Day After Day #104: Sour Times

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). 

Sour Times (1994)

When it comes to audacious debuts, it's pretty tough to beat Portishead's 1994 entry on the music scene. Hailing from Bristol in the U.K., the group featured singer Beth Gibbons and multi-instrumentalist Geoff Barrow, who teamed up with guitarist Adrian Utley. The sound they created was unlike anything else out at the time, especially given the popularity of grunge in North America and BritPop in the U.K.

Portishead's music sounded like a theme for a Bond film that hadn't been released, combining Gibbons' detached and melancholy vocals with the cinematic sounds of a spaghetti western, mixing in Utley's guitar, theremin and hip-hop flourishes like scratching and sampling. They were quickly lumped into the trip-hop genre with groups like Massive Attack, but Portishead had a sound of its own.

Second single "Sour Times" was what really kicked things off for the band, aided by a sample of Lalo Schifrin's "Danube Incident" from 1967's More Mission: Impossible. It was dark, slinky and sinister as Gibbons croons about infidelity.

"To pretend no one can find/The fallacies of morning rose/Forbidden fruit, hidden eyes/Courtesies that I despise in me/Take a ride, take a shot now/'Cause nobody loves me, it's true/Not like you do."

Lounge music was making a comeback in the mid-'90s but this wasn't some Esquivel space age, Art Deco shizz. Portishead was mixing retro and futuristic and the results were incredible.

"Who am I, what and why/'Cause all I have left is my memories of yesterday/Oh these sour times/'Cause nobody loves me, it's true/Not like you do."

I remember it getting played on WFNX here and being wowed by it immediately, but "Sour Times" took a little longer to hit in the U.K. It reached #57 on the U.K. Singles Chart upon initial release, but after the next single "Glory Box" became a hit in 1995, "Sour Times" was re-released and went up to #13. In the U.S., it went to #53 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The group was critically acclaimed and its debut album Dummy won the Mercury Music in 1995. Portishead took a break until releasing its second, self-titled album in 1997. They moved away from sampling as much on that album, using more live instrumentation. But since then, Portishead has only released one more album, 2008's Third. They toured periodically since then, last playing in 2022 at a benefit concert. Gibbons recently released a single from a forthcoming solo album.

Ultimately, Portishead remained as mysterious as their music. They're not officially broken up, so there might be more music on the way, but there might not. Whatever happens, they've left behind three interesting and excellent albums.

Day After Day #103: Taxman

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). 

Taxman (1966)

When you're doing one of these kinds of features and trying to figure out which Beatle song to do, it's no easy task because there are so many great ones. But given that it's April 15, "Taxman" was kind of a no-brainer. And it's a classic that's not quite as ubiquitous as many other Fab Four tracks.

By the time the Beatles recorded their seventh album Revolver, they had already begun evolving their sound. On the previous album, 1965's Rubber Soul, they moved away from the upbeat pop of their early albums and started exploring different instrumentation and more mature lyrics. They also started doing more drugs; John Lennon called Rubber Soul "the pot album," whereas Revolver was influenced by Lennon and George Harrison's extensive use of LSD.

The lead song on Revolver, however, was an angry rant written by Harrison about the progressive tax imposed in the U.K. by the Labour government of Harold Wilson, which had the Beatles forking over more than 90% of their earnings. He was also upset that their taxes were going to help fund the making of military weapons. Harrison got some lyrical help from Lennon, who added some one-liners to the song, while Paul McCartney ended up playing the Indian-inspired guitar solo.

"Let me tell you how it will be/There's one for you, nineteen for me/'Cause I'm the taxman/Yeah, I'm the taxman/Should five percent appear too small/Be thankful I don't take it all/'Cause I'm the taxman/Yeah, I'm the taxman."

The song is considered to be the Beatles' first political statement after making their name with poppy love songs. Harrison even namechecks Wilson and Edward Heath, leader of the Conservative Party. Harrison's guitar riff was inspired by R&B but McCartney's solo echoed the likes of Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, who were known for playing speedy, spacey solos. 

"If you drive a car, I'll tax the street/If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat/If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat/If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet."

