You’re Like a Thorn Tree in the Wind.

I remember many years ago when I was still in seminary one of my suitemates gave us the news that Johnny Cash had died. That statement did not affect me, in fact, I didn’t know really who Johnny Cash was. Sadly, I was living in Memphis at the time. It wasn’t until years later when Walk the Line was released into theaters that I realized what I had been missing. Some of the shooting was no more than a block from where I was living. It was because that movie came out that I began to find my interest in Cash’s music. The first album I bought was this two disc set released for the movie. I loved it, played it over and over, and I memorized all the words. Thing is, those weren’t the first Cash songs I’d heard. The first was actually for a TV commercial, the song was Hurt.

I knew of Nine Inch Nails, my brother was a big fan, but I really wasn’t so I didn’t understand two important things about this song, first, is was in fact Johnny Cash singing, second, it was by Trent Reznor. When I found out, long after the movie had come out, I was even more in awe of this man who was willing to remake songs that came after him. I was intrigued by a man who loved music so much that he didn’t have to be the greatest, he loved music so much that he was willing to make any good songs, regardless of when or who wrote them.

Just think of my shock when I found out that he had six albums worth of other people’s music. He called these albums American Recordings, today I will be talking about the last one released before his death American IV: The Man Comes Around.

I have to admit that the reason I picked this album was because of the song Hurt. I can’t help it, it is amazing. I am in good company though, Trent Reznor, originally thinking the idea was campy, found the song deeply emotional. The rest of us realized Cash might have just owned this song. I think the song is so powerful because of Cash’s history, because of his life story, a life of hurting himself and others. OK, so maybe he didn’t take it from Reznor, however, he made it something new. Reznor considered the video art, telling one newspaper, that it gave him chills just thinking about it. For me, I really became a Nine Inch Nails fan after this Cash song, because I saw something special, an artist wrote an amazingly personal song that was personal for others. I respect the hell out of Reznor for his gift to music in this song, but sadly I will always prefer Johnny Cash’s version.

Of course, if we were talking to Cash about this album he would probably want to talk about The Man Comes Around. The song that became the album title. One of his last songs written, the entire back half of one album sleeve has a note written by Cash to his listeners talking about why he wrote this song. In the letter he says that he spent more time on this song than any other, and that this song started with a dream where he visits the Queen Elizabeth II. The song is full of Biblical imagery, a lot of stuff from Revelation, and one important line from Job. It tells the story of Death walking amongst us after the apocalypse. This is the first time I have heard the song so I don’t have a lot to say, however, it makes me wonder sometimes if he is using some of this Album to say goodbye.

I love music that is about music, from the title of these albums we can know that these were songs that Johnny Cash thought we should all hear, or maybe just songs he always wanted to sing, but that they are a part of our experience. I know that when I die I hope someone plays his version of Danny Boy at my funeral. Maybe I will leave that to my readers, who knows? Though, that is probably sometime away.  Cash isn’t afraid of anyone in this album, he sings Hank Williams, The Eagles, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, even Depeche Mode.  He says good bye with the song We’ll Meet Again, it is important to note that Cash’s American experience involves music written by and popularized by British artists. Cash knew that we are best when we are willing to look to the people who do things well, and learn from them. I think that is something we should always remind ourselves. So if you ever get nervous that someone else does something better than you remember that even Johnny Cash hurt himself one day.  

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts,
And I looked and behold: a pale horse.
And his name, that sat on him, was Death.
And Hell followed with him.

This Music Should be Played at High Volumes: Preferably in Residential Areas

I was listening to the owner of a local radio station here in Jackson Mississippi a few weeks ago. We were in a forum setting and people were asking him questions about his station. He owns a Classic Rap station, I asked him to define classic rap, and I was happy with the answer. Basically, the rap I like. Another person asked who his biggest demographic was, his answer surprised me but made complete sense, 30-40 year old white men. And though I believe that he might have been exaggerating I could see his point.

