D G
Who says I can’t get stoned,
Em A
Turn off the lights and the telephone?
Bm E
Me in my house alone —
G A D
Who says I can’t get stoned?
Who says I can’t be free
From all of the things that I used to be?
Rewrite my history —
Who says I can’t be free?
D G D A
It’s been a long night in New York City;
A G D A
It’s been a long night in Baton Rouge.
G D F#m Bm
I don’t remember you looking any better,
Bm E A
But then again I don’t remember you…
Who says I can’t get stoned,
Call up a girl that I used to know?
Fake love for an hour or so —
Who says I can’t get stoned?
Who says I can’t take time,
Meet all the girls in the county line?
Wait on fate to send a sign —
Who says I can’t take time?
It’s been a long night in New York City;
It’s been a long night in Austin too.
I don’t remember you looking any better,
But then again I don’t remember you…
INSTRUMENTAL
Who says I can’t get stoned,
Plan a trip to Japan alone?
Doesn’t matter if I even go —
Who says I can’t get stoned?
It’s been a long night in New York City;
It’s been a long time since twenty-two.
I don’t remember you looking any better,
But then again I don’t remember, don’t remember you…
Outro: D
** These chords and lyrics are interpretations and transcriptions, respectively, and are the sole property of the copyright holder(s). They are posted on this website free of charge for no profit for the purpose of study and commentary, as allowed for under the “fair use” provision of U.S. copyright law, and should only be used for such personal and/or academic work. **
R.E.M.’s latest album Collapse Into Now hit last week amid two months of buzz that it was the group’s strongest outing in more than a decade. This buzz was predictable as most rock bands that have been removed from their zeitgeist for a decade or more get “return to glory” buzz for their next album quite often, but this time the buzz was not wrong.
Let’s back up for a moment and clear some things up: R.E.M.’s recent work was still quite good. Even the much maligned Around the Sun perceptively captured the mood of 2004 America in songs like “Final Straw” and “Leaving New York.” Frankly a band at the point of their career that R.E.M. is at (well past their zeitgeist moment, but still an extremely popular live act) will always face criticism of repeating themselves; well as someone once said “every time I try something new, all they want is 1993.” Yes, many of the same songs had similar lyrical and harmonic themes, but freshness was still there (no one complained about Hitchcock repeating himself by continuing to make thrillers). One valid criticism, specifically, is that the band became a bit too monolithic and too Michael Stipe-driven, and well those critics will be elated to see the increased presence of Peter Buck on this album.
Collapse Into Now starts off with the rocking tune “Discoverer” that is a bit of an announcement (that’s not dissimilar to U2’s “Vertigo”) that the band is back with an upbeat rock tune, but with classic R.E.M. lyricism. Following up the debut track is a series of tracks that make up the strongest parts of the album, including “All the Best,” “Überlin,” and “It Happened Today.” Within these tracks one can see similiarities with other R.E.M. songs both thematically and musically, but they stay fresh and exciting. “All the Best” serves a great rocker and shows that Stipe and company are not afraid to face their career mortality or to be self aware with lines like “It’s just like me to overstay my welcome,” whereas “Überlin” takes a slightly more somber tone, but is classic R.E.M. (and feels reminiscent of their “Losing my Religion”) combining serious themes of loss and change, with surreal lyrics and great harmonies. With “Oh, My Heart” and the remorseful, yet beautiful “It Happened Today,” the band explores the heartache of a Katrina-type tragedy.
While not reaching the heights of the previous songs, later tracks in the album like “Mine Smell Like Honey” and “Me and Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I” are excellent tracks and make the album a cohesive unit and runs the full gamut of the R.E.M. universe. Themes of loss, failure, and coming back rejuvenated from those failures are consistent and well-explored throughout the album: the band has never shied from being referential to its influences (often outside of the musical realm) or to itself, and has a healthy sense of humor and humility about their self, which serves them well.
Another healthy change is having an album that has consistent themes, but has musical variance; this is especially important since their last few releases have had an all or nothing approach with either all hard rocking tracks or melancholic tracks dominated by Stipe’s crooning voice. From the hard rocking sound of “Discoverer” or “All the Best” to the slow paced somber sounds of “Walk it Back,” Collapse Into Now provides everything an R.E.M. fan (or any music fan in general) can ask for. It may not be a great album, but it certainly reaches greatness at times and is a treat for the listener, and really at this point in their career, that is no small feat.
P.S. Fans of Patti Smith or Eddie Vedder should be sure to check out their “cameos” on the album.
And welcome once again, one and all, to the most recent installment of new, original music here at the Laptop Sessions music blog. We like to call this “Original Wednesday,” as we take a break from our daily acoustic covers to air a song written by one of us.
Today’s selection is the second in my “New Album Preview Project.” Each time I post an original song, I will record the next song in order of my preliminary track listing for my new album. From now until I’ve posted them all, I’ll be continuing this project, and hopefully it won’t be long after I finish this little side project that I will finish recording the actual album.
