Baba O'Riley

It seems ridiculous to even attempt to write about this song. Just seeing the two words in a row should make you nod your head and agree that it is probably the best song ever written. Sometimes I tire of it, but then, I will hear it. Simply put, every time this happens, everything in the world stops and I am totally in tune with it. There are no better five minutes in the history of recorded music.

But how did it come to this point? How does a song earn its automatic "Best Song Ever" tag? Only a time line could answer this question.

-As a young teen, "Even Flow" is played on both the local radio station and MTV on the hour, making my brother and me huge Pearl Jam fans. As my brother loves to point out (as he did this past weekend) that he was the bigger fan at the time. Being in the infant stages of record geekdom, this did not last long.

-A couple years down the line, I have become a huge Pearl Jam fan to the point that I am buying bootlegged material for insane prices at the local record store. One such recording contains a live cover of "Baba O'Riley." I am officially introduced.

-My dad, having no doubt heard the song blaring from my stereo speakers for months, gives me Who's Next for Christmas. The album quickly becomes my favorite record of all time.

-I devour everything I can get my hands on by The Who, making them one of my favorite bands.

-I see Pearl Jam in Cleveland on the Yield tour. Eddie Vedder points to my friend's Quadrophenia shirt and they play "Baba." It was the highlight of my year.

-Many, many, many magical nights end with my friends and I standing on tables singing "We're all wasted!" at the top of our lungs.

-Guided By Voices puts "Baba O'Riley" into their setlist, where it stays for many years. Over the next couple of years they out Who The Who with spirited renditions.

-I go with my dad to see The Who on tour. 20,000 fans scream along to the song. Pete fuckin' owns.

-Bringing things full circle, I get the Deluxe Edition of Who's Next for my dad for Father's Day. I tell him how much that one purchase means to me. It felt so wonderful to return the favor.

-And to start the loop again, I see Pearl Jam invite Bob Pollard on stage at US Bank Arena. The song? BABA O'RILEY.

Yeah, best song ever. I'm going to go listen to it now. You probably already have started.

Down By the River

I saw Neil Young & Crazy Horse in 1997, the summer after I had graduated from high school. At the time I would say I was a fan of Neil's, but looking back, I only knew about 5% of his catalog. I picked up Mirror Ball because of his association with Pearl Jam when it came out, and had checked out a couple of his other current albums as they came out. I also picked up Decade from Trader Vics sometime in the fall of my senior year, but I had yet to fully appreciate it going into this concert.

The show remains in my top five concert experiences of all time. I was completely blown away. It is funny looking back, because in the biography Shakey author Jimmy McDonough writes off the shows of this time period. Maybe I saw a good night of the tour, but seeing the band rip into "Down By the River" left me in an absolute trance.

I have always thought that the song was a little skeletal, a minimalist song highlighted with Young and Danny Whitten's incredible guitar playing. The back and forth between the two on this song (and really, the whole album from which this song come, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere) is guitar interplay at it's finest. A fantastic acoustic version on Live at Massey Hall 1971 shows a great song to begin with. So in fact, it is a great song taken to exceptional heights by Young and Whitten's guitar treatment.

In the decade since seeing that wonderful performance, I have become somewhat of a Neil Young fanatic. Old Ways is the only album that I haven't purchased, and it too will someday will sit on my CD shelf with After the Goldrush and Landing On Water. It is only a matter of time. I imagine this will not be the last of his songs discussed in this project, but it remains my favorite.

30 Century Man

So I realized that there is no use in having a blog if you don't really write anything. I am going to try to make more of an effort (again?) to put this space to use. As I recently wrote about my experience of drinking and listening to a ton of great songs, I thought I might as well just write about some of the songs. What a novel idea!

"30 Century Man" is a song by the wonderful Scott Walker off his album Scott 3. It is the first Scott Walker song I ever heard. It was featured in the movie (and soundtrack) The Life Aquatic, a movie I love. I really like the song so I decided to check out some of his other stuff. Scott 3 was the first album I tracked down, finding it at Gem City Records one very cold January night. I was hooked very quickly shortly thereafter and began tracking down everything I could find by Mr. Walker. I remember talking about his brilliance for a solid two months to anyone who would listen.

The song is not very representative of Scott's other solo work. It is a short acoustic song that name checks Charles de Gaulle. It sticks out like a sore thumb on both the album and the rest of his work. Needless to say, I wasn't really prepared for the darker tones of his music. I remember listening to Scott 3 as we drove home and being both confused and in wonder of the great music we were listening to the first time. I remain a huge fan.

Wes Anderson movies have been gold mines for older songs that I had not heard and now love. I am sure he will be mentioned a few more times as I write about these songs.

The Dust Has Settled

I added 70 songs. If I had noticed that this was almost double what I set out to do, I probably would have stayed up and played some more. Luckily, I was in no state of mind to notice much of anything. Looking back, it kind of makes me sad that I was able to pick 74 songs at random that I knew every word to. Think of how much of my brain is dedicated to music. If I devoted that much brain power into more constructive areas, I could be a mathematician or something like like. But then, I wouldn't know every note of "Down By the River."

Fuck that.

Loved Tracks

So, I only had 4 loved tracks on my Last Fm page after having it for a couple of months. Fueled by Old Style and PBR, I am on a quest tonight to add at least thirty seven more songs. In a row. We will see how the dust settles.