In the Jim Carroll song “City Drops Into The Night,” there are a couple of lines that I really like:
It’s when the body at the bottom
That body is my own reflection
But it ain’t hip to sink that low
Unless you’re gonna make a resurrection
That’s a reference to drugs and the drug life. But the words are eternal, because everyone has their low points. It’s nice to end strong. And that was very true of Tiny Tim. He went through a couple of decades of nothing much — at least in recorded music. But then he came back in the 1990s and showed that he had plenty left to offer the world.
In 1995, he released I Love Me. It is such a great album that it really is hard to pick one. For example, you really should hear, I Saw Mr Presley Tip-Toeing Through the Tulips. It’s hilarious and could well have been recorded by Mojo Nixon. There is “The Laughing Policeman” — which sounds like it could have been written for him, even though it is from the early 1920s. The title song is fantastic. It even has a charming (and sad) song of his own, She Left Me With the Herpes.
But we have to listen to his cover of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2).” I just lover it. He has an amazing ability to interpret other people’s music. We are going to see that for the rest of the week. Be prepared to be impressed:
That is an unusual and interesting take on the Floyd song. It sounds like very early Ween (vocals, synths) mixed with very early Talking Heads (the main guitar part.) But I suppose the Floyd original guitar sounded Heads-ish, too.
It’s one of the reasons I miss Ween a lot (they’re a little after your time, and put out a lot of really all-over-the-place stuff in the early years, so they were something of an acquired taste.) They could, especially in the later years, mix straight-up guitar rock with pure silliness.
Nobody wants to be silly anymore! Dylan had some very silly songs. The Beatles/Stones did, George Clinton was awesomely silly. God bless Bruce Springsteen, and U2 is surely talented, but they sort of re-wrote the mold of what it is for rock to be taken “seriously.” It’s got to be deadly damn serious, all the time. Rap gets to be silly, and one-hit-wonder bands. I sometimes wonder if an act like Radiohead might break out of their creative funk by doing an EP of goofy-joke songs.
Yeah, Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat is just a joke done in 12-bar blues. I’ll have to check out Ween. I think the best thing about the Tiny Tim song is the drumming. Anyway, the rest of the week is exquisite.
I’d beware of Ween. They had a ton of early stuff that was literally what amused two guys huffing spray-can inhalants. Not because they couldn’t buy better drugs, simply because they were too lazy. There’s some genius in the early stuff and a whole lot of dreck.
They did get better — I think “The Mollusk” is a stunning combination of stupid-silly songs & serious-silly songs like nobody else has ever pulled off, and they had good albums up until they broke up (tour life booze/coke was killing one member.) It’s a huge back catalogue to wade through, though, it’s not one I’d recommend to anyone with a real job and writing to research.
I’m listening to The Mollusk right now. Wow. Absolutely fantastic! Really. Thanks! Very playful stuff. It’s like more fun They Might Be Giants.
Glad it’s fun! I do love it dearly. Silly songs and some rather pretty ones; being a sentimental dope, I liked most of both. The title song is wonderful. “Dancing In The Show,” “Cold Blows The Wind,” “Buckingham Green.” There are some duds. It’s like the “Sgt Pepper” of albums made by two really talented Jersey guys who refused to accept being labeled as untalented.
Yeah, I’ll definitely check out more of their stuff.