#345) "Rattlesnake" by Live - They've been around for a long time, but I barely noticed Live back in the day. In no way is that meant as a dig at them, more an acknowledgement of their surprisingly long carrer spent flying just under the radar, never taking their place among the more prominent bands of the 90s, even though their body of work is pretty rock solid. They are that band, where you hear a song, you remember it, remember loving it even at some point in your past, but you're not sure whose song it is.
In fact, were it not for a buddy, I'd never have heard "Rattlesnake", from 1997s Secret Samadhi, though when I did, it quickly became, and has remained, a seminal song for me, a dark and cryptic but completely accurate portrayal of my existence when I was in my twenties, I guess everyone's existence in their twenties - that lull in the action, when you're no longer a kid, but not doing anything particularly interesting or dynamic, when, without fail, the party starts becoming a little lamer with each passing week, month and year.
"The rack is full, and so are we, of laughing gas, and ennui..."
But it's more than that. "Rattlesnake" has always made me think of the tenuous grasp we have over what we know as reality, how fleeting our sense of place in that reality actually is. I think a lot about that these days, as I've aged, faced mortality in a steadily dwindling sphere of time, but even twenty years ago, when it was still all before me and I couldn't see the top, bottom or sides of the sphere, this song inspired those thoughts. There but for the gentle breath of a butterfly's wings go I...as I think I know myself.
"In another place, in another time, I'd be driving trucks my dear / I'd be skinning hunted deer..."
#346) "Wrack my Brain" by Ringo Starr - Far and away, my favorite post-Beatles Beatle song, "Wrack my Brain" was written by George Harrison, and if you know anything about such things, you won't be surprised by this. The album, 1981's Stop and Smell the Roses, is further evidence that in a way, the Beatles never really broke up, or at least almost certainly would have reunited at some point, were it not for Lennon's assassination. Each of the other three lads either contributed to, played on or produced at least one song for Ringo, and that was the case with many of their solo albums throughout the 70s, and 80s. Each was a lingering presence in the others' solo careers, sporadically, over time.
"Wrack my Brain" is great, if for no other reason than being unmistakably a George Harrison song. Not quite as spell-binding as "Something" or "Here Comes the Sun", it nevertheless sports that light breath of transcendentalism paired with equally gentle humor that so often found its way into Harrison's lyrics, wrapped in a winsome melody constructed on the bedrock of exquisitely anguished-sounding chord progressions, which were also hallmarks of the "quiet Beatle". Almost makes me wish George Harrison had recorded it, rather than Ringo. Although at the same time, Ringo's "aw shucks" persona lends something to the song, so I guess everything happens for a reason.
"With a will, there's a way, but there's no way I can see, coming up with something you'd enjoy as much as TV..."