The Album for this week’s Friday Vinyl is none other than Doctor Dre’s The Chronic. Let me say for the record early in high school I would have never admitted to liking this album, in fact by luck I was introduced to this album when I was older and not trying so hard to fit into the heavy metal clique. I was first introduced realistically to this album when I was a junior in High School in 1996. I liked bands like the Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill but for some reason I could argue that they weren’t really rap music. The first time I considered Dr. Dre was during history class when a kid turned around and sold me the “Nuthin But a G Thing” single on cassette for 5 dollars. I bought it because I knew it had been stolen and it made me feel bad ass. Of course it was still a few years before I acknowledged publically that I liked rap music.

Sadly my reasoning had always been racially based. It wasn’t respectable music, not just because of the content but because of the culture behind it, or at least that is what I told myself. Around the same time Metallica was being referred to as Devil Music, Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osborn always had been, and I defended them to the core. For some reason I could say Black Sabbath had been shafted but the themes in Rap music were just inappropriate.

Over the years and through a lot of introspection I learned the real reason I argued so thoroughly that rap music wasn’t real music. First off, the content did make me uncomfortable. They used a lot of sexual language but even more than that they were explaining a culture that was alien to me. I didn’t understand the culture and that misunderstanding led to fear. Living in a predominately white area I didn’t have the chance to interact with many African Americans neither had my family. Of course an easier way to say it is, I was a racist.

I ask your grace on that point because in all honesty, I didn’t understand, but I do now and work to change my perspective and make amends. Everyone around me even the white people were listening to this music, it wasn’t really considered mainstream even for that day, in fact, it was considered disruptive by the mainstream, in hindsight I think that is part of the reason the people around me loved it, and when G Thing came out I could no longer argue I didn’t like the music. I wonder if it is too cheesy to say that Doctor Dre helped me confront my inherent racism.

Of course, that was 1996 and this album came out in 1992. In 92 I was listening to Nirvana, STP, and Pearl Jam. I don’t regret my music choices for the time as much as I regret the limitations I placed upon myself. Over time I learned that all musical genres contain great works, The Chronic is a great work. This album came out in 1992 after the breakup of NWA and Doctor Dre didn’t release another studio album until 2000. I actually owned that album before I owned this one, in fact, this is the first time I bought a full copy. I think part of what I love so much about this album is the difference between this one and Chronic 2001. 1992 introduced us to this young rapper, filled with angst, 2001 gave us that same man, but this time with the ability to look back and see his mistakes. We all know the story, or at least we should, the breakup of NWA, was not very clean and the Doctor and Easy E leapt directly into a feud, a feud that would later fill him with sadness. Easy E died while Dre was in prison, and never getting to say goodbye stayed with him. The road between Death Row and Aftermath was long and hard, but a moral tale for the ages. The first album introduced us to an angry young rapper the second a retrospective father.

In that time Dre introduced us to great artists, and ushered in what some would call the Golden Age of rap, not everyone but some. I don’t know enough about rap music to say whether I agree or not, I know that the 1990’s produced a lot of rap music that I loved in hindsight and the early 2000’s music I loved the first time out.

I haven’t said much about the record itself or the artwork, and they are great but this retrospective isn’t about how wonderful the record is, it is about a visit to the doctor that helped heal my soul. 

Clean Sheets, Incense, and Lots of Fluffy Pillows

I had to order this record separately, it wasn't just sitting on the shelf. I Ordered it from a local record store. About two weeks ago I walked in and found the second Stone Temple Pilots album and picked it up because, who knows when I will see it again, but I realized that I really wanted to hear Core. I like to support local stores when I can since this medium is in decline. Sometimes I go online but only when I really have to.

Core was one of the first CD’s I owned. And though I don’t refer to Stone Temple Pilots as my favorite grunge band they are the reason I stuck with the music style as long as I did. There were three or four bands that started the grunge era, STP was one of them. Of course I still like them all.

My memory of this album though, doesn't really come from the CD but the dub to cassette that I shortly made that Christmas morning after receiving it from Santa. Because, though I was now moving into the digital age I couldn't afford to fully convert to digital music. I still had a Walkman and a paper route that required steady music to keep me sane through the process of chucking papers onto porches. In fact the reason I know this album so well, and so fully is because I immediately converted it to analog. Do to the conversion I couldn't skip ahead to songs, listen to the same song over and over again, and I had to flip it over to listen to the B side so I wouldn't have to rewind.

