Soi Disantra: Our Own Hall of Fame

March 03, 2006

Our Own Hall of Fame

I figured it was time to start a new feature here at SD. Who knows how long it will last, but we’ll try to be good about it. It’s the SD Hall of Fame, where each Friday (that’s the plan, at least), one of us will pick an album that is in our own personal Hall of Fame, talk a little bit about it, and then in SD fashion, PowerRank the top five tracks from said album. And also point out the worst. The usual Hall of Fame rules will apply – an album must wait five years (from the end of the year the album was released) before being eligible. So that means, for example, Streethawk won’t be eligible for induction until next year. Anyway…

I figured we’d start things off with the most terribly obvious choice imaginable: The Velvet Underground & Nico. A couple of weeks ago one of my co-workers asked me, “Do you like the Velvet Underground?” And I just sort of looked at her, somewhat puzzled. Aren’t I a skinny white dude who likes bands you’ve never heard of? Come to the D.C. Arts Center Saturday night (seriously, come, it’ll be fun, or will at least resemble fun) and tell me if I like the Velvet Underground. Like any good indie rocker in training I went through a serious and intense Velvet Underground phase that lasted much of my freshman and sophomore years of high school. I think the phase effectively ended after I saw Lou Reed at the 9:30 Club in March of 1996, reading his lyrics off of a prompter. That wasn’t very fun.

1. Heroin – It’s still my favorite. There were a few years there where I just couldn’t really listen to this song, but those years have passed. I mean, two chords (both of which I know, I might add), a shitload of noise and some dude just talkin’? How can you not support that? Here’s a somewhat amusing anecdote related to this song. One time during whatever science class I had to take in sophomore year of high school, I was terribly bored (imagine that) and took to just writing out the lyrics to this song. Well, I was doing this at the same time I was throwing crumpled up bits of paper at my teacher every time she turned around to write something on the board. Yeah, I don’t know why either. She was a bitch, she had it in for me, and it was my only non-honors class (fuckin’ science), so I guess I was just trying to fit in, or something. Anyway, she caught me, took my paper, gave me detention and then tried to talk to me about my “problem” at said detention. I told her it was just a song. But alas, it’s not just a song, is it?

2. I’m Waiting for the Man – Hey, it’s chords D & G! You may remember them from such songs as: “Heroin.” This one is always neck and neck with “Heroin” for the top slot. It’s heavy and droney and manages to be damn catchy at the same time. Tougher to do than it sounds. If the goal of these two songs was to make impressionable youth want to do hard drugs, man, that was achieved. But then I saw that ’96 show at the 9:30 and realized, Oh, I guess that’s what happens if you don’t die.

3. Sunday Morning – For whatever reason, “Watch out, the world’s behind you” has always been one of my favorite lyrics of all time. I think it’s the perfect example of a line that could be interpreted as somewhat deep and meaningful, but at the same time could be complete nonsense.

4. Femme Fatale – At this point, my most constant source of amusement with this record is hearing Nico try to sing the word “clown,” which always comes of as “klon” as in Klondike, that of the famous silver square. I’m fairly certain Lou Reed got a huge kick out of it, too, since he made sure to get the word prominently featured in two of the three Nico songs. And you know the original version of “I’ll Be Your Mirror” was something like, “that inside you’re twisted and a clown, please put down your hands…” Seriously, can’t you see the entire band and Warhol sitting in the studio watching Nico do the vocals, then just starting giggling every time she said, “klon”? “Wott is so fonny? Why are you loffing so much? Am I some sort of klon or something?” Bonus points for the great/hilarious backing vocals, which are also pretty great on “I’ll Be Your Mirror.”

5. Run Run Run – For a long time this was my least favorite of the first nine songs on the album. But it’s certainly grown on me. There’s almost a sort of proto-boogie rock thing going on, or maybe I’ve just heard ZR use that phrase too much lately. But there’s certainly more of a groove here than anywhere else on the album, and I can dig it. For a while I would have put either “Venus in Furs” in this slot, but now I just get creeped out when I hear Lou sing, “Now bleeeeeeeeed for me.”

Worst – European Son
This one gets the nod over “Black Angel’s Death Song” because it lasts for twice as long. I will always be a fan of the dragging of the chair followed by the shattering of the glass, but after that’s done, the next seven minutes doesn’t really offer all that much to get excited about. As ZR said, it’s “too Caley.” And whether that goes for a dish cooked up by Chen Kinichi or a song, it’s probably not such a great thing.

We'll be less obvious next time. Promise.

--DM--

March 03, 2006 | Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/157233/4381185

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Our Own Hall of Fame:

Soi Disantra

Whatever the fuck that means.

March 03, 2006

Our Own Hall of Fame

TrackBack

Comments