Alphabet Soup Week 12: The F Tracks

Welcome to week 12 of Alphabet Soup, coming to you this week from a little rented flat in London.

Tina and I flew into London over the weekend and I’ve been involved in risk management team meetings all week (I won’t bore you with the details) while Tina’s been exploring the city. Long, meeting-filled days, followed by business dinners in the evenings hasn’t left much time for this week’s entry, but I’ve managed to cobble something together. Thankfully I’d already selected and sequenced the tracks for this week (and the next two weeks), which has made things a little easier.

This coming Friday we take a train to Wales to start hiking the 135-mile Glyndwr’s Way, one of the UK’s fifteen national trails. It remains to be seen whether the publishing schedule of Alphabet Soup will stay on track, but it’s certainly not anything I’m stressing over at this point.

Let’s jump right into this week’s music!

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ALPHABET SOUP WEEK 12: The F Tracks

This week’s selections:

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TRACK: “Frank Sinatra” from Fashion Nugget (1996)

ARTIST: Cake

We began last week’s playlist with Frank Sinatra the artist; this week we’re starting with Frank Sinatra the song from Cake’s second album, 1996’s Fashion Nugget. It was in extremely heavy rotation for me that year and certainly would’ve been an AOTY candidate, likely a top 20 as there’s not a single skippable track. I was less enamored with their follow up effort, 1998’s Prolonging the Magic, and lost touch with them shortly thereafter.

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TRACK: “Fat Man” from The Essential Jethro Tull (2003)

ARTIST: Jethro Tull

I  mentioned Jethro Tull in passing in the Week Nine installment when writing about my introduction to the Eagles’ track Seven Bridges Road. The same friend that introduced me to that and countless other tracks (and artists) also introduced me to Jethro Tull in the form of this track, Fat Man, from their second album 1969’s Stand Up. By the time Jethro Tull found their way onto my CD shelves, it was their 2003 collection The Essential Jethro Tull.

I’ll never be able to separate this song from the image of my friend prancing around his dorm room playing air mandolin and lip syncing his way through the entire track. It’s one of those joyful flashbulb memories from my college days.

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TRACK: “Foreplay Long Time” from Boston (1976)

ARTIST: Boston

As I  imagine would be the case for many others out there, my introduction to Boston came through More Than a Feeling, the lead single from the band’s self-titled debut album released in 1976. But, once again, it was the same  college friend referenced above (we’ll just call him Jeff) that broadened my musical horizons by playing the album in its entirety one evening in the early 90s.

As was usually the case, just another night with a bunch of close friends stoned out of our gourds, shooting the shit and listening to great tunes. And then Jeff stuck the Boston cassette into the stereo, fast forwarded (remember that?) to the third song, and hit play. Within a couple minutes it felt like the world had shifted on its axis. The instrumental intro to this track hit me HARD and I was left, mouth agape, thinking, “what in the actual funk is this music?!?”. When the vocals start at the 2:45 it’s just absolute magic. This is close to a perfect rock song for me and that first listen led me to track down and add this album to my collection. It’s a short, sharp 36-minutes of technical precision and production wizardry, an album that remains a favorite to this day.

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As you make your way through this week’s playlist, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do any of these tracks really stand out for you? What do you like? What don’t you like?

Please click the button below to leave a comment.

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TRACK: “Fell On Black Days” from Superunknown (1994)

ARTIST: Soundgarden

Soundgarden had already been around as a band for a decade, with three albums under their belt, before I paid any real attention to them. Their fourth album, 1994’s Superunkown, was their breakthrough, debuting at number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling over 300,000 units in the first week, and generating five singles, two of which went on to win Grammy awards. Chris Cornell (RIP) is one of the great vocalists in rock history and his talents are on full display here, perhaps no more so than on his performance of Spoonman. While it’s a slower track with a less frenetic vocal, Fell On Black Days, which Billboard ranked as number 1 on their list of the 15 greatest Soundgarden tracks, remains a powerful example of a band at the top of their game.

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TRACK: “Freaky Be Beautiful” from Silver (1994)

ARTIST: Moist

Moist absolutely exploded onto the Canadian music scene in 1994 with their debut studio album Silver from which Freaky Be Beautiful is drawn. The band won the 1995 Juno Award for Best New Group and the album, which reached number 12 on the Canadian Album Chart and was certified 4x platinum, would be the band’s most successful release.

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TRACK: “Face Me And Smile” from The Lover Speaks (1986)

ARTIST: The Lover Speaks

In the Week Eight installment I proffered my own definition of Desert Island Discs as being eight individual albums as opposed to the radio show’s definition of eight individual tracks (that still feels like a ridiculously limited universe of musical excellence). This week I’m featuring a track from the first album ever to reach the exalted status of a DID for me: the 1986 self-titled debut from The Lover Speaks.

