Jumping out of the speakers

This is a new favorite description of mine. I heard it a few years ago on VH1 behind the music, or a top 100 of the 80s, or some wasted time on television that I should have spent writing, or something that I'll never get back. But I digress. Music, or sounds that "jump out of the speakers" are the things that resonate with all of us. We all have different songs, and there are some we have in common. So I took some time, and made a list of some of mine.

She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult

There's more than one way to jump out of the speakers, but She Sells Sanctuary does it with a one of a kind guitar lick that permeates any room it reaches, and Ian Astbury's vocal clarity dominates, and the song explodes after the opening guitar loop.  Billy Duffy's riff lives on in the same strata as the opener to Brown Sugar, and You Really Got Me. This one lives on all by itself. Ian Astbury's powerful voice repeats the same verse, but it doesn't matter. This song jumps out and gets you. This is the birth of what we call "Alternative" today. The Cult were the forerunners to Nirvana, and Pearl Jam in the 90s, and today's Green Days.



Where The Streets Have No Name - U2

There's so much going on here it's almost too much. There's the opening crescendo that bursts into Bono's vocal, and the lyrical tone of a desperate search for.....whatever one's searching for and this song jumps from the get go. This is the first song, for me anyway, where I really heard, and thought about Edge as a first rate guitar player. I don't know how he gets so much sound out. They sound like two or more guitarists, and it's just one guy. It's probably the song that gave us the first idea that U2 would be the biggest band in the world since the Beatles.



Badlands - Bruce Springsteen

Springsteen (personally) could fill a list of "jumping out of the speakers" himself but Badlands is my pick as the best of his. It has the qualities of a hymn, and religious revival, as lyrics of finding redemption wherever one may get into you. "I believe in the love that you gave me/I believe in the faith that can save me/I believe in the hope and I pray that someday it may raise me above these badlands" It's the best live song he does. Lyrical wisdom, and a hopeful keyboard part force this song into the listener. The imagery put into your head by the lyrics and you can't help but feel the emotion of a man yearning for redemption from whatever; shattered love, life's hard times, the wear and tear of just trying. It wears on us all, but redemption is within - find it.



Free Fallin' - Tom Petty

Some songs jump out to get you the way a thunderstorm does. Free Fallin jumps out the way a warm breeze envelops you as you sit outside on a summer day. It just goes through you. The simple acoustic riff, and Tom's distinctive voice just melts into and around you. I remember hearing the echo of "Free Fallin" during the chorus thinking "Nobody can sing like Tom Petty." Not that he's a technically great vocalist, but he's so distinctive. This is another song you have to experience live. The sound of the ENTIRE arena, or amphitheatre (if you're lucky enough to catch as outside show - where Petty belongs) singing the chorus......it's the sensation that the word "unbelievable" was invented to describe.



Holiday - Green Day

"Can  I get another amen! AMEN!!!" It's been said all you need to be a rock star is 3 chords and the truth. This is a living example of that platitude. The political/cultural theme of the piece only adds to the power of Armstrong's underlying riff. It's been said that Green Day musically is not complicated endeavor, but that's it's brilliance. Simple pieces are laid down as a base, and the truth (at least as the writer sees it) is generously applied, and the result is an infectious back beat, amazing guitar groove, and lyrics that tell you how full of shit you are. It's what rock and roll is at it's best, and Holiday is a shining example.



Kickin' My Heart Around - The Black Crowes

Love stinks, and while J. Geils tongue in cheek is another candidate for this list, the urgency of Chris Robinson's "Fo' the last tiiimeeee - STOP KICKIN' MY HEART AROUND!!" over a lick, that's on top of a slide lick just explodes. This is blues infused rock and roll in a straight line from Little Richard, to Led Zeppelin to Black Crowes. It's a punch in the face, or a punch in the gut depending on your most recent experience with love, or what you may have though was. Powerful from beginning to end.



Don't Stop Believing - Journey

Easy. Steve Perry. I'm glad I found a decent live clip, because Steve Perry is not a product of the studio. While Escape was the 3rd Journey album featuring him, this was the first time his voice was on full display. "Somewhere in the niiiiiiiiight" That sound is permanently ingrained in anyone from the 80s memory banks, and this song lives on. (and on and on and oooonnnnn - I know, but too easy)



I know there  are more, but this is a blog. It's gotta end.