At some point I had to write the post about the name of the blog. It's "One in Ten Words" by the great Canadian new romantic band The Spoons. It's from their amazing Arias and Symphonies album. You may know songs like "Nova Heart", or the title track, or songs from later albums like "Tell No Lies", "Romantic Traffic" or "Old Emotions".
For some reason, "One in Ten Words" was always a special song for me. Maybe it was because Sandy, the bass player, sang lead on it, and I always rather liked Sandy. I remember hearing the song, among others of course, on one of those CHUM/CITY simulcast shows of The New Music.
For those of you not as old as me, or those so old you can't remember, this was how we got stereo sound on the TV back then. They'd play the audio on an FM radio station and you'd see the picture on your TV. But you tell the kids of today that, and they don't believe it.
Well, anyway, here's the song. Enjoy. Merry Christmas.
In previous Origins posts, I've written about Husker Du and Sugar. Now it's time to address Bob Mould. What can I say about Bob Mould? He's been an amazing influence on my songwriting and guitar playing. His music, from Husker Du to Sugar to his solo material has been inspirational and consistently enjoyable. He's grown into a person who seems comfortable in his own skin, very down-to-earth, and genuinely happy. He's had his share of rough spots as well, drug and alcohol dependency, and he blames himself for Husker Du's manager's suicide.
After Husker Du broke up, Bob Mould started putting out solo material. It has been great to watch the progression in his career as he moved through classic confessional songcraft, to dance music and back again to alternative rock. [Aside: I'll confess my discomfort with genre tags like alternative and indie, but often fall back on using them to describe certain styles, time periods and esthetics.] Bob is also working on an autobiography which I will be picking up as soon as it is released.
Here's a video for "See A Little Light" from Bob's first solo album Workbook. Bob has said that he considers his latest, Life and Times, as being a return to the style of songwriting on Workbook, twenty years later.
Here's a video of Bob performing "I'm Sorry, Baby, But You Can't Stand In My Light Any More" from Life and Times.
Bob has announced tour dates and will be hitting Toronto's Mod Club on October 5. I saw their show there for The District Line tour and it was amazing to see Bob in such great form, playing songs from across his career. The Mod Club is one of my favourite venues for live music in Toronto and I'm very much looking forward to the October show. Other tour dates are at www.bobmould.com
A little while ago I wrote about Hüsker Dü. After the dissolution of Hüsker Dü, Bob Mould struck out on his own (more detail coming on that later). After a couple of solo albums, Bob formed Sugar.
Copper Blue still stands as a great album, front to back. It brought much of what made Bob Mould's Hüsker Dü songs great and merged it with the dominant alternative rock sound. These guys were great. I got to see Sugar at a very, very loud Toronto show at the Concert Hall.
Here's the Bob Mould Band performing the Sugar song "A Good Idea". I believe this version is from the Circle of Friends DVD - watching that DVD on a good system is probably the closest you'll get to a night out at a Bob Mould show.
Here's the video for "If I Can't Change Your Mind" from Copper Blue.
Where to start? Should I reach back to the beginning, when I liked the Village People and KISS? Maybe not. I'd like to start with the music that influenced me most. The music that has formed much of the foundation of what I like today, how I play the guitar and how I write songs.
In my teenage years, I got bored with mainstream music and started branching out. I listened to a lot of classic rock, metal and punk, in addition to a brief foray into dance music. And let's get this out of the way out front - I've always liked a good pop song. I like melody and good songwriting, and yes, I realize that "good" anything is highly subjective. So strong pop songwriting with an original twist is a thread that will likely begin to show itself over some time here.
One band really grabbed me back in the 80s and their effect has been felt for many years: Hüsker Dü. With the release of Candy Apple Grey and Warehouse: Songs and Stories, I discovered Hüsker Dü. I always gravitated more towards Bob Mould's songs. Their lyrics, melodies and structures spoke to me and have been a huge influence. There are a lot of sites out there that will take you through the history of Hüsker Dü, Sugar and Bob Mould. I'll just provide a few songs that are standouts for me.
"Could You Be The One" was the first Hüsker Dü song I learned how to play on the guitar and the first one I played with a band. The sound quality in this version isn't great, but hopefully the song shines through.