Revolver marked Harrison's emergency as a songwriting force in the band, which had been dominated by Lennon-McCartney compositions and covers to that point. In addition to "Taxman," he wrote "Love You To" and "I Want to Tell You."

"Taxman" ends with a brutal verse: "Now my advice for those who die/Declare the pennies on your eyes/Cause I'm the taxman/Yeah, I'm the taxman/And you're working for no one but me." McCartney's solo was then spliced onto the end of the song before the fadeout.

The song was not released as a single, but the album went #1 pretty much everywhere because it was 1966 and they were the Beatles. 

The group would lean into the acid and psychedelia with their next album, a little-heard concept album called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

"Taxman' was ahead of its time in many ways, with some referring to it as a precursor to punk and heavy metal. But it also was a preview of musicians as "tax exiles,": a few years later, the U.K. saw the Rolling Stones moving to France, David Bowie and Marc Bolan to Switzerland, Cat Stevens to Brazil and Bad Company and Rod Stewart to California--all to escape the taxman. Nowadays, musicians set up bands as corporations in tax havens like the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the British Virgin islands.

Day After Day #102: Song for the Dumped

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). 

Song for the Dumped (1997)

I've always leaned towards guitar-driven music, but it's not the be-all, end-all for me. Give me a good song and the rest falls into place. It was that way with the Ben Folds Five, who burst onto the rock scene in the late '90s with a guitar-free, piano-led album of rollicking, quirky songs that perfectly fit that time and space.

"Song for the Dumped" was the song I first heard by the BFF, getting lots of airplay on WFNX and creating some buzz. Weirdly enough, it wasn't the first single released from the band's 1997 album Whatever and Ever Amen; that was "Battle of Who Could Care Less." But "Song for the Dumped" was an uptempo power pop banger with the refrain "Give me back my money, bitch," so I'm guessing that caught the ear of radio programmers.   

It's a pissed-off breakup song, but it's also cathartic and a lot of fun.

"So you wanted/To take a break/Slow it down some and/Have some space/Well, fuck you too/Give me my money back/Give me my money back/You bitch/I want my money back/And don't forget to give me back my black t-shirt."

Folds' piano is the lead instrument here, but I can't say enough about Robert Sledge on fuzz bass who really kicks ass and drummer Darren Jessee; both men provide excellent backing vocals as well. 

The song is obviously relatable for anyone who's been dumped. I think if it had come out a year earlier, it would have hit home even harder for me because I was still stinging from a breakup. In early '97, I was actually in a good place, but man, is this song entertaining as hell.

"I wish I hadn't bought you/Dinner/Right before you dumped me/On your front porch."

The song was released as the fifth single from the album in 1998, but the big hit was the fourth single, "Brick," a slow song Folds wrote about his high school girlfriend getting an abortion. It's a great song and got a ton of radio airplay; it's probably the band's biggest song and a huge departure from the rest of the album.

As for "Song for the Dumped," I just discovered in researching the song that an early version of it appeared on the soundtrack of the terrible Ellen DeGeneres movie "Mr. Wrong," which came out in 1996...a year before DeGeneres famously came out as a lesbian on the Oprah Winfrey Show. The movie was about a single woman looking for a husband and by all accounts was bad, but somehow "Song for the Dumped" found its way onto the soundtrack despite never actually getting played in the movie.

Ben Folds Five released one more album, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner, in 1999 before splitting up a year later. Folds went on to a solo career, produced and arranged William Shatner's album Has Been, contributed to soundtracks and played in The Bens with Ben Lee and Ben Kweller. Sledge played in the bands International Orange and Surrender Human, while Jessee formed the band Hotel Lights. The BFF reunited a few times before releasing The Sound of the Life of the Mind in 2012 and touring, but they appear to be done for now.

Day After Day #101: She Sells Sanctuary

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

She Sells Sanctuary (1985)

When people look back on the '80s, they gloss over a lot. There's a tendency to focus on the big stars, bright colors and dancing, but if you grew up then, there's was also persistent dread over the possibility of thermonuclear war. Y'know, just minor details. But anyway, we're just here to talk about music and there was a lot of cool stuff happening in the U.K.

