Two More Rediscovered Gems

Being on the road can be a pain, especially during the “great 2020 Covid-19 stoopid-fest”. As I said in an earlier article, I’m certainly glad to be home.

Yet being on the road, even during such times, does have a few good points. One of those is the chance to listen to music you missed the first time around – with the perspective of additional age and experience.

Here are two cuts I missed when they first came out. They were always great tunes; I just didn’t realize that until recently.

Yeah, this is another musical “walkabout”. Continue at your own risk. (smile)

. . .

David Bowie was a true original. And his breakthrough album – Ziggy Stardust – was critically acclaimed. It’s today widely regarded as a popular music classic.

However, like every other artist Bowie had to continue with his recording career; this meant putting out other albums. His next original album was eagerly expected – and like every other artist, I’m sure he knew he’d have a hard time topping his previous effort.

Bowie’s follow-up album to Ziggy Stardust was titled Aladdin Sane. The title is a deliberate play on words. It references an unfortunate fact in Bowie’s immediate family: mental instability was prevalent in his mother’s side of the family. That, however, won’t be discussed today (though it might be the topic for a future article).

I’d passed on getting a copy of Aladdin Sane when it was first released. And in truth, though it was initially more commercially successful and charted higher in the US than did Ziggy Stardust, IMO it’s nowhere near as good. (That’s understandable; few albums are as good as Ziggy Stardust.) It’s not as focused, thematically, and though it has its moments it’s simply not as good as its predecessor.

Because I’d passed on the the album, I’d missed a true gem of a tune – one that was never released as a single (though it was used on a single released in Italy as a the B-side for another tune from the album). For years it was also omitted from Bowie’s “best of” compilations. It’s a tune where Bowie rocks out in Rolling Stones style, and shows he can hang with anyone in rock ‘n roll.

Bowie himself described the Aladdin Sane album as “Ziggy Stardust comes to America”. This tune perfectly describes that – as well as the raucous early 1970s.

Without further ado: Watch That Man.

 

 

. . .

The second tune here has a similar history, at least for me. U2 is a favorite of mine, and their two great albums of the late 1980s/early 1990s – 1987’s The Joshua Tree and 1991’s Achtung Baby – though stylistically different are absolutely excellent. But after that, for a while U2 decided to explore dance and pop.

I’m not that big of a fan of dance/pop music. So I decided to pass on U2’s next album, 1993’s Zooropa.

Some time ago, I acquired a digital copy of Zooropa. But until this trip, I’d never listened to it.

I gave it a quick listen while traveling. The first nine songs were IMO, well, “meh” – OK, but not great. So that confirmed for me that it was an album worth passing on.

Then I listened to the album’s final track. I was amazed – by something I never saw coming.

First: it’s a collaboration between U2 . . . and the late Johnny Cash. It’s one of the few U2 songs where Bono doesn’t sing lead; Cash does.

And second: IMO it’s magnificent.

One note before the tune. There’s a rather extended period of silence at the end of the tune, followed by a rather jarring alarm. I’ve read that that was included as a joke, and that the alarm is a radio station “dead air” alarm used to alert DJs to dead air. When I first listened to the tune, I thought it might be some type of hospital code alarm. I’ve never heard either personally, except possibly on TV, so I can’t say for sure which it is.

I just wanted to mention that so that any readers listening to the tune wouldn’t be taken by surprise. For some people alarms – particularly when unexpected – can occasionally bring back bad memories.

 

 

A final note: Cash did a number of collaborations with younger popular artists over the decades, including some rock and roll artists. Some of those collaborations include videos; there’s a third-party video for “The Wanderer” that’s IMO quite good.

However, this may not the best cover or video Cash ever did when he covered a much more recent tune. If you’ve never heard/seen it, his cover of the Nine Inch Nails’ tune “Hurt” – and the video that was made for same – can be found here. It’s truly exceptional, and is worth the time; that’s particularly true if you know some of Cash’s history. But you might want to have a tissue handy.

. . .

Well, that’s all for now. It’s good to be back home, even if the world still seems “stuck on stupid”.

Category: Pointless blather, Who knows