Here She Comes Again - The Stands

Here She Comes Again - The Stands

2:19

All Years Leaving, 2004

Written by Howie Payne

Back in 2023, I featured "When This River Rolls Over You," from the same album, on the blog, and was struck by how much it adhered to the 1960s Dylan template.  This song from the Liverpool band is far less Dylanesque, but still wearing its influences openly, all 1960s and 1970s British jangle pop meets Teenage Fanclub.  It features a catchy familiar melody and tight harmonies.  The lyrics tell of someone's girlfriend who comes and goes, and may not be healthy for the friend.  "Constantly turning yourself in her circles / And rolling yourself into a tight little ball / You were thinking she could / Maybe reach a hand out to find you."  

Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season - Jimmy Buffett

Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season - Jimmy Buffett

4:23

A1A, 1974

Written by Jimmy Buffett

This song, like so many songs by Jimmy Buffett, is written from the perspective of Jimmy Buffett.  Strolling along Florida State Road A1A, he takes a critical look at a grey sky and choppy water.  He's hungover, overslept, and hitting the hair of the dog.  No need to worry overmuch, though; he can always go on a tour if things get hairy.  "It's time to close the shutters / It's time to go inside / In a week I'll be in gay Paris / That's a mighty long airplane ride."  The laid-back, almost resigned, vibe of the song belies the need implied in the lyric for Buffett to maintain a frenetic pace to keep himself going.

Falling And Laughing - Orange Juice

Falling And Laughing - Orange Juice
3:51
You Can't Hide Your Love Forever, 1982
Written by Edwyn Collins

The only thing I know about this Scottish post-punk band is that Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian considers them one of the greats.  With a droning, jangle-pop sound reminiscent of the Smiths and R.E.M., this song, their debut single, combines hesitant, vulnerable vocals with bright guitars and keyboard lines.  The lyrics tell of a love denied the narrator: "You say that there's a thousand like you / Well, maybe that's true / I fell for you and nobody else / So I'm standing here so lonesome."

Listening To the Rain - Doc & Merle Watson

Listening To the Rain - Doc & Merle Watson
3:14
Home Sweet Home, 1998 (recorded 1967)

Written by Don DeVaney, 1967?

This bluegrass number, like the entire album it's on, is a blend of old and new recordings.  The label took thirty-year-old tapes and digitally added the fine instrumentation of Marty Stuart, mandolinist Sam Bush, and others to fill out the duo's sound.  Merle's skill at the banjo is evident on the recording: his lightning-fast picking adds a jauntiness to the otherwise quite bleak lyric ("The beating on the window can't compare with the beating that I'm taking / The window's gonna hold, but look at me, I'm already breaking").  Note: This song was first officially released by the Osborne Brothers in 1970, but since every source I found insists these Watson tapes are from 1967, I can only assume DeVaney wrote the song earlier than the Osborne released it.

Dancing Barefoot - U2

Dancing Barefoot - U2

4:45

single, 1989

Written by Patti Smith and Ivan Král, 1979

I didn't know until I wrote this up that this was a Patti Smith song.  The Edge's driving guitar riff on this track is a great complement to Bono's hissing, murmuring, crooning vocals.  The lyrics are impressionistic, depicting a state of confusion, falling, wholly subsumed in some mysterious woman who has the singer in thrall. The homophone at the end of the chorus — "I'm dancing barefoot / Heading for a spin / Some strange music drives me on / Makes me come up like some heroine" leaves the interpretation open that the narrator may be talking about a very real addiction to a drug.

Pissing In a Wishing Well - Dusk

Pissing In a Wishing Well - Dusk
3:51

Glass Pastures, 2023

Written by Dusk?

The previous Dusk song I covered, “Too Sweet,” featured Julia Blair on vocals; this one leans more toward country-rock, with drummer Amos Pitsch taking a turn behind the mic. It comes in with a slow drumbeat driving a breezy, laid-back melody, before the lyrics give the song a little jolt of energy. The whole thing has a relaxed, groovy feel, but the playing is tight and polished enough that the band's ease and camaraderie shows though; this is a group that gels live, you can tell. It's an easy rocker with strong Jayhawks influences, Ryley Crowe’s pedal steel whining over trilling '70s rock'n' roll licks while the rhythm section lays down a solid bed for Pitsch's pleasant vocals.

Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love) - The Swingin' Medallions

Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love) - The Swingin' Medallions

2:21

single, 1966

Written by Don Smith and Cyril Vetter, 1963

The Medallions are a septet of clean-cut nerds who play beach pop, yet have the stones to drop the G in "swinging" to show their hepness and add screaming party noises to this song.  But the real audacity is singing the song itself (originally recorded by Dick Holler and the Holidays), which is as risqué a tale as you'll find outside of prewar blues.  "She loved me so long and she loved me so hard / I finally passed out in her front yard."

California (All the Way) - Luna

California (All the Way) - Luna

4:15

Bewitched, 1994

Written by Dean Wareham

I don't usually care for shoegaze or this type of dreamy pop, but the laid-back Velvet Underground by way of Yo La Tengo sensibilities in this song hit me where it feels right.  It's a wistful, beautiful song of love not so much going wrong as simple fading away.  "Why can't we smile just like we used to? / Why don't you figure anymore? / Why has my sympathy now turned to malice? / It doesn't matter anymore."  It's restrained and atmospheric, riding on a gentle groove; even the guitar solo is relaxed, at least until the final moments, when jagged freeform riffs fade us out.

Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) - Squeeze

Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) - Squeeze

3:58

Argybargy, 1980

Written by Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook

With a one-note guitar solo followed by an intricate piano solo, this catchy, bright number isn't the typical pop song.  But then, Squeeze isn't the typical pop band.  The lyrics limn a vivid picture of typical British beach scenes: topless ladies, surfers, people reading books on the sand; meanwhile the narrator apparently is giving his girlfriend a standing manual orgasm: "But behind the chalet, my holiday's complete / And I feel like William Tell / Maid Marian on her tiptoed feet / Pulling mussels from a shell."  His aim is accurate, he's pulling her up towards him, the mussel a Georgia O'Keefe representation.  It's an extraordinarily graphic idea to hide inside such a cheerful, radio-friendly pop song, made even funnier by the song's breezy, almost innocent delivery. More evidence that most people doesn't listen to lyrics.

Hurtin' (On the Bottle) - Margo Price

Hurtin' (On the Bottle) - Margo Price

4:12

Midwest Farmer's Daughter, 2016

Written by Margo Price, Mark Fredson, Jeremy Ivey, Caitlin Rose

Despite being something of a young'un (well, when she started), this is a classic country tonk song with steel guitar and lyrical sensibility that could come straight out of the pen of Hank Williams: "I put a hurtin' on the bottle / Baby now I'm blind enough to see / I've been drinking whiskey like it's water / But that don't touch the pain you put on me."  The delivery, though, is pure vintage Dolly, with a bright twang and an easy-going pace, as if she wasn't running from demons so much as chilling with them.