Probably the most difficult part of this project is that I needed to come up with a track listing now, as opposed to when I usually do — after I’ve recorded the principal tracks for an album. To be honest, this order may change by the time I actually release the album, but it’ll be interesting to see how close I came to estimating what the final product will look like.
“No More” is going to be the second track on the album — one with strong guitars up in the mix and an energetic, driving beat. The song is fairly self-explanatory, particularly in the first verse or so. What I like about the song (and another reason why I like having the track so early on the album) is that the second half can be interpreted in a few different ways. This works, as I hope you will see when it is released, for the album concept as a whole.
On the heels of Jim’s big announcement today, I’m definitely getting the itch to see my numbers going more quickly in an upwards direction, so I hope to come back with good news and milestones in the weeks and months ahead, to join him in these exciting times for the music blog.
Thank you, as always, to our loyal viewers (and, if you aren’t one, I hope you will be one starting now!). This is really only the second or third time I’ve played this song in full since I finished writing it, so it’s just a starting poing. I hope you enjoy it and see the potential in it. That’ll be it for me for now, but stay tuned for Jeff and then Jim and then I’ll be back on Saturday.
Hello and welcome to a very special Monday edition of the Laptop Sessions! What makes tonight so special, you might ask? Well, for the first time in months, I’m bringing you a cover song music video of a song that has yet to be released. No worries, though — if you like this song, then you’ll be able to buy it in stores tomorrow.
The song I’m bringing you tonight is “Who Says,” the first single from the forthcoming 2009 John Mayer studio album Battle Studies. There’s a little bit of a story behind this one, so here goes…
I first learned about this album when I happened upon Mayer’s video blog established to document the recording sessions. The first video was a tour of his newly designed and built home recording studio. Do I even need to describe it? Believe me, it’s drool-inducing. Although a couple of the entries were only jams or just a bit weird, I ended up searching YouTube for some of the new songs. As I expected, most were available as live concert performances that someone videotaped and uploaded. I listened to a couple, including “Who Says,” and I started to get excited about this release.
I have a general rule against hearing too much of an album before it comes out. After all, it’s more than half the fun of buying a new album to be able to get in the car, put it on the CD player, and discover the music for the first time. Sometimes this is an exciting, expectation-defying journey (a la last week’s Echo & the Bunnymen album The Fountain). Other times, it can be just as disappointing an experience as one can have (i.e. U2’s No Line on the Horizon deluxe edition CD).
I should also comment on my recent opinion of Mayer.
As I wrote in my review of Where the Light Is, I am a big fan of Mayer’s first three releases — the independently released EP Inside Wants Out, his debut Room For Squares, and his follow-up Heavier Things. And yet, just as he gained “credibility,” I lost interest. Yes, his third album Continuum offers some interesting guitar parts and melodies, but I resented the idea that he needed to become a blues afficionado in order to be accepted by those outside his stereotypical audience of young girls. In my mind, this was a step backward in his songwriting. Did no one notice or appreciate the effort he put into the album design for the first two albums, or the backing vocals in “Your Body is a Wonderland” that echo the chorus lyrics of “My Stupid Mouth”? There was so much care taken with those releases that the minimalism of his last release was disappointing. From the title of Heavier Things alone, one could imply that Mayer was interested in tackling more “important issues” and being taken more seriously.
But, even in Heavier Things, he retained his sense of what was important — interpersonal relations, perspective, ambition, etc. On Continuum, political and social issues apppeared as the subjects for his songs, which always seemed out of place to me.
Anyone who knows me knows that I have an intense sense of loyalty, sometimes to my own detriment. But I had told myself I wouldn’t buy future Mayer releases to spare myself further disappointment, as I did with Where the Light Is. That being said, I can’t deny that this single “Who Says” sounds more to me like the John Mayer that I enjoyed listening to on earlier works. It’s simple, catchy, and tackles the same desires that my favorite John Mayer songs always did — namely, the desire for freedom from personal and social expectations (think: “No Such Thing,” “Not Myself,” “Bigger Than My Body,” and others). I don’t read the reference to marijuana as a literal desire to get high, but rather as a symbol for what society or one’s friends and family members think you shouldn’t do because “it’s not like you.”
So, I’ll give the album a try.
And you better believe there will be a review forthcoming.
Until then, I hope you enjoy my video tonight. I’m not sure what came over me, but I made this one a real production. I tacked on a purposely goofy intro and follow-up documentary that I hope you laugh at — either because it’s funny or because you’re laughing AT me, as long as the result is the same!
And I know that I have other news and ideas on my mind that I wanted to share tonight, but I can’t remember what they are. So, for now, I hope you enjoy this video and hurry back tomorrow for an all-new Jim Fusco Tuesday, then later this week when I post another music review.