The Cult was formed in Bradford. They started as Southern Death Cult in 1981, which was then shortened to Death Cult in 1983 and then the Cult. Frontman Ian Astbury led Southern Death Cult and then teamed up with guitarist Billy Duffy, who has an interesting musical background. He grew up playing in punk bands in the late '70s, convinced one of his best friends, Johnny Marr, to start playing guitar, and convinced Morrissey to start singing in bands. 

As the Cult, Astbury and Duffy started out playing goth-tinged post punk. Their first album, Dreamtime, came out in 1984 and fared pretty well in the U.K., hitting #21 on the album chart. They didn't waste any time moving forward, releasing "She Sells Sanctuary" in May 1985, ahead of their second album Love, which came out in the fall. 

They played the song on the Dreamtime tour in '84 and it was evident early that the song was a hit. Duffy takes two approaches to the song: the shimmering intro and the heavier riff that propels the proceedings along. Astbury was cultivating a Jim Morrison/shaman image and would write some pretty hippie-dippy lyrics. He told the AV Club that "She Sells Sanctuary" was about matriarchal energy and the cosmos or something like that. Whatever it was about, it was pretty great and the band's best song.

"Oh, the heads that turn/Make my back burn/And those heads that turn/Make my back, make my back burn/The sparkle in your eyes/Keeps me alive/Keeps me alive, keeps me alive/The world/And the world turns around/The world and the world, yeah/The world drags me down."

Pretty repetitive, but it works.

The song particularly stood out because the rest of Love is more goth and droney, which is not to denigrate it. Love is an excellent album, but "Sanctuary" is clearly a step above.

"The fire in your eyes keeps me alive/And the fire in your eyes keeps me alive/I'm sure in her you'll find sanctuary."

"She Sells Sanctuary" hit #36 on the BIllboard Dance Club Songs, while getting up to #15 on the U.K. Singles Chart and #11 on the Canadian singles chart. 

As for Love, the album went gold in the U.S. and the songs "Rain" and "Revolution" got some rock radio play. But for their next album, 1987's Electric, the Cult totally changed their sound. Working with producer Rick Rubin, the band embraced a hard rock sound, with Duffy going into full AC/DC mode. They had a hit with "Love Removal Machine" and turned into an arena band as the album went platinum in the U.S. They had similar success with 1989's Sonic Temple, but had diminishing returns after that. 

The Cult has continued to record and tour periodically and is reportedly working on a new album. But their peak, for me, is "She Sells Sanctuary." 

Day After Day #100: Me Myself and I

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Me Myself and I (1989)

It's always a momentous year right before the move into a new decade, but 1989 was an interesting year for music as well. Just as alternative rock was moving more into the mainstream, hip hop was evolving, too. Gangsta rap was emerging with NWA and Ice-T, political rap was in the forefront with Public Enemy and party rap remained strong with new voices like Digital Underground. There was also a move to a more positive sound, which was led by De La Soul.

A trio out of Long Island, De La Soul was formed in high school by Kelvin "Posdunos" Mercer, David "Trugoy the Dove" Jolicoeur and Vincent "Maseo" Mason. They used a ton of interesting samples; in addition to James Brown and George Clinton (who were sampled by everybody), De La Soul sampled songs by Hall and Oates, Johnny Cash, Steely Dan, Eric Burdon and War, Liberace, the Turtles, Steve Miller Band, Kraftwerk, Billy Joel, the Monkees and the Rascals. In fact, they used so many samples that their back catalog wasn't available for download or streaming until last year, when a deal was worked out over the sample royalties.

They rapped about peace and positivity, which led some to call them hippies, which they pushed back on. De La Soul often rapped about D.A.I.S.Y, which stood for "Da Inner Sound, Y'all," and referred often to the Daisy Age. The group's first album, 3 Feet High and Rising, came out in February 1989 and was an immediate hit. 

De La Soul's sound and aesthetic was so original when it came out because they defied hip hop convention by avoiding tough guy poses and posturing, instead embracing wonder and weirdness. The album also introduced the concept of skits between songs, which has since become commonplace and somewhat annoying.

"Me Myself and I" was the fifth single released off 3 Feet High and Rising. The main sample came from Funkadelic's "(Not Just) Knee Deep," a 15-minute funk jam from 1979. 

