Great track sevens
Track seven, eh. Meant to be the best track on all albums ever, or so someone told me once. Let's test this out...
With the aid of the very handy Rocklist, I had a hunt around for some of those greatest albums of all time lists. I thought we should go a bit trans-atlantic on this one, and also reader-centric. So I have for you the lists Q vs. Rolling Stone (an unfair comparison, many would argue), but this is only a bit of impromptu madness I just decided to concoct.
Let's start with the Q's list from 2003:
1. Nirvana - Nevermind (1991)
2. Radiohead - OK Computer (1997)
3. The Beatles - Revolver (1966)
4. Radiohead - The Bends (1995)
5. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
6. Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks (1977)
7. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (1989)
8. Oasis - Definitely Maybe (1994)
9. The Strokes - Is This It (2001)
10. U2 - Achtung Baby (1991)
And onto Rolling Stone's list from 2002:
1. The Beatles - Revolver (1966)
2. Nirvana - Nevermind (1991)
3. Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
4. U2 - The Joshua Tree (1987)
5. The Beatles - The Beatles (aka The White Album) (1968)
6. The Beatles - Abbey Road (1969)
7. Guns n' Roses - Appetite for Destruction (1987)
8. Radiohead - OK Computer (1997)
9. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV (1971)
10. U2 - Achtung Baby (1991)
The differences between the list, show a few things quite well. Firstly, British audiences are more likely to put faith in recent releases (I'm absolutely positive Eminem wouldn't get a look in this year's list). Secondly, Britpop only happened in Britain (Definately Maybe, hmm), and Guns n' Roses definately only happened in the USA. Thirdly, a copy of The Red Album and The Blue Album would probably cover about 50% of the American list. Lastly, U2 will never be a number one kind of band (okay, maybe that's just my opinion).
Now back to the point - track seven.
It's official, the average person in the UK would most like the following tracks on a compilation tape/minidisc/iPod/CDR:
Nirvana - Territorial Pissings
Radiohead - Fitter Happier
The Beatles - She Said
Radiohead - Just
Eminem - Way I Am
Sex Pistols - Seventeen
The Stone Roses - Song for my Sugar Spun Sister
Oasis - Bring it on Down
The Strokes - Last Nite
U2 - Fly
And the average person in the USA would most like the following tracks on a compilation tape/minidisc/iPod/CDR:
The Beatles - She Said
Nirvana - Territorial Pissings
Beatles - Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite
U2 - In God's Country
The Beatles - While my Guitar Gently Weeps
The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun
Guns n' Roses - My Michelle
Radiohead - Fitter Happier
Led Zeppelin - Going to California
U2 - Fly
Based upon this incredibly slap-dashed attempt at evidence, I am not convinced by this track seven business. I'm going to need some convincing, surely there must be some better track seven's than the above in the world? Answers on a postcard, or just as a comment below please...
Popularity: 26% [?]
Great song lyrics
On a lighter note. After that rather expansive potted history of Buckleymania, I thought something a little lighter might be in order...
The floor is open. Great song lyrics, and I will start with the Buckleymeister himself -
Lover, You Should've Come Over
A kingdom for a kiss upon my shoulder
And follow with another fellow teenage favourite of mine, The Lemonheads -
Alison's Starting to Happen
She's the puzzle piece behind the couch that makes the sky complete
That last one someone else brought to my attention, but I thought I would add it anyway. There's hundreds more, come on folks, pick your brains... And I've just had a great idea for another music inspired vox populi, as inspired by the honourable Cat.
Popularity: 51% [?]
‘It’s never over…’ or Ravings of an Obsessional Fan
Ah, Jeff Buckley. Tragic troubadour of troubled youth, dies again next Monday. The release of The Grace Lecagy Edition on the 23rd of August brings to mind my days as a hormonal teenager, desperately trying to learn how to play his songs on the guitar, and spending hours on Napster (on a 56k connection) attempting to squeeze every single bootleg I could possibly lay my hands out of my fellow mourners.
Grace, the album, as it is, and as it was released in 1994, is so close to perfection in many ways. A string of almost half-finished sounding original pieces, tied together with some well picked, but obscure, cover versions, giving Grace a unique appeal. Indeed, listening to some of the live recordings I have of Jeff Buckley, you can tell that the album as it exists is but a mere starting point to what he wanted to achieve. His dissatisfaction, and displeasure with the release of this album is well-documented. Wrangles with Colombia music, the need for more time, and need for perfection were in his mind at the time of release. The fact that the majority of what made up his second posthumous album, Sketches for my Sweetheart the Drunk, was ready to be consigned to the scrapheap compounds the notion that it was never meant to be released.
