13 - All the Same 'ole Cliches

The Concept:  Feature a song a day for every day of the most magnificent season of Autumn.  The songs are ones that capture the thoughts/ideas/images/feelings of the season for me. 

It's my "Autumnal Playlist" if you will.

It was November 1998 when I heard this song.  Once again, Evangel days.  I could be found hanging out with my good friends of Sc1N.  Erik, Josh, Brendan, Nate, and Stu.  Good guys.  I had listened to some of this band's music in high school, but had given it up for what would be a long and dis-interesting story for this post.  Suffice it to say, I was well acquainted with the band when I heard this tune.  But this track had a slightly different feel to it.  Possibly because it was a cover.  And to this day, I don't recall ever listening to the original straight through.

I remember going to Best Buy and picking up this intense two-disc set.  Yes, there was no downloading with this song.  Well, not for me.  Much to the band's chagrin there has been lots of downloading...back in those days...thanks to places like Napster.

Song 13/Day13

"Turn the Page," as covered by Metallica from their album, Garage Inc.

Like a lot of the songs in this series, it too has a slow mournful beginning with a steady intense build up the breaking of the song.  Say what you will about Metallica, until St. Anger, they knew how to put an album together.  Garage Inc. has several songs like this cover of Bob Seger's classic, and Lynyrd Skynyrd's, Tuesday's Gone.

While I can't give them the recognition for the lyrics, I do love the delivery of them.  There isn't a voice in metal/hard rock that growls as good as James Hetfield.  Even when I first heard it I knew it was a cover (that was the point of this album,) but it felt like a personal song for him.  As it's about life on the road for touring musicians...it's easy to translate that empathy/sympathy between just about any act.  Well, maybe not Disney Pop acts.

This song works great for the Fall because of the "road" feel of it.  I can visualize a band traveling during the verses and bridge.  The slow times at a lonely hotel in the middle of nowhere.  Bad weather.  Maybe one of the band is leaning over some spiral notebook jotting down lyrics in the tour bus.  The choruses, with the change in music, fits well with images of them performing, giving everything they've got into their music.  Wanting to make a connection with their fans.

That's what I see.

And as stated in previous posts, Autumn really stirs up my wanderlust.  It's difficult to hold it back sometimes, this year in particular, but it's always there.  Waiting for some great tunes, and a road to strike out on.  I really dig these lyrics (the whole 2nd verse):

You walk into a restaurant, strung out from the road
And you feel the eyes upon you, as you're shaking off the cold
You pretend it doesn't bother you, but you just want to explode
And most times you can't hear 'em talk, other times you can
All the same 'ole cliches: is it woman? Is it man?
And you always seem outnumbered, you dare not make a stand, make your stand.

Also, the whole concept of 'turning a page' for whatever reason, conjures up images and feelings of Fall.  It's my favorite time of year to read.  Reading and Road Trips.  Maybe that's a blog series for next year...

But curling up with a good book as the weather starts to cool, the night comes on quicker...imagination gets to run a little freer.  At least mine does...and it's rarely on the leash anyway.  While many people think of Spring as the beginning of new life and all that pastel nonsense, for me it's Autumn.  Yes, the leaves and grass die.  But they are the incubators of the new to come.  If Spring is birth, Autumn is conception.


So, if you're planning any long road trips (maybe we can still catch New England before the leaves are done?) take a listen to Turn the Page.

Here's the link to "Turn the Page" from Metallica.

enjoy!
-Jesse

11 - They Won't Dare Bring Our Names Up Again

The Concept:  Feature a song a day for every day of the most magnificent season of Autumn.  The songs are ones that capture the thoughts/ideas/images/feelings of the season for me. 

It's my "Autumnal Playlist" if you will.

This is another song from Chuck.  Well, it was from the artist first, but I heard it on Chuck.  It's played over a brutally heart breaking scene.  Surprisingly, I don't only associate this song with that scene.  Probably because it was just a bit of the song.  Saw the episode for the first time over Memorial Day weekend this year.  From Chuck - Season Five.

This tune, like many on this list, have mellow beginnings an build to something bigger and more driving.

Song 11/Day11

Today's Song:  "She Tows the Line," by Crooked Fingers on the album, Breaks in the Armor.
The only thing I don't like about this song, is the spelling of the title, and therefor miss use of the idiom.  I'm sure it was intentional.  But it bugs me.  However, the change in the spelling of Toe to Tow, works powerfully with the scene in Chuck that the song is used in.

Why I picked it?  This song takes me to the coast of New England in the Fall.  Now, I've never really been there, but I've seen enough pictures/movies/shows etc that I get an idea.  When listening to this song I feel the drumming of the steel grey/blue waves on the beach.  The white sand and dying tall grasses at the crest of the hill leading down to the shore.  There is a playful sarcasm carried through it.

I imagine a group of friends at a beach house, exploring the shoreline by day, having fun and laughing.  While night falls they light up a bonfire on the beach and have hot dogs and S'mores and all that campfirey goodness.

I guess that's what this song makes me want to do.  Anyone up for it?

The lyrics feel a bit ambiguous to me.  They seem to have significance to the singer, but it kinda feels like he's giving directions and using landmarks that out-of-towners wouldn't know.  But I still like it.  Especially these:

see it so clear in her eyes
she won't be bringing it up again
so she rises and goes
so they'd never know
that she even came here at all

Enjoy the tune.  I've not gotten around to exploring more from the artist...but would like to someday.  Perhaps when I go on that trip to New England shores in the Fall.

"She Tows the Line," by Crooked Fingers.  Toe or Tow the line.  There is a difference!

-Jesse