Welcome back to the Vibe. Now bi-weekly, for your listening pleasure! This week, we’re back to a bit of a buffet. A little bit of everything for your tastes this time.
After I get into a groove or fixate on something and I know I am not the only person who does this, I immerse myself in something so much that I begin to get tired of it. Punk and metal in the last couple weeks was that fixation. Before that, it was country music. After periods of fixation, I like to explore all genres and find something else to get lost in. I like to find meaning in other music that I might not have listened to before. This week is a jumble of all sorts of songs spanning a bunch of genres. Some classics, some songs that I’ve loved for years, some new songs that I’ve come to love recently.
Enjoy the vibes. Spring is peaking into our lives, and soon those late night Summer drives will be back before you know it!
Free Bird - Lynyrd Skynyrd (1973)
Produced by Al Kooper - Written by Allen Collins & Ronnie Van Zant
“If I leave here tomorrow
Would you still remember me?”
I know I talk a lot about those long drive, summertime songs. Free Bird is up there as one of the all time greats in regards to that genre of song. A song about moving on and forward, and not hurting those you are leaving behind. The real highlight is the near five minute guitar solo, stretching from the 4:30 mark until the fade out at just over 9:07 in the song. I am not a police officer, but when that solo hits and you’re on the highway, I think it is legally required that you floor it.
This song has infested my Youtube feed recently. Mostly videos of people speeding in video games set to the Free Bird solo. Thanks to those dumb little meme videos, this song has come back into my general rotation.
New Person, Same Old Mistakes - Tame Impala - Currents (2015)
Produced by Kevin Parker - Written by Kevin Parker
I got really into Tame Impala after having my own personal battles with depression and anxiety. This song spoke loud and clear to me, and anyone who has had anxiety as badly as I’ve had it, you’ll see yourself in the lyrics. Even through the opening lyrics:
“I can just hear them now
‘How can you let us down?’
But they don’t know what I’ve found
Or see it from this way ‘round”
I’ve felt that. Either coming to family with ways that I think or worried that friends are going to think things that I have said or done are stupid. The self doubt that eats you alive with anxiety. I’ve thankfully grown past most of the worrying about what others think. Life is yours to make what you will of it and being worried about those types of things will just wear you out without you ever taking action.
Tommy The Cat - Primus - Sailing The Seas of Cheese (1991)
Produced by Primus - Written by Les Claypool, Larry LaLonde, Tim Alexander & Todd Huth
“Well, I remember it as though it were a meal ago”
I mentioned before that I spent a few years learning bass guitar and mentioned some of my idols. Les Claypool of Primus was one of those four pillars that made me really realize that the bass guitar was just as cool as a regular guitar. If you’ve never heard of them but are a fan of adult cartoons, they did the South Park theme song. It’s even Les Claypool dressed in the red and white striped shirt during the show intro!
One of my favorite songs, Tommy the Cat has that funk in all the right places. Primus were pioneers in the genre of funk metal, with the bass of Les Claypool front and center. The grooves that the man goes on are amazing, and he really shows what the bass guitar can do. Crazy to think he was considered for Metallica after Cliff Burton died. We would’ve missed out on Primus.
3’s & 7’s - Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris (2007)
Produced by Josh Homme & Chris Goss - Written by Josh Homme, Joey Castillo & Troy Van Leeuwen
This one has been an ear worm for a while and it makes me think of two specific things, one more of an interpretation than the other. The first thing that I remember is playing this as a young lad in Guitar Hero 3. I remember the Japan stage and Godzilla tearing up the background while you played this song and a couple others, Cult of Personality by Living Colour being another one that brings those memories forward.
The other thought I always have is that this song is secretly about poker. Three and seven is not exactly a hand that you want to have at the table, but to win you’d have to bluff your way out of it.
“Lie, Lie to my face
Tell me it ain’t nothing
That’s what I want to hear”
I was into watching professional poker for a while, so hearing this makes me think of poker legend Daniel Negreanu. Possibly the best to ever hold the cards.
As for the song itself, it always sounds like all the instruments are playing different songs with the tempo changes.
Sloth’s Revenge - Dirty Heads - Home | Phantoms of Summer (2013)
Produced by Lewis Richards & Jim Perkins - Written by Jared Watson & Dustin Bushnell
A little bit of California love. I’ve never been to LA, but Sloth’s Revenge is what I can picture myself listening to with my feet in the sand at the Santa Monica pier. A cool acoustic jam to sit back and relax with. One that I think is about not losing hope in any aspect and never giving up on your friends.
“Our bond is our blood and thicker than water
Like Goonies, never say die.”
There is another line in this song that stood out as significant to me for a long time while I was still battling my own emotions and life struggles.
Sometimes it feels like life is holding you back from what you are ready to achieve. Ready to fly but you don’t have your wings. This is not an impossible roadblock and life always finds a way of working out. Your wings will grow and you will fly someday, just keep doing you.
NEW SHOES - BROCKHAMPTON - TM (2022)
Produced by Romil Hemnani, Jabari Manwa, Jonah Abraham & Johnny Dutra - Written by BROCKHAMPTON
First, I have to give a shoutout to my boy D-Ryder, for recommending me a healthy amount of BROCKHAMPTON to listen to. If you read this D, thank you!
December 2022, I flew out to British Columbia for a family event. On our flight home, it was finally not raining and I threw this album on to listen to. NEW SHOES will forever be burned into my brain as the song that played as I flew over the Rocky Mountains. I’ll never forget that sight of the white capped mountains, and the delivery of the line:
“I sold everything but pussy and my soul!”
Some things just stick with you forever, you know? That’ll be one of them for me.
Monkey Wrench - Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape (1997)
Produced by Gil Norton - Written by Nate Mendel, Pat Smear & Dave Grohl
“Wasting another night on planning my revenge”
I get into my own head on top of being a daydreamer. I know I am not the only one to have thought of intricate revenge plots on people who I think have wronged me. Always just daydreaming and never the execution, but it has never hurt to think about all the things you would want to say to someone.
One of my favorite live performances of this song is Dave pulling a fan up on stage to play the guitar for this one. Get yours, Kiss Guy!
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