"Mirror, mirror on the wall/Tell me, mirror, what is wrong?/Can it be my De La Clothes/Or is it just my De La Soul?/What I do ain't make believe/People say I sit and try/But when it comes to being De La/It's just me, myself and I."

De La Soul used the song to respond to being called the hippies of hip hop, noting that they weren't just a gimmick.

"Now you tease my Plug One style/And my Plug One spectacles/You say Plug One and Two are hippies/No we're not, that's pure plug bull/Always pushing that we formed an image/There's no need to lie/When it comes to being Plug One/It's just me, myself and I."

The song went to #34 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Dance Club Songs, Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts. It also went to #1 in the Netherlands, where a TV station had made a documentary about the group when they were unknowns.

The album also spawned hits with "Say No Go" and "The Magic Number." Critics also lauded the album, which placed on numerous best-of lists for the year and for all time. De La Soul has had a successful career, collaborating with Mos Def, Gorillaz, Yo La Tengo and many others. 

Sadley, Trugoy the Dove died in 2023, just before the release of all of De La Soul's music on streaming services. The surviving members have continued to tour, opening for Wu-Tang Clan and Nas last fall.

Stuck In Thee Garage #523: April 12, 2024

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Time is flying by way too fast. I don't feel like I'm getting that much older, but then I'll look at the date and realize a decade has passed. I got that feeling again this week on Stuck In Thee Garage, when I played songs from 2014 in hour 2. But then again, time IS a flat circle.

This playlist likes to cut up its beer cans:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Mdou Moctar - Funeral for Justice/Funeral for Justice

Mutes - Barely Living Proof/Buried Where You Stand

Dope Yeti - Halfway Gone/Dope Yeti

Gustaf - Close/Package, Pt. 2

Valley Lodge - I Wrote a Song/Shadows in Paradise

Meatbodies - Silly Cybin/Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom

St. Vincent - Broken Man/All Born Screaming

Waxahatchee - Evil Spawn/Tigers Blood

Chastity Belt - Tethered/Live Laugh Love

The Reds, Pinks and Purples - Your Worst Song is Your Greatest Hit/Unwishing Well

Ride - Portland Rocks/Interplay

Restorations - Someone Else's Dream/Restorations

Boeckner - Dead Tourists/Boeckner!

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Girl 71/Glasgow Eyes

Spiral Heads - Stays the Same/'Til I'm Dead

Charles Moothart - Fire I Call Home/Black Holes Don't Choke

Split Single - Fragmented World (live)/FW10 Bonus Tracks

Hour 2: 2014

Soccer Mom - It's Probably Not Your Fault/Soccer Mom

Two Inch Astronaut - Part of Your Scene/Foulbrood

Krill - Unbounded Nameless Future/Steve Hears Pile in Malden and Bursts Into Tears

Death From Above 1979 - Trainwreck 1979/The Physical World

Johnny Foreigner - Shipping/You Can Do Better

Young Adults - Void / Old Kids/Void

Speedy Ortiz - Oxygal/Real Hair

Ava Luna - Daydream/Electric Balloon

Ty Segall - The Faker/Manipulator

Sloan - 13 (Under a Bad Sign)/Commonwealth

The Afghan Whigs - Parked Outside/Do to the Beast

Hallelujah the Hills - Do You Have Romantic Courage?/Have You Ever Done Something Evil?

The War on Drugs - Red Eyes/Lost in the Dream

Bob Mould - Hey Mr. Grey/Beauty & Ruin

Gord Downie and the Sadies - Crater/And the Conquering Sun

Cloud Nothings - Now Hear In/Here and Nowhere Else

Fire up the rock teleportation device HERE, pally!

Day After Day #99: Brimful of Asha

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Brimful of Asha (1997)

Things were fairly laid back in the late '90s, at least on the surface. Sure, there was all that hubbub about Bill Clinton getting impeached, but for the most part, it seemed like life wasn't so bad. We were in for a surprise a few years later. But in 1997, the indie rock scene was getting interesting, with some different sounds emerging. One of those was the band Cornershop out of England.

Formed in 1991 by Tjinder Singh, the band combined indie rock with Indian music and electronic dance sounds. They caught the attention of David Byrne and signed to his Luaka Bop label, releasing their second album Woman's Gotta Have It in '95 and playing some dates on the Lollapalooza tour that year. 

