Center Of The Universe #29: A Bit Much

Giant Sand, “Center Of The Universe”
Roxy Music, “Just Another High”
Quicksand, “Slip”
Public Image Ltd., “Banging The Door”

The first song after our theme song is the last song on Roxy Music’s Siren, a slow-burner about a fling Bryan Ferry thought might be something more. The curtain may come down for romantic heroes at that point, but life goes on for everybody else. Quicksand prescribes discipline, sleep and isolation on the title track of their debut album, but that last suggestion curdled for John Lydon on Public Image Ltd’s The Flowers Of Romance, whose best songs capture the madness of being in an apartment too long when the walls aren’t thick enough to shut out the world.

Galaxie 500, “Decomposing Trees”
Guided By Voices, “Lips Of Steel”
Luna, “Teenage Lightning”
Little Milton, “We’re Gonna Make It”

Galaxie 500 gawkily describes a psychedelic experience, as was their wont. Guided By Voices sounds charmingly gawky on a song from 1987’s Sandbox, released two years before Galaxie's On Fire. That's a fun fact some indie rock fans might find hard to wrap their head around. Galaxie 500’s Dean Wareham takes a far different look at youthful drug experiences on Luna’s “Teenage Lightning,” from the 2002 Close Cover Before Striking EP (the finest of their many fine releases, in my opinion). Little Milton’s “We’re Gonna Make It” is one of the finest adult love songs I can think of. Not adult in the erotic sense, but in the brutal cognizance of potential economic despair, and the need for emotional connection and partnership to keep moving. Not necessarily romantic connection, either! Makes a damn good protest song, too.

Electric Six, “My Idea Of Fun”
Monica, “Don’t Take It Personal (Just One Of Dem Days)”
The London Suede, “The Drowners”
Rancid, “Bloodclot”

“My Idea Of Fun,” from 2009’s KILL, is the antithesis of “We’re Gonna Make It,” Dick Valentine's narrator without worry of poverty (“riding the penthouse elevator/ applying the smackdown on all y’all haters”), getting his jollies from the agony of others. On Monica’s classic debut single, a #2 hit in 1995, she’s glad she’s with a Little Milton instead of a Dick Valentine, but still needs a little space sometimes. Brett Anderson wanted zero space on Suede’s classic debut single, which only made it to #49 on the UK chart, a low they'd never see again for over a decade. I saw “Bloodclot,” the first single after Rancid’s platinum selling ...And Out Come The Wolves, a lot on 120 Minutes when it dropped in 1998, but alternative radio was done with the band. But then, radio probably hadn’t wanted to be playing stuff from Epitaph Records in the first place. Still sounds like a winner to me!

U2, “Night And Day”
Arcade Fire, “Empty Room”
Rufus Wainwright, “Dinner At Eight”
Soul Coughing, “I Miss The Girl”

Does anyone remember U2’s “Night And Day” cover from Red Hot + Blue? It’s a bit much, but I enjoy it. In hindsight, the Cole Poter cover an obvious prelude to their Achtung Baby aesthetic, but I rarely see it acknowledged alongside that album. Regine Chassagne and the rest of Arcade Fire also qualify as "a bit much," but “Empty Room” might even rate above “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” for me as far as her spotlight numbers go, the song racing forward til she’s left a Francophone ghost in its wake. I have to admit Rufus Wainwright might be a bit much for me if I wasn’t a big Loudon Wainwright III fan, enamored of how his son writes scathing lyrics his acerbic folkie Dad could appreciate, only to revel in the sound of his voice at their expense. It's a perfect way to frustrate one's elders, with “Dinner At Eight” his most explicit acknowledgement of the impetus. I’m sure somebody thinks Soul Coughing was a bit much, what with the nasal Knitting Factory doorman going “zoom zip” at the mic. But I love how Mark Degli Antoni soundscapes around the rhythm section too much to sweat M Doughty's steez.

Frank Sinatra, “The Song Is You”
Billy Ocean, “Loverboy”
DMX, “Slippin’”
Wurld Series, “Growing (For Now)”

Frank Sinatra gets meta with a Kern/Hammerstein song about what a lovely song you are. Billy Ocean gets meta on a Mutt Lange collaboration that just missed the number one spot, putting a happy spin on Loverboy’s “When It’s Over” and naming it “Loverboy.” DMX somehow breaks my heart with a harrowing recollection of his troubled youth that directly references MedicAlert ads on the chorus. Then an instrumental interlude from New Zealand’s Wurld Series. We needed a breather.

Au Pairs, “Repetition”
Scott Walker, “Track 5”
Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show, “Sylvia’s Mother”
Motorhead, “Overkill - Live”

It’s a British and/or overwrought block! Birmingham’s Au Pairs take all the fun out of the word “Repetition” in 1981 that Manchester’s The Fall added in 1978. “Track 5” from Scott Walker’s Climate of Hunter opens “It’s a starving reflection if he dies in the night” and doesn’t get fun from there. Dr. Hook had a lot of fun (and success) doing Shel Silverstein songs, but their smash first single written by him is a weeper the writer swore was autobiographical. I mostly believe it, though I wonder if the interruptions of capitalism via phone operator actually happened, or if Silverstein knew that was a great tragic-ironic hook. Motörhead probably wouldn’t have covered the song, but they had no beef with laying it on thick. Apologies or you’re welcome for the boisterous intro to “(We Are) The Roadcrew” included with “Overkill” on the digital version of No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith.

Afghan Whigs, “Jyja”
Bonnie Raitt, “Mighty Tight Woman”
Missy Elliott, “Izzy Izzy Ahh”
Devin The Dude, “Discouraged”

Greg Dulli, inspired by a story involving a Japanese sex robot, cries out for “Jyja” on the Afghan Whigs’ latest album. Bonnie Raitt’s cover of Sippie Wallace’s “Mighty Tight Woman,” recorded for her debut album when she was 21, might have you cry out “Bonnie!” in shock. “Izzy Izzy Ah” from Missy Elliott’s debut album might make you cry out “Missy!” though not in shock. Devin The Dude’s albums, “Discouraged” coming from 2021’s Soulful Distance, aren’t likely to make you cry out “Devin!” but still might make you go “dude…” in admiration. And with that, we depart once again from the Center Of The Universe. Thanks for your time!