My second Random Weekend selection is more upbeat than yesterday’s, at least musically. This little blast from the 90s past comes courtesy of Toad the Wet Sprocket, my pick as the best of the 90s alternative bands that dominated that era.
The most depressing thing about today’s SOTD is when I Googled the lyrics, I found them on a site called ‘Oldie Lyrics.’ Have the songs of my late teens and early 20s officially become oldies?
Today’s Random Weekend selection is a track from Elliott Smith’s posthumous 2007 release, New Moon, a collection of unreleased tracks. These aren’t songs he was working on when he died in 2003, but rather outtakes from the sessions of two of his earlier records.
As with most of Smith’s music, particularly from that era, this song is a) acoustic and b) about drugs.
Most of the bands that put out acclaimed albums in 1972 are on my radar to at least some small degree. I might not own any of their music, but I’ve at least heard of them.
But the German rock band Can is completely new to me. I never knew they existed until their song ‘Vitamin C’ played over the opening credits of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice. And yes, that’s the second Inherent Vice reference of the week — the film features a lot of music from 1972, despite being set in 1970.
The best Brit-pop band to actually hail from Cleveland, Ohio, The Raspberries, put out their two best-known albums in 1972.
In April came their self-titled debut, which featured today’s SOTD (their biggest hit), followed by Fresh in April, on which you’ll find the modest hit ‘I Wanna Be With You.’
The band split three years later.
Stevie Wonder released not one but two classic albums in 1972 — Music of My Mind in March and Talking Book in October.
He followed those records with Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life over the next four years.
You could say it was a productive period for Stevie.