Anyone who wants a swift relay of the issues surrounding the release of Sketches would be advised to read the well-researched biography of Buckley and his father Dream Brother by David Brown. The displeasure of Buckley's temporarily estranged bandmates at the time of release is documented, alongside his also temporarily estranged mother's insistence at the release going ahead. Mary Guibert (Jeff's mother and sole executor of his estate) has fought hard to preserve Jeff's memory in the way she believes he would have wanted to be remembered. Guibert was alongside Metallica and Eminem at the time of the first Napster court orders which banned certain search strings, trying desperately hard to stem the flow of badly recorded bootlegs that were floating about on the network.
I personally, even before starting to get a view of the issues surrounding the release of Sketches, felt uncomfortable by the album. It seemed so categorically different to Grace, despite feeling drawn to the new material, it felt wrong. Surely Jeff's well-documented insistent perfectionism would have never allowed these tracks to be heard publicly. And so, when Mystery White Boy was announced in 2000, I felt a little better. A live performance album, with a couple of unreleased tracks, would surely be a more fitting tribute, then the, at times, painfully tacked together sound of Sketches.
At this time I was a subscriber and regular reader of the Jeff Buckley International Newsletter (put together by Guibert and Michael Tighe - Jeff's guitarist). When news of the album arrived through this publication Guibert swore this album was to signify laying the ghost to rest. I breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that anymore releases of half-written songs and badly recorded demos or live tracks would almost constitute something close to grave-robbing. Mystery White Boy was here, a new way to hear the songs I knew line for line. I was happy.
That was until the next year, 2001. Along comes the announcement of the release of Live a L'Olympia. At this point my subsciption to the Jeff Buckley International Newsletter ends. I start to get wary of the estate's intentions. In 2000, we were told no more, and in 2001 there was more, Guibert claiming she was pushed into this because of the incessant downloading of poor quality tracks that was still taking place across the internet. So another live album, it's good, maybe forgivable.
My interest in the Buckley phenomena waned. But everytime I dusted down my CDs I could never resist having a quick listen of what I would term auditory porn. Distilled forever, locked in time, Grace, is the album I go back to, listen to, just a glimpse of what may have been and what never was.
Recently, whilst trawling the music press' websites I came upon some sketchy details for a Grace Legacy Edition CD. Not being imminent in release I didn't really look into the details. Until today, that is. The other half was looking at the iTunes Music Store, when he brought to my attention the big banner stating a new unreleased Jeff Buckley track. I looked over to find out it was none other than the song Forget Her. A much sought after and widely available track for Buckley aficionados. It was replaced, at the last minute, with So Real at the time of Grace's release. Buckley apparently insisted he never wanted the track to be heard, despite the fact the song has "big hit" all over it like a neon sign. More instantly accessible than the other tracks on Grace, his record label could smell the money in this song. So now ten years after Grace it appears Columbia have decided to rake over Buckley's bones one more time. Written in the wake of an acrimonious break up Buckley didn't want to share the sentiments in this song with millions of people. However, now it seems it's fair game. The song is currently available as a preview to the main album re-release on the iTunes Music Store. I am sure I have read Guibert saying in interviews that this track would never be released. But sure enough, as of next Monday profits from the re-release will be lining Columbia Records' and Guibert's designer pockets.
Now an admission. I am, or at least was, just as bad as the Columbia and the executors of Buckley's estate. I have and have had for some time two different copies of the above track hiding on an old CDR somewhere, as I have copies of many badly recorded covers Buckley performed on various tours. I have his Meltdown Festival 1994 set, his set at his father's memorial at St Ann's in New York. I have had for a long time all the much touted previously unreleased tracks that have appeared on the various live albums and re-released singles that have cropped up since Buckley's untimely death. Surely, myself and the other fans who have at one time or another maniacally collected these masterpieces are to blame. I feel bad, I do. But then again, all the stuff I have has lousy sound quality, it's like listening to only a snatch of the song. There is a sort of ghoulish voyeurism that surrounds the idea of collecting fragments of the life of a dead person. I don't remember how I acquired all the tracks, but I have them, I must have been some sort of sick freak to want them at some point in time. I never put a penny towards buying these tracks. Despite the fact that it was a painstaking process five years ago, it's relatively easy now to acquire rarities. I still feel that they aren't necessarily in the public domain. All the late night Napster sessions of my youth seemed, in some silly way, to account towards payment for the music I was acquiring. A daft, unrealistic, sentimental notion.
Am I curious? Of course. I did spend years in awe of Jeff Buckley, trying to glimpse just a little bit further by listening to scratchy recording of covers he performed on tour. Every time I got something new it was like opening a fresh box of chocolates. But for me, that ended a long time ago. I can agree with the release of the live albums, they complement Grace well. The difference between the live sound and studio sound in all of Buckley's recordings is tangible, hence why I believe Grace can never be considered complete. I know I'll want to own the Grace Legacy Edition. But I don't know if I can. That scratchy live copy of Forget Her really is the only one I want to hear. I can't agree with the release of a song that was explicitly never meant to be sold. It would appear that for now at least, for Jeff, it really is never over.
Popularity: 25% [?]