My Empire of Dirt

This is a companion piece to a similarly-themed article on Pete’s site which, all things being equal, should be published at roughly the same time.

This week we were subjected to music produced by Rick Rubin, who is described in the book as having reinvented rap, rock and country. Once I had reinvented the playlist by deleting the first three tracks (LL Cool J and The Beastie Boys, good riddance), we all got along a lot better. The remaining tracks made the following impressions on me:

Walk This Way by Run DMC and Aerosmith, credited as usual only to Run DMC, and described as breathing life into Aerosmith’s moribund stadium rock. Well thank you very much but I’d rather listen to the moribund stadium rock anytime, so for me, it was Aerosmith that breathed the life into what would otherwise have been any old tedious rap song. This song was part of the soundtrack of my o-level revision year, when I used to work sitting on the floor of the awful dining room in the house where Dad, Nick and I lived before the entrance of the Stepmonster. It was always freezing cold there, but we had a good hifi (for its time), and I was in a confused musical period where the Sunday Top 40 was as important as the Friday Rock Show. That’s what this song means to me.

Cross Your Heart by The Red Devils should also have been deleted. My feelings about the standard blues song have been documented elsewhere. This one features a heroically irritating effort on the harmonica.

Under The Bridge by The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. I often find that a song that starts with a soft catching melody launches into awful, just as I am really getting into it. When this song launches, it doesn’t leave behind the promise it made at the start, and I really do like it a lot.

The Beast In Me by Johnny Cash is lyricful with reflection and sadness; a prelude to Hurt.

By The Way by RHCP again, is not as successful, for me, as Under The Bridge. There just seems to be so much going on in this song. But it’s not awful.

Hurt by Johnny Cash is a song that really moves me. NIN have a way with unexpectedly gut-wrenching ballads, and JC has a way with unexpected covers, that make this music work perfectly for me. This is the winner of the week, an absolutely awesome song. I checked out the video on YouTube and such a powerful piece really gave me shivers. Cash’s decision to sing this must have been filled with bitter meaning, sadness and regret It is a fitting but terribly sad farewell.

Oh Mary by Neil Diamond – Initially I found this dreary, but Pete persuaded me to give it another chance, and while it doesn’t work for me as background music while I’m working (it goes completely unnoticed); it is better as in-ear travelling music. It’s a love song. It’s sweet. But it has moments of slightly annoying over-earnestness.

For the next week, we are being lulled by Nina Simone.