Spotify:
open.spotify.com/track/1M2AqYT4Y6X0zRboZgIw8K?si=63845e43759b43dc YouTube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=59wcc2Ml-yk It's hypnotic.
You know it when you hear it, this track stuck out in Jeff Pollack's weekly pick of five. Nothing else resonated, but this did.
Not that I was in a good mood. Usually that determines whether you're receptive to new music, you have to be open to it, and that usually requires you to be settled and reflective, ready to slow down and spend some time in our fast-paced world where you slide through TikTok videos.
So what level do we want to analyze "Bag of Bones" on? The vocal, the instrumentation, the changes?
I'll throw all that out, that's being too professional, that's not how the audience listens to a record, for them it's a question of whether it resonates, how it makes them feel, and if they like it they'll play it again and again until it reveals itself further, deciphering a line here and there until it all makes sense.
Or it does not.
Now if you click on the YouTube edition of "Bag of Bones" you can turn on closed captioning and read the lyrics and...
One thing is for sure, this is not the words of the Spotify Top 50, there's no element of self-congratulation, domination, the singer is not a world-beater, anything but. This is alienation, this is rock and roll.
A sound that was ultimately eviscerated by MTV. Mood and feel didn't work well there. Maybe Nine Inch Nails' "Closer," but the video was innovative and the sound was new and... Setting your mind free, adrift, that does not square with video, it's the antithesis of today's fast-paced world, it's the other.
You want a respite from the freeway of life. You want to take the off-ramp into the wilderness and slow down and contemplate today's existence, where there's too much news and everybody's out for themselves and compassion is dead and...
That's modern life.
What's a poor boy to do?
LISTEN TO A RECORD!
Actually, the younger generations are all about creation, and I applaud that, but it's quite different from listening, being passive. And that's the essence of music...it's coming out of the speakers into your ears, it's personal, how does it make you feel?
In truth, although somewhat striking, the video does a disservice to "Bag of Bones." The track works better without images. But you need a video today as part of your promotional attack, but one thing is for sure, this is not the eighties, this video was made on the cheap, it was more about conception than seeing money spent on the screen.
Now Lord Huron's been at it for over a decade. Even the rock bands of yore didn't take this long to break. Then again, what is the status of Lord Huron? They're certainly not a household name, but clicking through their site I can see they do great business in the sheds and they are playing Madison Square Garden, although there are plenty of seats still available, but not on the floor, up close.
So what is the experience you're going to have at the show?
Maybe this is the kind of show you get stoned for. It's not about dancing and shooting selfies, but letting the music wash over you.
But this is not Phish, this is not a jam band, "Bag of Bones" is closer to "Rooster" than "You Enjoy Myself." You don't need to be a fan of the band, be deeply invested in the band's history to enjoy "Bag of Bones."
I don't want to overstate the case. "Bag of Bones" is not "Rooster." But both exist in their own space, you invest yourself in them or...you don't.
It's no longer a zero sum game. You're no longer on MTV or not, you're no longer on the radio or not, you can survive quite nicely if you're not in the Spotify Top 50.
Is being a musician enough, or are you in it for the trappings?
There are not trappings for most. Maybe some dope and sex, but you're not going to be featured on TMZ unless maybe you die.
"Bag of Bones" is in a long tradition of rock that began with FM radio in the late sixties. Chart statistics were not primary, there might be a guy chomping a cigar somewhere, but he couldn't tell the band what to do creatively, no way, and the act had a clear line separating what was right from what was wrong, what they'd do and what they wouldn't.
Maybe that's overstating the case with Lord Huron, but...
My inbox will be filled with people telling me "Bag of Bones" is sh*t. People will be vicious. But the joke will be on them, you're wasting time hating on something? Why waste all that energy...no one has to listen to anything they don't want to anymore, you've got yours and I've got mine.
So "Bag of Bones" gives a glimpse of what once was. Makes me believe in rock and roll, because once again it's the antithesis of what is being hyped today. This isn't the only kind of music I like to listen to, but I've got a wide spot in my heart for it, this fills a niche, exercises a muscle, activates a part of me that had been dormant, and it feels so good, not in an exuberant way, but an interior way. You get what I mean?
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