But I was unaware of them until '97, when they released the album When I Was Born for the 7th Time and specifically the single "Brimful of Asha," which got a fair amount of play on WFNX locally. The song pays tribute to Asha Bhosle, a playback singer who sang more than 12,000 songs for Indian movies, which are chock full of song-and-dance numbers. Singh also shouts out Bhosle's older sister Lata Mangeskar and Mohammed Rafi, who were also well-known playback singers. 

"There's dancing behind movie scenes/Behind the movie scenes, Sadi Rani/She's the one that keeps the dream alive/From the morning, past the evening/To the end of the light/Brimful of Asha on the 45/Well, it's a brimful of Asha on the 45."

The album version is the one I'm most familiar with, and it's got a great, chill groove that just sets up in your brain and hangs around for a while.

"And singing, illuminate the main streets and the cinema aisles/We don't care about no government warnings/'Bout that promotion of the simple life/And the dams they're building." 

But the catchiest part is the refrain: "Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow/Everybody needs a bosom/Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow/Everybody needs a bosom/Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow/Everybody needs a bosom, mine's on the 45."

I picked up the CD and saw them play the Paradise and have enjoyed them on and off ever since, but I honestly had no idea until I was just doing some research for this post that Fatboy Slim's remix of "Brimful of Asha" was absolutely huge in the U.K., going to #1 on the singles chart there. Not totally surprising, given Fatboy Slim was massively popular at the time. The remix is quite different from the original, with tempo sped up and the song modulated to a higher key. I prefer the original, but apparently many people feel differently. 

The rest of the album definitely had that weed-heavy vibe, especially songs like "Good Shit" (which ended up in a Target commercial as "Good Ships"), "Sleep on the Left Side," "Good to Be on the Road Back Home" and a version of "Norwegian Wood" sung in Punjabi. 

Singh took a hiatus from the band for a few years, working on an electro side project called Clinton, and then returning for 2002's Handcream for a Generation. The album did well in the U.K. but didn't get much notice on this side of the pond. Cornershop has released five albums since then, the last one coming out a week before COVID shut everything down in March 2020.

I haven't really heard much of their post-'97 output but I want to check it out because I genuinely enjoy the band. I have revisited When I Was Born for the 7th Time and picked up a used copy of Woman's Gotta Have It, which is also excellent. 

Completely Conspicuous 634: Stay Positive

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about the music of 2008. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Phil's #5: My Morning Jacket changes things up
• Jay's #5: Big space rock ripper from Black Mountain
• Phil's #4: Springsteen-inspired indie rock from the Gaslight Anthem
• Jay's #4: Stephen Malkmus gets jammy 
• Phil's #3: Tom Petty's early band Mudcrutch gets back together
• Jay's #3: Sloan with an economical power pop release
• Phil's and Jay's #2: Dark, inspired record from the Gutter Twins
• Phil's #1: Brooding classic from Death Cab for Cutie 
• Jay's #1: The Hold Steady hits an anthemic peak 
• Craig Finn is an atypical yet terrific frontman
• Favorite songs: "Stay Positive" (Jay), "I Will Possess Your Heart" (Phil)

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Day After Day #98: Going Underground

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Going Underground (1980)

When it came to making the most of a short time together, the Jam had it figured out. Formed in 1972 by Paul Weller while still in high school in England, the band took a few years to figure out their direction. Weller and the band got into 1960s mod culture after listening to the Who and adopted that style, listening to '60s soul and R&B and wearing mohair suits onstage. 

Their early sound was lumped in with punk bands like the Clash and the Sex Pistols, but it also was steeped in '60s influences; they covered the Batman theme on their 1977 debut album In the City. Weller's lyrics were topical, speaking out against the decline of the British Empire, condemning police brutality and detailing working class life in the U.K. They didn't get much attention in the U.S. at first, but they continued releasing albums and singles to acclaim on their side of the pond.

The Jam's fourth album, Setting Sons, was their first to chart in the U.S., hitting #137 on the Billboard 200 chart. In March 1980, the band released the single "Going Underground" and it debuted at #1 on the U.K. Singles Chart, spending three weeks there. It was the band's first of four #1 singles. 