Of course with this album the B side is the side that has all the popular songs, at least the early ones. Plush comes to the end of the Album and so does Creep. And yes, I know Wicked Garden was released as a video on MTV. This well mastered 180 gram vinyl record however has to break the album into 3 sides. Creep and Plush actually appear on two separate records. So it is good this is a good solid album, because otherwise spamming my favorite songs would be impossible.

Of course I can’t help but comment about how “Shiny” the album cover is, and how wonderful the art on the unused portion of the record is. They used the blank space on the back of non-existent side four to recreate the cover art in negative space. That is what I love about vinyl re-releases, the art work in the extra space. Due to the size of the record, there is so much more to look at. But then, that is part of the reason I am willing to go the extra mile and buy vinyl.

This album is full of great music, especially for those of us who were going through “Things” as teenagers and young adults. It is apparent now that the band itself was going through “Things.” We know that Weiland was in and out of drug treatment centers, and could not get along with the rest of the group. We also know that Velvet Revolver (the band Weiland went to after STP) did not want him to return. I would always hear that he was difficult to deal with. Of course, that is just gossip I have never met him, but I will always be thankful for the albums they did together…  And though water cleanses, washes dirty away, and makes new STP may never come together again. 

The Party After the Show: Weezer’s Blue Period

Music speaks to me for different reasons. Some music feeds the militant activist, some the eclectic mystic, and some feeds the lonely teenager. Weezer’s Blue album does the latter two. During high school I would struggle to enjoy bands, sometimes because there were only a few songs that spoke to me, others spoke only to one major part of me. The fact was, that if Weezer had only fed the lonely teenager who was scared to talk to girls I probably wouldn’t have been near the fan I am. In fact if it is was just going to be about girls I’d have listened to country Music.

Weezer did something different than a lot of bands at the time, well maybe I shouldn’t say it that way. Weezer utilized the basics, and they were good at it. They didn’t pave new ground, and still they weren’t like anyone else. They knew their music, they knew their instruments but in the end they knew how to make music that would speak not just through its words but its droning melodies and drive. But one of the best examples of this is during Surf Wax America I wasn’t a surfer so I didn’t understand the theory but the descending harmony between the two singers was simply beautiful.

We were introduced to this band before Windows 95 came out. I know that because the Windows 95 CD that was standard at the time had the video for Buddy Holly embedded into it. The introduction came through the cacophony of The Sweater Song, there really wasn’t much to this song, and it was basically about a sweater that one can choose to destroy or keep. It wasn’t hard to destroy this sweater one would need to simply hold string while they walked away. I imagine most fans have attributed the lyrics to this song to something special in their lives. Maybe the singer’s sweater represents the willingness to put our own security in the hands of someone we care for. It might represent to some the first time we say, “I love you,” with the fear of it not being returned, or even maybe just, “I’m sorry.” Regardless if one chooses to walk away, we will be left naked, with nothing. Though, it could just be a song about a sweater. All I really know is that in the end is that when Patrick Wilson starts running around his drum set banging on the cymbals, I was hooked.

Of course the version on the LP is very different. There is talk about a ride to the party after the show. One woman who wants to go but her friends don’t want to go, I don’t know It doesn’t make sense. Over the years I have tried to make sense of it, and the best I have read is that he was going to try and tell a story based on the songs of the album, but that fell apart so they just added it as it was.

The album is so well loved by those of a certain nerdy persuasion because it dealt with important themes around security and feeling safe. In The Garage deals with this theme directly.  When do we feel safe? When we can put our hands directly on our dungeon masters guide and 20 sided die. The garage, in their song, was where they could be themselves. They pay homage to this on the inside artwork, the instruments are set up on a concrete floor, probably a garage where they write the words to their songs.

Say it Ain’t So approaches, so well, the depths of our souls, is talks about what makes us who we are through a story. The bridge tells us the background of the story set in a letter to the singer’s step-father. 

“You've cleaned up, found Jesus, things are so good so I hear.This Bottle of Steven’s awakens ancient demons, like father, step father, your son is drowning in flood.

But as a teenager no song affected me like Only in dreams. I was afraid to talk to girls, at least tell them how I felt, but I would dreams of the dances, holding a girl and floating. The song proved that even guys dream of romance.