I fell in love with this album the first time I ever heard it at the house of a neighbor who had borrowed it from a school mate. Within short order I’d borrowed the vinyl, crossed the street to my house, and headed directly to my bedroom to make a recording to cassette. I played that cassette to death until I managed to get my hands on the CD a few years later. Almost forty years after its release (damn that makes me feel old!) I still absolutely adore everything about this album.

Face Me And Smile isn’t anywhere close to the best track on the album, but it’s still a fantastic song. At some point I’ll write a review of this album and go deeper about why I love the music, the lyrics, the vocals. But for now, I’m just happy to welcome the first track from this worthy band into the Alphabet Soup fold. They will most certainly be back!

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TRACK: “Fearless” from The Bravery (2005)

ARTIST: The Bravery

In researching this week’s newsletter, I was surprised to find out that The Bravery is an American band, hailing from New York. I’m not sure why, but I’d always assumed they were a British band. It’s not inconceivable that I first heard their 2005 self-titled debut album in the UK, as they toured extensively and were quite popular there. Critical reception of this release was mixed with Pitchfork rating the album 5.3 and Uncut rating it 5 stars. The band would go on to release two further albums, neither of which would approach the success of the debut.

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TRACK: “Follow You Down” from Congratulations I'm Sorry (1996)

ARTIST: Gin Blossoms

I found myself torn having to choose between two fantastic F tracks from early 90s alt-rockers Gin Blossoms. I could’ve gone with Found Out About You from their breakout second album 1992’s New Miserable Experience but ultimately settled on Follow You Down from 1996’s Congratulations I’m Sorry. I never listened to their lesser known debut album, but the subsequent two albums mentioned above were both excellent in their own right. I’d almost completely forgotten about the band until compiling this week’s playlist and it was good to go back and give these gems a listen.

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TRACK: “Feel Free” from So Still (2005)

ARTIST: Mozez

I first heard the voice of Jamaican-born, London-based singer Osmond Wright, who performs as Mozez, on the title track of Zero 7’s 2001 debut album Simple Things. As with everything else on that just-about-perfect album, his vocals are sublime. So Still, the first of his three solo studio albums, released in 2005, was very much in the same vein musically as his work with Zero 7. It was the tail end of a musical era for me - close to a decade of trip hop, downtempo, chillout was on the wane and new musical universes beckoned.

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TRACK: “Fisherman” from Heart of the Congos (1977)

ARTIST: The Congos

If you’re a fan of roots reggae and you’ve never listened to Heart of the Congos, I urge you to do yourself a favor and give it a listen I’m almost willing to guarantee that you won’t be disappointed. Produced by the legendary Lee “Scratch” Perry, and released in 1977, it’s considered by many to represent the high point of Perry’s Black Ark era (Black Ark being the studio where much of Perry’s musical genius and innovative production techniques emerged).

If you’re a vinyl collector, the 1995 Blood & Fire reissue (BAFLP 909) is the one to look for (if you can find it and your budget fits). You’ll likely have better luck finding the 2000 Simply Vinyl release (SVLP 247) but keep this in mind (from Vinyl Press):

“The Simply Vinyl copy is pressed on heavier, better quality vinyl but sounds far more “contained” than the Blood & Fire pressing—which has more harmonic information, better decay and punch. To me, it’s not even close sonically, so if you are going to buy one of these pressings, go for the Blood & Fire (The Simply Vinyl copies aren’t cheap now either, since they are also out of print).”

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Life in the key of F: Forgiveness

One of the many important lessons I’ve learned in almost 30 years of sobriety is the power of forgiveness and the incredible sense of liberation that arises from the process of letting go of resentments. I’ve heard it said that holding on to a resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. I’ve found there to be a lot of truth in that statement, and I’ve cultivated much peace and serenity for myself through the practice of forgiveness and letting go.

This morning, in one of my daily recovery readings, I encountered the following passage, which resonated deeply:

“I must forgive injuries, not just in words, or as a matter of form, but in my heart. I do this not for the other persons’ sake, but for my own sake. Resentment, anger, or a desire to see someone punished, are things that rot my soul. Such things fasten my troubles to me with chains. They tie me to other problems that have nothing to do with my original problem.”

There’s nothing I can say on this topic that would be any more profound or any wiser than that passage, so I’ll just leave it there.

Thanks for joining me again for another weekly installment! Hopefully I’ll be back in your inbox (or your app) at a similar day/time next week.

Until then, be kind - to yourself and others…

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Here’s the link to the running playlist which is updated on a weekly basis as each new installment is published:

ALPHABET SOUP RUNNING PLAYLIST

Tracks missing from the Spotify playlist:

• Allegory by Murray Attaway (Week 02)

• Face Me and Smile by The Lover Speaks (Week 12)

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Thank you for reading Joy in the Journey, I appreciate you being here! If there’s someone in your life you think may enjoy this post, feel free to share it.