The song wasn't released on any of the Jam's six studio albums, but it has been included on many subsequent compilations as well as reissues of the Setting Sons album. It was originally supposed to be the B-side of "Dreams of Children," but a pressing plant mix-up made the single a double A-side and radio DJs started playing "Going Underground" more. 

Weller criticizes the Thatcher government, voter apathy and militarization in the song.

"Some people might say my life is in a rut/I'm quite happy with what I got/People might say I should strive for more, but/I'm so happy I can't see the point/Something's happening here today/A show of strength with your boys brigade/And I'm so happy and you're so kind/You want more money, of course I don't mind/To buy nuclear textbooks for atomic crimes/And the public gets what the public wants/But I want nothing this society's got/I'm going underground."

The band was in the U.S. when the song went to #1 in the U.K. Once they heard, they flew back to the U.K. and played on Top of the Pops.

"We talk and we talk until my head explodes/I turn on the news and my body froze/This braying sheep on my TV screen/Make this boy shout, make this boy scream/Going underground."

Sound Affects, the band's fifth album, was released in November 1980, going to #2 in the U.K. and #72 in the U.S. and featured the hit "That's Entertainment." In 1982, the band's final album, The Gift, was released, featuring more soul and R&B influence, especially on the #1 hit "Town Called Malice." It was a very successful record, but Weller was ready to move and announced plans to end the band. The other members of the trio, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler, were shocked at the decision and wanted to keep going, but Weller was done. Foxton didn't speak to Weller for 20 years, and Buckler as of 2015 still hadn't spoken to him since the breakup. 

Weller immediately went on to form the Style Council, which combined pop, soul and jazz; a very different sound from the Jam. The group had a few hits, including "My Ever-Changing Moods," before splitting up in 1989 after its label refused to release its final album. Weller then went on to a fairly successful solo career, experimenting with different styles, including the guitar-driven sound he was first known for. He's got a new album coming out this year and just announced a U.S. tour in the fall. 

Foxton and Weller made up in 2009 and collaborated on two songs for Weller's 2010 solo album, but Weller has steadfastly refused any suggestion of a Jam reunion. Still, the band left behind quite a legacy in a short time.

Day After Day #97: Tom Boy

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Tom Boy (1992)

Rock music is played all over the world, but that doesn't mean bands from all over the world find success here. Take, for example, the Netherlands. Every so often, a Dutch band will score a hit in the U.S., but it's fairly rare. Probably the biggest songs I can remember from Dutch acts are "Radar Love" by Golden Earring and "Venus" by Shocking Blue. But another that stands out to me as an essential indie rock classic of the early '90s is "Tom Boy" by Bettie Serveert.  

The band had been together since 1990 but by the time their 1992 debut Palomine was released on Matador stateside, they were still an unknown quantity. But tfrom the moment I heard those opening chords of "Tom Boy," I was hooked. The song stood out because it was so calm and self-assured, with Carol van Dijk's vocals evoking Chrissie Hynde and Peter Visser crisp guitars setting the mood. 

The calmness comes even as van Dijk sings about overcoming stage fright.

"From where I stand I can see/They've got the upper hand on me/Reminds me of this world at last/Simply changes much too fast for me/And when they call out, will I hear them/And when they fall out, will I see them."

Seeing the video on 120 Minutes and hearing it on the local alt-rock stations, I was struck at the time at how different "Tom Boy" was from almost everything else that was happening at the time. It was extremely chill and retro but also new and modern at the same time. 

"They call me a Tom Boy and I love it/'Cause only a Tom Boy could stand above it/And simply change it."

The song wasn't a hit, per se, in that it didn't chart, but it is certainly beloved by music fans of a certain age. Bettie Serveert followed up "Tom Boy" with a string of songs that got decent airplay and tours with the likes of Dinosaur Jr., Buffalo Tom, Superchunk, Belly and Jeff Buckley. 

The band became known for Visser's Crazy Horse-inspired guitar work as a counterpoint to van Dijk's uniquely laid-back vocals. After 1997's Dust Bunnies album, Bettie Serveert kind of dropped off the radar over here. Even though they've released seven albums since 2000, the most recent being 2016's Damaged Good. I can't say I've kept up with their output, but they've maintained a career, although it appears they haven't played any U.S. dates since 2010. They may have peaked with their debut album, but it was a hell of a peak.