After this album Weezer took a break, Rivers Cuomo went to college and nothing came out. This became a traumatic time for Rivers, but that is another story for another Friday. But don’t worry, I have every intention of telling that one as soon as I can find some vinyl.

I ordered my copy of Weezer’s self-titled album (the blue one) and came out with the Original Master Recording. This album was rereleased and repressed from the original masters. The nice and heavy record came in a special static bag, which I love because I am tired of shocking myself. I love this addition to my collection. This album holds a special place in my own story. In fact I didn’t realize until later that not everyone gets some of my life references to this album. I noticed I kept having to explain what I meant when I referred to the after party of my Wedding (as opposed to the reception) as the party after the show.

Sweet Songs to Rock My Soul

A few years ago I was working as a chaplain in a children’s hospital. This one Thursday I was attending a seminar on music and healing. The woman hosting the seminar was a folk singer and guitarist. She and I had spoken earlier of the healing nature of the Grateful Dead, in fact, a few specific songs. My supervisor and I had a difference of opinion about what I was supposed to be doing at the time which ended in an assertion that I would not follow her orders. Later that day I found myself crying, the folk singer was playing Ripple right behind me, my supervisor was holding me, and a fellow chaplain, a man like a brother, was dead. Later that night while I listened to Broke Down Palace the words, “When there were no wings to fly, you flew to me,” came alive.

That night I listened to American Beauty over and over again, and got excessively drunk. I can’t help but think about that day that place, those tears, and my friend Wade whenever I hear this album. And it is that simple fact that I have a hard time “rehearing” this album. The connection is so strong that I had felt for a long time there was nothing new to learn from this album. I found over the years when I needed to return to reality or find inspiration from the heavens I would play this album, sometimes the whole things, but often simply the B side, starting with Ripple.

Of course there is always something new to learn, or maybe even something old, like meaning before that occurrence of death. I bought the album originally on CD because it had a few songs I knew and one I wanted. I knew Sugar Magnolia, Truckin, and so forth but I wanted Friend of the Devil. In fact, I had always assumed the latter song a good title for my autobiography. There are other personal draws to this album, it frequently references places I have been, or even lived. Candyman is its own little trip, I don’t think I actually heard the words until I was living in Memphis learning to talk the jive.

I spent a lot of time trying to “figure out” this album, and over time I have figured out that all I really figured out is that, trying to understand the dead is a deep pool of confusion and joy. I think that is why it’s my inspirational music, my personal hymnody. There is always something I missed, something they intended or something they didn’t. When I get stuck, there is beauty in this music, when I feel alone there is love. This album rests upon a fountain that was not made by hands of men.

Their name alone reminds us that time Box of Rain is short, that from the moment we start breathing we start dying, but there is something great about that. Encouraging us to own our moments, because there is such a long long time to be gone and a short time to be there. 

My Birthday Present: AKA Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

The most important thing I took from Pulp Fiction was that I could be either a Beatles fan or an Elvis fan. Oh I could like both just fine but I had to choose between them, I had to like one better. Being 20 at the time I took the obvious answer, a new Beatles box set had been released a few years earlier, my college invited a Beatles tribute band called 1964 every year, and everyone, including my closest friends, loved the Beatles. So I chose Elvis.

Okay maybe it isn't that simple, my parents weren't big Beatles fans, but I had family who were nuts over Elvis Presley. I started listening to Elvis as a young boy in the 80’s because, let’s face it, there wasn't much going on in the 1980’s (cue angry pop fans). The Beatles seemed to “poppy” for me at the time, I had to be different, so I respected the Beatles but chose Elvis.

I think the other important factor is my first real introduction to the Beatles. My brother’s girlfriend came home with a CD of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. I loved it, I was shocked that I had chosen any other way. This album is amazing, nothing like the stereotypes I remember. So now I learned I was a Beatles fan, and an Elvis fan. Sgt. Pepper quickly rose to the top of favorite albums list, I would tell me friends, “Oh I love that Sgt. Pepper album and I would get the reply, “Oh I like the early stuff, they got weird on that album” I wondered what could be better, it was like the author was sitting down to read the newspaper and then singing about it. 

