corduroy fall jacket on, hearing this cut. Ain’t that amazing, how you can remember exactly where you were when you heard a track, even though you’ve heard it a zillion times.
On one hand, “Summer Breeze” is similar to the Tradewinds’ “New York’s A Lonely Town,” reminiscent of a better time, that you want to return to. But “Summer Breeze” is more than that. There’s the sense of anticipation in the intro, the joy, this was the apotheosis of a band that was on Warner Brothers and therefore had credibility whereas from a distance, you might think they were no different from England Dan & John Ford Coley and the rest of the AM fodder.
The opening cut on this album was good too, “Hummingbird.” And although I never owned this album, I heard it, it was everywhere, it was a hit. Especially in the dorm room next door, where the inhabitants were Bahais.
There was a last hurrah, on the next album, with the overplayed “Diamond Girl” and the maudlin but better “We May Never Pass This Way (Again)”…then again, it just feels this way, because two albums later they had a hit with “I’ll Play For You” and in ’76 “Get Closer” reached #6, and I liked that one, but by this time we’d realized Seals & Crofts were just too soft and mainstream, loved by wimpy girls everywhere, we avoided them.
Then again, how can you argue with the wisdom of this?
Darling if you want me to be closer to you, get closer to me
That’s how love is. It takes two.
I also want to give credit to the producer of “Summer Breeze,” Louie Shelton, who’s been almost completely forgotten, even though it’s his magic that makes the track, yes, “Summer Breeze” is a good song, but it’s a phenomenal RECORD!
And be sure to listen to the covers by the Isley Brothers, Jason Mraz and Type O Negative…
“Dance With Me”
Orleans
Some songs just sneak up on you.
It’s not the riff, like in “Satisfaction,” something instant and irresistible.
And it’s not the histrionic vocals, the melisma of Mariah Carey and her followers.
And it’s not the exotic changes of everyone from Yes to David Bowie…
Sometimes it’s the sum of all those parts.
You can take “Dance With Me” seriously, contemplate the lyrics, but really “Dance With Me” is all about feel… You hear it and you feel thrilled just to be alive.
And we’ll never hear Larry Hoppen sing it ever again.
And we’ll never hear Brad Delp sing “More Than A Feeling” either.
Thank god we’ve got these records.
