This was the song of my youth. The song carves a path of winding shifting emotions: melancholy, hope, regret with moments of rest and reflection. These shifts come at measure intervals, but the song as a whole remains focused and concise. It plays out like a narrative with a menagerie of jangling chords - Many more chords than you're likely to find in another pop song, but even with the open pallette, there's no fluttering off into jazz territory.
For a few years in a row I made sure that on New Years Eve, this was the first song that I listened to after the clocks turned midnight. In retrospect, that looks like some serious OCD playing out, but for me it was a sort of creative anthem. At a time when I was trying to figure out where to go and what to do and what to strive for, this song gave me a sort of tone to approach my highschool graduation.
Check out this video of the song. The vocals are live and so are the goatees.
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2 comments:
I remember some of those New Years times. Hadn't seen that video in a long time - the live vocals are really cool, too bad Mariah Carey doesn't do that...
Check out the boys doing this on Letterman circa 1982 (before Reckoning came out). Everyone's super skinny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykp0Vq77IBw
True or False:
It is well documented that this song is about Carol Levy. A photographer and dear friend of the band (she took the pictures on the 'chronic town' sleeve). She was killed in a flood just before 'Rekoning' was recorded. 'Camera' is also about her.
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