I didn't know there were separate parts of the Beatles Camp. I will admit that the early stuff is catchy and I look forward to sitting down to hear it for the first real time on vinyl but, my home will always be with the weird stuff these guys had some wonderful forethought and weren't afraid to try different things. I love them for it, and am a solid Beatles fan now because of it. It isn't hard to find newly pressed Beatles’ albums so I will gladly work my way through. 

In fact, my mother-in-law is a huge Beatles fan, so around my birthday she came to my wife and asked what I wanted. Later my wife came to me and asked, I replied curtly with, “I don’t know, see if she can find Sgt. Peppers.” A week later it arrived on my step. So I may leave the Beatles for my birthday. 

This album is nice heavy 180 gram vinyl with the original artwork and a special insert for the re-release telling the story of the album including notes from producers and Paul (it seems like all fans tend to simply refer to them by their first names as if they were friends, so though I don’t really know him I am a fan so I will refer to him as so). The other insert is a cut out with metals, mustaches, and pictures, I had to inform my daughter “These really aren't for cutting but they sure are pretty aren't they.”

There is an extra track on this album for those of us that don’t have automatic tone arms, well, maybe it isn't a track. It is an obnoxious phrase telling me that the record is done and I need to remove the arm. But then it really could be any other. 

What can I do with a Dalmatian?

I’d always considered myself a music aficionado because I knew Sublime, well apparently I’m not that good because after coming home from the record store with the studio self-titled album I realized I don’t really know Sublime. Actually I had fallen into the basic trap of my generation, I knew the radio songs, and had never really cared to learn the rest of the album. And you can’t imagine my surprise when I found out that they had two albums out before this one, they are only lesser known because they weren't from a major label. So my education is still taking place because I just bought the vinyl.

Thing is, I never bought this album on CD or cassette, I wasn’t a big enough fan but, over the years I would hear their music on the radio, and find out that this amazing song I was hearing, was actually by Sublime. Of course I am glad that my first real hearing of the album is on 180 gram vinyl. I am just sad I don’t have a dedicated sub-woofer, to really feel the base. I know I am missing out, so I hope there isn’t a duplicate post after a “new hearing” in a few days when my sub arrives.

As I said this album comes with two records, for sides, with the original artwork. The records being nice and thick have a great sound, a great place to start if you know Sublime but don’t’ know Sublime.

What intrigues me about this band is the driving rock, ska, and punk then the laid back reggae. The third side moves fast and hard, then an immediate shift when one flips the record and settles into Caress Me Down. This band fearlessly moves back and forth between styles, listening is its own journey.

There will never be new Sublime. Bradley Nowell, lead singer and guitarist died of a drug overdose just weeks before the release of Sublime on MCA records. So what is there to do? Nowell saved up $500 dollars to rescue a Dalmatian from abuse. This dog named Lou Dog became the group’s mascot. So maybe there is no new Sublime music, but, you can go out and save an animal today. And every time you look at your adopted loved one remember, life is too short so love the one you got.

For Music’s Sake: A New Look at Ten Old Songs

Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh was once asked by a Christian Priest once to explain Buddhism. The response was simple, “We sit, we walk, and we sleep.” The priest was confused and replied saying, “We do those things too.” To that Thich Nhat Hanh said, “Yes but when we do it we know we’re doing it.”

I remember as a child sitting, back against the wall, headphones on, just listening to the music, I had to sit because the cord didn’t reach far enough to walk around, and there are no portable record players. I would sit and just listen, nothing else going on. Today most of my music has become background noise, and why not, music is cheap to buy, easy to find, and digital so even if we lose our player we are still backed up on a cloud.

I was sitting one day, listening to Pearl Jam’s album Ten, more specifically the redux. Pearl Jam is very important in my generation’s return to vinyl. Yes, there were some bands still releasing records, but Pearl Jam released their album Verses first on vinyl. I don’t own that album, I have never heard it, in fact I have never heard any Pearl Jam beyond Ten, and until I looked at the record, I never noticed that of the ten songs I really just knew 5, and that is the reason this album gets a spot on Friday Vinyl, even on this Tuesday.

