Daily Listen by Brian Brock

The Grateful Dead - Live in Buffalo, June 6, 1992

I found audio of my first Dead show on archive.org.  It’s great to hear it, because my primary memories of the show were:

a) being kept even more awake than I already was by someone in a tent five feet away from mine, playing the Pogues’ “Christmas in New York” over and over again at Two O’clock in the morning.

b) at Niagara Falls the next day, playing with a fountain which made a single unbroken inch-thick arc of water.  I found I could cut the flow with my hands and watch little water cylinders follow their intended path.  That was pure joy, making little rhythmic patterns.

The music was good, too.  I had this song, “He’s Gone”, stuck in my head for the rest of the trip, and listening back, it is still my favorite.

I never before realized how similar Will Oldham’s singing is to Jerry Garcia’s.

The Pogues - “I’m a Man you don’t Meet Every Day”

The Pogues - Rum Sodomy & the Lash (hear Sally MacLennane)

Shane MacGowan’s songs and singing make this a great album, the Pogues’ arrangements and playing make it a great album, the two together make it a classic.

But when it comes down to it, it’s the songs.  I often gripe about well-made songs albums that just don’t have any songs in the first place.  The Eels EP from 25 October comes to mind.  It’s fine, it’s good, the songs are real songs, but there’s no fiber.  MacGowan’s songs just kill.

What makes them better?  To begin looking for an answer to that, I listened to “Sally MacLennane”.  Originally, Sally MacLennane is a kind of stout, I imagine a good pub beer.  But of course it’s also a name.  So while ostensibly a song about a man leaving his barmates for a different life, the song is easily about Jimmy also leaving behind a sweet girl, who the narrator eventually marries.  “I learned to love the virtues of sweet Sally MacLennane.”

At the same time, the song is about leaving life behind, and coming back in people’s memories as they get together to drink and reminisce.

… the point is, I can keep coming back to this song, hearing it from different angles… the sound of the words and choice of rhyming words also really sets the lyrics apart here (“born” “morn” “horn” makes me laff), and the music is on the other side of the map…

(via micek:)