Day After Day #96: Stay With Me

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Stay With Me (1971)

When it comes to rock singers of the Baby Boomer generation, few are more talented than Rod Stewart. But talent isn't everything. There's something to be said for decision-making ability, and it's safe to say ol' Rod has made some interesting ones throughout his career. Early in career, though, he could do no wrong.

Stewart had singing gigs in his early 20s with the Dimensions and Long John Baldry, but it was when he joined the Jeff Beck Group in 1967 that he started to really make a name for himself. With Stewart, Beck and guitarist Ronnie Wood, the band had one of the hottest lineups around at a time when their contemporaries were Led Zeppelin, the Who, Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream. 

But Stewart and Wood only lasted two albums before venturing out and joining the remaining members of the Small Faces, who were without a singer and guitarist after Steve Marriott left to form Humble Pie (keeping up with all this?). The new group was called Faces, with Ian McLagan on keyboards, Ronnie Lane on bass and Kenney Jones on drums. The band's sound was blues and R&B-oriented rock and its first two albums, 1970's First Step and 1971's Long Player, didn't have any hits and didn't sell well. 

Confusing matters at the time was the fact that Stewart also had a separate solo deal and would use the Faces as his backup band on some songs released on his solo albums. While Faces' Long Player stiffed, Stewart's 1971 album Every Picture Tells a Story went to #1 in the U.S. and U.K. on the strength of hit singles "Maggie May," the title track and a cover of the Temptations' "(I Know) I'm Losing You," which featured the Faces. There was some grumbling that Stewart was saving the best Faces material for his solo albums.

But later in 1971, Faces would release A Nod's as Good as a Wink...to a Blind Horse and this time around proved the charm, getting up to #6 on the Billboard 200 and #2 in the U.K. No doubt thanks to Stewart's solo success, the Faces broke through with "Stay With Me," a ripping rocker that features Wood's bloozy guitar and Stewart's raspy voice put to great effect. Lane and Jones were a formidable rhythm section and McLagan's keys swept up everything in a swirling haze. The band was tight yet boozy and adventurous as Stewart sang about a one-night stand.

"In the morning don't say you love me/'Cause I'll only kick you out the door/I know your name is Rita 'cause your perfume's smellin' sweeter/Since when I saw you down on the floor."

Written with Wood, the song careens all over the place like the drunken protagonist as he implores his partner for the evening to stick around.

"You won't need too much persuadin'/I don't mean to sound degrading/But with a face like that you got nothing to laugh about/Red lips, hair and fingernails/I hear you're a mean old Jezebel/Let's go upstairs and read my tarot cards, come on, honey/Stay with me, stay with me/For tonight, you'd better stay with me."

The song was Faces' biggest hit by far, getting to #17 on the Billboard Hot 100, #6 on the U.K. Singles Chart and #4 in Canada.

As they approached work on their fourth album, Faces was a band divided. Stewart was becoming a solo star and missed the first two weeks of recording sessions, so Ronnie Lane took a greater role in developing the material. Although the album's biggest hit was its title track, "Ooh La La," which was sung by Ronnie Wood in a rare lead vocal turn (the song would make a comeback two decades later when it was featured in movie Rushmore). Stewart slammed the album after it was released and Lane soon left. The band toured for the album but after releasing a live album in 1974, split up.

Wood replaced Mick Taylor in the Rolling Stones, where he continues to play to this day. Lane went on to a solo career and recorded an album with Pete Townshend; he was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and inspired a charity concert in the early '80s. Jones replaced the late Keith Moon in the Who. 

As for Stewart, well, he continued to have success as a solo artist, although the quality of that post-Faces work is debatable. He was one of the first rock artists to go disco, and then moved on to release a lot of forgettable pop schlock over the next few decades. His last few decades have been spent doing standards and occasionally reuniting with former bands for occasional shows. But when you watch old clips of the Faces (see below; "Stay With Me" is at the 29-minute mark), I think you'll agree he was pretty amazing in those early years. I can't begrudge the guy for going for the easy money, but damn.