I was sitting in the stereo room, my wife was in the kitchen helping our daughter with her homework, I was uninvolved at the time, so with my break I decided to listen to this record. Actually I thought, “I would like to hear Black but the track lines are very thin, so I started from the beginning with Once, I sat down in my special “listening chair” and took in the sounds.

The album come with two records, one is the original mastering, the second is a remastered version referred to as Redux. The cover opens to reveal the lyrics, the front has the members standing tall high fiving. The vinyl is nice and heavy providing smooth solid sound. This Vinyl set gives me something I can’t get through a digital download or CD, art, feel, and connection.

Eddie Vedder was also one of those musicians who spoke up for his beliefs, whether about supporting Napster, opposing Ticketmaster, or a woman right to choose. Eddie’s work outside of music kept his name in my head even during my break from Seattle Grunge. There was something more to this band than simply the music they played, and that was something I couldn’t pirate.

As the record continued to spin I listened and it was as if I had never heard it before. I finally got to the song I had wanted to hear and the sounds and tones came alive in a new way. For a week I sang the songs, and now I even enjoy the section I skipped with the CDs. The words and tones were alive again, I think for three reasons: The Vinyl, The Redux, and Thich Nhat Hanh. The music was not the background for what I was doing, the music was what I was doing. It was like magic, and it left my arms raised in a V.

Kicking Squeeling Guuci Little Piggy

I was in college, a close friend walked into the cafeteria with a bruise on his forehead. He didn’t care to tell me why he had the wound on his head, of course that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to stop digging for information. I overheard the story, as he told it to somone who would understand. It went something like this, “You remember the guitar solo in Paranoid Android, I was sort of getting into the music and when the solo came up I screamed and passed out then hit my head on the table.”

I didn’t know Paranoid Android, later they told me it was Radiohead. I said, “You mean the people who did Creep? I always sort of thought they were a one hit wonder.” I owned Pablo Honey on cassette, and had only ever listened to the one song, well, apparently I had missed out on some amazing music. My reeducation began with a different album, and when I can afford that one, I will tell that story, but, OK Computer will always hold a special place in my heart, if my friend had never told his story I would have never taken them in as I did.

As a religious man this story struck me, I didn’t think it was ridiculous, I didn’t think he was over reacting. In fact, I equate that story with the religious ecstasy of the Great Awakening, and modern charismatic groups. I wanted that charisma around some music, in fact I needed some music that took me to another world, Radiohead provided that music. So, OK Computer, Kid A, and Amnesiac helped define that time in my life. If you asked me what they were up to now, I wouldn’t have any idea. Though finding this record I may just have to look.

This album like many being reissued comes with beautiful art, and two nice heavy vinyl records. It took me a minute to figure out which record was side one, it took me a little longer than I like to admit they were labeled eeny, meeny, miny, and mo. So I slid out eeny and was on my way to becoming fitter happier and more productive.  

My Rational

I grew up a child of the 80’s though my music selections resonated more with the 70’s and 90’s. I remember sitting down beside our stereo system, putting on the headphones and playing my parent’s records. At the time vinyl records were still common, most houses had record players and stereos were generally not sold without them. I remember so often pulling out my father’s copy of Led Zeppelin IV or Black Sabbath’s Paranoid and listening for at least an hour at a time. At the time all of my new music came on cassettes and later I would use cassettes to dub down my friend’s CDs.

Even as records faded away and even cassettes became obsolete I carried my old Walkman. I never cared much for CD’s. They seemed expensive and disconnected from the music. As trendy as it may sound, I preferred the vinyl, even as a kid. I will never forget before we could afford a VHS player pulling out my mother’s portable record player and listening over and over again to old Disney records. There are albums today that I have never owned on CD, and have no desire.

If you still go to record stores you may hear that vinyl is making a comeback, I have a different opinion, I don’t’ think it ever went away. Someone always had a record player, and I bet if you look in assisted living homes you will find many arthritic 80 year old that can drop the needle in the empty groove designated track number, but can’t figure out what to do with an ipod.

I will do something very simple in this blog, I will buy a record, or dig out and old one, play it on Friday, generally (maybe other days) and write about my experience of the music. If you enjoy reading, send me recommendations. If not… well this isn’t for you anyway.